EPA Signs Agreements for Cedar Creek Site; Comprehensive Cleanup Study Begins

3/5/2003

From: Susan Pastor, 312-353-1325 Mick Hans, 312-353-5050 both of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5

CHICAGO, March 5, -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has recently signed agreements with Mercury Marine and Amcast Industrial Corp., the companies responsible for contamination at the Cedar Creek site in Cedarburg, Wis.

Under the agreements, the companies will summarize past site investigations and plan additional sampling for summer 2003. They will also evaluate human health and ecosystem risks, and develop a list of cleanup options. After reviewing the research, EPA will evaluate the cleanup options and decide which one to implement.

The Cedar Creek site includes the former Mercury Marine/Kiekhaefer's Plant 2 property at W66 N598 Madison Ave., the Amcast Plant at N39 W5789 Hamilton Road and areas impacted by contamination from these sites in Cedarburg. Most of the contamination is in the two ponds on Cedar Creek and the stream from Ruck Pond Dam 4.6 miles downstream to the Milwaukee River, as well as the Ruck Pond Raceway and a nearby storm sewer, and the former Hamilton Dam Raceway.

Mercury Marine, a boat engine manufacturer that operated a now-closed aluminum die-casting plant, used PCB-containing fluids and discharged them to the creek, which flows into the Milwaukee River. Automotive industry supplier Amcast, which also discharged waste fluids to the creek, also had aluminum die-casting operations.

Mercury Marine and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have been studying the site and conducting cleanup projects in Cedarburg since 1984. Significantly, WDNR has conducted extensive fish tissue and sediment sampling over the years and Mercury Marine removed contaminated sediment at Ruck Pond in 1996. The most recent cleanup effort -- removal of contaminated soil and sediment on the banks of the former Hamilton Pond -- was completed in 2001.

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