The Gratiot County Golf Course sits on a 5-acre property in St. Louis, Michigan. Michigan Chemical Corporation, later known as Velsicol Chemical Corporation, burned and disposed of hazardous chemicals there from 1956 to 1970. Those chemicals included the pesticide DDT. The disposal contaminated both soil and groundwater. EPA added the site to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 2010, though an earlier round of construction work was completed in 1983 and the site was briefly deleted from the NPL on September 8, 1983.
The contaminants of concern are in soil and groundwater. The main risk comes from people ingesting or coming into contact with those contaminants. Short-term exposure pathways that could cause unacceptable risks are being controlled, but the site has not reached full human exposure control. Contaminated groundwater continues to move and has not been contained to the original area.
Cleanup work has happened in stages. An initial cleanup in 1982 removed contaminated soils. A separate cleanup at neighboring sites addressed groundwater beneath the golf course area. In 2006, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) investigated the former burn area as part of a broader look at the nearby Velsicol Chemical Corp. site. Both MDEQ and EPA concluded that additional cleanup was needed. Federal, state, and potentially responsible party actions are being used to develop a cleanup plan. Physical construction work is listed as complete, but cleanup goals for current and future land uses have not all been met, and required controls are still being put in place. The golf course has continued to operate throughout the investigation process.
The EPA's Community Involvement Coordinator and Remedial Project Manager handle community outreach and cleanup coordination for the site. Community members with questions about the site, cleanup progress, or reuse planning can contact either of them.
