Posted on 07/23/2012 5:28:31 PM PDT by equaviator
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MI-
Environmental consultant says Ford plant emits harmful chemicals which could cause cancer
An old Shelby Township Ford Motor Co. plant is being blamed for leaking cancer-causing chemicals into the area's groundwater.
The plant at 23 Mile and Mound roads is in the process of being demolished. However, the latest findings may hinder the demolition.
In a motion hearing on Monday in Macomb County Circuit Court, an environmental consultant hired to test the plant site said two harmful chemicals have been found and people living in the area need to know about it.
The two chemicals are TCE, a known carcinogen, and TCA, an agent known to cause various human illnesses.
"You can almost think of them like soap does in washing your hands, it basically takes the grease, hydraulic fluids and oil off of parts," said environmental consultant James Dragun.
Attorneys for Ford also were at the hearing to address a protective order to keep certain information and documents confidential.
"Ford is ultimately responsible to clean up the site," said Shelby Township attorney Robert Huth.
The automotive group released the following statement:
"Today is a victory for everyone involved, including the residents of Shelby Township, because the court has enabled Ford to share information and access the adjacent property for testing. Since Ford identified this issue we have been investigating the former plant site while trying to gain access to the adjacent property to conduct further testing and determine its current condition. While we have not seen any data to support that anything is leaving the former plant site and moving into the neighboring community, the court’s decision allows us to investigate further. We remain committed to doing what is right for the community and environment."
The investigation could cost millions. Dragun said his company has estimated it will cost about $57 million to clean the groundwater.
Environmental analysts estimate there are about 75 million gallons of contaminated groundwater on the site adjacent to the plant.
"If it was me personally, I would be concerned," said Dragun.
Oh for heaven’s sake. I’m a stone’s throw from this plant. We have city water. Our wells are for watering lawns and such. We treat our water before it comes out of our pipes.
It sounds like Government Motors is trying to choke out competitors.
Smells like Fascism.
Is this why Detroit has lost half of its population?
Degreaser fluid.
I smell lawsuits and big paydays for lawyers like John Edwards.
If the lawyers can be kept out, these polluted areas can be cleaned up in a few years’ time.
Manufacturing plants that served us in the WW II era should receive help from federal funds. Otherwise our reward to defense industries will be bankruptcy.
You took the words right out of my mouth. First, they torpedoed Toyota, now Ford. Who's next?
My guess is that the town is in need of money.
Once that has exchanged hands the danger will be eliminated.
Trichlor has been used a long time as a degreaser and was commonly injected into disposal wells
Bingo.
Close trichloroethylene, yes very common.
Then you would know that this plant did not contaminate the ground water. It was danny’s dump on 23 and ryan. This place was a superfund cleanup site.
I snuck in there when I was a teenager. That place was filled with 55 gallon drums leaking some god awful crap. Abandoned semi trailers filled with these drums, red and green colored pools of liquid everywhere. And the stench was awful...
There is also a deep well injection dump just down the road on ryan near 22. A guy died there when he opened the wrong valve on his truck....
There is all kinds of nasty crap in that area...
Move..
>>Then you would know that this plant did not contaminate the ground water<<
Why would I know?
This is the first I’ve heard about it. I’m just saying that we have water treatment plants for a reason.
The whole area is a toxic waste dump. Warren is build over one. I have a 14-year-old boy in my church dying of cancer right now. I have a friend who’s husband died of leukemia and she has colon/liver cancer. Two of her dogs died from cancer.
We’d love to move. Who is going to buy our house? Our taxes are the highest in the area and in our little burb of 2.2 miles, half the houses are empty or rented.
sorry... I assumed you had been there a long time...
I grew up in the shelby/utica/sterling hts area...
Yeah, getting someone to buy a house right now is next to impossible..
do you live near that little artificial lake off 23 mile?
You could not pay me enough cash to swim in or eat any fish out of that lake (it is right across the street from dannys dump) too bad, those are real nice houses there.
if you live in this area, I would suggest regular doctors visits and screenings.
...”that little artificial lake off 23 mile?
You could not pay me enough cash to swim in or eat any fish out of that lake (it is right across the street from dannys dump) too bad, those are real nice houses there.”
My friends and I walked through the cow pasture that became the gravel pit on our way to elementary school. We played baseball in it before the water was it’s dominant feature. There were and still are lots of fish in there including pike and smallmouth bass. We swam in there, built a raft and hung a small OB motor off the back of it, fished, camped, partied, made out with chicks, etc. We even had an old, gutted Ford Econoline van parked over a big hole that we used as a fort. We practically lived out there in the summers before the housing developments began in ‘78 or so. In the winters, we played hockey, rode our little plastic sleds down snow-filled gulleys on the north side of the property...ice fishing. It was a haven for us that nobody else but the adjacent neighborhood had. Nobody died or got hurt except for the one kid who rather than run and jump off a 12-foot cliff into the water, stood at the edge and tried to leap...he broke his collar bone but more severely damaged his young ego. The property is south of the old Liquid Disposal property at Hamlin and Ryan roads. We lived in the neighborhood to the north of the cow pasture/gravel pit. However, no ill effects yet (fingers crossed).
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