Paper Valley: The Fight for the Fox River Cleanup
Read the story behind the world’s largest, most divisive, most politically charged environmental river cleanup of its kind: the $1.3 billion fix for widespread chemical PCB contamination in Wisconsin’s Fox River, a key Great Lakes tributary.
Completion of the massive cleanup — paid for entirely by paper companies responsible for the pollution — was celebrated in 2020, nearly two decades after its launch. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally certified the completion in October 2022, and Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources commenced official state closure of the project in January of 2023.
Paper Valley, P. David Allen II and Susan Campbell 