The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deleted a six-acre portion of the former landfill part of the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from the National Priorities List, which includes the most contaminated sites in the nation.
Cleanup is complete in two areas within the former landfill referred to as Operable Unit 2:
- Area east of Davis Creek.
- Non-easement portion of the area east of Davis Creek extension area, excluding the sewer and unfenced phone line easement.
No further response action is necessary in these areas other than periodic inspection and maintenance of restored banks and vegetation, continued monitoring and maintenance of land and groundwater use restrictions, and five-year reviews.
“For many years, the Kalamazoo community has been reckoning with the contamination resulting from the area’s industrial past,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore. “Reaching this site milestone brings us one step closer to restoring this precious ecosystem and ridding the community of legacy contaminants once and for all.”
Historically, the Kalamazoo River was used as a power source and waste disposal area for paper mills and adjacent communities. Operable Unit 2 includes a landfill that received waste such as carbonless copy paper contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In the early 1970s, PCBs were identified as an environmental risk in the Kalamazoo River.
In 1990, in response to PCB contamination, the site was added to the National Priorities List. Since then, EPA, working with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), has cleaned up three of six operable units.
The National Priorities List includes serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. EPA deletes sites or parts of sites from this list when no further cleanup is required to protect human health or the environment. Years or decades of investigation and cleanup work have gone into achieving these milestones.
When hazardous substances remain on a site above levels permitting unlimited use and unrestricted exposure, EPA conducts follow-up reviews every five years—even after removal from the National Priorities List—to ensure Superfund remedies continue to protect people and the environment.
For more information, please visit Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site's webpage.
