The Michigan Department of Natural Resources today announced that a one-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River between the Penn Central Railroad Crossing and the Plainwell No. 2 Dam will be closed to public access starting Saturday, Aug. 1. Cleanup operations to remove targeted soils and sediments containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are slated to begin at that time and will continue until December 2010.

Contractors will be operating heavy construction equipment on both sides of the river as well as on two mid-channel islands, making it too dangerous to allow access to canoeists, kayakers and other boaters. Signs will be posted to alert river users of the closure.

Boaters also will not be able to access or pass the Plainwell No. 2 Dam structures or the Mill Race; no form of portage is available around the dam or through the Mill Race.

The recently completed cleanup effort on the Kalamazoo River - located between the Main Street Bridge in Plainwell and the old Plainwell Dam three and one-half miles downstream from the current work site -- began in 2007 and was completed in early 2009. This project included the removal of the old Plainwell Dam, allowing the river to flow freely in its historical channel as well as unobstructed passage of fish, canoes and kayaks.