EPA announces settlement with Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific west mill (photo by H. Marc Larson). Representatives from the Wisconsin DNR and the EPA announced they have reached an initial agreement with one of the Fox River's major polluters By Monique Balas News-Chronicle Georgia-Pacific Corp., one of the paper companies that released toxic chemicals into the lower Fox River during the 1950s and '60s, has agreed to a $4 million settlement for preliminary design work on the river's cleanup. The money will go toward design work on a seven-mile stretch of the river below the De Pere Dam. This area represents the first two of the sections designated by the state Department of Natural Resources in the river cleanup plan: the Fox from Appleton to Little Rapids, and Lake Butte des Morts. "This agreement today is what allows us to get in there this summer and not have to wait a year," said Tom Skinner, the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Region 5, which is based in Chicago. "The best remedy is to just get started on this and get it done." A decision on the cleanup plan for the three remaining segments, which includes the bay of Green Bay, will be made in June. The $4 million is considered a "down payment," Skinner said, and does not change Georgia-Pacific's obligation to fund its portion of the cleanup. In June 2001, Appleton Papers and NCR Corp. agreed to pay the DNR and EPA $40 million over four years to lay the groundwork for dredging, or scooping and removing contaminated parts of the river, if the two agencies agreed not to sue. "A settlement of this nature is always preferable to litigation," Skinner said. The companies have been willing to take responsibility for the pollution, said Bruce Baker, the DNR's Fox River cleanup manager. "The indications and discussions leading up to this is they are being cooperative and want to have some kind of agreement worked out," he said. U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, said in a news release he is encouraged by the cleanup. "It's another small step forward on the path toward a Fox River cleanup." Rebecca Katers, executive director of the Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin, said the $4 million is "peanuts" compared to at least $69 million the company may owe for the total cleanup. "They are getting good public relations from it," she told The Associated Press. "The more they accommodate DNR at this stage, the more likely they are to get favorable treatment." No representative of Georgia-Pacific attended Wednesday's news conference. Polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, were released into the Lower Fox River by seven paper companies as a result of processing carbonless copy paper between 1954 and 1971. PCBs were connected to human and wildlife health problems and have since been banned. The companies responsible for the cleanup are Appleton Paper, NCR, P.H. Gladfelter Co., Georgia-Pacific (formerly Fort James), WTM1 (formerly Wisconsin Tissue), Riverside Paper Co. and U.S. Paper Co. The companies have contended there are other, less expensive options than dredging to solve the problem. Earlier this month, the DNR and EPA announced their final plan to rid 26 miles of the Fox River of PCBs dumped into it, using some of the $40 million to start the work. The plan calls for expensive dredging starting in 2004 and letting nature run its course. That so-called natural recovery has come under fire by environmentalists, who call it a do-nothing plan. The regulators said they will announce in June the final plan for the remaining 13 miles of the river - the most expensive phase of the cleanup, including the seven-mile segment covered in the deal with Georgia-Pacific. More than a year ago, the DNR and EPA recommended the seven paper companies responsible for dumping the PCBs into the river between Lake Winnebago and the bay of Green Bay spend $308 million to dredge the polluted sediment. On Wednesday evening, about 100 people attended a presentation in Appleton on details of the government's plans for cleaning up the first 26 miles of the river. Ed Lynch, a DNR engineer for the project, said removing 3,770 pounds of PCBs by dredging would mean that within about 10 years, PCB concentrations in fish would be significantly reduced. The DNR now recommends that individuals eat no more than 12 meals a year of walleye taken from that stretch of the river. One man in the crowd questioned whether it was worth almost $400 million "just to catch good fish." Lynch said the cleanup is designed to return the river closer to its original condition. "Is it worth $400 million? My opinion would be yes," he said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.