COVER FEATURE
By Nathan Denzin, THE BADGER PROJECT
SUPERFUNDED After many years, the cleanup of toxic chemicals in a little town in northern Wisconsin can finally continue.
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s part of President Joe Biden’s 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, $3.5 billion was allotted for the cleanup of backlogged contamination sites. In the first wave of funding, a site in Daniels, Wisconsin — an unincorporated town near the Minnesota border — was chosen to receive financial support, the Environmental Protection Agency announced in December. The Wisconsin Department of Resources announced last month it had received $1.4 million in federal funds. Work is scheduled to start this summer and continue into the winter. “For more than 100 years, the upper Midwest was the nation’s industrial center,” Debra Shore, an EPA Regional Administrator, said in a release. “But when factories and mills closed they left behind a legacy of toxic sites that are challenging to clean up.” The Daniels siteonce housed Penta Wood Products, a wood treatment facility that operated from 1953 to 1992, according to the EPA. The business used a chemical called pentachlorophenol, an industrial wood preservative, to treat posts and telephone poles by dipping them in an
open tank. The chemical must now be removed or neutralized, the EPA said. Penta Wood dumped wastewater into a gully, resulting in soil and groundwater contaminated with pentachlorophenol and arsenic, the EPA said. The DNR first investigated Penta Wood in 1986 and found the contamination. Excavation of soil near the wetlands is scheduled for late summer or early fall, said Celine Wysgalla, a project manager for the EPA. High doses of those chemicals can be deadly in groundwater in the short term, and long-term effects include various cancers and skin discoloration or soreness, according to the World Health Organization. Penta Wood voluntarily closed in 1992 after the Wisconsin Department of Justice filed an injunction due to the contamination, and a court ruled that Penta Wood had to pay to remove contaminated soil, according to the EPA. Penta Wood said it could not afford the price of removal, leading to a fine of $37,400 for damages. In 1996, the EPA designated the property a Superfund site, which allows the federal agency to clean it up. The EPA removed approximately 28 storage tanks filled
www.CelebrateWausau.org
The EPA removed approximately 28 storage tanks filled with ‘liquid and sludge,’ plus thousands of gallons of a mixture of chemicals and oil...
July 23, 2022
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Parade—11 am Be a part of the celebration! North 3rd Ave We are looking for parade entries, game Festivities—Noon-10:30pm hosts, and business sponsors! Marathon Park See website for details.
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July 7-14, 2022
