Water News (Region 5): St. Marys River Cleanup in Sault Ste Marie Gets Under Way This Week

CONTACT: Phillippa Cannon, 312-353-6218, cannon.phillippa@epa.gov
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                         
No. 10-OPA047

St. Marys River Cleanup in Sault Ste Marie Gets Under Way This Week

CHICAGO (May 4, 2010) — The Great Lakes Legacy Act cleanup of a section of the St. Marys River near the MCM Marine facility is now under way. On   Feb. 1, 2010, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Consumers Energy Co. signed a project agreement to begin the cleanup of a section of the river. With $2.4 million provided by the Legacy Act and $1.6 million from Consumers Energy, EPA and the utility will remove approximately 26,000 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, from the river adjacent to the property currently operated by MCM Marine. The site was formerly a manufactured gas plant.

The project will be undertaken in two stages with dredging in the inner boat slip now under way and cleanup in the adjacent river area to be completed either this fall or spring 2011. The goal of the $4 million project is to reduce impacts to human health and the environment and improve water quality in the St. Marys River.

The Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA) is a federal program targeted at cleaning up contaminated sediment around the U.S. shores of the Great Lakes. The GLLA is now part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a $475 million effort to begin restoring and protecting the Great Lakes.

More information is available at: http://www.epa.gov/glla/glla_projects.html,or contact:  Ajit Vaidya, U.S. EPA Region 5, 312-353-5713, vaidya.ajit@epa.gov.

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