Pine River Timeline

From Great Lakes Wiki

1930s

• 1930s - pollution monitoring began
• 1934 - construction began of a Mid-West refinery in Alma, Michigan.
• 1935 - Three environmentally hazardous companies opened their doors.

1. The first was the Michigan Chemical Company, which built its factory on the shores of the Pine River in St. Louis Michigan.
2. The second was Leonard Petroleum Company, which constructed a refinery in Alma.
3. The final development in 1935 was a McClanahan refinery, located in St. Louis.

Within the same year, the McClanahan refinery was dumping waste in the Pine River. A research report done by the Institute for Fisheries in August of 1935 states several thousand fish were found dead.

• 1939 - Leonard Petroleum purchased the McClanahan Company and moved it out of St. Louis.

1940s

• 1940 - Several times over the Summer, the surface of the Pine River was found covered in oil slicks and dead fish. At this time, residents stopped eating fish from the river.
• 1941 - The citizens of St. Louis signed a petition to prompt the city to start investigating the odors emanating from the river.
• 1944 - The Michigan Chemical Company began manufacturing a pesticide known as DDT.
• 1948 - Paul Muller of Switzerland won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovery of the insect-killing properties of DDT, it was the latest wonder-insecticide.

1950s

• 1953 - Oil wastewater surveys began to be conducted throughout the watershed.
• 1955 - Leonard Petroleum bought the Mid-West refinery in Alma.

1960s

• 1961 - Velsicol threatens Houghton Mifflin and the New Yorker in efforts to block publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. The book discusses the extensive risks to using DDT and other pesticides.
• 1963 - Velsicol Chemical begins rkaing over the Michigan Chemical Company.
• 1965 - A new lagoon system is installed at the Alma refinery. This system prevented substantial oil loss from reaching the Pine River.
• 1967 to 1970 - DNR studies say that Velsicol was having a negative impact on the river. The area of the river near the plant was almost totally devoid of life.
• 1968 - Northwest Industries buys Reading Railroad and Fruit of the Loom.

1970s

• 1970 - A complete fishing ban is imposed on the Pine River by state health officials.
• 1971 - Velsicol starts producing [PBB] for their product 'Firemaster', a fire retardant used in appliances.
• 1973 - Tons of the poisonous PBB are accidentally shipped in mislabeled bags as a supplement in cattle feed. Over the next few years, cattle are found with deformities and are voluntarily destroyed across Michigan due to the PBB crisis.
• 1974 - A cluster of Hodgkin’s disease is detected in Breckenridge, 12.2 times the expected rate.
• 1976 to 1978 - Congressional hearings and farmer and worker lawsuits lead to the closing of the Velsicol plant in 1978.
• 1978 - A Michigan DNR study shows Velsicol was still impacting the Pine River even after its doors were closed.
• 1979 to 1980 - Mergers in the oil industry and resource depletion causes Total to lay off most of its workers at the Alma refinery.

1980s

• 1980 - The Total headquarters moves from Alma to Denver, Colorado.
• 1982 - A consent judgment between the DNR, EPA, and Velsicol results in the company being exempt from river clean up.
• 1986 - The EPA designates the Velsicol plant site as a Superfund Site.
• 1987 - A NorthWest Industries subsidiary is created to own the old chemical plant in St. Louis. Later that year, Fruit of the Loom becomes the owner of NorthWest Industries.
• 1989 - The state-collected area fish samples have an average concentration total DDT of 10.5 parts per million.

1990s

• 1991 - Out of court settlement with Velsicol workers.
• 1994 - The state-collected fish samples have an average concentration of 23.3 parts per million, more than double that of 1989.
• 1995 - State-collected fish have average DDT concentration of 16.1 ppm.
• 1997 - EPA comes to St. Louis to inform the community of the pollution levels detected since the departure of Velsicol. At the end of the meeting, the EPA official informs the residents that they can form a Citizen Advisory Group to oversee rehabilitation of the Pine River.
• 1998 - Under EPA regulations, a Community Advisory Group (CAG) is formed—the Pine River Superfund Task Force.
• 1998 - US EPA brings a lawsuit against the Alma Total refinery for violations of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. In the same year, the EPA launches an emergency cleanup of the Pine River DDT contamination.
• 1999 - Total refinery shuts down. Fruit of the Loom and NorthWest Industries file for bankruptcy in 1999 as well.

2000s

• 2000 - Consent Decree issued for the violations by Total refinery. The Pine River CAG files a bankruptcy claim for Fruit of the Loom assets.
• 2000 - City of Alma and CAG try to prevent signing of Consent Decree
• 2001 - Consent Decree signed with modification that the City accepted.
• 2001 - Implementation of Consent Decree, cleaning site.
• 2001 - Oxford automotive announces closure of Alma plant.
• 2002 to 2007 - Many events have occurred with respect to the Pine River. Some of the most important events include the Pine River OU2 Cleanup.
• NAPL (Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids) was discovered and characterized to some degree. An interceptor trench was installed to collect the NAPL. The east and west sides of the Pine River cleanup have been completed. The Back-dam (mill pond) was also completed.
• Other noteworthy activities include the downstream assessment plan’s completion, and the NAPL assessment.
• 2005 - discovery of pCBSA in St. Louis city drinking water. pCBSA is an acidic by-product from the manufacturing of DDT.
• 2006 to 2007 - 6 wells are routinely measured around the Superfund area for PcBSA and other contaminants. Levels are low but slowly rising. Some residents fear the slurry wall constructed to contain the Velsicol contamination may be leaking new pollutants into the Pine River.