PCB cleanup worker battles denial, cancer returns

PCB cleanup – Scot Meisenheimer says he was sent into the Lower Fox River cleanup with dust, inadequate protections, and guidance that didn’t match federal rules. Diagnosed with melanoma in 2015, cancers again in 2017 and 2023, he settled a workers’ compensation claim in 20

From the driver’s seat of a 240 Volvo front-end loader, Scot Meisenheimer could barely see the warehouse lights. Dust hung low and thick around him, and an itch crawled up his throat.

Down by the river site where he worked. three large pipes pulled thousands of gallons of sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls—PCBs—every hour from the Lower Fox River in Wisconsin. The sludge came into the warehouse by the ton, dark and sopping wet. Meisenheimer’s job was straightforward: use the loader to transfer the toxic sediment from the floor into trucks for off-site disposal.

The work was part of what is described as the largest PCB cleanup effort in history. Over nearly 40 miles of river, workers removed almost 6.5 million cubic yards of sediment containing the chemicals linked to multiple types of cancer, liver damage and reproductive health issues.

Meisenheimer said he didn’t question safety while he was doing the work. Like others, he wore denim coveralls and a hard hat. He said gloves were often treated casually, and his foreman reassured him no masks were needed. On Nov. 22. 2013. when his foreman told him to fix a floor sweeper that had broken near a small pool of dirty water. he trusted the assurances and went onto the floor—putting down a piece of cardboard before he lay down.

His cotton uniform soaked almost instantly. The repair took nearly an hour. “If they tell you it’s safe and they’re the manager, you just know it’s safe,” Meisenheimer said. His doctors, PCB experts and scientific literature say that assumption was wrong.

In 2015, doctors diagnosed Meisenheimer with Stage IIIC melanoma on his left calf, an aggressive cancer with a high risk of recurrence. Cancer returned in 2017 and again in 2023.

For more than two years. the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel followed Meisenheimer’s attempts to navigate the workers’ compensation process and push Tetra Tech—the company that oversaw the cleanup—to cover his medical expenses. The investigation found that Tetra Tech’s health and safety practices fell short of federal standards designed to shield workers from the toxic chemicals they were sent to clean up. leaving dozens of employees like Meisenheimer facing an elevated risk of cancer.

Tetra Tech, a multibillion-dollar California-based engineering firm, settled a workers’ compensation case with Meisenheimer in 2018. In that settlement, it took no responsibility for his cancer but left open the possibility of paying for future cancer-related medical expenses.

His insurer story, however, is what he says has dragged on.

American International Group, Tetra Tech’s insurance company, refused to pay Meisenheimer’s medical bills, which have totaled more than $1.2 million. In a statement, Tetra Tech said Meisenheimer’s “outrageous allegations” were unfounded and that his case had already been litigated.

“While it is unfortunate that Mr. Meisenheimer has faced health challenges, Mr. Meisenheimer’s ongoing concerns are with the state’s workers’ compensation system,” said Charlie MacPherson, Tetra Tech’s vice president of corporate communications.

Meisenheimer, now 66, says he is fighting for his life—and for answers. “It’s all on my shoulders,” he said. “They don’t want to be held responsible for it.”

PCBs were built to last. Swann Chemical Company in Alabama began producing PCBs, a class of more than 200 man-made chemicals, in the late 1920s. Monsanto became the dominant American manufacturer, producing an estimated 1.4 billion pounds of PCBs between 1930 and 1975. Because PCBs resisted extreme heat and other chemicals, they were used as coolants, insulators and lubricants.

Along the Lower Fox River. pulp and paper mills used PCBs by the mid-1950s to manufacture and recycle carbonless copy paper. Those mills discharged PCB-laden wastewater into the river. Paper fibers settled into sediment. and scientists found PCBs building up in the fatty tissues of fish and wildlife—sickening animals and people who ate contaminated fish or were otherwise exposed.

After the Environmental Protection Agency banned PCBs in 1979, communities began cleaning the chemicals out of waterways. Along the Lower Fox River, that work was awarded to Tetra Tech. A new 250,000-square-foot processing center stood over the riverbanks off State Street in downtown Green Bay. Because PCBs don’t break down, removal required an intricate dredging and storage process.

Under Tetra Tech’s oversight, boats pumped millions of tons of sediment—about 2,000 Olympic swimming pools’ worth—from the river into the processing center. Massive presses squeezed out the water, leaving towering mountains of dried dirt ready to be tested and trucked away for permanent storage.

Meisenheimer took the job at age 52 for its high pay of $32 an hour. In July 2013, he started commuting nearly 70 miles from Fond du Lac to Green Bay.

Inside the facility, he described dust and gaps in protection.

Dust nestled into every crevice, he said. Air filters were often broken and rarely changed. Joseph Eisch, another worker, said the air filters frequently looked like they were “plugged solid” with dust. Both said that while they had worked other hazardous jobs before. Tetra Tech gave them little understanding about how to protect themselves from PCBs.

They said workers ate at benches in the same room where they processed sediment, leaving out open cans of soda and bottles of water. “They cooked brats right outside the door,” Meisenheimer said. “Then you’d eat inside.”

Two sets of federal rules guided the cleanup operation: the EPA controlled how contaminated sediment was supposed to be handled and disposed of; OSHA controlled how workers stayed safe doing that work.

In federal regulations at the time, workers were supposed to wear eye protection, disposable coveralls and chemical-resistant gloves whenever tasks could result in skin or eye contact with PCBs. OSHA required employers to provide respirators if PCB dust became airborne.

Under federal guidelines. Tetra Tech also was supposed to prohibit eating. drinking and smoking anywhere around PCBs. provide separate clean and dirty changing areas. and dispose of used coveralls and gloves as contaminated waste. Technical guidance recommended showers so workers could wash thoroughly before taking breaks and going home.

Meisenheimer and Eisch described a different reality.

They said denim coveralls replaced disposable ones. Meisenheimer and Eisch said workers sometimes wore one pair of coveralls for days while other pairs were being cleaned. Meisenheimer said workers did not always wear gloves.

They also said there was no consistent decontamination routine. Some workers showered before leaving, Eisch said, while others simply changed out of uniforms and went home. Neither man recalled being told where it was safe to eat. Many employees, they said, did not wash hands or faces before eating lunch.

A 2008 safety plan that Tetra Tech proposed to the EPA chose the lowest level of personal protective equipment guidelines for the site because the company believed PCB levels would be low—even while acknowledging the possibility that levels could change. The EPA signed off.

Under that plan. it was the responsibility of Tetra Tech’s environmental safety supervisor to monitor conditions such as air quality and raise safety standards if employees were at risk. If air filtration was poor, employees should be required to wear a tight-fitting respirator with high-efficiency filters.

Yet Meisenheimer and Eisch said no masks or respirators were distributed even when conditions became dusty. They also said the safety plan did not prohibit eating in work areas, contradicting EPA and OSHA guidelines.

Meisenheimer said that. at one point. he wondered why Tetra Tech scientists measuring PCB levels wore full-body hazmat suits and face coverings while employees who worked every day did not. But he said it was not a workplace where questions were encouraged. Supervisors reassured workers that everything was within “government specs,” and many co-workers didn’t want to “make waves.”.

“Once you get canned from a job … nobody wants to hire you,” Meisenheimer said.

Two months after the Nov. 22, 2013 floor sweeper repair, he developed a bumpy, reddish rash on the outside of his left calf. Known as chloracne, it has been observed in people exposed to PCBs and the contaminant in Agent Orange.

In 2015, doctors diagnosed advanced melanoma in the same spot, even as they said they could not trace it to a specific exposure. By then, Meisenheimer had turned down an opportunity to return to Green Bay to work for Tetra Tech and started a job at Saputo Cheese in Mayville.

He said it would be his last. That year, he underwent seven surgeries in five months. He worked on and off at Saputo until fluid buildup in his legs left him largely unable to walk without assistance. He went on short-term disability in 2017.

That same year, Meisenheimer was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive kind of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctors declared him permanently disabled later that year. His income dropped to $24,000, coming entirely from Social Security Disability Insurance.

Research described in the reporting says PCBs are carcinogenic to humans and are frequently linked to melanoma and lymphoma, with scientists saying there is no safe level of PCB exposure.

Two PCB experts consulted by the Journal Sentinel said the practices described by Meisenheimer and other workers increased their risk of developing cancer.

Keri Hornbuckle. a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa and director of the Iowa Superfund Research Program. said PCBs are hard to control once airborne like dust. Inhalation and ingestion are the most efficient ways they can enter the body, she said. While exposure-to-cancer outcomes can vary across individuals. Hornbuckle said “all scientists that I’ve ever worked with … conclude that PCBs can cause cancer.”.

Dr. David Carpenter. a professor of environmental health at the University at Albany. said even a few months in a high-PCB environment can be enough time to accumulate meaningful exposure because PCBs bind to fat cells and can remain in the body for a decade or more. He said it is reasonable to conclude that exposure to PCBs caused Meisenheimer’s cancers.

Meisenheimer’s legal fight didn’t move quickly. In 2017, he filed a workers’ compensation case against Tetra Tech and provided a letter from one of his doctors suggesting his cancer diagnosis was a consequence of exposure to PCBs. Even with that letter, he struggled to find legal representation.

Workers’ compensation cases often offer limited payoff for attorneys, and cancer cases are especially hard to prove because symptoms can appear months or years after employment ends. Dr. Filip Troicki, an oncologist at SSM Health, said cancer doesn’t develop overnight.

After months of searching, Meisenheimer secured a lawyer who negotiated a “limited compromise” deal with Tetra Tech in 2018.

Under the deal, Tetra Tech agreed to pay him a $50,000 lump sum and cover any “reasonable and necessary” future cancer-related medical expenses stemming from the incident in November 2013, when Meisenheimer lay in the dirty puddle to fix the floor sweeper.

In exchange, Tetra Tech took no legal responsibility for either of his cancer diagnoses at the time. The settlement also closed the door on his ability to receive other benefits, such as permanent partial disability payments.

Meisenheimer accepted the deal because he feared he would get nothing if he took the case to court. “Soon after he signed the paperwork,” the reporting states, he began to regret it.

Despite reaching out at least a dozen times. he said Tetra Tech’s insurance company. AIG. did not respond to inquiries about paying for treatment. Instead. Medicare and Meisenheimer’s insurance company. Humana. took on most of his medical bills—more than $1 million worth of treatment. What Medicare and Humana could not cover—more than $50,000—he paid himself.

AIG declined to discuss his case, citing patient privacy concerns, even though he provided permission to discuss it with reporters.

In 2019, Meisenheimer tried to reopen his settlement. Unable to find an attorney, he represented himself. He alleged treatment-induced brain fog and poor legal representation prevented him from making an informed decision in 2018.

Court records show the process was difficult for him and for the judge. He struggled to present his case and document it. He provided written testimony from Joe Wszalek. a neuroscientist and cognitive impairment specialist. who observed that Meisenheimer repeatedly failed to complete court-assigned tasks because of impaired thinking. Wszalek concluded that his brain fog could be tied to an immunotherapy drug he received during his first bout of cancer. He also provided a letter from one of his doctors noting cognitive side effects from the drug.

Tetra Tech disputed the workplace injury as claimed, and it denied he was permanently disabled. Its attorney characterized Wszalek’s testimony as “collateral noise” meant to “overcomplicate the litigated issue.” The attorney argued Meisenheimer authorized the 2018 settlement and showed no impairment.

After an April 2022 hearing, a judge dismissed the case, citing insufficient evidence.

In a recent interview, Wszalek pointed out that limitations like memory issues and brain fog can put employees at a disadvantage when arguing workers’ compensation cases. He said “the system is what failed Scot, rather than any individual action.”

By then, Meisenheimer’s story had been echoed by safety complaints at the site he worked.

When he was trying to reopen his case in 2019. Tetra Tech was facing dozens of similar complaints that he didn’t know about. In 2019. OSHA received more than 30 reports from employees about safety issues at the Green Bay processing facility. according to inspection records obtained through an open records request. The cleanup facility opened about a decade earlier, but OSHA conducted its first inspection only after those reports.

OSHA inspectors found employees were wearing and storing contaminated personal protective equipment—hard hats and safety glasses in areas that were supposed to stay clean. Inspectors also found workers taking off uniforms without gloves. OSHA reports said training didn’t provide explicit instructions for washing exposed skin. such as the face or neck. and that Tetra Tech had not developed a system to monitor and ensure workers followed decontamination procedures.

In 2020, OSHA concluded that Tetra Tech did not create a work environment “free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.” The report noted that there was no safe level of PCB skin contact.

When that report was issued, there was less than one year left in the 17-year cleanup. OSHA offered Tetra Tech recommendations to improve safety, but because measured PCB levels were within agency standards, inspectors did not issue fines or citations.

Hornbuckle said cleanup workers deserve clearer guidance on what employers must do to protect them. She said people are often confused about which federal or state agency is responsible for worker safety.

On four occasions. the reporters asked EPA and OSHA which agency set standards for worker safety—including personal protective equipment—on the PCB project. Each time, both agencies directed the question to the other agency. The EPA pointed them to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the state agency in charge of the cleanup. The DNR pointed reporters back to Tetra Tech.

“I mean, who is in charge?” Hornbuckle said.

Meisenheimer’s health has kept driving the story forward.

In October 2023, he was diagnosed with lymphoma for a second time. He underwent radiation and months of chemotherapy, and in January 2024 he was declared cancer-free. Still, he said the hardest battle wasn’t only the illness—it was what it took from him.

Most of the flesh on his calf was surgically removed during his first bout of cancer. Now he struggles to get in and out of his truck and can manage only about 15 minutes of activity at a time. Even grocery trips become difficult. His income goes mostly to food, medical care and his disabled son.

A Fond du Lac attorney. Anthony O’Malley. heard about Meisenheimer’s situation in 2023 and decided to help mostly out of sympathy. O’Malley cannot represent him because he is retiring this year. but he helped Meisenheimer file a “bad faith” insurance claim arguing that Tetra Tech’s insurance company. AIG. is denying him workers’ compensation benefits without a reasonable basis.

O’Malley believes Tetra Tech is “caught in a trap.” If the company argues it isn’t responsible for Meisenheimer’s recurring cancer, that could strengthen his ability to file a new claim arguing that his latest cancer is a separate injury.

Even so, Meisenheimer said these cases are difficult to win without linking a specific cancer to a specific exposure. Without a computer or printer at home, he drives an hour to a Pack & Ship and More in Hartford to print and mail medical and legal documents and waits to see who will respond.

Outside Meisenheimer’s life, the cleanup continues to move slowly.

A 2025 progress report described in the reporting says the Lower Fox River is healing, but fish could take decades before they are safe to eat. More than a dozen PCB cleanups are underway across the Great Lakes, including in Milwaukee.

In February, under the Trump administration, the EPA moved to reduce worker protections and restrict public access to environmental hazard information.

Since 2020, multiple cities and states have sued Monsanto over PCBs. Monsanto. now owned by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer. has settled several cases. including a $650 million class-action lawsuit involving around 2. 500 local governments. A lawsuit filed by the city of Milwaukee against Monsanto is ongoing.

At Meisenheimer’s home in Fond du Lac. his dining room table is buried under paperwork. with boxes of records stacked in a bedroom as he plans to sue once more. In his garage in January, he spotted a red bump on his left arm, just below the elbow. What looked like an ingrown hair soon swelled into a pimple. similar to the one he noticed on his leg a decade earlier.

Days later, he learned he had cancer for the fourth time.

The reporting lists Caitlin Looby as the writer covering the Great Lakes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Tamia Fowlkes as a Public Investigator reporter for the publication.

PCBs Lower Fox River Tetra Tech OSHA workers' compensation AIG melanoma non-Hodgkin lymphoma environmental cleanup Green Bay Milwaukee