M-Live News Story Jan. 20, 2022 about funds for clean-up

EPA targets Michigan toxic site backlog with infrastructure money

Updated: Jan. 20, 2022, 12:01 p.m. | Published: Jan. 20, 2022, 8:07 a.m.

By Garret Ellison | gellison@mlive.com

ST. LOUIS, MI — For years, funding to remediate the worst contaminated sites in Michigan has come in dribbles and spurts as federal officials tried to spread annual appropriations across a universe of toxic sites around the nation.

The result has been slow-moving cleanups in places that are so polluted they warrant the special oversight that comes with a spot on the National Priority List (NPL) — an inglorious distinction known more commonly as a Superfund listing.

  But remedial efforts are poised to accelerate at multiple sites in Michigan and beyond this year as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) targets a backlog of projects with a $1 billion funding wave from the new bipartisan infrastructure law — which included $3.5 billion for the Superfund program as well as a provision reinstating a tax on chemicals that will help provide a steady revenue stream for cleanups.

“We’re very happy about both of those new sources of money — not only for ourselves, of course, but because there’s so many sites around the country that have just been sitting there stalled because of a lack of money,” said Jane Keon, who, as chair of the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, has battled the EPA for years to get funding for the former Velsicol Chemical Corp. plant and its toxic offshoots in St. Louis.

“It’s high time to get these old sites cleaned up,” said Keon.

In Michigan, the EPA says four Michigan sites are getting new attention this year thanks to the infrastructure funding. The sites are among 49 across the country which have been waiting on funding before new or more robust cleanup work could begin, according to federal officials.

 In St. Clair Shores, more than 40 residential yards and some commercial properties contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the Ten-Mile Drain storm sewer system, which is discharging to Lake. St. Clair, will be excavated.

In Mancelona, more than 220,000 tons of tar and contaminated soil will be excavated from a dry 4-acre pond that was used as an iron works dump prior to World War II. Groundwater will be treated with special wells that inject microbes to help biodegrade contaminants.

 In Charlevoix, poison vapor extraction systems will be installed on multiple buildings around downtown and in residential neighborhoods to offset a longstanding risk of from contaminated soil gas under large sections of the city.

 In St. Louis, a former burn pit where Velsicol dumped toxic waste and ash from its former chemical plant across the river will receive underground thermal treatments and nine nearby homes will be connected to the municipal water system.

“This is the biggest investment in cleaning up Superfund sites that we’ve seen in a very, very long time,” said Debra Shore, who was appointed in October as administrator of EPA Region 5, which encompasses Michigan. “And the fact that it’s going to reconstitute the trust fund means that the work can continue; that it won’t run out of funding over time.”

Shore called the return of an excise tax on chemicals “a tremendous shot in the arm for the folks who have been doing all the good work over the years.” The tax, which previously included the oil industry, was the genesis for the name “Superfund.” It expired in 1995 and wasn’t renewed by Congress. Absent that revenue, the pace of cleanups across the U.S. slowed and huge remedial costs shifted to taxpayers, who’ve been on the hook for “orphan” sites where a polluter went bankrupt or otherwise escaped liability.

When the list began in 1980, Michigan originally had 85 Superfund sites. By 2003, when federal program funding dried up, that list had been whittled by 15. Since then, seven sites have been delisted, with the most recent being the Duell & Gardner Landfill in Muskegon County, removed in 2019, and the Barrels Inc. site in Lansing, removed in 2021.

Cleaning up such sites isn’t cheap. According to an annual state report, the average cost for Superfund remedies nationwide is about $30 million and the cost range of cleanups in Michigan reaches as high as $210 million for the Velsicol “national mega-site.”

The chemicals tax return is expected to raise about $14.5 billion in program revenue over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Shore anticipates a ramping up of hiring in EPA’s Superfund program and “dramatically accelerating” work at some sites.

Due to historical land use and demographic patterns, many Superfund sites are located near or within low-income or minority communities. Shore said the about 60 percent of the sites receiving new infrastructure funding are in those overburdened communities.

“The reconstitution of the trust fund is going to be key because then it means that commitment is there with determination and with ongoing support,” Shore said.

In Michigan, the state pays a 10 percent match on cleanup funding and must cover ongoing operation and maintenance work at federal Superfund sites, but the $1 billion from the infrastructure bill doesn’t have a match requirement.

“That’s going to save the state a lot of money on some of these sites,” said David Kline, who runs the Superfund program in the remediation and redevelopment division at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).

Kline said EPA has traditionally tried not to let an NPL site go more than three years without some level of cleanup funding, but that still meant multi-year waits in between periodic work.

“It’s very frustrating to work on a site and get to the point where you’re ready to do a cleanup and then not have the money to do it,” Kline said.

The new tax revenues “should really keep things hoping along for the next decade.”

In St. Louis, the new funds will help build an access road and pay for other preparations at the Velsicol burn pit, which is located in an out-of-bounds area at the Hidden Oaks Golf Course. The EPA has been seeking easement rights for site access, which will require utility connections to power the cleanup remedy; an “in-situ” treatment system that will heat the soil and vaporize buried pollutants like DDT, benzene derivatives and other toxic leftovers.

A similar system is being used across the river on parts of the former plant site footprint. Thermal heating began there in 2018 and about 382,000 pounds of contaminants have been removed to date. That equipment will transition over to the burn pit, where chemicals from the plant site were dumped years ago. Heating is expected to last about a year.

“It’s kind of like sticking a big electric oven in the ground,” said Tom Alcamo, EPA site manager. Once vaporized, the contaminants are captured and treated.

The burn pit cleanup is estimated to cost about $25 million, said Alcamo. It’s the last major Velsicol source area in need of remediation — although the overall end of work remains several years away. Another 100,000 tons of contaminated material from the plant site is marked for excavation and EPA is eyeing a long-term water treatment plant for the site.

There are also contaminants downstream to address in sediments, floodplains and soils along the Pine River banks. EPA plans to propose a cleanup plan there this spring that will encompass the river all the way to the confluence with the Chippewa River near Midland.

“We’re looking at some remedies, from all the way from excavating it all to containing it,” Alcamo said. “It’s mainly ecological risk downstream because of DDT. So, we’re not looking at these aggressive in-situ thermal treatment-type remedies there. It’s like excavating flood plains and taking that material off site for disposal.”