Environment

Realtor misled buyers of contaminated Lake Michigan condo, court says

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – A couple who bought a South Haven condo built on contaminated land two blocks from Lake Michigan is entitled to about $470,000 in damages from the Realtor and her real estate agency that handled the deal, the Court of Appeals has ruled. The Realtor who handled the deal knew that sales brochure information about environmental conditions at the 10-unit Factory Condominium redevelopment project – Belgravia – was false, the court said. Meryl Greene of Coldwell Banker Weber-Seiler Realtors also failed to tell purchasers Gary and Kathleen Bowman of Augusta that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) had found the property still “highly contaminated with chlorinated solvents in the soil and groundwater, and metals in the near-surface soils.”
The abandoned building where the Bowmans’ condo is located had been a factory from 1916 to 1979 that made coffins, gun stocks, pipe organs and other products. According to legal documents and the DEQ, workers dumped industrial solvents, sludge and wastes from painting and plating that contained toxic materials – some linked to cancer – into the drains. A developer, who later declared bankruptcy, hired Greene to market the condos.

Environment

Homeowners lose chemical contamination appeal

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – Homeowners whose property was contaminated by materials from a now-defunct chemical plant in Gratiot County have lost their lawsuit against contractors and trucking companies that removed toxic sediments from the adjacent Pine River. A unanimous three-judge Court of Appeals panel refused to reinstate the suit, which seeks damages from 18 companies. The case is a legacy of extensive pollution at a 54-acre plant site owned by now-bankrupt Velsicol Chemical Corp. and of the Pine River bordering the facility. From 1936 until 1978, the factory, then known as the Michigan Chemical Corp., produced chemical compounds and products, including the flame retardant PBBs – polybrominated biphenyls – and the now-banned pesticide DDT.

Environment

PBB health study moves from Michigan to Georgia

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By BRIAN BIENKOWSKI
Capital News Service
LANSING — For more than three decades, Michigan tracked the health of about 4,000 residents who ingested fire retardant chemicals that were accidentally introduced into the food supply. The crisis occurred in 1973, when a flame retardant got mixed up with a cattle feed supplement, leading to widespread PBB contamination in Michigan. The once-robust research project on polybrominated biphenyls, known as PBBs, also examined the health of the initial participants’ children. But now the state is handing off the study to a researcher in Georgia – not because the health fears disappeared or because participants are chemical-free: The reason? There’s no money.