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Latest Update

October 2009

The Little Menomonee River cleanup is almost done. Dredging contaminated sediment from the river resumed the week of Aug. 3 to clean up the remaining 4,300 feet of river from Appleton Avenue to Hampton Avenue (referred to as segments 4 and 5).

Temporary access roads in and out of the river near Little Menomonee River Parkway have been built so large trucks can take sediment, or mud, that has been removed from the river to a nearby “staging area” to dry before it is trucked to a licensed landfill for proper disposal.

When this portion of the cleanup (1,000 to 1,500 feet long south of Silver Spring Drive) is completed, we will continue south toward Hampton Avenue where our cleanup project will end by late October, weather permitting. Sediment removal, rather than a reroute as was done in other areas of the river, is necessary due to the many bridges that cross over the river.

Federal Superfund money is being used to finish the cleanup because the previous site owner Tronox (formerly part of Kerr-McGee) filed for bankruptcy in January 2009. In addition to filing bankruptcy claims against Tronox, the United States has also filed a suit against Kerr-McGee and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the company that purchased Kerr-McGee. The United States believes that during the process of corporate restructuring, Kerr-McGee transferred its federal environmental liabilities out of Kerr-McGee and into Tronox to avoid having to pay for environmental cleanups. The United States is asking the bankruptcy court to set aside the liability transfers and compel Kerr-McGee and Anadarko to pay their environmental debts to the federal government.

EPA and Tronox (formerly Kerr-McGee) rerouted portions of the Little Menomonee River in five stages, or segments, beginning in 2002. The reroute included a new river channel as well as plants and trees that will stabilize the new channel and bank. The first segment between Brown Deer and Bradley Roads and the first phase for segments 2 and 3 from Bradley to Mill Roads involved:

Phase 2 of the cleanup of segments 2 and 3, from Bradley Road south to Good Hope Road, included:

The most contaminated sediment was trucked to an approved landfill for disposal.

The bike path bridge in segment 3 between Good Hope and Mill Roads will continue to be supported by large boulders in the stream. Workers were careful not to disturb the bridge or the boulders while removing as much contaminated sediment as possible.

About 1,000 feet of the upper portion of segment 4 was cleaned up from November 2005 to January 2006. Dredging as opposed to river rerouting was used here. Because of numerous bridge crossings, there wasn't enough room to create a new channel. In 2007, EPA issued a document to explain this process.

The river project follows a cleanup of the Moss-American property at Brown Deer and Granville Roads on the northwest side of Milwaukee. Since this was the source of the river's contamination, ground water and soil were cleaned up first before moving on to the river. That cleanup was completed in 2002.

EPA is doing a status review of the landfill’s cleanup.  This type of review is required at least every five years where the cleanup is complete--or ongoing--but hazardous waste remains managed on-site.  These reviews are done to ensure that the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment.  Contact the site community involvement coordinator and/or the remedial project manager to provide input on the review process.
           
The review will include:

This is the third five-year review for Moss-American.   A report, which will be available in April 2010, will detail the site’s progress.  Previous reviews were done in 2005 and 2000. 

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