Introduction
After decades of work, discussions and debates that have spanned several administrations, we are finally poised to move forward with the cleanup of the Lower Fox River and Green Bay and turn our efforts to negotiating the remedy implementation with the responsible companies. We all are very much confident that we can continue going forward at a pace that will produce clean water, safe fish and a healthy ecosystem sooner rather than later.
The river sections covered by the ROD are designated as Operable Unit 3 (from Little Rapids to De Pere), Operable Unit 4 (from De Pere to Green Bay) and Operable Unit 5 (Green Bay). The remedy of dredging has been selected for OU-3 and OU-4, and the remedy of monitored natural recovery has been selected for OU-5. During the design phase of the projects, more detailed, site-specific information will be collected. Depending on the information collected, the agencies may consider changes to the scope and design of the remedy that could affect the amount of dredging to be done or other potential techniques (Bertrand, Lang, Ross, 1976).
Engineers estimate that OU-3, the reach from Little Rapids to the DePere dam, contains approximately 2750 pounds of PCBs in 3,030,100 cubic yards of sediment. This ROD calls for hydraulic dredging of 586,800 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, which will remove approximately 2,444 pounds of the PCBs. In addition, the ROD calls for removal of approximately 9,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment containing 68 pounds of PCBs from Deposit DD in OU-2 directly adjacent to the Little Rapids dam (Harris, Sager, Yarbrough, Day, 1987).
The section of the river containing the largest amount of PCB contaminated sediment is OU-4. Engineers estimate that OU-4 contains approximately 58,620 pounds of PCBs in 8,491,400 cubic yards of sediment. This ROD provides for.....
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