The latest chapter in the six-decade effort to decontaminate the former site of the DuPont manufacturing plant in Muskegon County’s White River Township will come to fruition with a pair of public presentations this month.
Both sessions are preparatory in nature for a June 11 public meeting that will involve representatives of Chemours (the DuPont holding company overseeing the future of the 1,300-acre property) and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
Organizing the doubleheader presentations is the Chemours Environmental Impact Committee (CEIC), the latest group of White Lake-area residents who have been shepherding the efforts toward the cleanup, restoration and conservation of the property since 2018.
Each of the CEIC presentations will be held at the White Lake Community Library in Whitehall: Wednesday, May 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 30, from 1 to 3 p.m.
CEIC members will provide background and historical information about the former DuPont site, located along Lamos Road and reaching all the way to the White Lake shoreline. It went on line in 1956 and was operational until 1996, producing neoprene, acetylene, and Freon.
The agenda will feature a CEIC analysis of the current proposed plans for the project, including what the group supports and what it views as insufficient.
Also part of the dual presentations will be CEIC’s viewpoints and perspectives regarding the potential conservation of the property for the public’s benefit and how that all plays into the restoration of nearby Sadony Bayou and Mirror Lake.
CEIC intends to factor in the comments and ideas stated by attendees at the two May meetings to shape its presentations at the June 11 session with Chemours and EGLE officials. That June meeting will be held in Montague’s Nellie B. Chisholm Middle School from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
“At that session,” says CEIC member Marisa McGlue, “we will give a more concise presentation of our community’s response to the final cleanup proposals. We need to show, by our citizens’ presence and their commentary, the strength of our community’s resolve to finally — after 65 years — get this property cleaned up and preserved.”
“EGLE is the state agency,” says Claire Schlaff, a founding member of CEIC, “that will eventually approve Chemours’ plans — if the company assures two things: that human exposures are under control and that the migration of contaminated ground water is also under control.”
She says that existing “law does not require Chemours to remove the site’s leaking landfills and EGLE can only enforce the laws that are currently on the books. The only way to remove a landfill, which is contaminating soil and groundwater, is pushback by local residents.
For example, “the only tool we have to get the removal of the Pierson Creek Landfill, which has been leaking tetrachloroethylene into the groundwater that flows into nearby Pierson Creek for decades, is community pushback,” she says, emphasizing the need for a vibrant turnout at the upcoming meetings.
“Community acceptance is one of the decision factors that Chemours must consider in selecting its remedies for each of the site’s landfills and other areas of concern,” she says. “This is required by law and exemplifies the power that the community has in the process — if we show up and express our concerns.”
For more information, contact Marisa McGlue at makeitrightchemours@gmail.com.
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