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10/01/2006
Petoskey Pointe soil borings don't match '94 findingsContaminated soil was hauled off 12 years agomccoolrecordeagle@sbcglobal.ney PETOSKEY — One 12-year-old soil boring indicates the ground is polluted and needs to be cleaned. Five other soil borings taken two months ago don't agree. The only undisputed contamination qualifying the Petoskey Pointe development site as a brownfield — and possibly for a $4.5 million brownfield tax credit awarded in June — is a groundwater plume that flows beneath it. But developers Lake Street Petoskey Associates have no plans to remediate the water problem, state Department of Environmental Quality officials said. Environmental cleanup aspects of the $60 million condo development focus entirely on soil pollution, and much of that contamination was hauled away more than a decade ago, records obtained by the Record-Eagle under the state Freedom of Information Act show. In July 1994, about 160 cubic yards of soil containing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons were dug up and trucked off, according to a Dec. 22, 1995, report in DEQ records. The chemical is associated with degreasers used at an auto service station that once operated there. After the cleanup, the property was cleared for commercial use, but not the residential use now proposed by developers; a soil boring taken July 12, 1994, showed hydrocarbon concentrations above allowable residential criteria, the report states. It is the only documented place where soil contamination exists that required any site cleanup, said DEQ geologist David Lindsay, who worked to oversee the 1994 cleanup and more recently worked with environmental consultants AKT Peerless on the current project. Peerless investigated the same area two months ago. On Aug. 4, the consultants tested soil at "the presumed location" of the 1994 boring and in four places around it, records show. The results from the lab: no significant pollution. Peerless found limited contamination in just one of the five borings, though not at concentrations high enough to warrant a cleanup or qualify the property as a brownfield, the consultants told DEQ officials in an Aug. 14 letter. Peerless principal Brian Eggers did not return phone messages left by a Record-Eagle reporter. Elaine Pelc, DEQ Petoskey Pointe project manager, said it's possible the contamination has dissipated since 1994; the site is grassy and exposed to the elements. But she thinks it more likely that Peerless didn't sample in the right place, even though state records from the 1994 cleanup include detailed maps showing the locations of every boring. "It's absolutely impossible to relocate that (1994) boring ... to find the exact location," said Pelc. "We can't just make the 1994 data go away." See related stories:
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