Detroit River island goes from wasteland to sanctuary

Detroit River Island is going from wasteland to sanctuary.

Excerpt:

For roughly six decades until 1980, Fighting Island in the Detroit River was a white, desolate moonscape, 80% of it covered with 20 million cubic yards of highly acidic brine waste dumped there from a soda ash plant.

Runoff from the island washed into the already polluted river, and pale dust drifted in the wind from the island onto tomato plants and cars in nearby towns. Aerial photos show a stark, barren wasteland in the shadow of steel and coke plants on the shoreline. There were no places for birds to nest or land, no food for deer or squirrels.

But, more than 20 years after the last waste was added to the piles, efforts by its owner, BASF Corp. of Wyandotte, to restore Fighting Island are paying off.

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