EPA to Delete Two Areas Within the Former Landfill of the Allied Paper Site from Superfund List

EPA to Delete Two Areas Within the Former Landfill of the Allied Paper Site from Superfund List

August 16, 2024

U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyhasdeleteda six-acre portionof the former landfill part of the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from the National Priorities List, the list of the most contaminated sites in the nation.

Cleanup is complete in two areas within the former landfill referred to as Operable Unit 2:

• Area east of Davis Creek.
• Non-easement portionof the area east of Davis Creek extension area, which excludes the sewer and the unfenced phone line easement.

No further response action is necessary in these areas other than periodic inspection and maintenance of the restored banks and vegetation, continued monitoringand maintenance of the land and groundwater use restrictions, and five-year reviews.

"For many years, the Kalamazoo community has been reckoning with the contamination resulting from the area's industrial past," said EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore. "Reaching this site milestonebrings us one step closer to restoring this precious ecosystem and ridding the community of legacy contaminants, once and for all."

Historically, the Kalamazoo River was used as a power source and waste disposal area for the paper mills and the communities adjacent tothe river. Operable Unit 2includes a landfill that received waste such as carbonless copy paper contaminated with chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. In the early 1970s, PCBs were identified as an environmental riskin the Kalamazoo River.

In 1990, in response to the nature and extent of PCB contamination, the site was added to the National Priorities List. Since then, EPA, working along with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakesand Energy,has cleaned up three of the six operable units.

The National Priorities List includes the nation's most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. EPA deletessites or parts of sites from the list when no further cleanup is requiredto protect human health or the environment. Years, and sometimes decades, of complex investigation and cleanup work have gone into getting these sites to where they are today.

When hazardous substances and pollutants or contaminants remainon a site above levels that permitunlimited use and unrestricted exposure, EPA conducts follow-up reviews every five years-even after they'vebeen removed from the National Priorities List-to ensure Superfund remedies continue to protect people and the environment.

For more information, please visit the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund sitewebpage.