Shelby Township says environmental expert blocked from testing on toxic Visteon site

8/10/2012

A bitter battle over a contaminated industrial site first exposed by the 7 Action News Investigators is heating up again.

The hot issue when we broke the story three weeks ago was Ford’s effort to seal records in the case. Three days after our story aired, the judge who was leaning toward giving Ford a protective order reversed himself.

On Thursday, lawyers were before Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Richard Carretti again. This time it was an emergency hearing requested by a lawyer for Shelby Township. The township’s environmental expert was denied access to the contaminated site earlier this week, even though all the parties had earlier agreed to let him in.

Read more:

Enbridge, agencies to test oil spill readiness

August 1, 2012

BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - An oil pipeline company and emergency agencies will test their readiness to deal with potential spills in the Bay City area.
 
The exercise Wednesday will focus on a simulated failure of an Enbridge Inc. oil pipeline that crosses the Saginaw River.
 
Officials say the only equipment or personnel actually deployed to the scene will be boom material, which helps contain spilled oil. Enbridge and the Coast Guard were placing boom in the river before the event.
 
Participating agencies will include local fire and police departments, Bay County's emergency management agency, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard.
 
Story:

A2: Environmental Cleanup

July 31, 2012 at 1 pm

A Michigan Radio report looks at cleanup efforts of the MichCon site along the Huron River in Ann Arbor, where manufactured gas was made in the late 1800s and early 1900s by burning coal. The report quotes Kevin Lund, a senior geologist with the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality’s remediation division, regarding contamination in the river bed: “We were just collecting samples along the way and were finding exactly this all the way through here. And one of the locations that we dug, a hole in the bank, it filled with oil.”

Story

Crews raise sunken boat

July 31, 2012

The Arthur J was finally floated from the bottom of Lake Huron about 3 a.m. Monday after crews worked throughout the night to get it pumped full of air. The dredge leaked an estimated 625 gallons of diesel fuel into Lake Huron. Absorbent booms were placed around the site and dragged out of the lake today.

“Safety of the salvage crews, divers and environmental responders has been paramount throughout the incident,” Cmdr. Gary Koehler, incident commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a statement. “Although challenged by adverse weather conditions and sea state throughout the week, everything came together today to execute a safe, technical and organized salvage operation. The professionalism and cooperation from all parties involved was truly impressive and instrumental to eliminating any further threat to this pristine international waterway.”

Read more