KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo’s Verburg Park closed to the public on Tuesday, March 1, to make way for a major cleanup project. The closure of Verburg Park, located in the vicinity of Gull Road and Riverview Drive near downtown is scheduled to be closed for more than a year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the removal of sediment containing a carcinogen known as PCB within Verburg Park Pond and along the banks of the Kalamazoo River, which is part of the Allied Paper superfund site.
“We’ve removed contamination upstream from here. We’ve done some work downstream from there. We’re working in other areas simultaneously,” explained EPA remedial project manager Jim Saric.
“What we’re seeing here is in this particular reach, if you will, or area of the Kalamazoo River, we’ve identified this contamination and we’re going through our process and now it’s time to address this section,” said Saric.
According to city officials, Verburg Park is scheduled to be closed through April 2023. The Kalamazoo River Valley Trail will also be closed and rerouted from Gull Road to Paterson Street.
Saric went onto say, “From the 1950s to the early to mid-’70s, there were paper mill operators that were recycling this carbonless copy paper. And in the process of recycling carbonless copy paper, there were discharges of PCB materials into the river.”
The EPA is asking the public to avoid the river from Gull Road to downstream of East Mosel Avenue.
Crews will start working to remove the affected soil in and around Verburg Park next month.
The work is part of a larger cleanup effort of a section of the Kalamazoo River, with the entire project expected to take three years to complete.
The EPA will be working with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
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