Marysville
Work on Cuttle Creek restoration project set to start
MARYSVILLE, Mich. (AP) - Work on the $2.4 million Cuttle Creek restoration project started Monday in Marysville and is expected to help increase the fish habitat in the area.
The creek will be dug out and reshaped to make room for new rocks that Project Control Engineering president John Monte says will create structures to attract spawning fish, the Times Herald of Port Huron reported.
The creek, located about 50 miles northeast of Detroit, runs through Marysville Golf Course and flows into the St. Clair River. New vegetation will be planted and a new golf cart bridge will be built.
Marysville secured a $1.4 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the work. Monte said that will cover the cost of the excavation, rocks and the bridge, but the additional $1 million is needed for vegetation.
"The excavation, rock structure placement and bridge will be completed this winter, as long as we don't see too harsh of weather. That's phase one," Monte said. "Phase two includes the vegetation that will be planted in spring and fall of 2015."
Marysville city manager Randy Fernandez said the project "originally came in over budget by $1 million," but says officials believe they'll get the additional grant "by the end of the year." According to Monte, officials anticipate the rest of the money will be released by the EPA.
All three projects involve habitat restoration.
Detroit
Some homeowners
DETROIT (AP) - Some residents of a southwest Detroit neighborhood that's near an expanded Marathon oil refinery say they're stuck after not being included in a home buyout program.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. completed a $2.2 billion expansion of its facility two years ago. Marathon officials earlier created a home buyout program in Oakwood Heights that allowed some residents to sell their homes. The owners of 266 of 294 properties participated.
But only roughly 10 owners in the Boynton neighborhood, to the southeast of the refinery, were offered buyouts, The Detroit News reported reported.
"No one will buy this house now - it's only worth about $15,000 and it's in good shape," said Emma Lockridge, 61, whose family has lived in her home since the 1950s. "I'm still trying to make Marathon buy it because they should."
Marathon said it has no plans to offer additional buyouts, and notes it didn't offer a buyout in Boynton because the area already qualifies for federal assistance under a program that targets communities hit by abandonment and foreclosures.
Marathon "offered the buyout program to Oakwood Heights residents because the ... expansion resulted in the refinery's operational footprint moving closer to the neighborhood," Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry told the newspaper in an email. "Also, the neighborhood was essentially a residential island, surrounded by industry and the Rouge River, with little or no buffer between them."
For homeowners in Oakwood Heights, which was bypassed for federal funding, Marathon's buyout plan included a minimum purchase price of $50,000, an expense allowance totaling $5,000, $500 for legal counseling and $1,500 in assistance for a new mortgage.
Both neighborhoods have been in decline, dealing with abandoned homes, increased crime and the odor, noise and dust that come with living near a refinery. Interstate 75 is nearby, along with a wastewater treatment and railroad tracks.
Boynton residents said things have gotten worse since Marathon's expansion.
"That smell and everything (comes) right in my front door," said Jacqueline Smith, 69. "It's so devastating, I can't breathe. I get dizzy."
Marathon's permits have allowed the facility to emit more material into the air, said Jorge Acevedo, a senior environmental engineer with the state Department of Environmental Quality. The increases, however, are all within the levels permitted under the federal Clean Air Act.
Published: Tue, Dec 02, 2014
