Zug Island

[renf]

There were recent reports of possible pollution coming from the plant on Zug Island owned by DTE that produces coke for
making steel. This is one of very few coke plants in the nation.
I believe that DTE asserted they were in compliance with current environmental regulations

What else is produced now on Zug Island? I presume the
steel plant is now closed. In the past, the slab steel produced there was shipped by an automated train on the Delray Connection Railroad to a plant in Ecorse where is was made
into a marketable product. Is that plant in Ecorse also closed?

Early in the Obama administration, I think that MSU, Michigan and several other local large employers sought to
establish a facility on Zug Island to test wind turbine blades.
I think the Obama Administration decided to establish the
wind turbine testing facility in South Carolina.

[Richard]

There is still demand based production going on there albeit on a smaller scale,enough though for the Sierra club to join the lawsuit against DTE and others over pollution levels.

They say the hum l,that there is a thread on was caused by a crack in a melting pot bell tower that has been fixed,are people still experiencing the hum?

The biggest question is,we have a trillion dollar infrastructure investment goal,where are we going to get the materials in order to achieve that goal when we have systematically stripped the production capabilities in this country.

I am not sure the taxpayers should be on the hook for spending millions on wind turbine testing facilities,the city may have dodged a bullet on that one,there are thousands of wind turbines in use being tested every day.

I think the plan was to establish a wind turbine farm on the island to provide power to the city,until they came to the realization that there is not enough land there to even think about it.

The majority plant has been idled,not permanently closed.

The largest steel production plant in the world that supplied the steel that built America has become a reflection on who we are as a country.

So we need steel to re-build our infrastructure,all we really did was move it into somebody else’s back yard,the war in Ukraine has ramped up the use of coal and nuclear power in Europe,so the draw down of pollution has only been offset by the increased demand.

The taconite fields in Minnesota that created the shipping industry that brought it to Zug island dried up in the late 70s,so not really sure if the raw materials still even exist at that level to make production even close to what it once was.

Every city has industrial zones that are dirty and polluting,necessary evils.

Michigan as a state has a massive base that supplies the rail industry with finished products,rails,wheels etc. that requires lots of steel,I am not sure where they are getting their steel from now.

Encorse was also idled,with the loss of 200 jobs locally,the other 1300 job losses came from Zug island,but was regained as production was moved to Gary Indiana,which at the time made Detroit look like Manhattan when it came to devastated community’s.

From a national security stand point,they cannot permanently close down all of our steel making capabilities,it’s okay now because China has our backs with supplies,California found out the hard way with bridge collapses from cheap Chinese steel that become very expensive.

One kinda figures if we are going to throw a trillion dollars at something we could also be able to figure out how to produce the materials needed in a less polluting manner,other then the stance of,its polluting,get rid of it,people still have to eat.

They switched from steel to plastic in the majority of production,funny thing is you do not see billions of tons of steel being washed up on beaches across the world or filling up landfalls.

In the grand scale of pollution generating industry it would be interesting to find out which one actually is more environmentally devastating between the two.

When one looks at the dangers of an industrial based city and the toxins released on the population,one would think a silicone valley situation would be cleaner,but when it comes to worker safety with cancer causing releases and toxins released into the atmosphere,silicone valley is worse then Detroit almost by double,they just hide it better.

[renf]

Thank you for all of this valuable information. I appreciate your
observations about the nation's need to retain its manufacturing infastructure.

[Dumpling]

https://www.mlive.com/public-interes...n-lawsuit.html

There is a photo of Zug Island with this MLive article. In the foreground is an area of raw coal piles delivered by lakers for the coke battery. The island employs several people who push the coal around with Terex type movers. The apices of the coal piles were moved inland after the riverfront industrial collapses in about 2019. There is an unpaved access road past these piles to a small building housing sampling pumps, analyzers, and samplers for the GLWA WRRF DRO-1 outfall, usually the wastewater plant's main outfall. Lakers take away the finished coke as well, but from an area on the far side of the island, very close to West Jefferson Avenue. There is still rail activity on the island but the Ecorse steel mill did close.

Besides the coke battery and the mothballed BOF iron production areas, that is the only activity on Zug that I know of, unless one includes the security force and the wildlife.

If the photo were to be taken today the Gordie Howe bridge would be very visible in the background. The steel producing area had not been shuttered at the time this photo was taken. It looks as though the Stormont truck ferry has just departed from the United States in the photo.

[Richard]

Social media posts, recently — and erroneously — suggested the mill was being closed later this month. One Facebook poster later said he regretted spreading misinformation, which was was "completely wrong."

Steel mill at Zug Island still operating with a fraction of the workforce it once had

https://www.freep.com/story/money/bu...ng/4126148001/

[Dumpling]

It looks like the tug Wilf Seymour is moving out a load of coke from Zug today. Coke is moved from Zug by rail car as well.

https://mckeil.com/our-fleet/wilf-seymour

I learned which boat was moving the coke from Marine Traffic which I learned about from fellow DetroitYes posters.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...42.268/zoom:13

[Henry Whalley]

I knew a Hungarian family who lived in Delray. The air always had a heavy sulfurous or underworldly quality. This family's home was a few doors down from a funeral home that hosted gypsy funerals. What follows may be apocryphal or not PC, but I was told that gypsies would come from all over the country to pay their respects; that these funerals could last for weeks; and often an observance ended only when one of the attendees was knifed or shot. They told me that not many funeral homes allowed gypsy funerals.

I don't mean to offend anyone by this story, but it's my favorite legend from the days of Delray.

P.S. There must have been a disease like black lung -- call it yellow lung -- that came from living so close to Zug Island.

[jcole]

I'm Hungarian and don't recall any attendee being shot or knifed at a family funeral, but that's not to say that there were some who my relatives would probably LIKED to dispatch.

I knew a Hungarian family who lived in Delray. The air always had a heavy sulfurous or underworldly quality. This family's home was a few doors down from a funeral home that hosted gypsy funerals. What follows may be apocryphal or not PC, but I was told that gypsies would come from all over the country to pay their respects; that these funerals could last for weeks; and often an observance ended only when one of the attendees was knifed or shot. They told me that not many funeral homes allowed gypsy funerals.

I don't mean to offend anyone by this story, but it's my favorite legend from the days of Delray.

[Henry Whalley]

I'm Hungarian and don't recall any attendee being shot or knifed at a family funeral, but that's not to say that there were some who my relatives would probably LIKED to dispatch.

You gotta' be a gypsy, or it doesn't apply. Same goes for the joke "How do you make Chicken Paprikash?"

[Dumpling]

Wayne Soap was apparently the worst offender in creating a stench for the Delray area though there were/are others.

From the AtDetroit wayback archive:

https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mess...tml?1168175157

A further thread on Delray:

http://www.old-delray.com/forum/index.php?topic=55.0

The Peter's Rock church building on Dearborn Street is currently being demolished - I guess back in the sixties it was the Hungarian Reformed Church:

http://www.old-delray.com/images/Maps/DelrayMap5.jpg



The Wayne Soap plant explosion maybe happened in May of 1966 based on the descriptive story in the May 11, 1966 Detroit Free Press. I like the Action Line tip about alternative shoe laces...whatever did we do before we had Velcro straps to close our shoes?

https://www.newspapers.com/image/974...X_DVx-fiaTnUko

But they did get Wayne Soap up and running again. It was a rendering plant. It smelled so awful in the eighties.

Robert Takacs recalls, "my stepdad helped build the Reformed Church" [that would become St. Peter's Rock Church that's a pile of bricks right now in November 2022].

http://www.old-delray.com/GrowingUpInDelray-Takacs.htm

[Henry Whalley]

http://www.old-delray.com/GrowingUpInDelray-Takacs.htm

Those memories of old Delray are precious. Back in the days when growing up in Detroit was wholesome and secure. Thanks for sharing.

[Dumpling]

I appreciated that detailed picture of Delray in its heyday. It was a wonderful neighborhood from that description. My ancestors didn't live in Delray or even Detroit at that time, but rather in outstate Michigan.

I am guessing that the wastewater plant expansions had a combined footprint of 0.8 square miles that were formerly neighborhoods in Delray and that originally there was about 3.7 square miles to accommodate its peak population of 24,000 in 1930. That gives an estimated population density of 6,500 per square mile.

The Wilf Seymour and its coke are closing in on Hamilton, Ontario.

[preserve]

I remember signage along Jefferson that indicated Scott Paper was also on Zug Island???

[MikeM]

I remember signage along Jefferson that indicated Scott Paper was also on Zug Island???

Across the Rouge from Zug Island. And across Jefferson from the sewage plant.

[Henry Whalley]

Across the Rouge from Zug Island. And across Jefferson from the sewage plant.

Toilet paper plant right next to shit plant. Makes sense.

[Dumpling]

Tell me more about the Scott Paper plant on or near Zug Island. I am not aware of its existence myself. There is a distribution center next to Zug Island and the wastewater plant, which is Evans Distribution Systems; they could well distribute paper products but I don't know that for a fact; let me know if so!

https://www.google.com/search?q=evan...hrome&ie=UTF-8

A neighboring business on the south side of West Jefferson but on the west side of the River Rouge is the Carmeuse Lime Plant. Someone posted extensive drone shots of this plant and the surrounding area two years ago: August 9, 2020. From my vantage point on my commute to work the pipes look like rusty bent drinking straws belonging to the Jolly Green Giant.

The drone views connect the straws to the rest of the plant which can't be seen very well on the other side of the bulk piles that the lakers bring.
The river has a high water level and there is quite a bit of standing water around the nearby tanks. Bulk piles on Zug have their apices moved inland due to the high water level. [Start at 3:00 to see Zug in the distance.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8Jlr5rtf8

There's this from an archive [Nailhed's site is blocked for me]:

https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc28028_6

And this:

https://digitalcollections.detroitpu...ndora%3A145630

The plant was at 9131 West Jefferson Avenue.

It is shown as Scott Paper on the handwritten map referenced in the above post about Delray>

http://www.old-delray.com/images/Maps/DelrayMap5.jpg

The closest currently operating facility to this address is the Biosolids Facility at 9125 West Jefferson Ave.

Zug tug Wilf Seymour remains sitting in Hamilton Harbour next to a ship whose country code is BS. I did have to look that one up - it is the country code for the Bahamas.

https://documentation.spire.com/ais-...rrestrial-ais/

This YouTube channel is new to me. There is one video of a walking tour in Delray near Zug island.

https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingTime1

In about 1966 the Scott Paper company threatened to move operations and jobs elsewhere if it was not allowed to continue dumping into the Rouge River, so it was a working plant that year.

https://www.learngala.com/cases/rouge-river-mi/6

I can't find any documentation via a Google search as to when the Scott Paper plant on West Jefferson closed. However, according to one reference on the history of Kimberly-Clark, Charmin was introduced and advertised by competitor Procter and Gamble in 1971 and quickly became the most popular toilet tissue. Kimberly-Clark/Scott introduced Cottonelle in 1976 to take back market share. I would look for the Scott Paper plant on W. Jefferson to have closed sometime between 1971 and 1976.

[canuck]

Just sayin', I found a quaint ad for Charmin from da fifties.

https://youtu.be/v8JEIQPkhf8

[softailrider]

You gotta' be a gypsy, or it doesn't apply. Same goes for the joke "How do you make Chicken Paprikash?"

Is the punch line "first of all you steal some chicken"?

[Henry Whalley]

Is the punch line "first of all you steal some chicken"?

That's it

[Dumpling]

The TP timeline needs to be corrected and revised. Charmin has been around since about 1928 when it was invented and sold by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay Wisconsin. Procter and Gamble purchased Hoberg /Charmin in 1957. Cottonelle was first marketed in 1972 according to this timeline:

https://www.supplytime.com/Blogs/Blo...mberly%20Clark.

Apparently P&G has introduced Charmin on a number of separate occasions even after 1957 even though it has been around since 1928.

[canuck]

The TP timeline needs to be corrected and revised. Charmin has been around since about 1928 when it was invented and sold by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay Wisconsin. Procter and Gamble purchased Hoberg /Charmin in 1957. Cottonelle was first marketed in 1972 according to this timeline:

https://www.supplytime.com/Blogs/Blo...mberly%20Clark.

Apparently P&G has introduced Charmin on a number of separate occasions even after 1957 even though it has been around since 1928.

I also get a kick looking at the timeline of packaging. The fifties/sixties/seventies wrapping featured baby faces and then they swapped for big ole teddy bears.

[Dumpling]

I'll start this post with a Metro Times article from way back in the 2000s when Michigan was in a one state recession and police were laid off.

https://www.metrotimes.com/news/men-in-black-2184578

Towards the end of this article it is said that most of the security detail consists of laid-off police officers.

From around that time this is the "closed" atdetroit thread mentioning panhandlers:

https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mess...tml?1147654605


Good for Al Jazeera for publishing this in November 2013:

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...fdowntown.html


This week we have this obituary:

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/few...thwest-detroit

The details that are given comport with the personal appearance of a man who was a panhandler for a couple of years at the intersection of Dearborn and Harbaugh street next to the former Hungarian Reformed Church. At the time he was panhandling, the building was home to Peter's Rock Church. He would panhandle in the street while the churchgoers in their Sunday finery parked their cars along Dearborn Street and spent their Sunday in that church.

The year he started panhandling on Dearborn Street might have been 2013 or it might have been a year or two later. By 2019 he was no longer out there.

He would stand in the center of the street. He didn't stand right in front of any cars, but he did stand in the street; if he wanted to, he could step in front of your moving car or thump it to get your attention. But he didn't do this and he tried to panhandle in a friendly way. I'd wave back but never did give him any money. One day he was gone and never came back...but looks like he was just a few feet away from Dearborn Street all this time up to now. I can't remember seeing him smoking.

And a few feet from the now abandoned church which did have a fire at the beginning of this month apparently:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...e/69619238007/

I don't believe the steeple is still standing as of 11/20/2022 but there is a pile of blocks and bricks at the location.