Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site, King Highway Landfill (OU3) (Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County)

Daniel Peabody, PeabodyD@Michigan.gov or (517) 285-3924.

Please note that this landfill is CLOSED and does not accept waste. 

The King Highway Landfill is located at the intersection of King Highway and Michigan Avenue and is approximately 23-acres in size. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the lead. A Record of Decision (ROD)—which is a document that explains the remediation for cleanup of a Superfund site--was signed February 10, 1998. The ROD was implemented by Georgia-Pacific (GP) under an Order with EGLE, and construction was completed in 2009. The remedy included excavation of PCB contaminated waste from several areas, with placement in the landfill, capping of those waste materials, and long-term monitoring.

On October 11, 2018, GP notified the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, (EGLE) and the EPA that they had completed PFAS sampling at many of their sites, including the King Highway Landfill, to evaluate whether or not PFAS was present in groundwater and provided EGLE and the EPA with the groundwater sample results.

Shallow groundwater discharges toward the Kalamazoo River, which borders the site to the north and east. Type 1 water wells operated by the city of Kalamazoo are located approximately 0.5 miles north of the landfill. The nearest private drinking water wells are located approximately 0.8 miles north of the landfill.

A “Do Not Eat” advisory is already in-place for this section of the Kalamazoo River because of PCB contamination.

Content posted September 2020.

No residential well testing is planned at this time.

GP had an annual groundwater monitoring event scheduled for the Fall 2019 but was unable to complete that work due to high flow conditions on the river. They are planning to conduct the event as soon as the flow conditions are favorable. EGLE anticipates that will be sometime during 2020.