EPA Details Plan Meant To Clean Up Kalamazoo River

epa2-2
epa2-2

(Otsego, MI – AP) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to remove a dam and create a channel along 2 miles of Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in an attempt to clean the river and make its fish safe to eat. MLive reports that about 50 people attended a meeting in Otsego last week to hear the agency’s plans and to provide feedback. The EPA says the project could cost more than $46.5 million, including $12.5 million to remove the Otsego City Dam.

The plans are part of ongoing efforts to clean up the 80-mile Allied Paper/Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site, which has been listed on the agency’s National Priorities List since August 1990. The EPA’s main concern is PCBs remaining from processes at paper mills that began operating on the river in the 1950s.