|
| |
Hooker Update
Dredging Dowie
New documentary chronicles Hooker Chemical horror story
Oxy-Chem,
owners of the former Hooker Chemical Company, know they have a lot of
mistrust to overcome.
Residents don't forgive easily when they've seen their neighborhoods,
groundwater and lake ravaged environmentally by the company's wrongful waste
practices of deadly toxic chemicals. |
The residents of Blueberry Ridge, a subdivision in Montague Township
directly across the street from the old industrial Hooker Chemical site, has
been through a lot. Many of them, armed only with picket signs, were part of
the grassroots battle in the 1970s to force a cleanup of their neighborhood.
But some are beginning to forgive.
Bev Hunt was one of the Blueberry Ridge residents Oxy-Chem recently invited
to take a boat tour of the dredging operation now underway in White Lake off
of Dowie Point, adjacent to her subdivision.
Miller Springs Remediation, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, is in
charge of removing toxic sediment discharged into the lake through a drain
pipe decades ago. They started dredging some 10,000 cubic yards of highly
toxic and highly persistent PCBs and hexachlorobenzene from a two-acre area
in 5 to 50 feet of water in White Lake in July.
They hope to be done in September.
"It was very good of them to come up with this (the boat tour)," said Hunt.
"We've all been wondering about it (the dredging)."
Hunt said she knows there are still some hard feelings on the part of other
residents, but she believes the company is now trying to do their best to
both clean up and keep the public informed.
"The public relations have been fabulous," said Hunt. "I've been to all the
meetings and I am very comfortable with Oxy-Chem right now. I think they're
taking care of their problem and not leaving other people to pay for it."
Jane Hanna, another long-time Blueberry Ridge resident, was on the boat tour
with Hunt. During it, she was asked by Miller Springs officials if there
were any complaints about the dredging and truck activity taking place next
to their neighborhood. She told them they didn't like the loud air horn used
throughout the day by the trucks. The next day it stopped.
Hanna said compared to 30 years ago when she'd call over to Hooker and no
one would talk to her, the attention she and her neighbors are now getting
is remarkable.
"Anything they can do to accommodate us, they've done. We've been very
pleased," Hanna said.
Ken Price, project manager at the site for Miller Springs, said during a
boat tour of the Dowie dredging last week, that the company is interested in
good community relations.
The boat tours of the dredging project are a part of that. On August 6 and
20, Miller Springs chartered a boat to take some 50 Blueberry Ridge
residents and local city, township, and state officials in groups of 4-5 to
view the operations.
Price and Jim Tolbert of Earth Tech, an environmental engineering firm in
Grand Rapids, led the tours of the dredging being conducted by Faust, a
dredging company from Detroit.
Tolbert said cranes, equipped with GPS systems, are using specialized
environmental buckets that scoop up the sediment and close on a flat plane
to lessen spillage and the stirring of the sediment. The operator of the
crane has a computer screen at his feet which allows him to see that the
bucket is closed before bringing it up.
Tolbert said a depth of two to four feet of sediment containing the toxins
is being removed. After the dredge's final cut, the two-acre area will be
allowed to settle for 24 hours. Sampling will again occur to check
concentrations. Tolbert said if traces still remain, they'll go back in and
take it out.
The sediment Faust is removing goes into hoppers on a barge and is
transported when full to trucks that haul it to a dumping station near Old
Channel Trail. The sediment is pumped under Old Channel Trail into geotubes
at the industrial site across the road. Precautions have been employed to
prevent spillage into the lake or soil.
In the geotubes, the sediment will be dewatered in a process that takes
about 6 months. The water is treated and returned to the lake. The sediment
will be trucked out to a landfill. Tolbert said about one-fifth of the
sediment will have to go to a hazardous waste landfill.
Readings from ambient air monitors set up at the site and near the Blueberry
Ridge subdivision to check for toxic gasses are at "non-detect values," said
Tolbert.
Price said the dredging is going well and they may even be a little ahead of
schedule.
David Farhat, state representative for the 91st district, took the boat tour
with State Senator Gerry VanWoerkom. Both men said they were impressed with
the technology and the precautions Miller Springs was taking.
"I wish all corporate citizens of Michigan were this conscientious," said
Farhat. "They're going above and beyond what the state would have mandated." |
| ©White
Lake Beacon 2003 |
Back
to Top
|
The
Lake Michigan Federation, a regional environmental organization, is
releasing a video for a first ever public showing documenting the Hooker
Chemical/Occidental Chemical Company pollution site in Montague. |
The
video will be shown Wednesday, June 25, 8 p.m., at the White Lake Community
Library,
The video debut will be followed by a presentation by renowned author, Dave
Dempsey.
The video was commissioned by the Federation and created by a local college
student and video maker, David Ruck, to increase knowledge about the site's
history and lingering pollution problems.
The title of the video is "This Is Not A Chocolate Factory" using a phrase
of the late Warren Dobson, a Hooker employee who blew the whistle on the
company's wrongful toxic chemical waste practices.
"White Lake is at the beginning of a new era of restoration and protection
with the lake bottom cleanups happening this summer," states Tanya Cabala,
Michigan director of the Federation and a Whitehall resident. "A knowledge
of history by area citizens is crucial to ensure that past mistakes are not
made again. It's time to create a generation of stewards to protect the lake
and make it even better for the future."
Ruck, who directed the documentary video, will be at the showing and will
speak about his interest in the site and the hundreds of hours he spent
taking video footage and pouring over old news articles.
Ruck says, "Creating a documentary is about finding the story. It's an
adventure because the story is there - you just have to let it unfold. I had
wondered what the Hooker Chemical Company story was for some time before I
had the opportunity to make the video."
The video will be followed by a presentation by Dave Dempsey, author of
"Ruin and Recovery: Michigan's Rise as a Conservation Leader" and policy
advisor for the Michigan Environmental Council.
Dempsey, environmental policy advisor for former Michigan Governor James
Blanchard, interviewed White Lake area residents about pollution issues as
part of research for his book and will speak about how the Hooker Chemical
Company pollution controversy fits into overall state environmental history.
Ruck, a 1998 Whitehall High School graduate, directed the documentary for
credit at Grand Valley State University, and used the university's
production facilities.
He filmed interviews with company officials, local governmental leaders,
local residents who were active in the fight to get the Hooker site cleaned
up, and Environmental Protection Agency officials.
Ruck also used historic photographs and video of the Hooker Chemical
facilities. The director edited over 15 hours of film for the 20-minute
documentary.
Refreshments will be served at the free event, which is co-sponsored by the
White Lake Public Advisory Council. For more information, call the
Federation toll-free at 866-850-0745. |
| White Lake
Beacon 2003 |
Back
to Top
|
