Part of Revere Copper’s toxic site collapses back into Detroit River

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Nearly two years to the day, another riverfront shoreline collapse has occurred on the same toxic riverfront property in Detroit due to an overabundance of added storage.

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A boat slip on the property known as the Revere Copper site in Detroit collapsed into the river on Friday, in the middle of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the United States.

“Right now we are testing the water for all contaminants,” said Jill Greenberg, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), the state’s regulatory agency.

“We are not yet aware of any imminent impacts on health or the environment, but we are taking the situation seriously.”

Two years ago, also on the US Thanksgiving weekend, the Revere Copper industrial site, about a kilometer west of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, collapsed into the river after the company Aggregate Detroit Bulk Storage stored an overabundance of limestone in the ground, prompting it to give way.

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Controversy and environmental fears escalated rapidly as the property has a long history dating back to the 1940s as a uranium fabrication facility known as Revere Copper. After being closed and vacated in the 1980s, it became widely known as a toxic landfill that includes PCBs buried at the site.

Following an investigation into the original collapse, EGLE forced property owner Revere Dock and Detroit Bulk Storage, which rents the site, to restore the shoreline at their own expense. That work was completed earlier this year.

This time, a jetty on the outer western edge of the Revere Copper site gave way on Friday after a freighter left a large amount of aggregate “too close to the seawall,” Greenberg said.

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“We were notified and blessings were put in the water,” he said. “An oil glow has appeared and water samples have been taken to determine the level of contaminants in the water.

“We expect those results by the end of this week.”

Greenberg noted that EGLE, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Coast Guard are jointly involved in an investigation to determine not only what has gone into the water during the latest collapse, but also how the collapse itself commercial operator could have caused another incident.

“That is part of the investigation,” he said. “We will look at how this happened and what we can do as a department to prevent it in the future.

“This is an emerging situation for us. Right now, our goal is to classify the situation and determine the level of contamination. “

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One of the main drinking water intakes in the Detroit metropolitan area is located downstream about seven kilometers away. The City of Windsor does not have potable water connections in that area.

During the 1940s, Revere Copper was a uranium rod manufacturing plant and served as a subcontractor for the Manhattan Project, the race in the United States to build the first atomic bomb. It continued to produce uranium products for at least the next two decades.

After the initial collapse, EGLE determined that there were no uranium concerns regarding the crumbling soil from the site that fell into the Detroit River.

But both the Revere Copper site and the sediment at the bottom of the river at that location have been extensively documented by researchers at the University of Windsor, the city of Detroit, and others to include a cocktail of chemicals, including mercury, PCBs, and PAH, all of which have negative effects. implications for the health of humans, wildlife and water.

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Michigan State Representative Stephanie Chang (D – Detroit), who represents the community where the Revere Copper site is located, said Monday that she has been in regular contact with EGLE and was “anxious” to see the results of the the water sample, “so we know exactly what fell into the river.”

“The fact that this is the same company involved two years later in this is definitely worrying,” he said. “We really have to make sure that we are holding companies to account that would allow this kind of collapse to happen.”

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A Detroit River Protection Ordinance unanimously passed last month by the Detroit City Council includes numerous provisions and sanctions that could have helped prevent Friday’s industry-related collapse from happening again on the riverbank, especially involving the same operator, Chang said.

“But sadly, that won’t go into effect until next year,” he said.

“We need those provisions to ensure the environmental protection of our waterways, especially when it comes to vulnerable sites like this, where we already had an incident not too long ago. I am disappointed that this happened there again. “

Detroit-Windsor truck ferry operator Gregg Ward, whose business is located very close to where the coastline collapsed, expressed concern about how another collapse of the same commercial operator that threatens to pollute the sea could be allowed to occur again. River.

“I think it is obscene that this could happen again due to poor operating practices involving a highly contaminated site,” he said.

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