Otsego Township residents recently heard more details about the planned cleanup of PCB contamination in and near the Kalamazoo River west of the M-89 bridge.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered the cleanup this spring after the Michigan Department of Natural Resources replaced part of the disused hydroelectric dam with a water control structure to keep it from potentially failing. The agencies met with area residents at a meeting Thursday, July 14, in Otsego to explain the details they’ve worked out for the project, scheduled to officially begin Aug. 1.
“We’d like to be digging in August,” EPA site manager Paul Ruesch said.
Workers are currently on the site surveying and sampling parts of the river to check PCB concentrations.
Ruesch explained the project is of limited scope and not the full cleanup the area needs.
“There will still be PCB contamination in the flood plain,” he said. “We aren’t taking that outl; this is just the area that would be affected if the water control structure or the dam gave way.”
The work will remove contamination in the river, mainly in sediments and in the banks where erosion could add more PCB contamination to the river.
The work being done at the Otsego Township Dam is a time-critical removal action based on the status of the dam. The EPA hopes to perform the full cleanup later, currently estimated as happening in 2020. The DNR’s temporary dam and water control structure is not rated by engineers to last that long.
The EPA, the DNR and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will oversees the site jointly, with contractors doing the work.
“If something happens out there, we’re okay with it,” Ruesch said.
The cleanup has been divided into nine areas. The first runs from Pine Creek upriver along the south side of the river to where the bluff rises. The contractors will work to the M-89 bridge this summer and fall and then back along the other side of the river in 2017. The project has to be completed before March 2018 and the EPA is on site until then, even registering an address (2363 Covault Lane) for its project head quarters.
Once cleanup begins, the most contaminated material will be trucked to a landfill in the Detroit area, while soil with less contamination will go a variety of other landfills. The trucks will be covered with tarps, and the ones with higher amounts of contamination will be lined inside.
“Our traffic will affect M-89 and Jefferson Road,” Ruesch said. “There’ll be traffic control of some kind, but we don’t yet know what or where.”
The route will be planned to be as safe as possible, he said, not for the shortest direction for the trucks.
The EPA plans to establish a number of access roads and staging areas around the cleanup where it will collect contaminated sediment and dewater it in preparation for trucking it out. The dewatering will take place on specially constructed sites where all the contaminated water can run off into a tank.
Whenever work is underway on contaminated areas, monitoring run by a contractor who works directly for the EPA will check the amount of dust and the amount of sediment in the water to make sure it doesn’t rise above safe levels.
Digging will take place from the shore rather than from barges.
The river will be closed off to traffic during the cleanup and DNR dam manager Mark Mills said they were planning on closing the areas of state land within the cleanup to hunting and fishing for the duration. Private lands are unaffected.
Ruesch said the EPA would definitely need help and cooperation from nearby residents.
“We’ve told our crew out there, be respectful because you’re in someone’s back yard,” he said.
Some work took place immediately this spring cutting some trees, which Ruesch said was to make sure any trees that were home to a pair of endangered bat species were cut down before the bats usually show up.
The pilings for an old bridge and road bed for Old Allegan Road which lie in the cleanup area will probably be removed.
Mills said, “All the river goes through that constriction with the old road bed. We’d like to have it removed so when it floods the river can spread out more.”
Ruesch said the agencies had a conference call with nearby Native American tribes recently and would be developing a plan for any artifacts found.
Responding to a question about the long-term plans once the cleanup is finished, Mills said the DNR would likely hold onto land near the Otsego Township Dam as it provides wildlife habitat and hunting opportunities. Other areas, he said, hopefully might be able to be part of plans to further develop the riverfronts in and between Plainwell and Otsego.
Contact Dan Pepper at dpepper@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534 or (269) 685-9571.
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