During the opening Citizen Comments on Agenda Items portion of our City Council Meeting tonight, former City Council Member Mary Hess expressed her belief that it has been “over a year” since those responsible for 232 Monroe Street site remediation have updated this body on meeting their obligations here. [1]
On April 1 of this year, Mayor Brian Marl expressed interest before City Council that a representative of Johnson Controls spinoff company Adient would provide an update to the public here “in the not too distant future.” [2-4]
Last week, the mayor posted the following to social media.
As many of our residents are aware, the City of Saline has aggressively advoated for environmental remediation of the former Universal Die-cat/Hoover site …. Significant progress has been made in recent years, including removal of contaminated soil and debris, but much work remains undone.
As such, the City has invited representatives from Adient (a subsidiary of Johnson Controls Inc, owner of said property) our our upcoming City Council meeting, to present and discuss their timeline for final remediation.
The presentation will take place this Monday, July 15th, at 7 pm in Council chambers in City Hall.
At least five videos of recent cleanup work being done in August and September of 2015 remain available for viewing online. [5-9]
The issue of environmental contamination on the 232 Monroe Street site has been an issue for over thirty years. The Saline Reporter featured one cleanup initiative on the front page of its July 23, 1986 issue. In an article titled “Removal of Soil Nears Completion at Plant Site,” Julie Falk provided information on both process and basis for cleanup responsibility. [10]
Hoover Universal sold the Monroe Street plant to Universal Die Cast nearly 2 years ago, but had agreed at the time of sale to assume responsibility for two possible environmental matters: To remove hazardous chemical waste from retention ponds located near the waste treatment sytem, and to determine the source of the oil spread on the Saline River, eliminating any problems found there.
Hoover completed the cleanup job involving two of the lagoons about six months ago. The EPA oversaw the excavations in which the contents of the ponds, including the sludge, were removed down to the clay base, then replaced with clean fill dirt.
Another holding pond located on the south side of the river is awaiting cleanup. A closure plan has been submitted to the EPA and the state, and currently is being reviewed for approval.
On April 3, 2019, Saline Journal published an preliminary working timeline that showed that the history of contamination at this Hoover Universal site dates back to the 1980s. It additionally connected lines of corporate ownership of this problem from Hoover Universal to Johnson Controls to Adient. Finally, it highlighted numerous instances of litigation and ultimately the interventions of United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division that were a part of what got remediation work to move forward. [11-13]
During his October 23, 2017 report to Saline City Council, Adient Director of Environmental Affairs Mike Stoelton showed a number of images as part of his planned PowerPoint presentation talking about trees that had his firm had planted on the 232 Monroe Street site following excavation work. He went on to note that an arborist had been retained to match these with the types that had been removed. [14]
In response to a pointed question from Council Member Janet Dillon, however, he declined to respond directly to what was on that date envisioned as “the end result, appearance of that property.”
“Well, that property belongs to Adient right now,” Mr Stoelton said. “We own it,” he then added after a pause. Then he laughed.
Ms Dillon persisted: “Okay—. That’s fine.
What I don’t want to see is (sic) the weeds that are there now, growing back up to eight feet tall. And just looking like an abandoned property.
In lieu of the scheduled update that was to have been provided this evening, the photograph above, taken to days ago, on July 13, 2019, will have to suffice for answer.
References
- “Saline City Council Meeting 7-15-2019” City of Saline (July 16, 2019) Vimeo.
- “Saline City Council Meeting 4-1-2019” City of Saline (April 2, 2019) Vimeo.
- Johnson Controls (home page).
- Adient (home page).
- “Saline die cast factory property cleanup Aug 7 2015” Dell Deaton (August 7, 2015) YouTube.
- “Johnson Controls Saline die cast factory site cleanup Aug 24 2015” Dell Deaton (August 24, 2015) YouTube.
- “Uncovered truck hauling debris from Johnson Controls factory cleanup Aug 27 2015” Dell Deaton (August 27, 2015) YouTube.
- “Saline die cast factory cleanup Aug 28 2015” Dell Deaton (August 28, 2015) YouTube.
- “Johnson Controls Saline Michigan die cast factory cleanup site Sept 19 2015” Dell Deaton (September 19, 2015) YouTube.
- “Removal of Soil Nears Completion at Plant Site” Julie Falk (July 23, 1986) The Saline Reporter.
- “Johnson Buying Hoover” Lee A Daniels (March 5, 1985) The New York Times.
- “Separation of Johnson Controls, Adient completed” Thomas Content (October 31, 2016) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- “Public comment at April 1, 2019 Saline City Council Meeting renewed focus on 232 Monroe Street remediation” Dell Deaton (April 3, 2019) Saline Journal.
- “Saline City Council Meeting 10-23-2017” City of Saline (October 31, 2019) Vimeo.
