Michigan Radio reports that for decades, paper mills dumped waste into the Kalamazoo River. The waste contains polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. People can be exposed to PCBs by eating fish from the river. The chemicals can cause cancer, and other health effects. The biggest concentration of the waste is a 1.5-million-cubic-yard pile in a residential area in Kalamazoo, nicknamed Mount PCB. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency says it will release a feasibility study of the options for the pile by September.
Excerpt: There’s a big effort to push the EPA to remove the pile completely, and send it to a landfill in Wayne County that can handle this waste properly. The holdup on a decision seems to be the price tag. The landfill quoted $120 million but the EPA thinks it’ll cost three times as much. The pile is just one in an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River where regulators are cleaning up PCB contamination.
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Source: Michigan Radio
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