GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - Seventy percent of Brown County residents say they favor of designating the Fox River a federal Superfund site, but a state Department of Natural Resources official said Thursday the state can clean up the river pollution without putting it on a national priority list.

"We can move the project along more effectively without declaring it a Superfund site," said Ed Lynch, river project manager.  "We think we would do better job and be more effective in spending money than if the federal government declared it a Superfund."

The EPA has said a stretch of the Fox River should be designated as a Superfund site, allowing the agency to order a cleanup and bill those responsible for the pollution.

The state is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in removing PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, from the river, Lynch said.  Seven paper manufacturers that own the mills accused of dumping the chemicals into the river in the production of carbonless paper in the 1970s are also conducting dredging projects in the river.

There is a belief that declaring a Superfund may speed up the process, but the paper companies' research shows just the opposite, said Mark Lindley, a spokesman for paper-maker Fort James Corp.

Lindley said he was surprised by the overwhelming support for the Superfund designation.

The 1999 Fox River Survey, released Wednesday by St. Norbert College Survey Center, also said 18 percent of those polled did not support a Superfund designation and 11 percent were not sure.

"The way we would interpret that poll is that people want the river cleaned," said Gov. Tommy Thompson spokesman Kevin Keane.  "We agree with that."

The governor is working with the DNR, the federal government, business and environmental groups to find a way to clean the river without it becoming a Superfund site, Keane said.

The survey, based on telephone interviews of 424 Brown County residents in September, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.  Genesys Sampling Systems of Fort Washington, Pa. provided telephone numbers.

Sixty-five percent of county residents believe the paper mills responsible for dumping PCBs  should pay to clean up the 39 miles of pollution, the poll said.

Of those polled, 47 percent said they were either very or somewhat satisfied with the cleanup efforts to date, 45 percent said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

But more than two out of three respondents said the river has improved in the last 10 years.  Twenty-one percent said the quality has worsened over the last decade.

Studies have linked PCBs to cancer, reproductive problems and poor mental development in children and said they are hazardous to aquatic life.  Most people aren't using the river for recreational purposes, the survey said.

Fifty-five percent said they have not gone boating on the river in the last three years, 90 percent have not waterskied or used personal watercraft on it, 91 percent have been swimming in the river and 80 percent have not fished in it.

A large number of respondents said they continued to be concerned about health effects from the polluted river.

Sixty-three percent said they had some level of concern about the health effects of the river, and 36 percent said they were not too concerned or not at all concerned with the effects of the river on their health, the survey said.