Local Officials Announce Major Dredging Project at Waukegan Harbour

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Illinois and Waukegan officials joined forces today to kick off a Superfund dredging project needed to remove the Waukegan Harbour "Area of Concern" (AOC) from a list of toxic hot spots identified in the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

"Today, Waukegan Harbour is going from what was once called 'the world's worst PCB mess' to one of our best coastal turnaround stories," said Cameron Davis, senior advisor to U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and founding co-chair of the Waukegan Citizens' Advisory Group in the early 1990s. "Last year, federal agencies announced they were prioritising the Waukegan Harbour cleanup and this year we are making good on that commitment.”

Enacted by Congress in 1980, Superfund is a federal law that was designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances. EPA's $48 million Superfund dredging project is an important step toward the cleanup of the Waukegan Harbor, one of four cleanup projects associated with the Outboard Marine Corp. (OMC) Superfund site.

EPA will remove approximately 175,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from the harbor. Dredging will begin later this month and is expected to be finished by next summer, a total of about 120 days.