TOXIC TOWERS

157,000 POUNDS OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES MISSING
MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL OPENS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
DEVELOPERS REFUSE TO SAY WHERE TOXIC WASTE WENT

The celebrated redevelopment of the ancient Berkey & Gay furniture factory into the Boardwalk office and apartment complex located at 940 Monroe Avenue N.W. on the northern edge of downtown Grand Rapids, jokingly referred to as “Toxic Towers” by some of its residents and workers, is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). A century’s accumulation of hazardous industrial waste, including toxic levels of arsenic, mercury, and lead, that had poisoned the soil and groundwater below the old furniture factory is missing, and state investigators want to know where the Boardwalk developers put it.

The Boardwalk developers, a secret group of investors fronted by local contractor Thomas E. Beckering, have denied in various statements to MDEQ officials that they removed any of the hazardous waste known, according to public records, to contaminate the site of the Boardwalk before construction began. However, both the MDEQ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have in evidence several hundred hours of videotape footage showing the lead contractors for the developers, Pioneer Incorporated and Dykema Excavators Inc., hauling away dozens of truckloads of the hazardous waste on daily basis during September, October, and November of 2000.

The developers’ credibility was further undermined by the fact that they had built an entirely new basement level to house Spectrum Health Corporation’s training subsidiary, the Grand Rapids Medical Education & Research Center, and a new five-story parking ramp. Both new features of the Boardwalk commercial-residential complex required contractors for the developers to remove an estimated 28,000 cubic yards of soil to make room for the new construction.

That soil is unaccounted for by the Boardwalk developers in their statements to MDEQ officials. According to publicly recorded findings of the hazardous substances that were known to contaminate the Boardwalk site before construction began, this missing soil is contaminated with 157,000 pounds of heavy metals, petro-chemicals, and volatile organic compounds in concentrations hazardous to human life and health.

As a consequence of the videotape and other evidence, Michigan Assistant Attorney General Thomas Piotrowski directed Thomas Mintner, head of the Grand Rapids MDEQ office to open a criminal investigation in February 2001 to determine what the developers removed from the Boardwalk site and where they dumped it. In May 2001, Michigan Assistant Attorney General Michael Leffler visited one of the suspected dumpsites, the old Grand Rapids water filtration plant, which Michigan State University has been supporting as the future site of a drinking water treatment research center. (See related story, Logie’s Landfill.)

In June 2001, according to the detective Mintner assigned to the investigation, employees of the Boardwalk developers made false statements about removing and dumping the Boardwalk’s hazardous waste at the filtration plant. By October 2001, the MDEQ’s detective had collected eyewitness accounts and other evidence impeaching those statements. By the end of October 2001, Michigan State Senator Kenneth Sikkema (R-Grandville), who had pressed the MDEQ to investigate at the time the dumping of Boardwalk hazardous waste had first been reported in the fall of 2000, wrote a letter to William Tingley, executive director of the Local Area Watch, that the MDEQ’s Office of Criminal Investigations was now actively investigating the charges of illegal dumping of hazardous waste by the Boardwalk developers.

In February 2002, Minter informed the Grand Rapids media that he expected the criminal investigation to be concluded soon. However, in March 2002 the Michigan Attorney General’s office received several dozen pages of documents from the Local Area Watch that linked the illegal dumping of the Boardwalk’s hazardous waste to a bank fraud and corruption by Grand Rapids city officials. (See related stories, Logie’s Landfill and Behind Closed Doors.) The most recent twist occurred on May 10, 2002, when Grand Rapids Assistant City Attorney Daniel Ophoff informed the Local Area Watch’s attorney Peter Steketee that city officials had destroyed critical documents concerning the illegal dumping of Boardwalk waste at the filtration plant after the Local Area Watch had subpoenaed them. (See Behind Closed Doors for full details.)

Neither the Michigan Attorney General’s office nor the MDEQ has had any comment on the status of the Boardwalk hazardous waste investigation in light of these recent developments. Meanwhile, the Boardwalk’s arsenic, lead, and mercury continue to poison the land, water, and air of the hazardous waste dumps the Boardwalk’s developers created in and around Grand Rapids.

Keep checking here as we continue to update this story.

Comments

[James l minix]

Much to do about nothing. Lawyers getting rich on both sides of the issue. Every time someone tries to do good for soething old or bad. Some wacko plays on the uninformed to give them some money to fight the big corrupt man who is trying to improve something and heaven forbid make a profit doing so. Along comes the dogooder, commie, socilist panderer. Well don't ask me for a donatation.

[Bridget Dupont-Tingley, Editor - L.A.W.]

Hello James,

Having toxic waste at the levels found at the B & G factory is nothing to wave aside as unimportant.

All the workers at this property, everyone in manufacturing plants and businesses, and residential homeowners and kids near the B & G Plant and Water Filtration Plant were all exposed over a 12-13 month period of time to this cocktail of very dangerous chemicals. You may believe it is just about money, but it's more than that when toxins goes into the air, ground/dirt, drinking water system and eventually our bodies.

No one deserves dangerous levels of pollution in their backyards. Especially by groups that deny what that did, then lie about it and cover it up.

You don't have to agree with what we post - that is fine. We pride ourselves on our research and it's accuracy. Most especially on this topic (we have a years worth of video tapes showing the bad guys in action, chemical analysis breakdown of both sites showing the proof of our claims and even affidavits from some parties involved that illegal activity was going on as we say). Our final goal is to inform the public and then it's up to them to form their own opinion on the issue. We don't form it for them.

By the way, we have no intention of asking you for a donation. Judging by all your spelling mistakes - we will instead offer you a tip of the day. Before sending off a message you want people to consider seriously, try spell check on your text, it works wonders.

Regards,

[The Executive Director]

Get a clue, James, before assigning your knee-jerk label of "socialist" to us. No capitalist worth his salt believes he has the right to improve his property by dumping his waste on someone else's property. Anyone who thinks he does have that right is a vandal.

Bill Tingley
Executive Director, L.A.W.