Sheboygan River and Harbor Superfund Site

Contact Information

Community Involvement Coordinator
Susan Pastor (pastor.susan@epa.gov)
312-353-1325 or 800-621-8431, ext. 31325

Remedial Project Manager
Pablo Valentin(valentin.pablo@epa.gov)
312-353-2886 or 800-621-8431, ext. 32886

Assistant Regional Counsel
Richard Nagle (nagle.richard@epa.gov)
312-353-8222 or 800-621-8431, ext. 38222

Repositories

(where to view written records)

Mead Public Library
710 North 8th Street
Sheboygan, WI

Links

Refer to the WPSC Campmarina MGP Site for additional information.

Sheboygan River Area of Concern

EPA Superfund Home Page
Region 5 Superfund
Superfund glossary

Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry

Background

The Sheboygan River and Harbor site includes the lower 14 miles of the river from the Sheboygan Falls Dam downstream to, and including, the inner harbor. This segment of the river flows through Sheboygan Falls, Kohler and Sheboygan before entering Lake Michigan. The Tecumseh Product Co. plant in Sheboygan Falls is located on the upper river and is considered the primary source of PCB contamination in river sediment. Soil and surface water is also contaminated with PCBs and heavy metals including arsenic, chromium, copper, lead and zinc.

Update - September 2009

A legal agreement called an Administrative Order on Consent (PDF) (44pp., 2.1MB) between Pollution Risk Services, the company that bought the former Tecumseh Products facility in Sheboygan Falls, and EPA was signed in early February. This agreement commits PRS to design the cleanup from the middle river to the inner harbor. That work started last spring. It included 200 sediment samples in the middle river and lower river and another 200 samples in the inner harbor. The results will help determine how much sediment will need to be removed to clean it all up. Last year, EPA oversaw the completion of upper river dredging by PRS. As the new owner, PRS is financially responsible for this part of the cleanup. Discussions on the remainder of the cleanup are ongoing. A separate legal agreement for the actual cleanup will be done through the U.S. Department of Justice (on behalf of EPA).

The next steps will involve the development of specific documents to design the actual cleanup. Workers donned coveralls and boots will be in small boats putting their sampling equipment in the water. Some were stationed along the shoreline preparing those samples to be sent to a lab for analysis. Floodplain soil on Kohler Co. property will be sampled after the company gives PRS permission to do so.

A fish and sediment monitoring plan was approved in August 2008 for the upper river to give PRS and EPA an idea of how the river is recovering after the dredging. That report is available for public review. A second round of fish sampling was done during the summer. A report is due this winter. Fish sampling will be done every year to track our progress toward reaching fish tissue goals. For now, sampling will occur only in the upper river since that is the only portion that has been cleaned up. Once the other areas are dredged, fish will be regularly sampled there, too.

A status review of the cleanup to date has been completed. The Superfund law requires regular reviews of sites (at least every five years) -- where the cleanup is complete or where cleanup has been ongoing for at least five years -- but hazardous waste remains managed on-site. These reviews are done to ensure that the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment. In particular, EPA looked at past river dredging and other cleanup activities at the former Tecumseh facility in nearby Sheboygan Falls. This is the first five-year review for the Sheboygan River and Harbor.

Cleanup of the upper portion of the Sheboygan River is done. This involved dredging contaminated sediment from the former Tecumseh Products plant in Sheboygan Falls to the Waelderhaus Dam. The sediment was stored in large geotextile "tubes." Water was squeezed out of the tubes and the remaining cleaned sediment was taken to a licensed landfill for proper disposal. Other phases to clean up the middle river, lower river and inner harbor will be done separately. The upper river will be monitored to ensure that the cleanup measures are working.

Cleanup of PCB-contaminated soil, floodplain soil and ground water at the former Tecumseh facility in Sheboygan Falls was finished in 2005. Sources of PCB contamination were identified and controlled. Ground-water PCBs heading toward the river, surface soil and riverbank soil have been cleaned up.

Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) and Community Advisory Group (CAG) are two ways the community can get involved. Learn more about CAGs and TAGs

What are PCBs?

PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, are toxic chemicals that were once widely used as industrial coolants, insulators and lubricants. PCBs can concentrate in the environment and the food chain, resulting in health hazards to people, fish and wildlife. Because of these dangers, the U.S. government banned the manufacture of new PCBs in 1976. PCBs still in use are strictly regulated.

PCB Information

EPA's PCB home page
PCBs and your health (WI DHFS)
ATSDR's Toxicological profile for PCBs
ATSDR's Tox FAQs for PCBs

Site Updates | News Releases | Fact Sheets || Technical Documents || Legal Agreements || Public Meetings

You will need the free Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

Site Updates

News Releases

Dredging begins at Sheboygan River site June 21, 2006

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Fact Sheets

Completion of Upper River Cleanup Scheduled for this Summer April 2007 (PDF) (4pp, 672K)
Second Phase of Upper River Cleanup Starting this Summer (PDF) (2pp, 92K) May 2006
First phase of Upper River cleanup to begin soon (PDF) (2pp, 63K) August 2004
EPA Signs Agreement for Upper River Cleanup (PDF) (2pp, 159K) May 2003
U.S. EPA Makes Final Decision on Sheboygan River and Harbor Cleanup (PDF) (137K) May 2000
The Sheboygan River and Harbor Proposed Plan is still available and the Comment Period has been extended (PDF) (199K) June 1999
Proposed Plan for Cleanup of the Sheboygan River and Harbor Superfund Site (PDF) (462K) May 1999
Feasibility Study Completed for Sheboygan River and Harbor Superfund Site (PDF) (146K) January 1999
Feasibility Study Nears Completion (PDF) (135K) November 1998

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Technical Documents

Lower River Remedial Design Work Plan, June 2009

1 - LRRD Work Plan(PDF) (14pp, 77K) June 2009
2 - LRRD Figures(PDF)(2pp, 11" x 17",3.4MB) June 2009
Appendix A - Submittal Register(PDF)(4pp, 18K)
Appendix B - ARARs(PDF)(2pp, 11K) June 2009
Appendix C - Project Organization & Qualifications(PDF)(5pp, 11" x 1&", 50K) June 2009
Appendix D - Project Schedule(PDF) (1pg, 9.9 K) June 2009
Appendix E - SWAC Calculation(PDF) (1pg, 18K) June 2009

Other June 2009 documents pertaining to the Lower River are available:

Quality Assurance Project Plan
Health & Safety Plan
Pre-Design Investigation Plan

This June 2009 document pertaining to the Upper and Lower River is also available:

Baseline Fish Monitoring Report

These documents are very large, so rather than post them on this web page, please visit the local site information repository to review them or contact us and we will send you copies on CD/DVD.