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A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 12 december 2019
Company to pay $245M toward cleanup of Kalamazoo River PCBs

By JOHN FLESHER poor shape and has been
AP Environmental Writer over-topped by high wa-
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) ter. It is the highest-priority
— One of the companies dam removal planned in
responsible for polluting Michigan, according to the
an 80-mile (129-kilometer) state Department of Natu-
stretch of river and flood- ral Resources, which set
plains in southwestern aside $2.9 million in May to
Michigan with toxic chemi- get the project underway.
cals will pay at least $245.2 The first step is to stabi-
million to advance a clean- lize the structure so that it
up effort that began more won’t collapse while a con-
than 20 years ago, federal tractor dredges PCB-laced
officials said Wednesday. sediments from a 2.4-mile
NCR Corp. will fund the (3.9-kilometer) river section
dredging of contaminated upstream, which is expect-
sediments and removal of ed to take three years, said
an aging dam in the Ka- Paul Ruesch, the EPA’s on-
lamazoo River under an site coordinator.
agreement with the U.S. NCR funds will pay for that
Environmental Protection work and for razing the
Agency, the U.S. Depart- dam when the sediment
ment of Justice and the removal is complete, Assis-
state of Michigan, officials tant U.S. Attorney General
told The Associated Press In this Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019 photo provided by the Environmental Protection Agency shows an Jeffrey Bossert Clark told
ahead of an official an- aerial view of the dam stabilization project at the Trowbridge Dam on the Kalamazoo River near the AP.
nouncement. Allegan, Mich., in southwestern Michigan. “You want to get that sedi-
“This is a big step forward Associated Press ment out before taking the
toward cleaning up the dam out, so you’re not let-
river,” said John Irving, a landfills where mill waste fish they catch. groundwater. ting the sediments wash fur-
deputy assistant adminis- was dumped. The EPA has overseen the But much remains to be ther downstream,” he said.
trator in the EPA’s Office of In addition to the river, the removal of nearly 450,000 done. The agreement be- The removal of tainted soils
Enforcement and Compli- contamination zone in Al- cubic yards (344,000 cubic tween NCR and the gov- in several floodplain spots
ance Assurance. legan and Kalamazoo meters) of soil and sediment ernment calls for the com- is also funded under the
The Kalamazoo is polluted counties includes a roughly from the area since 1998, in pany to pay at least $135.7 deal. And the company
with polychlorinated bi- 3-mile (5-kilometer) section addition to cleaning up 7 million for cleanup work will also pay $76.5 million
phenyls, or PCBs, from pa- of a tributary called Por- miles (11 kilometers) of the that is expected to take an to the EPA to cover past
per recycling mills. Used for tage Creek, as well as mill river and riverbanks. Eighty- additional 10-15 years. and future costs of the river
ink removal, the chemicals properties, riverbanks and two acres (33 hectares) of Among the tasks: disman- cleanup; $27 million to oth-
were discharged into the floodplains. It is on the fed- landfills containing PCBs tling Trowbridge Dam in Al- er federal and state agen-
river from the 1950s through eral Superfund list of haz- have been covered with legan County. cies for damages to natural
the mid-1970s. They also ardous sites. layers of clay, topsoil and The dam, which was built resources; and $6 million to
seeped into groundwater Signs posted along the river vegetation to prevent the in 1898 to supply electric the state for past and fu-
and surface waters from warn anglers not to eat the toxins from leaching into power to Kalamazoo, is in ture costs.q

ICE arrested fewer in 2019 as resources shifted to border

By JAKE BLEIBERG with ICE — a Homeland Security New York and Chicago. funding expired at the end of the
Associated Press agency — arrest and detain im- There was a drastic increase in the fiscal year.
DALLAS (AP) — U.S. Immigration migrants who are deemed to be in number of families crossing the Many of those families were re-
and Customs Enforcement arrest- the U.S. illegally. Over the budget border last year — at least 473,000 leased into the U.S. while their
ed fewer people during the 2019 year that ended Sept. 30, officers for the budget year, nearly three asylum requests wind through the
budget year than last year, in part arrested about 143,000 people, times the previous full-year record courts — a practice President Don-
because resources were shifted to about 13,000 less than last year, for families. Most were coming ald Trump has derided as “catch-
help handle the massive surge of and deported more than 267,000. from Central America. and-release.” Homeland Security
migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, Most of those arrested were peo- While the numbers surged, Home- officials have said they would de-
the agency said Wednesday. ple with criminal records for crimes land Security agents and officers tain families, but ICE has not been
And the average number of immi- such as homicide, kidnapping, sex- were overwhelmed because funded for that. The emergency
grants in detention was 50,165 — ual assault and assault, ICE said. families with small children require funds from Congress did not in-
even though Congress limits fund- In announcing the annual enforce- much more care. There were near- clude additional bed space for im-
ing to cover just 45,000. ment numbers, Albence said his of- ly 1 million crossings from the early migration detention. At one point,
“There is no doubt that the border ficers were diverted to help with 2000s, but those were mostly single ICE was detaining some 56,000
crisis, coupled with the unwilling- the border crisis, which affected men from Mexico who were easily people.
ness of some local jurisdictions that overall arrests. He held a news returned. Border crossings are declining
choose to put politics over public conference in Dallas, a jurisdiction Border officers pleaded for help amid crackdowns by Mexico at its
safety has made it more difficult for where the largest number of arrests but it wasn’t until the summer, border plus U.S. policies that have
ICE to carry out its congressionally occurred — 16,900 — and there’s when reports of squalid conditions sent more than 50,000 asylum seek-
mandated interior enforcement a high level of cooperation with and surging numbers of detain- ers back to Mexico to wait out their
mission,” acting director Matt Al- local law enforcement. Local law ees and children dying were pub- claims, and have made anyone
bence said. enforcement do not help ICE in lished, that Congress authorized $4 who crossed through a third coun-
Enforcement and removal officers so-called sanctuary cities such as billion in emergency funding. That try inadmissible for asylum.q