Overview:
- The EPA has flagged ongoing pollution from BASF's Wyandotte facility as a threat to Detroit River cleanup efforts.
- The Detroit River, with 4.6 million cubic yards of polluted sediment, is a focus of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
-Previous EPA projects have included pollution control measures during other Great Lakes cleanups.
Continuing pollution from BASF’s Wyandotte facility could compromise the cleanup of contaminated sediment in the Detroit River, according to an Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson.
“Ongoing pollution that represents a recontamination risk for sediments could prevent or delay Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding going towards the cleanup of sediments in the Detroit River,” an agency spokesperson told Planet Detroit in a statement. They noted that the Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA), a component of the GLRI, bars the agency from performing remediation work in an area likely to see further sediment contamination following the completion of a project.
These statements follow a whistleblower complaint filed with the Michigan Attorney General’s office in November alleging Michigan regulators have failed to enforce laws to reign in pollution from BASF’s Wyandotte facility.
Art Ostaszewski, a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy employee, told Planet Detroit that failures to address toxic sediment were part of his reason for bringing the complaint. He noted a 2010 letter from the Environmental Protection Agency to BASF that said waste material in sediments near the Wyandotte facility constituted an “immediate threat to the environment.”
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Up to 60 gallons of contaminated groundwater have been flowing into the Detroit River each minute from BASF’s property, which is located just upstream from Wyandotte’s municipal drinking water intake.
This groundwater includes PFAS chemicals, mercury, arsenic, napthalene, benzene and other chemicals. Some of this water has had a pH as high as 13.22. The Environmental Protection Agency defines substances with a pH of 12.5 or above as hazardous waste, a level of contamination capable of corroding steel and aluminum.
The Detroit River contains an estimated 4.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment that are targeted for cleanup through the GLRI. BASF’s pollution could compromise this work, especially in the Upper Trenton Channel just south of BASF, which is one of six areas targeted for remediation.
Despite the availability of federal funds, EPA so far has not secured the required non-federal match dollars to pay for the sediment cleanup. In October, Friends of the Detroit River announced it would facilitate a collaborative focused on sediment remediation.
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Detroit River toxic cleanup continues to stall
However, if the EPA determines that sediments are likely to be recontaminated, cleanup will be delayed in the Upper Trenton Channel until the source of the pollution is under control. An EPA spokesperson said the agency has previously worked on pollution control measures before or during other Great Lakes remediation projects.
Kenneth Drouillard, a University of Windsor researcher who studies river sediments, said addressing toxic sediment would still benefit people and wildlife, even if the pollution continues.
“I think there’s still going to be a net benefit,” said Drouillard. Although there’s ongoing groundwater pollution from BASF and other sites, he said this was likely not as high as historical levels of pollution.
Impacts on Lake Erie and other downstream areas
Pollution from BASF is likely contaminating sediments near the site but could also add to Lake Erie’s pollution problems.
Drouillard said that despite the rapid transit of water through the Detroit River, the movement of contaminated sediment through the channel can generally be measured on the scale of decades or centuries.
But ‘seiche’ events, periods of strong wind that can push water from one end of Lake Erie to the other, can draw water and sediment out of the river more quickly.
“It’s kind of like flushing the toilet,” Drouillard said. “When you drop the water levels, the flow increases and that flushes things.”
Water-soluble PFAS chemicals could also disperse more quickly than other contaminants, posing a special risk for areas downstream from the BASF facility, Drouillard said.
PFOS, one of the most dangerous types of the so-called forever chemicals, was detected at 359 parts per trillion in BASF’s groundwater, according to the 2022 EGLE review of the site. This is 22 times higher than Michigan’s groundwater cleanup criterion of 16 ppt, which EGLE established in 2022, and 89 times higher than the current federal drinking water standard of 4 ppt.
Contaminated sediment could impact drinking water and wildlife
Pollution from BASF may also pose a risk to Wyandotte’s municipal drinking water intake, located 1700 feet from the “seepage face” where contaminated groundwater is entering the river.
A 2022 EGLE review of pollution at the site found that the location of the intake and the amount of river water mixing with BASF’s pollution meant it was unlikely to “cause a public health impact that requires immediate attention.”
However, that report noted that there was “associated uncertainty” and that a “particle tracking model” or “plume model” could be used to understand the situation better.
Drouillard said that seiche events or high-water level conditions have the potential to disturb sediment on the riverbed and send contaminated particles in the direction of Wyandotte’s drinking water intake. The city and state do not test for all chemicals found at the highly-polluted BASF site, which could be leaching into groundwater.
BASF’s pollution also contains mercury, one of the pollutants that informs advisories from Michigan regulators about what fish from the Detroit River are safe to eat.
The EPA’s 2010 letter to BASF said “the river sediments offshore of the BASF facility were toxic to benthic organisms.”
Allen Burton, an ecosystem science and water management professor at the University of Michigan, previously told Planet Detroit that these organisms, which include worms and insect larvae living in river sediment, were “a key part of food chain contamination.” Catfish and carp will eat these organisms, passing them onto humans who consume these fish.
BASF’s pollution could impact wildlife more broadly if it migrates down river. Several islands and protected shoreline areas that are part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge lie south of the Wyandotte facility.
Drouillard said these areas are intended to serve as a fish nursery for whitefish, which help support Lake Erie fish populations.
“That protected area can’t function as well as we would like it if it’s surrounded by a contaminated setting,” he said.
BASF remediation could allow clean up to move forward
BASF spokesperson Molly Birman told Planet Detroit the company was performing remedial work at the site to prevent contaminated groundwater from reaching the shoreline.
The company is also working with EPA and EGLE to design and construct a longer-term solution consisting of an underground physical barrier along the north, east, and southern property lines.
EPA has responded to a 60% intermediate design for mitigating groundwater contamination leaving the BASF site and entering the Detroit River. The next step will be a 95% remedial design due in August 2025.
If this is implemented before or during a sediment remediation project, the EPA said it could allow for GLRI funding for a cleanup of the Upper Trenton Channel within the next five years.
While BASF’s pollution continues, Drouillard said he thinks mitigation is still worthwhile, if possible. He noted that much of the Detroit River’s pollution is a result of legacy pollution.
But, he added, “we should do everything we can to mitigate point sources.”