The Kalamazoo River cleanup, and the fish advisory

If you’re looking at property along the Kalamazoo River in Allegan County, it helps to know the river’s history. For much of the 1900s, paper mills in Kalamazoo and along the Plainwell–Otsego–Allegan stretch released PCBs — a group of industrial chemicals — into the river. In 1990 the river was added to the federal Superfund list, and the U.S. EPA, working with the state, has been cleaning up contaminated sediment along about 80 miles of the Kalamazoo, from Morrow Dam down to where the river reaches Lake Michigan at Saugatuck. A lot of the contamination settled behind the old dams, including in Lake Allegan, the large impoundment above the Allegan dam.

This is a slow, decades-long cleanup, and work is still going on at several spots along the river. For people who live and play here, the practical thing to know is the fish advisory: because of the PCBs, the state advises against eating fish caught in this stretch of the river. The river is still popular for paddling and boating — it’s eating the fish that the warnings are about. Advisories can change as the cleanup moves along, so it’s worth checking Michigan’s “Eat Safe Fish” guide for the current details before you fish.

None of this stops people from living and buying along the water — Plainwell, Otsego, Allegan, and Saugatuck are all river towns people love. It’s just good to know the cleanup is ongoing and why the fish advisory is there.