It could be up to a decade before the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finished cleaning up the site of the former Grand Traverse Overall Supply Company on Cherry Bend Road in Elmwood Township.
BROWNFIELD REDEVELOPMENT Authority officials and interested citizens gathered Tuesday at a federal Superfund site to hear EPA official Linda Martin explain efforts to clean up the former Grand Traverse Overall Supply site next to the now-closed Norris School. From left are authority members Bill Drozdalski and Eric Winkelman as well as Harvey Norris whose family historically owned the school property, Martin, and Jim Scherrer of Child and Family Services, which is considering a move to the Norr
Located next door to the now-closed Norris Elementary School, the former drycleaning facility is a federal “Superfund” site. Federal funding is being used to clean up hazardous chemicals that seeped into soil on the site decades ago and now affects groundwater quality between Cedar Lake and West Grand Traverse Bay.

On Tuesday, members of the Leelanau County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (LCBRA) and several interested citizens heard a briefing from EPA remedial project manager Linda Martin from Chicago who also led them on a tour of Leelanau County’s only Superfund site.

Martin said it costs the federal government at least $100,000 per year just to operate and maintain a “vapor extraction system” that keeps fumes from the polluted groundwater from entering the Norris School building. Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan is considering acquiring the old school building from Traverse City Area Public Schools and possibly using the Superfund site as a parking area.
A VACANT lot covered by a concrete slab and asphalt is all that remains of the former Grand Traverse Overall Supply site on Cherry Bend Road in Elmwood Township. Officials and citizens gathered there Tuesday to review plans by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the contaminated site using federal Superfund money.
“There is nothing that would prevent (the school purchase) from happening,” said Martin. “There are no restrictions on the use of the school building. But at some point we will need to remove additional soils from the former Grand Traverse Overall Supply site. Water pumping, treating and monitoring of the site could continue for quite a few years – 5 to 10 depending on how things clean up,” she said.

Child and Family Services director Jim Scherrer, who attended the briefing and toured the site this week, said his agency is still exploring its options.

The Charter Township of Elmwood, meanwhile, has rezoned the site from “residential” to “neighborhood commercial” to accommodate Child and Family Services. (A story on the rezoning action appears on Page 9 of Section 2 in this edition.)