As we shared on this blog last week, Wolverine is installing a remediation system this year to intercept groundwater at our former tannery property in downtown Rockford. Over the past couple weeks, you may have seen some increased activity on the property, including setting air monitoring stations, bringing in construction equipment, and putting up fences to enclose the work area.
As part of this work, the portion of the White Pine Trail running through the property will be closed starting on Tuesday, May 28, and continuing until the work is complete later this year. The map below and at this link shows the portion being closed with a white line, and the temporary detour along Main Street with an orange line. The map also shows the planned truck route for the work with a blue line.
Wolverine and its contractors will strive to limit the impact of this work on neighboring residents, surrounding businesses, and the broader community. We will also continue keeping the community informed through regular updates on its blog, www.WeAreWolverine.com, and through information at kiosks and in other locations accessible to the public.
As always, residents with questions are encouraged to contact Wolverine directly at HouseStreet@wwwinc.com or (616) 866-5627.
Last fall we began implementing an EGLE-approved Work Plan for the construction of three engineered caps that will cover approximately 27 acres of our House Street property and help prevent the infiltration of PFAS into groundwater. That work included contractor selection, tree clearing, fenceline and work area air monitoring, stripping topsoil, constructing stormwater controls, relocating some waste, constructing lay-down areas and office trailers, and stabilizing and seeding the site for winter. For details on the work completed last year, please see our prior blog posts here and here.
After taking the winter off, our contractor, RECON, returned to the property during the week of April 1. Early season work has included tree chipping and earth work to relocate and consolidate waste materials at the site. The tree chipping is nearly complete, and we expect the chipper will be offsite soon and the stump grinder will operate intermittently over the next month. During the chipping, we completed near-continuous air monitoring in the work area in addition to our ongoing perimeter air monitoring. As was the case while work was performed last year, 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.
Photos of the site showing the soil excavation and related work performed so far this year to prepare the site for installation of the caps are below:
Aerial view of the House Street property from the east property boundary facing west along House Street. Soil excavation is occurring in the foreground and the east side of the southwest mound is in the background.
Aerial view of the House Street property facing north with the southwest mound area being prepared for final cover placement.
By the end of May, we expect RECON will begin constructing the three engineered caps at the site. Large rolls of liner material will be delivered to the site in advance of that work, and they will begin to install the liner as part of cap construction. As work is completed on the mounds where waste material is being consolidated, they will be covered with soil and graded. The liner will then be installed and covered with soil and seeded with grass. Final grading of non-cap areas, finishing the stormwater basin, and seeding will follow liner installation.
A figure of the property showing the site and the location of the caps is below:
Air monitoring will continue during construction work and additional air monitoring summaries will be posted on this blog as they were last year. We will continue to use all air monitoring data, including wind data, to make adjustments as necessary.
We still anticipate work this year will continue through November and that some remaining work, including grass planting, will occur in 2025.
Tannery Remediation
Last September, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) approved our Revised Response Activity Plan for the remediation system that we are installing this year to intercept groundwater at our former tannery property. A detailed description of the system can be seen by clicking on this link to one of our earlier blog posts, and a short video showing how it will operate is included below.
Upon receipt of EGLE’s approval last year, we began work optimizing and refining the final layout of the interceptor system. We have now completed that work and selected Sevenson Environmental Services as the lead contractor to implement the approved Response Activity Plan. Sevenson is an experienced, national contractor that is familiar with the tannery property from its earlier work there. To learn more about Sevenson, click here to visit their website.
We currently expect Sevenson will begin work at the property later this month and likely will have the interceptor trenches installed and operating by the end of this year. Their work will include completing over 2,000 linear feet of trenches, backfilling the trenches with granular material, installing six extraction wells, placing pumps in each trench and extraction well, routing electrical conduit and piping, and restoring the property after construction.
The figure below shows the overall extent of the work, including the planned location of the trenches and the parts of the property and adjacent areas that will be fenced off to allow for the safe operation and storage of equipment and completion of the work.
This year’s construction work will result in some unavoidable impacts to our downtown Rockford property and adjacent areas. First, the portion of the White Pine Trail that runs through the property will be closed and re-routed along Main Street, similar to prior closures. This is expected to start on May 28 and continue until the work is complete later this year.
In addition, a portion of our parking lot on the southern end of the property will also be impacted during the project. Specifically, starting in mid-July the portion shown in yellow will be closed on weekdays to allow for the construction work, but reopened on weekends to allow for parking and the farmer’s market. The portion of the parking lot shaded in green will not be impacted or closed during the project.
Once installation of the interceptor system is complete, all permits and approvals have been received, and the treatment system design has been finalized, we will begin operating and performance testing the interceptor and treatment systems. The results of this initial performance testing will allow us to evaluate the groundwater flow, volume, and concentration data, then adjust and optimize the design and operation of the treatment system as needed.
Courtland Investigation
As we shared in an earlier post on this blog, we began some environmental investigation work late last year at our Rockford office property and a former warehouse located across the street. The plan for this work was developed in consultation with EGLE, and included both groundwater and soil sampling.
Results from this initial work were recently received, and some of the groundwater samples collected at the warehouse property contained PFOS, PFOA, or both above their respective cleanup criteria. In addition, soil samples at the office property indicated areas where sediments may have been historically placed under permits issued by EGLE, as discussed in our prior blog post.
Based on these initial results we will be conducting additional groundwater investigation, including installing permanent groundwater wells to further evaluate groundwater flow on- and off-property, and the extent and potential sources of PFAS in the groundwater. We also plan to conduct additional soil sampling at the property to further delineate where sediments may have been placed. We expect to begin work next week, and results will be shared with EGLE to review and help determine appropriate next steps.
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.
Last fall Wolverine Worldwide began implementing an EGLE-approved Work Plan for the construction of three engineered caps that will cover approximately 27 acres of our House Street property and help prevent the infiltration of PFAs into groundwater. That work included contractor selection, tree clearing, fenceline and work area air monitoring, stripping topsoil, constructing stormwater controls, relocating some waste, constructing lay-down areas and office trailers, and stabilizing and seeding the site for winter. For details on the work completed last year, please see our prior blog posts here and here.
After taking the winter off, we are now preparing to resume work at our House Street property and want to provide an update what to expect in the coming weeks and months. Our contractor, RECON, is scheduled to return to the property during the week of April 1. They will first begin earth work to relocate and consolidate waste materials, and then will construct the three engineered caps. We anticipate work this year will continue through November and that some remaining work, such as grass planting, will occur in 2025.
Like last year, this year we will again be performing air monitoring across the property. Over the winter we have evaluated the wind data from last fall and made some adjustments to the fenceline locations so we can continue monitoring dust in the areas that are downwind of our work areas. These updates and others are in our revised Air Monitoring Plan, which is available at this link and includes:
Station 1 will be moved from the northern to the northeastern fenceline. The new location is based on review of prevailing wind data from the on-site weather station.
We have added information to Section 6 of the plan that describes how GZA completes the periodic readings with the hand-held equipment.
We have added the former location of Station 1 as a location where periodic readings will be completed.
The air monitoring equipment was set up during the first week of March and has been collecting background readings, with the first two weeks of data available here and here. Air monitoring will continue during construction work and additional air monitoring summaries will be posted on this blog as they were last year.
We will continue to use all of our air monitoring data, including wind data, to make adjustments as necessary. If there is an exceedance of project action levels at the fence line monitors, we will contact EGLE and nearby residents to communicate the exceedance and explain the mitigation measures being taken.
In addition to our Air Monitoring Plan, two Health and Safety Plans were developed for the work. Our environmental consultant, GZA, and the primary contractor, RECON, each have a HASP to protect their onsite employees during performance of work.
We look forward to completing the final remedy at our House Street property this year, and we will continue to use this blog to keep the community informed as work progresses. Residents with questions are encouraged to contact us directly at HouseStreet@wwwinc.com or (616) 866-5627.
We have completed work for the year at our House Street property. As we summarized in prior posts here and here, that work included tree cutting and staging, stripping some topsoil, relocating some waste (no waste will be left exposed over the winter), and stabilizing soil and seeding for the winter. We performed air monitoring during that work in accordance with our air monitoring plan, and when work resumes next year we will continue to perform air monitoring.
We have regularly posted the air quality data to this blog, and you can find the latest data here. This data continues to show levels were far below action limits, with no issues or concerns identified.
Air quality data is not the only data our real-time air monitoring systems collect. As explained in our air monitoring plan, we also utilize an onsite meteorological system (located at Station 3 on the south perimeter of the property) to monitor wind speed and direction, temperature, and relative humidity. In particular, wind speed and direction are continuously recorded to track the actual onsite wind conditions and ensure the effectiveness of our monitoring.
All of our wind data to date has shown that the wind at the site blows in the directions where we have monitors. The map below shows the areas of work during fall 2023 along with the “wind roses” showing the predominant wind directions and perimeter dust measurements for those time periods.
We will continue to use all of our air monitoring data, including wind data, to ensure appropriate and effective air monitoring while work is occurring at the site. If there is an exceedance of project action levels at the fence line monitors, we will contact regulators and nearby residents to communicate the exceedance, explain the mitigation measures being taken, and provide an update.
Wolverine will be using this blog to keep the community informed as work progresses in the weeks and months ahead. In addition, residents with questions are encouraged to contact Wolverine directly at HouseStreet@wwwinc.com or (616) 866-5627.
