Green Bay is considered one of the most toxic areas in the entire Great Lakes region. We have an international reputation for contamination.

We have one of the highest wildlife deformity rates, many of our fish and ducks are too contaminated to eat, we can't safely swim in the water, and we can't use the river or lower bay for drinking water supplies. Harbor maintenance is difficult because of contaminated dredge spoil disposal.

The economic costs are staggering --- the human and wildlife costs are tragic. If the wildlife are sick and having difficulty reproducing, what does this say about humans who eat many of the same fish eaten by the wildlife?

Most of these problems now arise from contaminated bottom muds in the Fox River. The toxic chemicals came from decades of waste dumping by industries and sewage treatment plants. The muds came from pulp and paper sludge, sewage sludge, eroded farm soil, street runoff, and construction site erosion.

The sediments are concentrated in more than 35 large 'hotspots' along several stretches of the river --- and scientists believe that unless these hotspots are removed, all the problems listed above will continue for more than a century. If the sediment is cleaned-up, we should see results within a few years.

We could leave our children a healthy Fox River and Bay --- but it will take strong moral convictions and political will-power to support the clean-up, because it will be expensive and controversial. Taxpayer funds are drying up, and the only realistic source of clean-up money is from those responsible for dumping the toxics in the River. The polluters will resist paying for the clean-up --- not because they can't afford it, but because it isn't in their financial interests.