President Trump Touts Kalamazoo Superfund Site In Environment Speech

In his speech on America’s environmental record Monday, President Donald Trump touted progress being made at a local Superfund site.

The Allied Paper/Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site was designated in 1990 by the Environmental Protection Agency, after paper manufacturers in the area dumped waste into landfills that caused toxic PCBs to leach into the environment. At the White House Monday, President Trump said that “great strides” had been made at the Superfund site, even though it was “beyond fix up, they thought it was never gonna happen”.

Last year, the EPA touted progress at the site, with Mlive reporting that parts of the Kalamazoo River near Otsego would be returned to public use. This progress was made after the EPA identified the Kalamazoo River in July 2017 as one of 21 Superfund sites in need of “immediate, intense attention”.

Other aspects of the President’s speech yesterday have been criticized, such as his decision not to mention climate change, or Secretary of Energy Rick Perry touting oil and gas production as a positive for the environment.

You can find the President's comments, as well as his entire speech, in the video below.