City of Detroit inspectors have found concerning seawall and waterfront conditions across the length of Detroit’s riverfront after a dock collapse at a contaminated riverside site where the state sees company cleanup efforts as inadequate.
The city has inspected all 152 properties along the Detroit River in the wake of the aggregate spill near Historic Fort Wayne and issued about $195,000 in fines for more than 500 blight violations on five plots of land. The wave of inspections came amid environmental groups’ calls for action and state concerns over holes in response plans by the site’s owner and the limestone storage and shipping company that operated there.
Conditions at the site have been deteriorating in the wake of the Nov. 26 Revere Dock collapse that sent limestone construction aggregate material into the river.
The former Revere Copper and Brass Inc. property was listed for decades as contaminated due to past use of uranium and other dangerous chemicals in the 1940s and 1950s for the Manhattan Project that produced the first nuclear weapons. An environmental cleanup in the late 1990s removed contamination, but some remains, according to the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
Authorities discovered after the collapse that the site owner since 2015, Revere Dock LLC, had for months been allowing illegal limestone storage, without a permit.
Tenant Detroit Bulk Storage is now moving those materials off the site to come into compliance, according to Jessica Knight, chief enforcement officer for Detroit’s Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department.
“Both the city and Revere Dock have asked Detroit Bulk Storage to remove the aggregate currently stockpiled on site,” the law firm representing Revere Dock, Detroit-based Butzel Long, said in an emailed statement. “They are removing material daily and reporting on progress to the city and Revere Dock.”
A Detroit Bulk Storage representative reached by phone said the company declined to comment.
Revere Dock and Detroit Bulk Storage owed more than $83,000 in fines as of Thursday. The city also responded by filing a lawsuit in late January against the companies.
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