• News
  • Lake Facts
  • About

Lake Scientist

Toxic coal tar plagues Lake Superior town

0
  • by Dave Hochanadel
  • — November 2, 2010
A sign along Ashland’s downtown waterfront warns of the hazardous coal tar that has contaminated sediments in the area.

A sign along Ashland’s downtown waterfront warns of the hazardous coal tar that has contaminated sediments in the area.

Buried beneath a park in the center of Ashland, Wis. lurks some of the filthiest water pollution in the state. Millions of gallons of groundwater near the town’s Lake Superior waterfront are contaminated with toxic black tar, the primary source of which is suspected to be a now-closed manufactured gas plant.

In September, after more than 20 years of deliberation on the state and federal levels, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its final plan for a cleanup of the Superfund site — along with an estimated bill of at least $100 million.

In addition to the toxic groundwater, 16 acres of Chequamegon Bay are completely off limits to boating and swimming because the sea floor is lined with contaminated sediments. The area is blocked off by a marina and breakwater, and the toxins appear to remain isolated there, as Department of Natural Resources sampling has never detected them at a nearby recreational beach.

Included in the coal tar are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a group of more than 100 chemicals that are produced when coal, oil and gas, garbage, or other organic substances are not burned completely.

The EPA’s cleanup plan includes removing thousands of tons of tar-laden soil and incinerating it at around 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit before returning it. A metal wall will stop more underground tar from reaching the lake, and two aquifers will be pumped, treated, and released into the lake.

As for removing the contaminated sediments already in the Lake Superior bay, the company being held liable for the contamination, Xcel Energy, will have a chance to dredge them out. If the EPA finds the results of this less costly solution to be unsatisfactory, however, the fallback plan is to drain the entire contaminated area of the bay and scoop out the sediments.

The manufactured gas plant operated from 1885 to 1947 on a bluff overlooking a lakeside park. Xcel disputes that it is solely responsible for the contamination, asserting that the city of Ashland’s construction of a wastewater treatment plant on the site may have pushed some of the contamination into Lake Superior.

 

For the full report about the Ashland Superfund site, written by the nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, read “Toxic legacy: Century-old tar plumes under Lake Superior stir health fears — and a cleanup could be years away”

Toxic legacy: Century-old tar plumes under Lake Superior stir health fears — and a cleanup could be years away [WisconsinWatch.org] Image Credit: Kate Golden / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Share

You may also like...

  • Research Summary: Lake Erie’s Ecological History as Recorded by Phytoplankton
  • Thousands of walleye dead, possibly due to VHS
  • Predictive Modeling Supports Mapping of Ecosystem Services in a Lake Superior Estuary
  • E coli bacteria Health investigators seek to uncover Singing Bridge Beach contamination culprit

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

FishSens SondeCAM HD
  • Recent Posts

    • Remote Water Quality Monitoring with the Oklahoma Water Resources BoardOctober 2, 2023
    • Grand Lake St Marys, one of the sites where the drone-based sampling occurred.Research Brief: Characterizing Harmful Algal Blooms with Drone-Based Water SamplingSeptember 29, 2023
    • Research Brief: Influence of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Stressors on HABs in Zhanjiang BaySeptember 22, 2023
    • From the Tap: Source Water Monitoring for Public HealthSeptember 18, 2023
    • Red swamp crawfishResearch Brief: Using Red Swamp Crayfish as Bioindicators of Microplastic PollutionSeptember 15, 2023
  • Popular Tags

    Great Lakes research research summary pollution Lake Erie invasive species Product Spotlight Algae runoff international Lake Michigan nutrient-loading Ohio dissolved oxygen EPA research brief eutrophication temperature toxic waters climate change USGS ice phosphorus Asian Carp Michigan

©2023 Fondriest Environmental Inc. | Questions? Call 888.426.2151 or email customercare@fondriest.com