Cleanup of Contaminated Site Provides Home of State-of-the-Art DaimlerChrysler Engine Plant:
19 August 1999
Cleanup of Contaminated Site Provides Home of State-of-the-Art DaimlerChrysler Engine Plant:
* Site restores 800 jobs to city of Detroit; Employment to reach 2,000
* Restoration of "brownfield" site signals commitment to
environmental stewardship and economic development in Detroit
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. and STUTTGART, Germany, Aug. 19 --
DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Mack Avenue Engine Plant, located on
a once-abandoned, contaminated site in the heart of the City of Detroit, today
employs 800 workers in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. It opened
its doors in 1998. When a second engine plant opens next year, total
employment on the Mack site will more than double and will eventually reach
about 2,000.
The redevelopment of the Mack Avenue site has not only restored a decaying
and potentially dangerous site, it has also brought much needed jobs and new
economic vitality to the inner city of Detroit. The Mack Avenue Engine
Complex is expected to provide $7.6 million in taxes this year. The company's
investment in the Mack site also has spurred $50 million in activity with
suppliers located in the area.
DaimlerChrysler has spent more than nine years and more than $1.6 billion
in the cleanup of the 34-acre site and construction of the engine plants.
That commitment to urban redevelopment was recognized by the President's
Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) and Renew America, which named
DaimlerChrysler a winner of the 1999 National Award for Sustainability in May
of this year. The President's Council called the redevelopment a model of how
corporations and communities can reclaim abandoned polluted industrial sites.
DaimlerChrysler is the only automaker recognized by the President's Council.
The cleanup was the result of an unprecedented partnership among
DaimlerChrysler, the city of Detroit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), and the State of Michigan.
The Mack facility, built in 1916 by the Michigan Stamping Co., produced
auto bodies for the former Chrysler Corporation for more than six decades
until the plant was closed in 1979. Chrysler, which purchased the plant in
1953, sold the facility to the City of Detroit in 1982, but plans for
redevelopment never materialized.
In 1990, Chrysler and the City of Detroit responded to a directive from
EPA to clean up dangerous materials at the site, including polychlorinated
biphenyls spilled onto the property by vandals who tore open electrical
transformers that contained PCBs.
Contaminated oil, tracked through the site by rogue salvagers, permeated
the grounds. Massive pits filled with water, debris and impacted oil lay
exposed, the work of vandals and the elements. Enough scrap metal to build
20,000 cars clogged the site. Stray dogs and cats roamed through weeds and
brush more than five feet high. In the cleanup:
* More than 10 million pounds of PCB-contaminated debris, concrete and
equipment were removed and properly disposed.
* More than 1.5 million pounds of asbestos-containing materials,
including 15 miles of asbestos-covered pipe and 87,000 square feet of floor
tiles, were removed.
* 18 acres of contaminated walls and floors were power-washed before
being demolished.
* More than 16 million tons of non-hazardous soil and debris were hauled
from the site.
* Eleven million gallons of contaminated water were sanitized and safely
disposed.
As much debris and waste as possible was recycled, including most of the
steel from the demolition process and the brick and concrete from the
structures, which was crushed and used as fill in the drained pits. Even the
sewer system under the property was cleaned.
After the six-year, $29 million cleanup and demolition program, Chrysler
determined that the New Mack and Old Mack sites would be an ideal location for
a new engine complex and entered into an agreement with the city to buy back
the property.
With an initial investment of $900 million, Chrysler in 1996 began turning
the New Mack site into a state-of-the-art V-8 engine plant, including one
million square feet of machine and office space and additional buildings for
support services. "Not only is today's Mack Plant worker-friendly, with
state-of-the-art air conditioning, natural lighting and ergonomically
correct design, the plant has built-in safeguards against future environmental
problems," says Jim Duffy, Plant Manger, Mack Avenue Engine Plant,
DaimlerChrysler.
Those safeguards -- DaimlerChrysler's "Design for the Environment"
initiatives -- include: installation of underground spill-containment systems,
including secondary containment in chemical handling areas; more efficient use
of water, including the reuse of treated wastewater where appropriate; minimal
use of hazardous and regulated materials; use of water-based instead of
solvent-based coatings; and energy-efficient lighting using little or no
mercury.
By the time Mack Engine I opened in 1998, DaimlerChrysler was ready to
break ground on a second, $750 million V-6 engine plant next door on the site
of the Old Mack plant.
Together, the two plants will bring as many as 2,000 DaimlerChrysler jobs
to Detroit, building on DaimlerChrysler's leadership role as the city's
largest employer.
DaimlerChrysler's redevelopment of the Mack site stands in contrast to the
approach of other automakers who have chosen to locate manufacturing
facilities on previously undeveloped "greenfield" sites. "We determined the
company could be creative enough to overcome some of the challenges of
locating in an urban area," said James Carlson, Director, Pollution
Prevention and Remediation, DaimlerChrysler. "If corporate America doesn't
reinvest in urban areas where we sell products, over time we will be changing
society in a way that won't be healthy."