By Dolores Kester
Friends of Hartmeyer

Have you ever wondered what kind of ugly stuff is still rolling around underground in the area where Oscar Mayer used to be? At long last the public has a resource to easily find out specific information about the environmental contamination on and near the former Oscar Mayer property. 

The new report — called the Transparency Project — was issued in June by Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA) here in Madison. It provides an easy-to-read summary of publicly available sources, which include newspaper reports and data files maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS).

Why is this helpful? Thousands of pages of information about a century of industrial waste by Oscar Mayer and others have been summarized in plain language so they can be readily understood. There is also an interactive map so you can see exactly where the contamination lies in relation to places you are familiar with on the Northside. There are also links to the BRRTS files in case you want to look at the actual DNR files. 

The MEA summary explains that some contaminated locations are “closed” if they have been cleaned up and if no continuing obligations apply, although any site is subject to reopening if an event occurs that shows contamination is still there. The summary also lists several major contaminated locations on the Northside which are still “open.” Open sites are spills that have not been fully cleaned up and where cleanup efforts are ongoing. 

This MEA document is most useful because it describes and maps numerous areas where toxic contaminants remain. Access the MEA summary and interactive map at northsidenews.org/thetransparencyproject.

Check it out, you may learn something interesting. Bring your curiosity and start digging.