LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Crews are doing final cleanup work on the Manistique River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which was contaminated with industrial waste during the last century.
The city of Manistique was previously a lumber shipping port where mills and wastewater plants dumped pollution near the river mouth.
Bottomlands are laced with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which led to restrictions on eating fish caught in the area.
Work is underway to remove more than 2,000 dump truck loads of sediments. Those soils will be processed and landfilled before clean sand is spread over the river bottom.
Officials say the cleanup will support fish such as smallmouth bass and northern pike.
It also will help qualify the river for removal from a list of the Great Lakes region’s toxic hot spots.
Featured Image: The Manistique River flows through the town of Manistique and into Lake Michigan through the harbor, Photo by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via wikimedia
