| Forest Waste Products | |
|---|---|
| Superfund site | |
| Geography | |
| Township | Forest Township |
| County | Genesee County |
| State | Michigan |
| Coordinates | 43°11′54″N83°32′45″W / 43.198331°N 83.545831°W [1] |
  Forest Waste Products | |
| Information | |
| CERCLIS ID | MID980410740 |
| Contaminants | polybrominated biphenyls, polychlorinated biphenyls, lead, volatile organic compounds, copper, zinc |
| List of Superfund sites | |
Forest Waste Products is a 120-acre (49-hectare) [2] Superfund site in Forest Township northwest of Otisville, Michigan. [3]
The federal Superfund law is officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The federal Superfund program, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is designed to investigate and cleanup sites contaminated with hazardous substances. Sites managed under this program are referred to as "Superfund" sites. There are 40,000 federal Superfund sites across the country, and approximately 1,600 of those sites have been listed on the National Priorities List (NPL). Sites on the NPL are considered the most highly contaminated and undergo longer-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanups).
Forest Township is a general law township of Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Survey township designation is 9 north and 8 east. The population was 4,702 at the 2010 census, slightly down from 4,738 at the 2000 census.
Otisville is a village in Forest Township, Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 864 at the 2010 census. It is located along M-15, just south of M-57.
This waste disposal facility was licensed by Michigan to operate as a landfill from 1972 to 1978, taking in solid and liquid industrial waste. [3] Solid waste, including soil contaminated with hazardous chemicals, was placed in an 11-acre (4.5 hectare) landfill on site, [2] and liquid waste was placed in nine lagoons across the site to dry out and be disposed of when only solid waste remained. [3] Poor screening of incoming waste at the facility led to the acceptance of toxic materials. Consequently, soil and groundwater around the site were exposed to environmental contaminants like polybrominated biphenyls, polychlorinated biphenyls, lead, volatile organic compounds, copper, and zinc. [4]
A landfill site is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial. Landfill is the oldest form of waste treatment, although the burial of the waste is modern; historically, refuse was simply left in piles or thrown into pits. Historically, landfills have been the most common method of organized waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world.
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, industries, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, liquid or gaseous. It may be hazardous or non-hazardous waste. Hazardous waste may be toxic, ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or radioactive. Industrial waste may pollute the air, the soil, or nearby water sources, eventually ending up in the sea. Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced every year. Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.
At the end of the site's operation and after its closure, citizens near the site raised concerns about these potential toxins. [5] Forest Waste Products was initially assessed for Superfund eligibility on May 1, 1982, and proposed to be listed on the National Priorities List on December 30, 1982. [6] The site was listed on September 8, 1983. [4] Sampling at the site found that residential wells nearby were not contaminated, but there was evidence of toxic contaminants in nearby soil and groundwater. Shortly thereafter, the environmental remediation effort at the site began with the facility's lagoons. From 1988 to 1989, potentially responsible parties got rid of contaminated soil, water, and sludge from this part of the site and filled in the lagoons. Following the clean-up of the lagoons at the site, some drums containing toxic waste were removed from the main landfill to be treated off-site. The landfill was fenced-in and capped in 1997. [3] In addition to these efforts, groundwater monitoring has occurred at and around the Forest Waste Products site since 1993. [2]
The National Priorities List (NPL) is the priority list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanup) financed under the federal Superfund program. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations outline a formal process for assessing hazardous waste sites and placing them on the NPL. The NPL is intended primarily to guide EPA in determining which sites are so contaminated as to warrant further investigation and significant cleanup.
Environmental remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment, or surface water. This would mean that once requested by the government or a land remediation authority, immediate action should be taken as this can impact negatively on human health and the environment.
The potentially responsible party at this site is Forest Waste Coordinating Committee. In 1993, Michigan entered in an Administrative Order by Consent with the committee to establish their responsibility for reimbursing the state's expenses for oversight at the site. In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency entered into a Consent Decree with this group. As of 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and the Forest Waste Coordinating Committee agreed on the need for continued sampling and investigation at the site. [3] Forest Waste Products remains on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List. [7]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government for environmental protection. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970 and it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its Administrator, who is appointed by the President and approved by Congress. The current Administrator is former Deputy Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler, who had been acting administrator since July 2018. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the Administrator is normally given cabinet rank.
