Marine Pollution Control8631 West Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48209 USA
313.849.2333 - 24/hour
11320 E Lakewood Blvd., #11
Holland, MI 49424
800-521-8232 – 24/Hour
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Detroit’s Toxic Legacy –Bankrupt City Faces Environmental Challenges
August 26, 2013
Sitting silent and decaying in its own polluted waste, The Packard Plant awaits a new future in post-bankruptcy Detroit. It is little more than a home for the homeless, a canvas for graffiti artists and vandals alike.
The Packard Plant was not always so dirty and dystopic. Once it turned out millions of sedans, coupes, war weapons and paychecks. Founded in 1903, it began manufacturing its high-status cars just as Henry Ford started building mass-market cars in a nearby one-story factory.
The Packard grew to a 35-acre industrial powerhouse, revolutionizing the American economy along with Ford and other auto titans.
But as it did, so it left a legacy of lead, chrome, nickel, PCBs and other pollutants deposited only a few yards from residential neighborhoods. Tastes and economics changed, and in the 1950s The Packard’s auto assembly lines stopped, and the property slowly slid into decay.
It is tempting to look at The Packard Plant as a symbol of the rise of Detroit as a world economic power, its industrial pollution and its descent into bankruptcy. While The Packard may be one of the larger and more historic examples of this arc, it is by no means the only one.
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Exxon spill case still unresolved
August 26, 2013
During the chaos of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, one oil industry representative famously predicted that “lawyers yet to be born will work on this spill.” Today, as we approach the 25-year anniversary of the spill, the legal case remains unresolved. The Exxon Valdez case is now the longest-lasting environmental litigation in history.
EPA Awards $1 Million Brownfield Grant to Downriver Community Conference in Southeast Michigan
August 23, 2013
Southgate, Michigan—(ENEWSPF)--Aug. 22, 2013 – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman today joined U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) in southeast Michigan to announce the award of a $1 million brownfield grant to the Downriver Community Conference.
“EPA is pleased to award a $1 million grant to supplement the Downriver Community Conference revolving loan fund,” Hedman said. “Based on the DCC’s excellent track record, I am confident that this money will be put to good use at brownfield sites in the Downriver area – starting with the Monroe Pumphouse, Dearborn City Hall and Willow Run Hanger #2.”
During the past five years, EPA has awarded the Downriver Community Conference $6.6 million to be loaned out to clean up contaminated sites and $1.65 million for brownfield assessment work. Since 1997, EPA has awarded 15 individual revolving loan fund grants and assessment grants totaling almost $14 million.
Michigan township board denies Enbridge dredge pad permit
August 22, 2013
COMSTOCK TWP. — Enbridge Inc. has been denied a dredge pad permit as it continues the cleanup effort from a massive 2010 oil spill from its pipeline in Michigan.
The Comstock Township Planning Commission unanimously voted late Thursday to deny a special exception permit for an Enbridge dredge pad.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge to finish dredging by Dec. 31. Enbridge will have to find a new place to put the pad.
Dredge pads hold oil-contaminated sediment removed from the Kalamazoo River until it can be hauled away. Some residents have raised concerns about pollution.
Hair today, oil spill boom tomorrow
August 22, 2013
GEE, your hair can save Mother Earth.
The Cebu City government is pinning its hopes on human hair and indigenous materials as an eco-friendly strategy to prevent oil leaking out of the sunken MV St. Thomas Aquinas from reaching the city’s shorelines.
Vice Mayor Edgar Labella, a survivor of the sinking of the MV Princess of the Orient, yesterday demonstrated how to make an oil spill boom using old pantyhose stuffed with human hair.
Clumps of hair donated by salons were stuffed into the stocking and sealed. Tied together they can form a series of absorbent floaters.