[CPEO-MEF] High mercury found near Badger plant

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Wisconsin
THE CAPITAL TIMES
High mercury found near Badger plant
By Bill Novak
May 3, 2003

Gruber's Grove Bay on Lake Wisconsin might have to be dredged again,
after the state Department of Natural Resources discovered mercury in
several sediment samples taken from the bay were still more than 20
times higher than acceptable levels set by the DNR.

Sediments in the bay were contaminated with mercury, methyl mercury,
copper, lead and other pollutants from the Badger Army Ammunition Plant,
directly northwest of the bay. Gruber's Grove Bay is near Wisconsin 78
about a mile upstream from the Riverview Dam on the Wisconsin River.

The Army, which owns the Badger site, contracted to have more than
88,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments dredged from the bay in
2001 after extremely high levels of mercury and other metals were found
in the sediments by the DNR in 1999.

DNR technicians took new samples of sediments this winter and found high
levels of mercury remained.

"None of the samples we collected met the established cleanup goal for
Gruber's Grove Bay," said DNR hydrogeologist Steve Ales.

The DNR's cleanup level guidelines call for mercury levels to be no
higher than 0.36 parts per million (ppm) in the sediments.  Of 12
samples taken from the bay in February, 2003, the highest level was 8.09
ppm and the lowest was 0.38 ppm; only one other sample was below 1.0 ppm
and three others were above 7.4 ppm.

DNR and Badger officials will discuss their findings, and how the Army
and DNR will try to deal with the ongoing contamination problem, at a
meeting Monday night in Prairie du Sac of the Badger Army Ammunition
Plant Restoration Advisory Board.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the River Arts Center, 105 Ninth St.,
next to Sauk Prairie High School.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/48139.php

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