US tannery awaits decision on lake clean up proposal
A decision is due later this month on how much an U.S.-based company will have to pay towards the clean up of a lake polluted by one of its tanneries.
In recent months, the clean up of White Lake in Michigan has been the subject of an increasingly vociferous campaign by local pressure groups that want Genesco Inc., owner of the defunct Whitehall Leather Co. site, to pay for the complete clean up of the lake.
In a submission to the US Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Tennessee-based company had already proposed a $2 million operation that it says will be totally effective in treating the affected area of the lake bed, which is contaminated by accumulated heavy metals, chemicals and cow hair.
As part of its proposals, the company has applied for a licence to dredge an 11,000 square yard area, which it proposes to cap with a thick deposit of sand, with an extra layer of gravel being applied to areas susceptible to wave erosion. The company says that if it is given the green light by the DEQ, the operation will be complete by the winter.
However, an alliance of local residents and environmental groups are lobbying for nothing less than a complete clean up of the lake costing an estimated $8 million.
Several options are now open to the DEQ, which itself wants Genesco to move 83,000 cubic yards of sediment. It could approve Genesco’s proposals as they stand, continue to negotiate some middle-ground cleanup, or conduct its own total cleanup and bill the company.
