As the cleanup of toxic chemicals along the Fox River prepares to pause for winter, the project is ahead of schedule - but the price tag has grown.
States the article at: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/62485172.html
The article states that the Fox River supplies Lake Michigan with 620 pounds per year of PCBs … the biggest source of PCBs to the lake. This is an amazing statement. When the USEPA did its very careful mass balance in 1994-95, the amount of PCBs entering Lake Michigan from the Fox River in 1994 and 1995 was found to be 484 pounds (220 kilograms per year) See very descriptive graphics of this study at: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/lmmb/results/loadpcbs.html . It is very surprising that this flow of has increased over 15 years. In the Kalamazoo River, there has been a steady downtrend.
The difference between 484 and 620 is just nitpicking when looking closer. Please view the EPA graphics and find that the largest flow into Lake Michigan is “Gas Absorption” at 2313 kilograms per year (5088 pounds per year) or about ten times what flows from the Fox River. Gas absorption is the process that takes PCBs out of the air. This happens in the colder months when the water of the lake has more capacity for PCBs and removes them from the air. Note that this process is much more significant in the main part of the lake, as it has less PCB contamination and is “hungrier” for taking up PCBs.
A closer look at the mass balance shows that the largest of all flows in 1994-95 was PCBs out of the lake through volatilization of 3502 kilograms or 7704 pounds per year. Here, the more contaminated Green Bay volatilized relatively more than the main lake. Given time, the bay and the lake would come to nearly the same concentration … the concentration supported by the air content of PCBs. During the 1994-1995 period Lake Michigan lost 977 kilograms (2149 pounds) of PCBs and its concentration went down. Lake Superior, at that time, was already in equilibrium with global air and its concentration was not changing.
The cost of this cleanup that will not result in consumable fish no matter how clean the Fox river becomes was staggering and is becoming outrageous. In the first year of operation, the cost has gone from $550,000,000 to $750,000,000 and now to $875,000,000. What will it be next year? After its nine years of operation?
The most naive statement in this article is the report of modeling efforts that predict fish will be safe to eat in 2036, 19 years after the project is finished. International researchers have found that PCBs travel from their global use points and distribute in a manner that decreases their concentration with increasing latitude. Lake Superior’s concentration is half of Lake Michigan’s and has been steady for several years. It has no significant sources other than air. Why should the PCB concentration of Lake Michigan go down because the Fox River was cleaned up … and then got dirty again as PCBs dropped into it from the rain and gas absorption? By 2036, our world will be warmer, and warmer weather will move PCB concentrations north to where Lake Superior will move to Lake Michigan’s concentration. I don’t know what the model the agency used was loaded with, but it was not reality. There is no way to get our lakes cleaned up other than to stop global use … an item that is not on the EPA’s or anyone’s agenda.
