PARCHMENT, MI -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began work this week to clean up pollution in Parchment.
The EPA will remove PCB-contaminated sediment from the Crown Vantage Side Channel, a backwater between the Kalamazoo River and the Crown Vantage Landfill, the site of a former paper mill, according to a press release from the EPA.
The landfill is also blamed for the PFAS contamination that sparked a water emergency in Parchment in 2018. Parchment residents now get their water from the city of Kalamazoo.
The cleanup is expected to be finished in December, but further restoration may be needed in the spring, the release said.
“The potentially responsible parties, Georgia Pacific LLC and the International Paper Co., will conduct the cleanup under EPA’s supervision,” the release said.
The process involves upgrading access roads near the landfill, staging areas for equipment and drying the sediment before transporting it off-site for disposal, the release said. The work is part of the larger cleanup of a section of the Kalamazoo River known as Area 1.
Crews will be working from dawn to dusk on Mondays through Saturdays, generating more traffic than usual in the area. Trucks will use the entrance off G Avenue.
Also on MLive:
Michigan reports 1,095 new coronavirus cases, 7 new deaths
Without executive orders, some Michigan businesses celebrate, experts urge caution
Man accused in Whitmer kidnapping plot defended Confederate statue at June protest