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Fox River superfund dredging project ends

Posted at 6:17 PM, Aug 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-12 19:18:56-04

BROWN COUNTY (NBC 26) -- After more than two decades the federal efforts to clean up the lower Fox River and part of Green Bay are finished.

On Wednesday, the EPA announced the end of one of the largest superfund river sediment cleanup projects ever completed in the United States. Work began in 1999 to remove PCBs and since then, the quality of the river is greatly improved.

"Since 2006, PCB water concentrations have been reduced by 90% upstream of the De Pere dam,” said E.P.A. Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Since 2006, PCB concentrations in sediment in many parts of the river have fallen by 90%. And PCB concentrations in Walleye have been reduced by 65%."

The cleanup removed PCB contaminated sediment along 39 miles of the lower Fox River at an estimated cost of $1 billion.