{"id":57102,"date":"2025-07-11T14:49:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57102\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T14:49:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:49:17","slug":"worlds-largest-environmental-cleanup-of-its-kind-resumes-on-st-louis-river-cloquet-pine-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57102\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s largest environmental cleanup of its kind resumes on St. Louis River – Cloquet Pine Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARLTON \u2014 The world\u2019s biggest environmental cleanup of its kind has resumed on the Thomson Reservoir as federal and state agencies seek to remediate industrial pollutants along Lake Superior\u2019s largest river.<\/p>\n

Environmental Protection Agency contractors resumed the deployment of 8,100 tons of activated carbon used to remediate toxins in the second phase of the $36 million project in June. Once completed, it will be Minnesota\u2019s final planned remediation project on the St. Louis River.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a broader perspective, the more of these immediate projects that we complete to remove contamination left behind from historic industrial discharges, the huge benefit it’ll be overall to the Great Lakes,\u201d said Meaghan Kern, technical lead and project manager with the EPA.<\/p>\n

St. Louis River is listed as a <\/p>\n

Great Lakes Area of Concern,<\/a><\/p>\n

a designation the EPA applies to areas impacted by human-caused environmental degradation in the Great Lakes basin. Encompassing 1,020 square miles, it is the second-largest and westernmost of the country\u2019s 25 remaining Areas of Concern. The reservoir remediation is part of the larger effort to restore and delist the St. Louis River as an Area of Concern by 2030.<\/p>\n

\"Contract<\/p>\n

Contract workers for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Environmental Protection Agency transport large bags of carbon pellets to the Thomson Reservoir on Tuesday, July 8.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Buckner \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

The river\u2019s pollution is a legacy of industries that have historically used its waterways. At Thomson Reservoir, residual dioxins and furans \u2014 highly toxic chemicals known to cause cancer and reproductive and developmental problems, left behind by pulp and paper manufacturing \u2014 litter the bed of the reservoir.<\/p>\n

The toxins are mainly consumed by bugs and plants on the sediment surface and move up the food chain by concentrating in the fatty tissue of animals. <\/p>\n

The EPA estimates<\/a><\/p>\n

that over 90% of human exposure to dioxins occurs through the consumption of animal fats, such as meat, dairy, fish and shellfish.<\/p>\n

To isolate the toxins, a thin layer of activated carbon pellets is being applied to the sediment bed. The pellets, which are gravel-coated with powdered carbon, sink carbon to the sediment surface. The carbon should then separate and bind to the contaminants, preventing accumulation in bottom-dwelling organisms, halting their journey to the top of the food chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur targets here really are those bugs and the fish. So we\u2019re looking at the chemistry and those contaminants, and how they move through the food chain,\u201d said LaRae Lehto, a contaminated sediment program coordinator for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which is working alongside the EPA to remediate the river.<\/p>\n

\"Worker<\/p>\n

Noah Mecklenburg disconnects chains from a bag of carbon pellets.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Buckner \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

The EPA completed approximately 42% of the total activated carbon placement over 28 acres in 2024. The remainder will be dispersed across 38 acres through the summer. The project is expected to be completed by November.<\/p>\n

The project is largely funded through the EPA\u2019s Great Lakes National Program Office, with the MPCA and <\/p>\n

PotlatchDeltic,<\/a><\/p>\n

the former owner of the<\/p>\n

Sappi paper mill<\/a><\/p>\n

in Cloquet, splitting just over one-third of the remaining costs.<\/p>\n

\"Excavator<\/p>\n

An excavator is used to lift a bag of carbon pellets to a barge with other bags on the Thomson Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Buckner \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

The<\/p>\n

funding was announced in 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated $1 billion to accelerate the cleanup and restoration of the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

Kris Eilers, executive director of the St. Louis River Alliance, an advocacy organization that helped secure state funding for the project in 2017, said the environmental impacts from the remediation are already being seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great for the river,\u201d Eilers said. \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing recovery in the river in different areas over the last 10 years, and so we expect that we\u2019ll see the same up at the reservoirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Minnesota\u2019s seventh and final remediation of the St. Louis River. Following a select few <\/p>\n

remediation projects in Wisconsin,<\/a><\/p>\n

the EPA is on track to meet its target of delisting the St. Louis River by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Mitch Ojard stands on a barge transporting several large bags of carbon pellets along the Thomson Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Buckner \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

Because the project was operational and fully funded in 2024, it has not been impacted by calls by the Trump Administration to <\/p>\n

cut EPA funding and loosen environmental regulations,<\/a><\/p>\n

according to Lehto. <\/p>\n

Still, Eilers worries that future cuts in funding and the environmental regulatory rollback could jeopardize all the progress made in cleaning the river.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to roll back regulations and stuff, the reason why we got here in the beginning was because there were no regulations,\u201d Eilers said. \u201cSo there needs to be regulations and standards for our water if we want a healthy future.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Macklin<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Macklin Caruso is a reporter for the Cloquet Pine Journal. You can reach him at mcaruso@pinejournal.com or 218-461-8278.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARLTON \u2014 The world\u2019s biggest environmental cleanup of its kind has resumed on the Thomson Reservoir as federal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[41833,746,41834,41835,41836,41837,41838,41839,41831,41832,159,41840,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-57102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bipartisan-infrastructure-law","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-environmental-protection-agency","11":"tag-great-lakes-area-of-concern","12":"tag-kris-eilers","13":"tag-larae-lehto","14":"tag-meaghan-kern","15":"tag-minnesota-pollution-control-agency","16":"tag-potlatchdelic","17":"tag-potlatchdeltic","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-st-louis-river-alliance","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114835158835661500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}