Contact: Zach Lowe (202) 224-8657
After Wisconsin Businesses Contacted Feingold for Assistance in Helping with the Gulf, Feingold Informs them EPA is Seeking More Innovative Ideas to Address Michigan Oil Spill
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is informing Wisconsin businesses that wanted to help address the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking innovative ideas to address the recent oil spill, which contaminated Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. The EPA recently announced it developed a faster review process to scrutinize innovative ideas and technological solutions to deploy along the Kalamazoo River. Today, Feingold’s staff contacted several Wisconsin businesses that had contacted his office seeking assistance in helping with the Gulf to inform them of the EPA’s need in Michigan.
“As the oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico, several Wisconsin businesses contacted me looking for ways to apply their technological expertise to address the spill,” Feingold said. “I was all too happy to help ensure the ideas they were submitting were being properly tracked and vetted by the federal government, as well as BP. Now, with last week’s spill in the Kalamazoo River, there is a new crisis in our own backyard and the federal government is once again looking to the private sector for assistance. I have seen some of these Wisconsin-generated technologies first hand, and I want to be sure these Wisconsin businesses are aware of this new opportunity to deploy them closer to home.”
Feingold has toured two Wisconsin businesses with technologies that could help clean up oil spilled into bodies of water. In June, Feingold toured American Excelsior, a Rice Lake business that manufactures a wood-based fiber product that can help absorb oil from water. In July, Feingold toured Monterey Mills, a Janesville business that manufactures a type of fabric, which also helps separate and absorb oil from water. Both businesses had sought assistance in submitting their technologies to assist in clean up of the Gulf. Feingold has heard from other Wisconsin businesses, as well, and his staff reached out to each of them to inform them of EPA’s request.
More information about the EPA soliciting ideas is available at http://www.epa.gov/enbridgespill/technology/index.html.
