GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It was shocking news last year when the state auditor reported that there were 7,300 toxic sites in Michigan and no money to clean them up.
That report was based on information supplied by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. But within a few months, the DEQ had whittled the 7,300 down to 3,000.
A Target 8 investigation has found that the actual number of sites that need a full-scale cleanup is significantly fewer than even the 3,000 figure. Of the 159 sites in Kent County identified by the DEQ, nearly half have already been the targets of some sort of cleanup effort.
MANY SITES CLEANED UP, REDEVELOPED
Twenty-eight of the Kent County sites on the list had been part of the federal Superfund program, some as long as 25 years ago. They include the old Rockford Paper Mill property that was loaded with drums, tanks and vats of toxic stuff until the Superfund program cleaned it up in 2012. It's now back in use as Bridgeway Community Church.
The DEQ itself listed another 23 site projects as "complete" or "closed" in other reports. For example, the old Mt. Vernon Foundry in Grand Rapids is listed among the 3,000 contaminated sites, but it is also featured in a DEQ publication as an example of toxic turnaround under the Brownfield program. It was cleaned up years ago and is now part of the Grand Valley State University downtown campus.