LOCATION: Tar Lake is located east of Highway 131 and south of Elder Road in Mancelona Township, Antrim County.  The site covers approximately 200-acres, and consists of ruins from various iron manufacturing company activities dating back to 1882.

SITE HISTORY: The facility produced iron by the charcoal method until it was shut down in the1940's. A byproduct of the charcoal production was various wood chemicals that were sold and a large quantity of wood tar waste which was deposited in a depression on the site that eventually became known as "Tar Lake". The wood chemical wastes and tar deposit contaminated the groundwater at the site and caused a dissolved iron plume that has migrated approximately 4 miles from the site.

CLEANUP ACTIONS: $ 9.6 million was spent by the USEPA and the property owners to remove and dispose of the waste tar at the site under an emergency removal action. The tar was burned at two power plants to generate electricity. The MDEQ constructed a $275,000 biosparging system to remediate the groundwater at the site. $2 million of FY01 Clean Michigan Initiative (CMI) monies* and $4 million of other state funds have been allocated to supply municipal water to residents affected by the dissolved iron plume and a neighboring trichloroethylene plume. The construction of the water supply will begin in FY2002. Bottled water has been temporarily supplied to Tar Lake plume residents. Approximately $200,000 of FY01 CMI money has been allocated to clean up a remote deposit of creosote on the facility. The USEPA will be funding the remedial action for the site which will address the remaining groundwater and soil contamination. The municipal water supply extension is near completion.

REDEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL: The bulk of the facility is currently owned by the Mancelona Community Resource Development (CRD) and Mancelona Township which plan to redevelop the facility as recreational property with unimpacted portions to be used as a residential area.

Current Assessed Value: $0.00
Zoning: Residential/Public Use    Master Plan Use: Mixed use residential.
Local Incentives: Unknown.
Local Contact Information: Mancelona Township, 231-587-8651, 202 W. State St. Mancelona, 49659.  Or Community Resource Center, 231-587-5052,  205 Grove St. Mancelona, MI 49659.

LOCATION: The facility is located in the city of Mancelona on US Highway 131. Contaminated groundwater extends approximately five miles beyond the facility northwest to the Schuss Mountain/Shanty Creek Resort and the Cedar River. This plume of contamination has a depth of over 400 feet and a width that exceeds 1.25 miles at the plume's leading edge.

SITE HISTORY: The site has operated as a manufacturing facility under various owners since the 1950's. Scrap steel saturated with chlorinated paraffins was stockpiled outside the plant and untreated wastewater was discharged to three earthen seepage pits. In 1985, the United States Environmental Protection Agency installed monitoring wells along the west side of the plant. In 1995, the Department of Environmental Quality requested that the present owner determine the quality of the groundwater downgradient of the existing wells and at deeper depths. This study identified concentrations of trichloroethylene exceeding 1,000 parts per billion.

This plume of contamination has affected wells between Mancelona and Bellaire and at the Schuss Mountain/Shanty Creek Resorts. A portion of the plume discharges into the Cedar River, a high-quality trout stream.

CLEANUP ACTIONS: $6.5 million of FY 01 state CMI monies are being used to provide alternative drinking water to the affected residential wells. This funding will also be used to perform remedial investigation work and a feasibility study. The present owner is designing a groundwater treatment system that will intercept contaminated groundwater at the leading edge of the plume.

REDEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL: Schuss Mountain/Shanty Creek Resorts have discontinued the use of their municipal wells and the local health department has placed a moratorium on the construction of new water supply wells in the area. As a result, many properties and residential lots can not be developed in this recreational and vacation area.