WPS resumes cleanup of pollution at former Green Bay headquarters site
GREEN BAY - Wisconsin Public Service Corp. has started the latest phase in a 20-year effort to clean up polluted soil on its former downtown Green Bay headquarters campus.
The contamination dates back to the 1870s when the site, located between Utility Street and the East River, was a manufactured gas plant. WPS expects the work, started this month under the oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to be completed by summer.
Crews working on the site will remove additional, contaminated soil from the site, replace it with clean soil, and plant vegetation to cover, or cap, the site so it can be re-used again.
The utility notified nearby residents and businesses that the project will generate more truck traffic to and from the site during daytime hours, as well as intermittent noise, odor and dust. Crews predominantly will work during daytime hours and aim to minimize nighttime and weekend work, Matthew Cullen, WPS' spokesperson, told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. WPS also plans to monitor air quality around the site to ensure it's not harmful to workers and the public.
"We are going to be working throughout this project to minimize the impact on surrounding businesses, the surrounding areas and any residents in the area," Cullen said.
The site work will require a closure of a segment of the East River Trail from Utility Court north to the confluence of the East and Fox rivers. Cullen said trail users should use Elm Street as a detour to avoid the closed trail segment.
People who want more information about the remediation project can contact WPS at 877-380-0522.
Manufactured gas plants converted coal to coke via a process called coal carbonization and mixed hydrocarbons like oil gas into carbureted water gas. The Green Bay plant operated from 1871 to 1947. The process left a tar-like mixture called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, in the soil. PAHs are chemicals left over from the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas and garbage, and can be harmful to human health.
The current work continues site cleanup work that began in 2003. In 2006, WPS, the EPA and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources agreed to make the Green Bay manufactured gas plant a Superfund project site, along with five other WPS manufactured gas plant sites in Oshkosh, Stevens Point, Marinette, Manitowoc and Two Rivers.
WPS identified polluted soil on the ground and in nearby waterways. In 2018 and 2019, WPS partnered with Georgia-Pacific Corp. to dredge soil from the East River intermingled with PAHs and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which both companies had agreed to clean up.
Cullen said prior work in the river and on land already has removed much of the polluted soil. Once the current phase is completed later this year, he said, the EPA will evaluate what, if any, additional steps WPS needs to take to complete the cleanup of the site. He said the utility hopes to complete the cleanup within the next few years.
"Our commitment has, and will continue to be, to make sure this site is successfully remediated so it meets all applicable standards for a site like this," Cullen said, adding that the cleanup work was not related to a tentative agreement to sell the former WPS headquarters to Base Companies LLC for redevelopment.
"This would have taken place even if it wasn't up for sale," Cullen said.
Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: WPS continues cleanup of contamination at former Green Bay headquarters
