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(Washington D.C.)- Representative Sander Levin and Senator Carl Levin praised today’s announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency that it will soon return to St. Clair Shores to perform additional PCB cleanup work in the Ten Mile Drain. Work on the $864,000 project will begin in the very near future.
Rep. Levin praised today’s announcement: “It is so important that the EPA is coming back in to help the community deal with this problem. We cannot let this situation fester and allow the PCBs to re-contaminate the canals and threaten Lake St. Clair.”
Senator Levin called today’s announcement good news for the Lake St. Clair Community. “Protecting and restoring Lake St. Clair and the Great Lakes watershed is one of my most important goals. The effects that these PCBs, dumped in this area decades ago, have on our ecosystem even today illustrates the importance of being vigilant against new contaminants now and in the future.”
The cleanup will include de-watering the sewer along Bon Brae and removing contaminated sediment from the drain; installing temporary weir structures within the drain to collect further sediment; removing sediment and contamination from the outfall of the drain; and conducting a more extensive investigation to try and locate where the PCBs are entering the drain system.
Rep. Levin and Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow wrote to Administrator of EPA Region 5, Bharat Mathur, last November following sediment testing that revealed that high levels of PCBs have once again seeped into the Ten Mile Drain in St. Clair Shores. The letter urged EPA to take action to mobilize an assessment and response team to investigate the source of the re-contamination and take immediate steps to address the problem. The letter is available here.
Rep. Levin later telephoned Administrator Mathur to underscore the necessity of prompt action to protect human health and prevent extensive re-contamination of the nearby canals and Lake St. Clair.
Earlier this month, the St. Clair Shores Drain site was proposed for addition to the Superfund National Priorities List. A final decision to list the site on the NPL is expected later this year. Listing would trigger a comprehensive site investigation to track down the source of the PCB contamination and would make the site eligible for federal Superfund cleanup funds.
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