12th Season of Fox River Cleanup Underway

The dredging operations are currently underway for what is believed to be the final stretch for the Fox River Cleanup Project, the FOX 11 News reports.

This cleanup scheme is designed to reduce risk to human health and the environment due to the presence of PCBs – polychlorinated biphenyls – in Fox River sediment.

It’s a multi-year cleanup effort that includes dredging, capping and covering over a 13-mile stretch of the Lower Fox River.

Crews have spent years cleaning the chemicals in a 13-mile stretch of the Fox River from Little Rapids to the Bay. In downtown Green Bay, dredging equipment is on the move. For 12 seasons now, the red barges have been familiar sights on the water, according to the FOX 11 News.

“So far, for the first 11 years of the project, about 5.9 million cubic yards of material has been removed from the river,” said Scott Stein, Fox River Cleanup Project Spokesman.

According to Stein, work started Monday, and dredging and capping operations will concentrate on the area from the downtown to the mouth of the Fox River.

“It looks like it will be probably a couple of months of activity on the river. So by the end of June, all of the activity is expected to be concluded for this project,” the spokesman concluded.