LAKE WISCONSIN, Wis. — Roughly 90,000 cubic yards of sediment with elevated levels of mercury, lead and copper have been removed from a 25-acre bay near here on the Wisconsin River.
The cleanup was a multiagency effort that involved the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army and the Badger Restoration Advisory Board, as well as local communities. The bay had been contaminated prior to 1972 during production at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant.
State health officials had determined that the heavy metals posed no imminent threat to human health, but the DNR was concerned about their effects on fish and other aquatic species.
The Army is now restoring the bay's shoreline and planting aquatic vegetation approved by the DNR.