Huber buys home that turns into EPA Superfund project

Dan Huber wants to know how the retirement home he bought in 2023 at 17740 Savage Rd. in Sumpter Township turned into a $2.8 million Environmental Protection Agency Superfund cleanup project.
The EPA refers to the property on its website as “Savage Lead Site.”
He said he did everything right and he still isn’t able to live in his new home. He said the location is perfect since it’s near his grandsons in New Boston and he’ll never get the time back that he planned to spend with them as they grew.
He said he had grown up in a home with a septic tank and never wanted to own a home with a septic system since there were so many problems.
“If it said ‘septic’ I wouldn’t be talking to you now,” he said.
He said when he bought this property from the estate of the late Richard Cashen through Real Estate One the paperwork said it had a public sewer. He said he sued Real Estate One over that misstatement and lost.
The property’s inspection by the township before sale had clearly marked that it had public sewer. The real estate company trusted the township, he said, and that’s why he lost the suit.
He got five permits from the township to completely rebuild his home, including one to put up a pole barn where the septic system was found to be.
The county checked and the septic field failed the inspection and a perk test failed. He contacted EGLE (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy), but they wouldn’t test, so he hired Fibertech and they found lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic in the soil.
The state brought the EPA in and started a Super Fund cleanup. He said now they are 14 feet deep and his house looks like it is on stilts. He said he’s been living with friends and family for three years. He had a chance to retire from his job, but couldn’t because of the delay with his home.
He said they found the contaminants were leaking into the creek and into the Huron River. He said the cleanup contractors told him it looks like the contaminants are on his back property, a couple of his neighbors’ properties, and all the way to Bemis Road, including past the bar and bakery.
He said his property taxes were cut in half when he appealed, but he said they really should be zero. Huber said he wanted to keep squatters away so he had the water turned off completely, but he still keeps getting water bills from the township.
“I got a $160 water bill yesterday,” (Feb. 26), he said, and higher bills before that.
Huber said he found the 1972 original permit was in the township’s file for his property. Property owner James E. Clark got permission to backfill his property with soil from Huron River Steel. He wrote that he already had started the work and wanted to complete it.
The permit was signed by township building official James C. Clark, who noted this would improve the man’s property.
Huber said he couldn’t believe the township had the 1972 permit all along. He has pictures of tires that were buried in his front yard and metal equipment in back.
He said he contacted Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, State Rep. Reggie Miller, and State Senator Darrin Camilleri seeking help, and he credits Dingell’s office with calling him back and contacting the EPA.
He said he and his ex-wife had a $600,000 lake home in Newport and when they split she bought him out and he bought his $183,000 retirement home in Sumpter. It is on a .58-acre site.
“I want to know how this happened,” he said of the series of events in Sumpter that left him homeless.
He said he went to see township manager Ken Marten on Feb. 27 and Marten showed him a second permit for the neighborhood from 1972, this one to Ethul Clarke for the property next door. That one says the backfill came from Huron Valley Steel.
Huber said the cleanup paused recently and the EPA contractors told him that was because the Frost Law went into effect and heavy loads couldn’t travel the roads.