The owner of the site where a dock collapsed into the Detroit River in November on Tuesday night outlined its proposal for building a 600-foot-long replacement seawall.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy held an online public hearing, due to the coronavirus outbreak, with a presentation on the plan and public comment. The hearing is required before deciding whether to issue the permit for the proposed work.
It's the latest update in a continuing saga after a collapsed dock on Revere Dock LLC's land leased by Detroit Bulk Storage Inc. sent construction aggregate material into the river. Environmental advocates have called authorities' response slow and the companies' cleanup in the ensuing months insufficient. Revere Dock said in a previous statement to Crain's that it was working with regulators and committed to fixing the site.
Adam Patton, vice president of the company's environmental consultant, Lansing-based PM Environmental Inc., presented the plans Tuesday. Revere Dock, a subsidiary of Grand Rapids-based Erickson's Inc., is evaluating bids for a company to do the work.
The contractor would build a seawall with interlocking steel pipe and sheet pilings all along the property in southwest Detroit at 5851 W. Jefferson Ave., Patton said, and reconstruct a Great Lakes Water Authority discharge drain into the river. The seawall would have an anchoring system and Patton has called it a "significant improvement over the current dock."
Engineering and environmental teams would monitor the site for environmental compliance during the construction process, according to the presentation. Teams would also remove and dispose of materials in the river down to around 27 feet below the water surface, deepening the river channel for continued commercial use for docking and storage.
Andy Hartz, district supervisor in EGLE's water resources division, said in response to a question from the public about the environmental effects of deepening the river that it's "something that we're worried about" and will be part of EGLE's review.
"The area has been documented to be stable via geotechnical analysis and regular drone monitoring," Patton said during the presentation. "Ongoing monitoring right now includes daily and weekly inspections for erosion controls to ensure that erosion is not occurring, meaning the material that's on land stays on land and the material that's in the water stays in the water."
The cost of the six-month Revere Dock restoration project wasn't disclosed. It isn't required to be, according to Hartz. There are no taxpayer dollars involved in the proposal, he said.
"I really hope that EGLE will hold the company to their six-month timeline," Justin Onwenu, environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club in Michigan, said during the hearing. "It's been a very long time since the November collapse. And, you know, six months feels like a very, very long time away. And I hope there will be accountability measures if that six-month timeline isn't reached ..."
Onwenu said he supports strengthening the seawall and cleaning up the site, but hopes substantial fines are attached to discourage any future negligence.
Some people who may have wanted to comment on the issue were not able to do so because they are caring for family members or because the hearing was held online, said Jamesa Johnson-Greer, policy specialist with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. She also raised concerns over adequate fines, saying Revere Dock has "acted in the past as a bad actor."
Environmental activists called for reforms and accountability after the spill at the historically significant Revere Copper and Brass Inc. site, decrying a slow response to the incident and what the state saw as inadequate mitigation steps by Revere Dock in the ensuing months. Authorities discovered after the collapse that the site had for months been allowing illegal limestone storage without a permit.
Lessee Detroit Bulk Storage removed the aggregate materials it stored on the site.
An environmental cleanup in the late 1990s removed contamination from the Revere Copper site that was listed for decades as contaminated after use for the Manhattan Project, but some remains, according to EGLE. The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons.
The spill hasn't harmed drinking water quality, the state has said, based on its testing and that of the Great Lakes Water Authority. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials did find in December a soil sample of lead that surpassed the threshold for removal management, according to EGLE. The state also noted its previous testing there "showed no radiation above background levels."
"plan" - Google News
June 17, 2020 at 09:16PM
https://ift.tt/3dhc6yA
Plan for removing debris from Detroit River, building new seawall outlined after November dock collapse - Crain's Detroit Business
"plan" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2un5VYV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Plan for removing debris from Detroit River, building new seawall outlined after November dock collapse - Crain's Detroit Business"
Post a Comment