The consent order is a partial victory, but several concerns remain:

1.  The work won't start until late August or September, which means the hotspot will have been exposed to the river for 10 months without emergency measures by the company or any level of government.  This delay is far too long.

2.  Because they're starting so late, they could be stopped by the river freezing over before they can finish.  This has already happened twice on previous dredging efforts on the Fox River.

3.  The EPA is simply requiring the completion of the project originally allowed by DNR.  Only 80,000 cubic yards of the 120,000 cubic yard hotspot will be removed when they're done.  Last year, roughly 30,000 was taken out, now another 50,000 will come out.  This leaves 40,000 unaddressed.

4.  The EPA's cleanup goal is a leftover concentration after dredging of no more than 1 ppm PCBs (parts per million).  This is 4 times higher than the .25 ppm goal proposed in last year's draft cleanup plan for the river.

5.  There seems to be a major loophole in the cleanup standard.  EPA says they will require post-dredging cover with at least 6 inches of sand if the remaining PCBs are between 1 and 10 ppm.  This means they're partly endorsing a cap instead of a total cleanup at the site.  This sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the river.

6.  Though this is the most concentrated PCB hotspot in the entire river (up to 700 ppm PCBs), EPA is not requiring any detoxification of the sludge before it goes to a landfill on the Oneida Tribe's reservation.  This is another disturbing precedent for the rest of
the river.  EPA staff told me they "can't" require treatment because it's legal to dispose of this material in a landfill, due to an EPA exemption for the State of Wisconsin from the federal Toxic Substances Control Act which was quietly granted by EPA about 6 years ago --- allowing toxic waste levels of PCBs to be dumped in ordinary Wisconsin landfills.  Only Wisconsin has this exemption.

7.  In exchange for doing this work, Fort James will be released from future PCB dredging liability in the grids numbered 56/57.  So Fort James will escape liability for 40,000 of the 120,000 cubic yards of sludge.  And the hole will surely fill in again with PCB contaminated sediments from upstream which should also be the responsibility of Fort James.  In essence, Fort James is being released from liability for those upstream sediments which escape into the hole.

8.  The media coverage has portrayed Fort James Corporation as a generous benefactor in this consent order, emphasizing that this was a "cooperative" agreement with the company.  This is hardly warranted given that Fort James created this toxic crisis in the first place, and has a moral and legal obligation to address the consequences.

9.  Local congressmen (Sen. Kohl, Sen Feingold, Rep. Petri, Rep. Green) have inserted themselves to intimidate EPA into a "cooperative" agreement, and they slowed down EPA's decision process by requesting last minute meetings.  Instead, they should have pressured the company into a stronger, more rapid settlement, so work could proceed more quickly.

10.  Because this consent decree was written under emergency EPA rules, EPA isn't required to get any public input on the decision.

11.  In essence, this will be the final cleanup of this worst Fox River hotspot, but it's far from ideal.  Because the agencies allowed the project under the pretense that it was only a "demonstration" they didn't have to go through the full analysis and public review required under the final RI/FS (Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study) which is due for the whole river this coming November.  So decisions about capping or lack of  detoxification treatment have been finessed and they successfully bypassed full public scrutiny.