Koch Chemical plant being torn down
The Koch Chemical Co. plant in Whitehall's industrial park is coming down.
The demolition, now ongoing, puts one more nail in the coffin of MuskegonCounty's notorious history of ground, air and water pollution caused by chemical manufacturers.
The company's Whitehall facility was on the federal government's Superfund list, an inventory of the nation's worst toxic waste dumps.
The former Michigan Department of Natural Resources, now the Department of Environmental Quality, determined in the 1980s that chemicals from the plant leaked into the groundwater and contaminated Mill Pond Creek, which flows into WhiteLake.
Koch began pumping and treating contaminated groundwater at the site in the late 1980s, according to a DEQ official. The company stopped the pump-and-treat operation recently and switched to an air-sparging system that injects oxygen into the ground to naturally break down the lingering chemical contaminants.
"The air sparging system seems to be effectively reducing the groundwater contamination," said David Kline, a supervisor in the DEQ's Superfund section.
Kline said the Koch site should be suitable for redevelopment after the former chemical plant is demolished. Once the main production building is torn down and the most contaminated soils removed, Koch will put a plastic cap over an area of soils containing lower levels of chemical contaminants, he said.
The area with the contaminated soils would be suitable only for a parking lot; the state does not want anyone digging into the contaminated soils, Kline said.
Kline said Koch Chemical will continue to operate the groundwater treatment system for the foreseeable future.
Koch Chemical closed its Whitehall plant in 1991, laying off its 40 employees.
Koch had acquired the property and business from Muskegon Chemical in 1985. Both companies were ordered to pay for the cleanup.
About 90,000 pounds of ethylene dichloride and 62,000 pounds of methylene chloride -- a suspected human carcinogen -- were reportedly released into the ground at the site, where pharmaceuticals and flame retardants were produced.
Kline said the main chemical of concern remaining on the Koch site is tetrachloroethylene, a solvent that is a suspected human carcinogen.
Koch plans to raze the main building and a smaller building that has been used by people monitoring the site, said City Manager Scott Huebler.
Some groundwater contamination remains, "but none that appears to be migrating" toward Mill Pond Creek, Huebler said.
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