The Moroun family's Crown Enterprises Inc. has reached deals with federal and state environmental agencies to clean up the heavily polluted McLouth steel plant site in Trenton and an adjacent site in Riverview that could eventually open up nearly 260 acres for redevelopment along the Detroit River.

Crown Enterprises and an affiliated Moroun-owned company called MSC Land Co. LLC have signed an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Agency that will make the former McLouth Steel Products Corp. complex a Superfund site and eligible for federal funding.

To meet the requirements of being placed on the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List, the real estate development arm of billionaire Manuel "Matty" Moroun's companies will have to demolish 45 structures on the 183-acre site within two years and remove contaminated water and sludges from 23 pits, lagoons and basements on the property.

Before demolition can begin, the Warren-based company also will be responsible for removing asbestos, waste and materials containing polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, from the nearly 1 million square feet of buildings, according to the EPA agreement.

Crown Enterprises also has reached a separate deal with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to clean up a separate 76-acre site to the north of McLouth that Moroun has owned since 2000 through another business, the Riverview-Trenton Railroad Co.

That deal stipulates that the company will investigate and clean up five known waste-management units on the property, control dust and eliminate stormwater flow to the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River.

The McLouth steel plant operated from 1950 to 1996, when the steelmaker went bankrupt. Subsequent attempts by the Detroit Steel Co. LLC to restart the steel mill failed, resulting in a foreclosure for unpaid taxes dating back to 2006 and the property ending up in the hands of Wayne County taxpayers.

Last September, Wayne County struck a deal with the Morouns to sell the property for $4 million to Crown Enterprises on condition that they invest at least $20 million within six years cleaning up and redeveloping the site. Under the deal, if Crown fails to meet that deadline, they'll be fined $1 million by the county.

The EPA's agreement with Crown also calls for the company investigate five areas where PCBs may have been released into the ground and report options for stopping the uncontrolled flow of stormwater into the Detroit River.

"The top priority must be to ensure that the site is properly cleaned up and is not a safety or environmental risk to the residents of Trenton or surrounding Downriver communities," U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, said in a statement. "This agreement is a fundamental first step that allows us to turn to look towards future uses for the site."

The sprawling steel mill contains blast furnaces, basic oxygen furnaces, electric arc furnaces, a hot strip rolling mill, soaking pits and pickle lines, according to a July 2016 DEQ inspection report.

It's not known yet how much tax money the federal government will ultimately contribute to the cleanup.

"It's hard to really quantify," said Brian Kelly, on-scene coordinator for the EPA. "The work that Crown's going to do, and specified over a two-year period, that will mostly occur before the EPA gets going with the national priorities list work."

It's also unclear how long it will take to prepare the site for reuse — a major redevelopment project that could depend on economic conditions and demand for large industrial sites.

"We've got a lot of work to get it to that point," Crown Enterprises President Michael Samhat told Crain's. "The goal of this process is to manage a contaminated site and get it into reuse."

Following the conclusion of a 30-day public comment period that began Aug. 14, Crown is expected to take title to the property from the Wayne County Land Bank by Oct. 1, Samhat said.

Khalil Rahal, the assistant county executive for Wayne County who inked the sale deal with Crown, said the property's access to the river and railroads and close proximity to Interstate 75 and Detroit Metro Airport makes it ideal for a logistics and shipping hub one day.

"You're not going to see development there tomorrow — there's still a long way to go for this," Rahal told Crain's. "But for the first time in decades, it finally has direction — and that is a big deal."

Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654

Twitter: @ChadLivengood