Air
Air near chemical plant remains polluted long after it closed
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A new study says that people living within six miles of the former plant are exposed to relatively high levels of contaminants in the air and linked to the site.
Wildlife
Dead birds spur cleanup of longstanding DDT contamination
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Nearly 100 residential yards in a nine-block neighborhood of St. Louis, Mich., are scheduled to be dug out and replaced with clean soil. It is the latest attempt to reduce the decades-old contamination legacy of the same chemical factory that brought Michigan’s PBB crisis of the mid 1970s.
Water
Fish derby sees dramatic DDT drop after cleanup
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Anglers in a recent fishing derby on Michigan’s Pine River got news far better than pulling in the largest fish. The Environmental Protection Agency recently reported that the fish they sought are much cleaner of DDT than when the competition began 15 years ago. The concentration of the now banned pesticide in fish near the site of the Velsicol chemical manufacturing plant dropped by as much as 98 percent after a multi-million dollar cleanup of polluted river sediment from 2000 to 2006, the EPA said. Tempering the good news is that the fish were so contaminated then that even after the dramatic drop the Michigan Department of Community Health still advises not to eat fish downriver of the site. The contest is strictly catch and release.
Land
Emory University tests Michigan residents exposed to PBB
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The concern is whether contamination left by the Velsicol Chemical Co. in St. Louis, Mich., has longterm health consequences for the county’s residents more than 40 years later.
Echo
Pollution cripples culture, health of Great Lakes native people
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Indigenous people in the United States and Canada are burdened with health problems linked to pollutants. But native foods, medicines, language, ceremonies and traditional farming, hunting and fishing are also jeopardized.
Echo
VIDEO: Metal-poisoned water plagues rural Michigan town
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When John Dekker of Fennville, Mich., fills his hot tub, it’s so brown he can’t even see the top nozzle. When Kari Craton waters her garden, everything turns orange – before dying. Find out why residents of this rural Michigan town are outraged.
Echo
Tribe may aid in cleanup
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(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – A local tribe could become involved in plans to treat large-scale pollution at Bay Harbor Resort on Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay. CMS Energy is responsible for treating contaminated groundwater at Bay Harbor Resort and may turn to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians for help. CMS currently trucks wastewater to Grand Traverse County’s septage treatment plant in Traverse City, but wants to treat the pollution closer to the contamination site in Emmet County. More
Echo
City Awarded $105 Million in Exxon Mobil Lawsuit
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(NY) The New York Times – A federal jury on Monday found Exxon Mobil liable for contaminating groundwater in New York City and awarded the city $104.7 million in compensatory damages. The city had sought $250 million in damages to finance construction of a treatment plant to make the water in five wells in southeastern Queens drinkable. But lawyers for the city called the jury’s decision a “total victory” for their side. More