VBT Environmental Commission celebrates new coal tar ordinance

At its Dec. 16 meeting, embers of the Van Buren Township Environmental Commission congratulated themselves on the township’s new ordinance banning the carcinogenic coal tar sealants on driveways, playgrounds, and other surfaces.
The second reading and final approval of the ordinance was given by the township board the day before, on Dec. 15.
Planning and Economic Director Matthew Best, who took the commission’s proposed ordinance to the township attorney and then to the board, said the use of coal tar will be prohibited in the township as of publication of the ordinance in the Independent on Dec. 24.
He said now information on sealants must be placed on the site plans and he believes Craig Atchinson’s Ford project will be the first in the township to have it on a site plan.
Best said the township plans to have a meeting in the spring with those companies that apply sealcoats to explain the ordinance to them before the season begins. He said the plan is for voluntary compliance through education.
Dr. David Wilson, a member of the commission, said Rebecca Esselman of the Huron River Watershed Council said VBT is the only jurisdiction in the country to have a maximum of PAHs allowed, referring to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Best said the New Tech program at Belleville High School is planning to do a project on coal tar by making a commercial on the dangers of coal tar sealant and put it on the VBT cable channel.
Dr. Wilson said he tried to talk to the Belleville Mayor about an ordinance for the city, but he got no response. He said his words to her were like throwing a stone in a deep, deep well and never hearing it hit the water.
He said, “Belleville is an island of evil and darkness in the middle of righteousness.”
Best said that may not be the opinion of the entire board or the entire township.
Commission Chairman David Brownlee said it’s important to get the word out to the average citizens.
Dr. Wilson said VBT will be getting new brochures from the Huron River Watershed Council in the next few weeks that tells the percent limit of PAHs that is safe and the other names for products that have coal tar in them.
“Eventually, coal tar sealant won’t be used anywhere in the country – and that starts with municipalities like us,” Brownlee said.
Dr. Wilson said State Rep. Kristy Pagan is putting together legislation.
Trustee Jeff Jahr, who sits on the Environmental Commission, said a letter to Rep. Pagan should go through the supervisor.
“You and the supervisor can sign a ltter together and that will carry more weight for someone like Pagan and Senator Hopgood,” Best said.
Recycling Road Map
Brownlee is leading the commission’s effort to make a local booklet that lists local places to recycle items and fluids. They were using the Wayne County recycling handbook as a template, “but not all of it is timely or necessarily appropriate,” Brownlee said.
“We want to do it with everything that is appropriate,” Brownlee said, adding that as they get into the new year they can work more on the project. He said this is a long-term project.
“We want to make it easier to recycle and close to home,” he said.
Trustee Jahr said the county booklet says to contact the local police department to get rid of antifreeze and they have to make sure the VBT police department accepts it.
In other business at the 54-minute meeting, the commission:
• Accepted the dates of the commission meetings in 2016, all at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesdays of each month;
• Briefly discussed the proposed Shoreline Ordinance. Best said the next step is for three public meetings with property owners in January and February to answer their private questions one-on-one about their own properties – their shorelines, their docks, their boathouses. Then there will be a regular public hearing in March and ordinance approval in time for the April boating season start; and
• Heard from Best that the Parks and Recreation Department has asked the Building and Planning Department, along with Water and Sewer, to join it in taking part in plans for a Iron Belle Trail that runs all the way from the western edge of the Upper Penninsula to Grosse Ile. It’s Gov. Snyder’s project and funding will be available. There is a hiking route and a biking route that make up the trail. In VBT the hiking route is proposed to run from French Landing Dam west on Huron River Drive through Belleville. It is undecided if it will go through the park, he said. “Parks and Recreation is looking at all its options,” Best said. “It really is conceptual now.” He said the Environmental commission is a natural to take part in this project.