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Comstock and Kalamazoo County Pollution
We enjoy living in Comstock because we have clean streets and clean playgrounds. But, compared to other places, we aren't so clean.We've been having problems with toxic waste on land and other pollution in the rivers. Here are some problems and solutions.
Problems
The Kalamazoo River is now an Area of Concern because of leaking of PCBs from local paper mills. The Area of Concern begins at Morrow Dam in Comstock Township and ends at Lake Michigan.
There has been a warning issued for consumption of fish caught in the Kalamazoo River.
The Kalamazoo River Area of Concern Public Advisory Council (PAC) was established in 1993. The PAC team recently completed goals and objectives for their team. In addition to PCB health concerns, the team found other actions, such as pollution prevention, to work on.
Solutions
Much progress has been made in containing PCBs in the Kalamazoo River. Since PCBs were identified as a problem in 1971, PCB production has been banned. Local companies responsible for PCB leakage into the Kalamazoo River have taken steps to reduce this problem. These actions include fencing in sites. In August 1990, the Allied Paper/Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site was included on the National Priorities List.
The companies responsible for PCB leakage into the Kalamazoo River entered into a contract with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in December 1990. Under this contract, the companies agreed to fund and conduct an investigation for the Superfund process. So far they have given $3,000,000.
During 1993, many pollution monitoring projects were started and completed in Kalamazoo County. These included:
Construction of ground water monitoring wells
Collection of ground water,surface water and soil
Air quality monitoring
Our Goals
President Clinton came to Merill Park in Comstock on August 28,1996 to explain a new commitment to clean up Kalamazoo and Comstock. He announced that:
By the year 2,000 we hope to get tougher on criminal polluters.
We need to tell families about pollution in their neighborhoods.
We need to start preventing toxic waste and cleaning it up.
Cleaning up the water is important because the Great Lakes are used for recreation, food, and drinking water. We can't let them get polluted.
We realize that this problem is bigger than we thought. Comstock citizens drove by the park after the president's speech only to find that there was trash scattered all about.
Sources:
http://www.lkmichiganforum.org/areasofconcern.html
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1996/8/28/4.text.1by Jessica and Tom
