Tetra Tech Selected for Fox River Remediation

Tetra Tech Inc. announced recently that it has been selected by the Fox River Cleanup Group for the first phase of a design-build sediment remediation program for the lower Fox River in Green Bay, Wis.—one of the largest sediment remediation programs in the world.

Under contract with Appleton Paper Inc. (API), a member of the Fox River Cleanup Group, Tetra Tech plans to remediate approximately 4 million cu yd of sediment contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The PCB contamination is the result of previous industrial uses, including pulp and paper production and recycling mills. This program is potentially worth approximately $600 million to $700 million over about 10 years.

“The Fox River cleanup will be the largest PCB river remediation project in the world,” said Christopher Gower, the executive responsible for the Fox River project on behalf of API. “Effectively removing PCBs from an active riverbed poses many technical challenges. We selected Tetra Tech because of their innovative technical approach, their demonstrated ability to address similar world-class environmental challenges and their ability to work with the project owners to efficiently manage project costs.”

“Tetra Tech is very pleased to have been selected by API and the Fox River Cleanup Group,” said Dan Batrack, Tetra Tech’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Technology has now evolved to a point that industry can begin to effectively address the world’s contaminated sediment challenges. We are on schedule to initiate full-scale remediation efforts in early 2009.”

Tetra Tech has already performed preliminary engineering work to support this effort, including engineering design and construction services for a large-scale membrane filter press facility for sediment desanding and dewatering. Tetra Tech is supervising construction of a 247,800-sq-ft processing facility on a 25-acre site along the river’s edge. Dredging is scheduled to begin in May 2009. Approximately 4 million cu yd of PCB-contaminated sediment are planned to be removed, including sediment from portions of the lower Fox River south of the De Pere dam and eventually covering the area north of the dam to the bay.

Over the next five months, Tetra Tech plans to complete engineering work that will ultimately address sediment remediation and the construction of about 400 acres of engineered capping systems to isolate contamination.

Source: Tetra Tech