Lansing — A recent study estimated that the $34.9 million cleanup of heavily polluted Muskegon and White Lakes in Western Michigan restored $16.4 million in lost home values for nearby homeowners. I’m here.
The study’s author, George Gardner, concluded that cleaning up toxic hotspots would benefit not only public health and wildlife, but the economy as a whole.
For the analysis, Gardner collected data from 1,283 White Lake home sales and 6,331 Muskegon Lake home sales from 2000 to 2020.
Sales prices were converted to 2020 values using the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index for all cities.
For homes within 0.6 miles of White Lake, the average property value loss without remediation was estimated at $21,590 to $22,882. Repairs reduced the loss to just $7,990 to $10,250.
Until 2014, White Lake was listed as a Great Lakes Area of Concern by the Environmental Protection Agency and Canada. It is one of nine heavily polluted bodies of water ever delisted.
In total, the United States-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement has designated 43 bodies of water in the Great Lakes Basin as “areas of concern.” According to the EPA, AOCs are places that have experienced severe environmental degradation as a result of human actions and compromised the way they are used.
For years, chemical manufacturing plants and Whitehall Leather Co. have deposited heavy metals and chemicals into the lake, causing harmful algae to flourish, foul odors and hair and skin debris to float in Tannery Bay.
Between 2002 and 2012, a series of projects cost $5.3 million to remove 145,700 cubic yards of sediment waste along the White Lake shoreline.
Gardner, an economic analyst at ICF Consulting in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a former EPA postdoctoral fellow, found that home price losses fell from 12.4% to 4.5% after the White Lake cleanup, with a 64% drop in home prices. found to reflect recovery of %.
Born and raised in the White Lakes area, Rich Houtteman is chairman of the White Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Bureau. According to Houtteman, a thriving residential community developed where the tannery operated, with the lake’s densest new housing development since restoration.
In addition to the increase in housing development, Houtteman said there is growing confidence in local commercial fisheries.
“The tannery was in business until the mid-90s,” says Houtteman. “It was well known that their practices had improved, but there is still a lot of residual contamination that people were concerned about.”
“When we were delisted,” that is, removed from the AOC’s list, “I think it strengthened my belief that fish caught in White Lake are as healthy as fish caught in Lake Michigan.” increase.”
Nearly twice the size of White Lake, Muskegon Lake is still polluted with industrial waste such as oil spills, heavy metals and sawmill debris.
Despite being an AOC, Muskegon Lake is still used for recreational activities such as boating and fishing.
Its 2017 and 2018 remediation projects included capping abandoned leaky wells and removing 49,000 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, lead and heavy metals.
Following these cleanup projects, Gardner calculated a 68% recovery in home prices. Homes within 2 miles of him from Muskegon Lake have lost 10.3% of their value due to environmental degradation.
However, the cleanup has regained 7% of the lost value of the residential property.
In May, the EPA completed a multi-decade, $70 million restoration effort at Muskegon Lake, including projects in 2017 and 2018.
Gardner calculated that the homes sold avoided a loss in value of $11.2 million after the 2018 project completion at Muskegon Lake. In January 2016, his three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,519-square-foot Muskegon Lake beach home was priced at $155,700, according to online real estate market firm Zillow. Once cleaned up, in January 2019 the home was valued at $280,3000.
Carrie Selberg-Robinson, Director of Habitat Conservation for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a press release that it is hoped that Muskegon Lake will soon be removed from the Concern List.
According to Muskegon Mayor Ken Johnson, restoring the lake’s ecosystem will have ripple effects throughout the community.
“The City of Muskegon is very appreciative of the tremendous contributions and collaborative work of so many individuals, organizations and agencies at the local, state and federal levels toward cleansing and restoring the Watershed,” Johnson said. said in a press release.
“Muskegon Lake is very important to the well-being of our community, and the City is committed to being excellent stewards of this precious natural resource.
Since the establishment of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, $22.78 billion has been spent on cleanup of AOCs in both countries.
Ohio’s Ashtabula River became the latest AOC to delist in August 2021.
