WHITEHALL – The White Lake area is turning a corner in its
environmental history as work moves from cleaning up hazardous
materials to restoring the area’s wetlands to their natural
condition. Excavation of the wetlands at the former Occidental
Chemical site will start in June, Muskegon Conservation District
Executive Director Jeff Auch said. Most of the work will be to
remove earth and concrete placed into the wetlands to push the
usable shoreline further into the lake for docking during the
area’s industrial period. Once the foreign material is removed,
the seeds of native plants will begin to regenerate the wetland,
Auch said. “That site is actually very clean,” he said. Other
work will include removing black locust trees, which are not
native to Michigan and were likely planted when the property was
a religious retreat, Auch said. The worst of White Lake’s
contamination from the days of tanning leather and manufacturing
chemicals is cleaned up, Auch said, though groundwater
remediation continues at some s