Minutes of March 20 Meeting
Chairperson Brittany Fremion called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. She made additions to the agenda.
Minutes of February 2024 Meeting
A motion for approval from Jane Jelenek; Ed Lorenz seconded.
Treasurer’s Report : Ending balance in the General Fund was $5,172.24; in the Mercantile Money Market Account (Oxford Automotive settlement), $3,844.99;in the Edward Jones Money Market Account (Oxford Automotive settlement), 63,605.86; and in the Velsicol Burn Pit checking account, $258.32. TAG grant money available for the Former Plant Site (FPS) stands at $14,916.79, and for the Velsicol Burn Pit (VBP) at $40,786.16. The complete reports are available upon request.
Fishing Derby:
Gary Smith reported that due to concerns about E. coli contamination in the Pine River, the previous St. Louis City Council had cancelled the Joe Scholtz Memorial Free Fishing Derby that the CAG has helped sponsor for over two decades. When the new council members took office in January, they rescinded the cancellation, and at present the Fishing Derby is planned for June 8. The separate Fishing Derby Committee, however, will make the final determination on May 1st after water samples taken by professor Murray Borrello and Alma College students are analyzed.
Correspondence and Communications:
· Gary Smith and Brittany Fremion will prepare the FPS TAG Report for Quarter 1 2024 for EPA Region 5 at the end of the month.
· Recent articles on Michigan CAFO runoff regulations and manure (liquid methane) conversion in Circle of Blue.
· Michigan Public Radio story by Colin Jackson, “Bill that would restore EGLE’s rulemaking power advances in state Senate”
· 1939 advertisement for Natural Ray mineral water in St. Louis, Michigan shared with membership
· CAG secretary and founding member, Jane Jelenek, spoke with a CMU environmental sciences class about the Superfund cleanup
· CAG website traffic is up 68 % – Ed Lorenz, Vice Chairperson
· Nothing new on the documentary film project featuring CAG – Colin Gray (TBD)
· EPA response to a January letter from the CAG regarding re-use of the slurry wall
Gratiot County Landfill:
Brittany Fremion reported that after a conversation at the PBB 50th commemoration, she became interested in finding out the exact location of the Kalkaska burial pit for destroyed cattle. She spoke with Rachel Clark at the State Archives, and learned that the pit is on the property of the Grayling military property. She also learned about boxes of records about the Gratiot County Landfill located at the archives. She searched a small part and found an article that described in detail the cattle burial pit at Kalkaska, and also the containment system for the Landfill. Jane Jelenek spoke about the ownership of the Landfill (the county) and the monitoring and maintenance of the property, including sampling the effluent (also now the responsibility of the county).
Velsicol Bankruptcy:
Ed Lorenz spoke about the recent Velsicol bankruptcy (September 21, 2023). It does not affect our site, because we were part of the Fruit of the Loom bankruptcy settlement in 2002. It does affect the Velsicol sites in Memphis, Tennessee and Marshall, Illinois. Velsicol offered to give the unremediated site to the small town of Marshall, but so far, the city officials have declined the offer.
Program:
Ed Lorenz gave a PowerPoint presentation about a Water Tribunal system in Valencia, Spain, which involves small farms grouped around 8 canals that bring water into dry areas. Each canal has a group leader, and the eight leaders meet once a week as a tribunal to solve issues that the local groups cannot. Ed said this relevant for the CAG, and suggests we should form a structure to oversee the entire watershed.
EGLE report:
Erik Martinson emailed his report.
Dead Bird and Nest study: Plans are being finalized, and a letter will be sent to residents in the ANP this week describing procedures and including contact information. At the April CAG meeting, training will be given for the collection volunteers.
No results on the fish sampling from May 2023.
PFAS sampling will take place this week at the plant site. A call with local officials about the results will take place on April 1st.
EPA reports:
Anna Nguyen reported that both legs of the V-shaped Burn Pit ditch will be sampled in July. Gary Smith drew a rough map showing where two ponds used to be located, in addition to the pond near hole #6 on the golf course. He asked if they would be sampled. Anna said they only have enough money to do the ditch at this time, and no more. Anna will email a figure of the sampling location to the CAG.
Jennifer Knoepfle reported that installation of liquid and vapor lines is underway at the Burn Pit Site.
Scott Pratt reported that operational testing for the in situ thermal treatment will take place at the Burn Pit Site on April 15th. All systems with switches, alarms and other mechanisms, as well as the communication systems, will all be tested to make sure they are working well. When heating begins, it will begin slowly to dry out the liquid that has accumulated in the wells. Liquid extraction will begin to pull out the first portion of the 10 to 12 feet of DNAPL known to be under the surface of the site.
Jennifer reported that PSA 1 & 2 excavation at the plant site was finalized in 2023, and she is awaiting the final report from the contractor AECOM. Hydroseeding of PSA 2 and part of the Burn Pit area will take place in the spring.
She reported that bidding documents are being put together for the Downgradient Vertical Barrier Wall. When the bids some in, she and Ethan Nordstrom (Army Corps of Engineers) will evaluate them. The Corps is overseeing the project of installing the new wall on the river side of the plant site.
Jennifer reported that EPA has decided to re-use the 3,100 feet of Upgradient Slurry Wall instead of building a new wall. They will repair the 20-foot hole in the wall, where it is not keyed into the till, and repair 350 feet of the wall in that area. The engineering technical memo describing this project is on the EPA website for the Velsicol Site. Jennifer is writing the Proposed ESD (Explanation of Significant Differences). She hopes to send it to us prior to the start of the public comment period, which will be followed by a public meeting in June. Gary Smith said the public comments need to be entered into the Administrative Record in their entirety, and not summarized or left out.
Jennifer reported that the final design of the OU-3 flood plains (0.5, 1.5, 1.6 and the athletic field) remediation will be completed in May. This will lock in BIL (bi-partisan infrastructure bill) money for the project to take place in 2025. This excavation will be in tandem with the City of St. Louis Shoreline Protection Plan in an area of river bank and sediment that was not cleaned up during the 1998-2006 sediment excavation, and is still a repository of DDT and other chemical wastes. EPA is working with the city for proper disposal of wastes.
She reported that EPA is conducting its own robin nestling and fledgling study in OU-3 this April. A second round of the worm abundance study will also take place in early April in the floodplains of both OU-3 and OU-4. A report on the draft on the 2023 Eco-Risk study is expected by mid-April, as is a Net Environmental Benefit Analysis that determines if changes to an eco-system benefit humans as well as the environment. It determines how well an eco-system is functioning and the costs of removing a portion of it.
Ongoing Business:
1. Brittany reported that the EPA grant for educational purposes is being used by Alma College to stage an event at the Opera House on Friday, April 26th from 7pm. To 9 pm. The money has also gone to printing a book of reflections on the PBB commemoration event last May; to developing a curriculum at Alma College; and to providing support for a simulation that will be shared with school children.
2. Due to time constraints, the PBB Leadership Team update was tabled.
Technical Advisor report:
· The CAG is in the process of finding a new TA.
· Executive officers will meet with EPA TASC Program officials soon to discuss the possibility of using an EPA-appointed consultant.
New Business:
Joanne Scalf introduced Jacob Nugent, who received his master’s degree in architecture in 2023. His parents live on Alger Road, and Jacob attended Shepherd High School. His thesis was written to bring awareness to academia about brownfield reclamation sites. He is willing to work with the CAG with various renderings to help the CAG meet the State Land Bank’s requirements for “fully developed ideas and how to finance them.” A meeting with the Land Bank and others was to take place this month, but Jennifer Knoepfle said she and Diane Russell decided it is too soon. She said the EPA contractor SKEO is willing to talk with us about our ideas prior to a meeting with the Land Bank.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jane Jelenek, Secretary