December 2025 Meeting Minutes
PINE RIVER SUPERFUND CITIZEN TASK FORCE
General Membership Meeting Minutes
December 17, 2025
Chairperson Brittany Fremion called the meeting to order at 6:59 p.m.
Minutes: A motion for approval for the October minutes from Gary Hoyt and seconded by Doug Brecht.
Treasurer’s Report: The November 30 ending balance in the General Fund was $1,259.93, and in the Velsicol Burn Pit checking account, $258.32. TAG grant money available for the Former Plant Site (FPS) stands at $14,210.09, and for the Velsicol Burn Pit (VBP) at $40,558.26. Gary Smith also reported that we have sent our comments on the NEBA (Net Environmental Benefits Analysis) to the TASC technical advisors and are awaiting their response. Once received, we will terminate the TASC agreement and begin to use the TriTerra environmental company as our TAG technical advisor.
Correspondence and Communications: Brittany made three additions. 1) We received a series of posters made by the CMU class studying interior design. 2) The CAG has completed 27 years of volunteer monitoring of the two Superfund sites in St. Louis, as well as the Breckenridge Radioactive site, the Smith Farm site, the Gratiot County Landfill, and other small areas, such as Horse Creek near the former Total Refinery site. We embark on our 28th year. 3) CAG board member Norm Keon has retired from his job as epidemiologist for 11 Michigan counties after 55 years of service in the public health field.
The CAG shared three interim reports for its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission with EPA in October. The FOIA was for historical records related to radioactive waste at the former plant site (FPS). We received the fourth and final report this week and will share it with EPA.
On November 26th the CAG sent EGLE a request for an emergency work stop order to halt installation of the downgradient vertical barrier wall (DGVBW) until an investigation could be performed to determine if contaminants were mobilized during the work, following concerns about upgraded PPE and respiratory gear for workers on site (see discussion under EGLE below).
EGLE responded to the CAG letter on December 3rd and, after reviewing our concerns, found “no evidence that the installation of the DGVBW is causing the migration of contaminants to the Pine River and thus endangering the downstream ecosystem.”
The CAG received a response from EPA for its OU4 NEBA letter on December 3rd.
Doug Brecht, Tech Support, shared news articles related to rural community concerns about data centers in Michigan, state and federal funding for brownfield redevelopment, changes in federal regulations of forever chemicals, and EGLE’s MiEnviro Portal for environmental complaints (https://www.michigan.gov/egle/maps-data/mienviroportal).
Science Journal for Kids article is under final review with companion curriculum for middle and high school students. The article translates a PBB State of the Science paper on health impacts from PBB exposure and is funded by the CAG (not with federal funds).
EPA Community Involvement Coordinator sent a Velsicol Site update email, December 11, 2025.
CAG prepared press releases for December community potluck and meeting, as well as election results.
The CAG is prepared a letter to EPA with follow-up questions related to DGVBW installation, sent December 12, 2025.
Doug shared an article from the Gratiot County Herald about the Private Lands Wildlife Habitat, a nature preserve and preservation project on 30-acres in St. Louis on Gruett Road. The couple responsible for this work emailed the CAG and presented their work during the potluck this evening.
Downgradient Vertical Barrier Wall: The contractors completed work installing the wall on December 5th. As mentioned above, prior to the work ending, the CAG had requested EGLE ask the State Attorney General to issue an emergency stop order on installation of the sheet pile wall when a sudden change in worker PPE occurred. A community member noticed in mid November that the workers installing king piles for the metal wall were no longer wearing regular white Tyvek suits but had upgraded to yellow chemical suits and respirators. When we asked the AECOM contractors about the change, we were told that some of the odors from drilling were irritating to the workers and the change in protective gear was not required for health and safety reasons. Our perusal of the published safety plans showed no expectation of an upgrade. After our letter asking for the stop order was received by EGLE, new safety plans were published on the EPA website. Because of this discrepancy, and others, we have felt that our concerns about what happened have not been adequately answered. At Brittany’s workplace, Central Michigan University, she was approached by a community member who said a worker on site filed a MIOSHA complaint. Erik Martinson, EGLE project manager for our sites, was asked during the meeting if he could confirm that a complaint had been filed, and he said MIOSHA did visit the site (Erik confirmed later via email that an anonymous MIOSHA complaint was filed and the agency visited the site on December 9th as part of an investigation). Board Member Jim Hall asked if workers had worn air monitoring badges, and Rob Franks, unit supervisor at EGLE, said he assumed that they had not. Jim asked if air monitoring in the boring itself had taken place at different elevations, and Erik said he understood that had happened. Fixed monitors were apparently located on the east boundary of the plant site. Gary Smith asked Erik and Rob if we could see the recorded numbers, as well as those from the manholes that the DNAPL collection trench empties into. He said he fears a lateral near one of the manholes was impacted by the drilling. Rob said given everything this community has gone through, he doesn’t blame us for asking questions, and that he would try to get us answers. He also asked if it would be helpful for us to see the health and safety notes taken on site daily. We would like to see those, and Tom Corbett also asked if we could see the MIOSHA complaint.
EGLE report: In other business, Erik Martinson said he hopes he may be able to share Weston’s final report of the dead bird study with us in late January. The aging fish study is due to begin early in 2026. He had spoken with Jim Tischler of the State of Michigan Land Bank about our concerns with the DGVBW and radioactive waste. Our letter sent months ago to Tischler asking for clarification on his stance about radiation at the former plant site has not received a response. The CAG wants to meet with the Land Bank to continue our conversation about redevelopment, as had been discussed two years ago when Tischler made a presentation at our CAG meeting.
EPA Report: No one from EPA was in attendance, which is not unusual for the December meeting. Community Involvement Coordinator, Diane Russell, emailed a written update about work at the FPS and VBP to the Velsicol Site email list. The completion of barrier wall construction and a tour of the plant site by students, upcoming OU3 and OU4 work, and ISTT project at the VBP were the main activities mentioned.
Wildlife Habitat: Stephanie and Mark Handy, who live just north of the Burn Pit Site on Gruett Road, are developing a nature preserve on their 30 acres. Before the business meeting began, the Handy’s spoke to the Christmas Potluck gathering about their research into the history of Billy Gruett, a mail carrier for the St. Louis area in the 1850’s via Indian trails, and also the discovery of his gravestone and its refurbishing, with help from the City of St. Louis. Stephanie has written a book about Gruett that will be available on Amazon soon, entitled William (Billy) Gruett and the Witness Tree: A forgotten Hero of Michigan’s Pioneer Trails. During the meeting, the Handy’s expressed concern about possible contamination from Michigan Chemical/Velsicol on their property.
Ongoing Business:
CAG Election Results: Chairperson Brittany Fremion; Treasurer, Gary Smith; Secretary, Jane Jelenek; Board Members: Jim Hall, Margaret Hoyt, Norm Keon, Ed Lorenz
Website traffic increased greatly this month, Ed Lorenz reported. Unique visitors were up by 60%. The largest increase was from outside the U.S., with many from Asia. Ed believes the cause might be the recent publication in China of research studies on the health effects of PBB.
The Michigan PBB Registry will host a virtual evening meeting on March 24, with several of our CAG members taking part in the panel discussion. Also, the cancer data cleaning is well underway with data from both Michigan and Florida being matched to records from the original PBB longterm health study.
New Business: Tom Corbett of the PBB Citizen Advisory Board is heading up a poetry contest for high school students will tie into the PBB disaster that took place in the 1970s in Michigan, when Velsicol chemical sent the wrong feed bags to an animal feed mill, causing the fire retardant PBB to enter the human food chain.
Motion to adjourn made by Gary Hoyt at 8:49 p.m. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted
Jane Jelenek, Sec‘y