Plymouth City Attorney Sean Surrisi reported to the Board of Public Works and Safety the status report regarding the environmental issues at 200 South Michigan Street, Bowen Printing, property owned by the City of Plymouth.
In June of this year SESCO Group completed a groundwater sampling event and the analytical results indicate that contaminates have continued to decrease since implementing the Corrective Action Plan activities in July and August 2013. Soil and groundwater sampling results determine that the city should have to take no further action.
This issue began in 1999 when an underground storage tank was removed from the property. The release of petroleum products was detected in the soil and groundwater and IDEM opened a case.
Early in Mayor Senter’s administration the city began a more aggressively pursue remediation of the site. SESCO was engaged in 2009 to perform testing and site delineation. IDEM approved their plan that involved injecting the ground with PetroCleanze, a chemical used to oxidize and desorb petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil.
The City also hired an insurance archeology firm to identify record of old city insurance policies, some as old as the last 60’s that potentially could provide coverage to fund the clean-up. Surissi said, “In 2012 a settlement was reached with an insurance carrier in a federal lawsuit regarding insurance coverage. An additional settlement was reached with another carrier in 2013.
The City of Plymouth advised SESCO to proceed with its recommended course of action with IDEM. Surrisi said, “We do expect to receive notice of official closure of the site in the coming months.”
