Appleton - A team of scientists being paid to study PCB contamination in the Fox River by the group of paper companies responsible for the pollution promises an objective review.

The Alexandria, Va.-based American Geological Institute is forming a panel that will work this fall and winter to review existing computer models of how PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, move and settle in the Fox River.

The Fox River Group, a coalition of seven paper companies that used PCBs at mills along the Fox before they were banned in the 1970s, requested the review.

The paper companies are pursuing validation of its computer model that shows no need for environmental dredging in the Fox River, a state Department of Natural Resources official said.  The companies' model, which predicts PCB contamination will eventually decline to safe levels without dredging, is flawed, the DNR said.

A model produced by the DNR predicts that without action, PCBs in the river will remain dangerous for more than a century.

American Geological Institute scientists will conduct a study independent of any influence from its sponsors, said Christopher Keane of the institute.