The Ashland Lakefront site encompasses 40 acres of industrial and former industrial areas along the Ashland shoreline on Chequamegon Bay, a 12-mile long, V-shaped embayment on Lake Superior in northwestern Wisconsin. Industrial activities in these lakefront areas over the past 150 years, including coal gasification, waste water treatment, lumber milling, wastes disposal and land-filling, resulted in the release of hazardous substances, the contamination of soils, sediments and groundwater and injury to natural resources and natural resource services.