Groups to city: Protect Detroit River, drinking water from shoreline collapses

The shoreline collapse at the former Revere Copper and Brass site on the Detroit River last November, which spilled aggregate piles and contaminated soils into the drinking water source for millions, was a wake-up call Detroit needs to heed. So say representatives of environmental groups proposing a new city ordinance to better protect the river's banks and regulate the activities along it.

The Detroit River Protection Ordinance, proposed by more than a half-dozen environmental and community nonprofit groups, was presented to the Detroit City Council on Tuesday morning by Councilwoman Raquel Castañeda-López. It was developed by groups including the Sierra Club, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, the Michigan Environmental Justice Center and others.

"That incident revealed some of the big, systemic gaps that exist in city rules," said Justin Onwenu, a community organizer with the Sierra Club.

Among the provisions of the proposed new ordinance:

Setback requirements requiring operators to place storage piles 150 feet from the shore. The current requirement is 25 feet.

Waterfront Operation Certificates would be required to reduce the frequency of large piles of materials being stored along the river bank without permits.

Baseline environmental assessments of river bank locations used for storage and other activities would be required, providing public disclosure of conditions including contamination, operations, materials and other risks.

Shoreline operators would be required to maintain properties, including seawalls, and conduct Inspections to verify the maintenance is occurring.

There would be a "duty to notify" to ensure city officials and the public are aware when an incident like a site collapse occurs and impacts Detroit water bodies.

Immediate water quality testing and public notice would be required after incidents such as a shoreline collapse.

There would be provisions for enforcement and penalties for violators who pollute Detroit water bodies and/or fail to property notify public authorities following an incident, with fines invested in a city Public Health Fund.

Citizens would be empowered to enforce the Detroit River Protection Ordinance.

An old wood, concrete and asphalt dock and seawall partially collapsed Nov. 26 at the former Revere Copper and Brass site, on West Jefferson Avenue near Historic Fort Wayne. Detroit Bulk Storage was leasing the site from Grand Rapids-based Erickson's to store large piles of limestone aggregate along the river. A ship dropped off a large pile of aggregate at the site about a day before the collapse.

The spill created great concern, as the Revere site at one time contained radioactive materials from its days utilized for atomic bomb and uranium rod development in the 1940s and 1950s. But testing by both the Great Lakes Water Authority, which has drinking water intakes in the Detroit River, and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy turned up no excessive amounts of radioactivity or other elevated contamination.

Among the concerns of residents and environmental groups was that the city was never notified about the shoreline collapse, and EGLE didn't learn of it for a week, until a Windsor newspaper made inquiries.

"They say nothing harmful entered the water. How do they know that, eight days later?" said southwest Detroit resident and environmental activist Theresa Landrum.

With the river's strong currents, "whatever contaminants were there got washed down-river or got diluted," she said.

"No one has been inspecting our waterfront. That is severe erosion there. ... Other bad actors have set up operations without permits."

A more immediate response, and greater public transparency, is a priority addressed by the proposed ordinance, said Michelle Martinez, statewide coordinator for the nonprofit Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition.

"If we didn't learn anything from Flint, shame on us," she said. "We have to be in a position where if there's a threat to our drinking water, our governments need to be able to send immediate notification to residents of what the threat is, and conduct immediate testing."

The proposed ordinance will now be reviewed by the city's law department, and may go from there to the council's Public Health Committee. If passed out of committee, the full council would then consider the ordinance.

With record-high water levels again forecast for the Great Lakes region, the deteriorating shoreline areas along the Detroit River being used for bulk storage will again be challenged this year, Landrum said.

"We know we're in a global climate emergency," she said. "And what we need is proactive government on a local level. And Detroit should be a leader."

Contact Keith Matheny: 313-222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @keithmatheny.