Monday, April 18, 2016 8:15 am

CHICAGO, Illinois (Press Release) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a unilateral order to Georgia-Pacific, Weyerhaeuser and International Paper which requires the removal of PCB-contaminated sediment and soil from a 1.5-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River upstream of the Otsego Township Dam, Otsego, Mich. This stretch is part of the Allied Paper Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site. The EPA expects work to begin in late summer and be completed by spring 2018.

"Given the ongoing threat of PCB releases, EPA is ordering this time-critical removal action to prevent further contamination of the Kalamazoo River," said Region 5 Superfund Director Richard Karl. "EPA's effort to reach an agreement with Georgia-Pacific, Weyerhaeuser and International Paper to conduct the PCB removal was unsuccessful."

The PCB-contaminated sediment and soil resulted from paper manufacturing and disposal operations that stopped in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For more information: https://www3.epa.gov/region5/cleanup/alliedpaper/index.html.