Removal of More Contaminants
Next at Velsicol: 115,000 tons of soil from 1930s refinery site
The Morning Sun April 10, 2023
About 115,000 tons of soil will be removed from a portion of the property that once housed the MacClanahan Refinery back in the 1930s. The decades-long remediation of the former Velsicol Chemical Co. plant site is continuing.
Next on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup list for the 52-area parcel is excavating tons of contaminated soil near M-46. About 115,000 tons of soil will be removed from a portion of the property that once housed the MacClanahan Refinery back in the 1930s,
EPA Project Manager Tom Alcamo told members of the Pine River Superfund Citizens Task Force. The amount to be dug up and removed is more than the agency previously anticipated, he added. Excavation will extend to 30 feet below the surface with much of it being below the water table, Alcamo noted.
The EPA is expecting to pump, collect and dispose of 22,000 gallons of water per day, enough to fill two tanker trucks. Both the water and the soil will be hauled off site Ten trucks a day will be used to remove the waste, while five others will bring in clean fill dirt, Alcamo said.
The soil will be taken to a staging area where the wet dirt will be drained and then loaded onto gravel-train semis and taken to disposal sites. The nonhazardous soil will be taken to the Brent Run disposal site near Montrose, while the hazardous soil and water waste will go to the U.S. ecology disposal site near Detroit.
Clean sand, stone and fill dirt will be brought in from two local companies, Bill’s Custom Backhoe in Elwell and Hubscher’s in Mt. Pleasant. During the project three air monitoring stations will be set up to collect data and dust control will be handled with various types of commercial misting systems, Alcamo said.
Odors may also become a problem, he added. The EPA will use order control systems similar to hydro seeders to create a firm surface that traps the odors, Alcamo said. Cleanup crews and equipment are due to arrive at the project site on Monday, April 17. Work is anticipated to be completed by mid-December with site restoration to take place in 2024.