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A recent story on Cadillacnews.com reminds us that the lawsuit filed by the state of Michigan DEQ against AAR Manufacturing is still lumbering through the court system:
The list of groundwater contaminants in a state of Michigan lawsuit against a Cadillac manufacturer can increase, Wexford County Circuit Court Judge Bill Fagerman ruled Wednesday.
Assistant attorney general Kathleen Cavanaugh sought an amendment to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s complaint against AAR Manufacturing in Cadillac.
The lawsuit, which has been ongoing for years, attempts to comply AAR to investigate two releases of trichloroethylene, or TCE, from degreasing units.
The amended complaint includes a list of contaminants along with an obsolete gasoline additive, MTBE, and other petroleum products.
The complaint also sought to enforce investigation of any other chemicals that might be discovered between now and when the lawsuit is settled should the court rule in favor of the DEQ.
AAR attorney Joseph Kuiper argued it’s late in the game to add new complaints.
“It’s always been about TCE,” Kuiper said.
The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, MI) reports:
Two million dollars of relief is coming to Antrim County to make drinking water safe for those who live near one of the largest toxic chemical plumes in Michigan.
State officials released grant money to pay for a 25,000-foot-long extension to an existing public water main in Mancelona, despite a grant moratorium and budgetary woes that threaten deep spending cuts in Michigan. The project will provide a safe alternative for 80 homes and 210 vacant lots at Shanty Creek resort now plagued with risks of dangerous groundwater.
[...]
The source of the contamination is an industrial site in Mancelona, where harmful solvents were dumped for a span of two decades, long before any environmental regulations existed, said Bob Wagner, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality regional headquarters in Gaylord.
Long gone is the company that caused the pollution, but the plume now stretches more than six miles northwest and is more than a mile across, carrying with it tricholoethylene, or TCE. The poisonous chemical is not breaking down, only being diluted in the groundwater, Wagner said.
The potent, problematic plume will be discussed by state and local officials at a public forum at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Summit Conference Center at Shanty Creek.
Read more here.
Also be sure to check out this list of Frequently Asked Questions (MS Word or HTML) regarding the Mancelona TCE plume. The FAQ was created by a group calling itself ACUTE, the Antrim Coalition United Through Ecology.
The Record Eagle (Traverse County, MI) reports:
Larry Washburn figures he should get more than the list price of $134,000 for his 2,400-square- foot geodesic dome house tucked away on 20 wooded acres in a scenic area of Wexford County.
But the house has been on the market for months, even as the price dropped from $180,000. Washburn worries he won’t find a buyer.
The catch is that the home is less than a mile away from the troubled Wexford County landfill, where contaminants from the dump leached into and ruined neighboring residential wells.
Washburn’s water hasn’t tested positive for contamination, and the house isn’t located in an at-risk zone, but Washburn believes buyers are scared off by its proximity to the dump.
“I ain’t in the box and I still can’t get nobody to look at it,” Washburn said, referring to a contamination zone where tainted water required some residents to have new wells drilled.
[...]
Washburn isn’t alone among Cedar Creek Township residents who are fed up with the contamination. Several are in a fight with county officials over an alternate water supply and many of them want a municipal water system, believing it’s the only way to remove the tainted water stigma.
Some in the county — including Wexford County commission chair Larry Copley — want a study of a “deep well” solution. Copley said the decision ultimately will rest with the DEQ, whose officials will determine whether deeper wells are a viable alternative to a municipal supply.
Read the full story
CJ’s Excavating of Cadillac (MI) was awarded a nearly $3 million contract to begin removing trash from the Wexford County landfill. Meanwhile, TCE was found at 13 parts per billion in a new test well near the landfill, which “creates more questions than answers,” says Department of Public Works director John Divozzo.
Read the story here.
The Cadillac News (Detroit, MI) reports that residents and officials have been digging into the history of the Wexford County landfill. Meanwhile the Department of Public Works is holding a meeting tonight at 7:00 pm.
From the article:
“As a result of the current landfill issue, Cedar Creek Township, with the help of county residents who volunteered their time and professional expertise, began an exhaustive research of the public record in regards to the landfill,” Pat Buttermore, the township clerk told county commissioners recently. “Although we tried to present an unbiased report the facts speak for themselves.”
[...]
The Department of Public Works board meets 7 p.m. today under scrutiny to try and formulate a new set of rates for the landfill in the wake of the defeat of a plan that could have brought in out-of-county waste.
[...]
Partial landfill timeline
Feb. 1973 – Wexford County granted landfill license with stipulation: “No volatile wastes without special plan being submitted and approved”
Aug. 1975 – Hydro geologic studies show groundwater flow “generally to the north”
Jan. 1976: Health department alerts county to unlicensed disposal of industrial wastes
Sept. 1978 – Landfill license expires, operations continue
Sept. 1981 – Health department samples residential wells along U.S. 131
Nov. 1982 – Report of a Cadillac company dumping chemicals into landfill
April 1984 – DPW refuses to spend funds for water studies and wells
April 1985 – DPW board votes to close landfill
June 1985 – Private well on border of landfill contains traces of benzene
June 1985 – County board passes motion to delay landfill closure
Oct. 1985 – Volatile organic compounds found in additional monitor wells
Nov. 1987 – County commission votes to keep landfill open and work toward licensure
Feb. 2000 – Landfill funds used for county emergency radio project
July 2002 – County board agrees to pay the DEQ $27,500 for violations at the landfill that included excessive amounts of scrap tires being stored at the landfill
April 2004 – State funded residential well tests find volatile organic compounds
June 2005 – County approves $2 million ‘bioreactor’ cell
Source: Cedar Creek Township’s ‘The Wexford County Landfill’
Read the full story.
…to keep people safer from TCE, please encourage them to contact:
Jody Milanese (millaneese) in Congresswoman Sue Kelly’s office at 202-225-5441
The Northern Express (Northern Michigan) sums up with Trashed…Landfill neighbors fear the creep of groundwater pollution
by Anne Stanton:
THE ISSUES:
- A landfill constructed on sandy soil is leaching cancer-causing chemicals into the groundwater.
- Wexford County wants to bring in more trash from nine surrounding counties.
- Wexford residents pay some of the highest rates in the region for trash disposal…
- … but industry pays some of the lowest rates.
At a time when dozens of Manton residents fear their water might be poisoned from a nearby landfill, there’s a plan on the table to import even more trash from nine other counties.
The county commissioners of Wexford County say they are spending millions of dollars to protect against future pollution and can be trusted to oversee a landfill that won’t leak toxins in the future. But residents feel the risks are too high.
This is a story of trying to balance big profits from the county-owned landfill with the health and property values of a small group of families in Cedar Creek Township.
Read more.
According to the Traverse City Record Eagle (MI), the Department of Environmental Quality has approved funding for clean-up of a PCE plume:
The DEQ money will be used in an area just west of downtown off M-88 to address public health risks from tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, a known carcinogen that is a byproduct of solvents used at a former dry cleaner.
A DEQ investigation identified excessive levels of PCE in both soil and groundwater, and excessive air concentrations inside some nearby homes, spokesman Robert McCann said.
[...]
Mancelona Area Water and Sewer Authority administrator Gary Knapp said he was “really gratified” the DEQ is addressing the PCE problem. But another large area of groundwater contamination will need attention and probably much more money, he said.
Knapp referred to a more than 6-mile-long, 1-mile-wide plume of groundwater contamination containing trichloroethylene, or TCE. The plume extends from the village northwest toward Schuss Mountain and Bellaire.
Read the full story.
The Ann Arbor News (MI) reports:
Crews working for Eaton Corp. have nearly completed six months of excavation of contaminated soil at the auto supplier’s former manufacturing plant at South First and West William streets.
But some pollution has made its way into underground water off the downtown Ann Arbor site. Company officials say the contamination doesn’t appear to pose any health or safety problems to the surrounding residences, but the company may be asked by the state to take steps to neutralize the chemicals.
[...]
The soil is contaminated with an industrial solvent called trichlorethene, or trichloroethylene, and some gasoline, Allen said. “The type of contamination we were removing were petroleum products and cleaning solvents that were used at the facility over the 100-plus years it was in existence.”
Read the full story.
After declaring that indoor air is safe at Norris Elementary, the EPA announced that it is warding against future risk of exposure by removing contaminants from under the school.
The Detroit News (MI) reports:
The village planning commission approved the final site plan of American Compounding to build a 15,000-square-foot thermoplastic plant in a former contaminated industrial site in the center of the village. Plans are to build on 4.3 acres of the 11-acre parcel at the former Stanley Tools factory at Frank Street and Veterans Drive. The site of the former factory that was torn down more than a decade ago went through a $7 million environmental cleanup for trichloroethylene (TCE) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as stabilizing the migration of contaminated groundwater into the nearby Red Cedar River. Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls acquired the site in 1996, and in February 2003 it reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the site.
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