Former hunt club land eyed for lead cleanup

Oxford Township might be applying for a $1 million grant from the state to pay for the cleanup of some contaminated property owned by a nonprofit organization that serves children in foster care.

At its 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11 meeting, the township board is expected to consider and potentially vote on whether to serve as the applicant, on behalf of House of Providence (HOP), for a grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s (EGLE) Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and Loan Program.

Brownfield Redevelopment grants are used to fund environmental response activities, including investigation and cleanup, on sites known to be contaminated.

If approved, the grant would be used to remove soil containing lead shot from years of hunting and shooting on two parcels, totalling nearly 62 acres, owned by HOP at 3921 Barber Rd.

HOP provides housing for foster youth who have been abused, neglected or unable to find a permanent family. Paid staff provide children and teens with 24-7 supervision and care.

No matching funds from the township would be required to receive this grant.

The township would have to be the applicant because Brownfield Redevelopment grants cannot be awarded to private property owners. These funds can only be released to counties, cities, villages, townships, brownfield redevelopment authorities or other public bodies.

Township Supervisor Bill Dunn supports pursuing the grant on HOP’s behalf.

“I think it’s a win-win for everybody involved,” he said. “(The township) and House of Providence get this land cleaned up – that’s a good thing – and neither of us pays for it. Doing this, I would hope, should satisfy those people who have come to the (township) board telling us they’re worried about lead in the soil contaminating the surrounding properties or hurting the (foster) kids that live out there.”

“I can’t see how anybody could possibly be against us helping (House of Providence) get this grant money,” Dunn added. “This is a health, safety and welfare issue, so it’s not out of line for (the township) to get involved.”

HOP co-founder Jason Dunn did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In an Aug. 23 email, Dan Gough, brownfield coordinator with the EGLE’s Brownfield Assessment and Redevelopment Section, informed Supervisor Dunn that the HOP remediation project had been vetted and “the group all agreed this would be a good project to fund.”

“We decided that we would like to offer you the ability to apply for a grant (of) up to $1,000,000 with a couple of conditions,” Gough wrote.

Those conditions included using up to 5 percent of the grant to hire a professional to provide third-party oversight by reviewing work plans, cost estimates and on-site work, and narrowing the project cost estimates to “more closely align with expected expenditures.”

“We may need the full $1 million, but we would like that to be better defined as part of the application,” Gough wrote.

Purchased by HOP in 2016, the 118-acre site on Barber Rd. was divided into four separate parcels the following year. It’s proposed the grant money be used to remediate two of these parcels by removing soil containing lead. One parcel is 27.65 acres, while the other is 34.12 acres.

HOP has already constructed an 8,928-square-foot foster care home on one of the other two parcels not involved in the grant proposal. Those two parcels have already had their environmental issues resolved. In late June, six girls moved into this house.

The brownfield grant proposal states a second home will be added to HOP’s property, but it does not indicate on which parcel it would be constructed.

Prior to HOP buying it, the 118 acres operated as a dog kennel from 1973-83. The property then functioned as a hunt club, which, according to the project proposal, operated from 1985 to 2013. During that time, users of the property engaged in pheasant hunting and skeet shooting with shotgun shells containing lead pellets.

As a result, the project proposal states that the “southern section” of the 27.65-acre parcel is the “most significantly impacted (by) lead.”

“This resulted from skeet shooting with lead shot from the northwestern section of (the parcel) and firing toward the southeastern section,” the document states.

In addition to the lead that accumulated over time from shooting, the southeastern section also contains lead-contaminated soil that was “temporarily stockpiled” there after being removed from the other parcels. The dimensions of this area are approximately 360 feet wide, 100 feet long and 6 feet deep.

“The estimated volume of lead-impacted soil in (this storage area) is approximately 8,000 cubic yards/8,000 U.S. tons,” the project proposal states. It is currently surrounded by fencing and posted with “no trespassing” signage.

The project proposal calls for removing all of this lead-contaminated soil and disposing of it in a “non-hazardous landfill.” Assuming an individual truck capacity of 50 cubic yards, it’s estimated 200 trucks will be required to transport the lead-impacted soil to a landfill.

In addition to removing what’s already contained in this storage area, the project proposal calls for some parts of the 27.65-acre and 34.12-acre parcels to be “scraped” in order to remove lead-containing soil.

Once these areas have been scraped, soil samples will be taken and analyzed to confirm the lead concentration is “below” the 190 parts per million (ppm) limit for direct contact. This limit, which is lower than the state’s existing 400 ppm limit for direct contact with soil, was “demanded” by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Division of Child Welfare Licensing “in order for HOP to qualify for licensing their foster care homes on the property,” the project proposal states.

This was done “to protect children from lead exposure,” the proposal states.

An estimated $820,000 of the $1 million grant would be spent on excavating, loading, transporting and disposing of soils containing lead, according to the project proposal. The rest of the money would be used for grant administration ($30,000) and a contingency fund ($150,000).

All of the work would be performed by the Farmington Hills-based ECI Environmental Consultants and Engineers, which would serve as HOP’s contractor. Work on the site would be overseen by the EGLE.

To get paid, ECI would submit grant reimbursement forms to the township, which would, in turn, send them to the EGLE. The state would then send the funds to the township, which would disburse payments to ECI.

“We’re basically the middle man here,” Supervisor Dunn said. “The money just passes through the township. No township funds would be spent. It all comes from the state. (House of Providence) needs us because they can’t get the grant money directly, but we can. All we would be doing is giving them access to it.”