Ah hah!
January 22, 2003
Ahh… So I finally found information on the weird fenced in hazardous waste area that borders Riverbends Park and Waldon Lakes (or Waldon Ponds or whatnot) Park in Shelby Township: http://www.epa.gov/R5Super/npl/michigan/MID067340711.htm
There were oil lagoons!!!
UPDATE: Scratch that. This is the place I’m thinking of: http://www.epa.gov/R5Super/npl/michigan/MID980410823.htm. Note the water treatment plant… That’s right in the back of the Waldon Lakes park. Unfortunately the park is all fenced in, so I can’t get to the rest of the recreation area.
Yeah, LDI (Liquid Disposal) used to incinerate toxic chemicals, paint, etc. as a service to whoever needed to get rid of the stuff. Used to smell *lovely* in the summer sometimes. I lived about a mile away from it the first eight years of my life. The EPA finally shut them down, now there is a garage/junkyard on the former site. (On top of the hill at Ryan.) Also, there was once a junkyard at 23 & Ryan called “Danny’s Dump.” The owner (Danny, obviously) was this eccentric little old guy who lived on the premises in an old trailer with his dogs. It was really kind of sad. My dad knew him and has pictures of him and his dogs/trailer. That entire area is kind of screwed environmentally. In fact, you know that subdivision at 23 & Ryan, I believe the name is “Spring Lake” or “Crystal Lake” or something to that effect? That used to be a gravel pit that was a sort of an overflow for the water table from LDI and the dump. It used to scum over with green crap from time to time and no one would go swimming in it. (This is back in my parent’s and uncles day, they grew up over there too.) So I laugh every damn time I see the sub name. If the homeowners only knew what the glistening lake that is the namesake of their subdivision used to be! Finally, my Uncle Rick’s property actually backs up to River Bends, we’ve seen some interesting things on hikes back there.
Hey are you feeling any better? I’m still down for the count. Went to the doc’s today and got drugs so hopefully I’ll be on the mend soon. Hope you already are! :)
Thanks for asking. :) I’m actually lots better already. Not sure why, but I had something odd that lasted just about 48 hours.
Thanks for the info on the waste disposal. Also, have you been to the Walden Ponds (or whatever) park just barely west of 22 and Ryan? It’s weird as fuck. Test wells every 50′ in a big grid, mostly odd wetlands, a strange gravel road, a water treatment plant, and a single picnic shelter. It’s truely strange. Is was LDI located along the south side of 23 Mile between Ryan and Dequinder? That’s the place that bordered this… I wish those EPA sites has lat/long coordinates or actual addresses or satellite photos. You know, I think there are actually two toxic waste sites. One east of Dequinder, one west of. I just wish I knew which bordered which site.
Also, did you know that River Bends is a former Nike missle site? The best I could tell there were definately conventional-tipped and likely nuclear-tipped Nike Ajax (Convential Only) and/or Nike Hercules (Conventional and Nuclear) Surface-to-Air (and sometimes Surface-to-Surface) missles. Reading online was pointing to the River Bends headquarters as being the old HQ for the Nike site. I guess the one of the basketball courts are original, too. Supposedly there are also some piles of metal scrap that have been identified as parts of launchers and rails used for holding missle rounds. I’m going to go looking for them later on this year, once it’s warmer and I have a GPS. I’ve already got the geiger counter. ;)
River Bends sounds like a GREAT park to explore… It’s got a really good disc golf course, SAM site, that fucked up concrete stairway thing that I’m sure hides something, borders on a toxic waste site *AND* a junkyard, a large sewage line running (you can see the tall blue vents at various points), and an underground entrance (well, FAR below grade) to the Ford plant, just across 22 Mile.
Update to that. Based on these pictures it looks like the one between Ryan and Dequinder on the south side of 23 Mile is G & H Landfill. So that leaves LDI to border River Bends. Now I just need to find it’s exact location… Any idea? Hell, maybe I’ll just go to the township offices one day and pull whatever I can on those sites so I can go exploring. Ooh! Maybe I’ll even trip off an IAO flag and get called.
More update… Do you know why LDI was closed? It seems that there was a gas leak in 1982 which killed two workers. After this the people of Shelby Township sued to enjoin LDI from operating. From this lawsuit they filed permanant bankrupcy. After this the government (I think it was the EPA, maybe not) came in and found all the bad things. Big pits of who knows what, random barrels, etc. You’d think that LDI was just randomly burning things and dumping others. It’s crazy.
Heh. And this, too: http://www.detnews.com/2001/macomb/0110/17/d05-319816.htm. Looks like the treatment facility is doing some good. I have to say, the weird park is creepy looking, but it doesn’t smell like anything beyond pond water. Now I want to go find the capped off 6 acres that used to be LDI. Possibly scale the wall (if I can) and just generally see what’s going on there.
Uggh. It’s 5F outside. I’m going to bed. Goodnight.