House Street Update
Work continues at the House Street site as we continue implementing the EGLE-approved Work Plan for the construction of 27 acres of engineered caps. As explained below, this work is still on track to be completed by the end of November.
The storms in late June and early July caused our contractor, RECON, to adjust onsite efforts when they couldn’t install liners due to the wet conditions. They were able to begin work on the final detention basin and begin grading the areas around the mounds on the northern portion of the site. These adjustments due to weather changed the timing of topsoil placement and seeding, but we anticipate work to remain on schedule.
During July, the remaining five landfill gas vents were installed on the southeast mound and final grading was completed on the northeast and southwest mounds. Liners were then placed on the northeast, northwest, and southwest mounds in mid-July.
View from Southwest Corner toward Northeast Corner of Site, 7/19/2024. Liner placed on Northwest and Northeast Mounds and being placed in the northern portion of Southwest Mound.
During the latter half of July, grading continued on the southeast mound to prepare it for liner placement, which took place in early August.
View from middle of Southeast Mound facing south toward site trailers (left side of photo) and House Street (along tree line).
During liner placement, each panel, seam, and patch was labeled (see white marking in photo above) and documented. On-site testing was completed to confirm that all seams and patches meet the project specifications. Samples of the seams are then sent off-site to an independent laboratory for testing to confirm that the seams meet the specifications before the barrier soil is placed over the liner.
Barrier soil placement. A road is constructed across the edge of the mount where trucks can dump the sand that is to be placed on the liner. The soil is then pushed onto the mound in 1-foot thick lifts and topsoil will be placed on top.
RECON expects to complete barrier soil installation by mid-September, with some areas already completed. Placement of topsoil and the mound seeding may begin as early as later this week. During this phase topsoil will be brought in for placement and there will be some increased truck traffic.
Final retention basin and access road construction will continue through the fall with sitework expected to be complete by the end of November. In the spring any final seeding outside of the mound areas will be completed, and silt fence, job trailers, and remaining supplies will be removed.
We continue to conduct perimeter air monitoring, and there have been no exceedances of action levels. The air monitoring data is available in the “Documents” section of this blog or by clicking on this link. We continue to evaluate the data to be proactive with dust control as needed.
Sunrise over Southeast Mound.
Tannery Update
Wolverine’s lead contractor Sevenson Environmental Services continues to construct the groundwater capture system per the EGLE-approved Response Activity Plan.
In July, the trenching subcontractor completed the installation of the nine groundwater interceptor trenches that are part of the system. The soil generated from installing these trenches was delivered to an approved Michigan landfill for appropriate disposal.
After completion of the trenches, a series of piezometers and groundwater extraction wells were installed will operate in conjunction with the trenches to monitor groundwater elevations and supplement the capture of groundwater for treatment.
After that the outfall discharge pipe to the Rogue River was constructed, using a temporary cofferdam around the work area to allow the excavation below the water line. Horizontal direction drilling beneath Rum Creek was also completed in accordance with approved permits, to connect the utilities on either side of the creek and allow for captured groundwater to be transported from the south to the north side of the creek for treatment.
Current work consists of installing the remainder of the utility trenches that will connect the piezometers, groundwater extraction wells, and groundwater collection trenches to three kiosk buildings and subsurface control vaults that will serve to operate and monitor the interceptor system. This work began at the beginning of August and is ongoing.
We continue to conduct air monitoring at the perimeter of the project Site, and there have been no exceedances of action levels to date during site activities. The air monitoring data is available in the “Documents” section of this blog or by clicking on this link. We continue to monitor and evaluate the data to be proactive with dust control as needed.
Photos of the site showing the installation of portions of the system are below:
Aerial view from the drone showing the installation of a piezometer on the north side of Rum Creek.
Aerial view from the drone showing the installation of the cofferdam and the outfall discharge pipe, north side of Rum Creek.
We will continue to use this blog to keep the community informed as our investigation and related work progresses in the weeks and months ahead. As always, residents with questions or feedback are encouraged to contact Wolverine Worldwide directly at HouseStreet@wwwinc.com or (616) 866-5627.
