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Feature : Chrysler's New Mack Plant DaimlerChrysler Receives National Honor for Rebirth of Mack Engine Site
Auburn Hills, Mich. – DaimlerChrysler Corp. is being nationally recognized for its massive redevelopment of a former Detroit stamping facility, which a presidential council is describing as a model for how corporations and communities can reclaim abandoned, polluted industrial sites. The President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) and Renew America have named DaimlerChrysler a winner of the 1999 National Award for Sustainability for the restoration of the former Mack Stamping facility, today home to two modern engine plants employing hundreds of people in the city of Detroit.
Over 1,000 of the nation's business, community and government leaders are expected in Detroit, with thousands more participating in concurrent events through satellite links and the Internet. "We felt strongly all along that redevelopment of the Mack Avenue property made good economic sense for the company as well as good environmental sense for the community," said Ronald Boltz, DaimlerChrysler Senior Vice President - Product Strategy and Regulatory Affairs. "We're proud to be honored by this prestigious group for our corporate commitment to the city of Detroit and the environment." President Bill Clinton created the PCSD in June 1993 to develop bold, new approaches to integrate economic, environmental and equity issues. The council is a groundbreaking partnership of diverse leaders from business; multiple levels of government; and community, environmental, labor and civil rights organizations. DaimlerChrysler has spent more than nine years and $1.6 billion in the cleanup and construction of state-of-the art engine manufacturing plants on the former brownfield site. The Mack Avenue Engine Complex is located in the heart of Detroit's federally designated Empowerment Zone, and today employs a workforce of 800, expected to more than double by the year 2000. DaimlerChrysler is the largest corporate investor in the Empowerment Zone. The Mack Avenue Engine Complex provided $6.1 million in taxes in 1998 and is expected to provide $7.6 million in taxes this year. The company's investment in the Mack site also has spurred $50 million in activity with suppliers located in the Empowerment Zone. The cleanup, demolition and remediation of the 34-acre Mack site was staggering in its comprehensiveness. More than 10 million pounds of PCB-contaminated debris, concrete and equipment were removed, in addition to more than 1.5 million pounds of asbestos-containing materials, including 15 miles of asbestos-covered pipe and 87,000 square feet of floor tiles. Eighteen acres of contaminated walls and floors were power-washed before being demolished. Eleven million gallons of contaminated water were sanitized and safely disposed. Even the sewer system under the property was cleaned.
The Mack facility, originally built in 1916 by the Michigan Stamping Co., was operated for years by the Briggs Manufacturing Co., which produced Plymouth bodies for Chrysler Corp. until 1953. Chrysler, now DaimlerChrysler Corp., purchased the Briggs plant in 1953 and continued to make car bodies until Mack Stamping was closed during the company's financial crisis in 1979. The city of Detroit purchased the property in 1982 with hopes of revitalizing the site. Those plans never materialized. In 1990, Chrysler and the city responded to a directive from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up dangerous materials at the site, including polychlorinated biphenyls, spilled onto the property by vandals who tore open electrical transformers that contained PCBs. By 1996, Chrysler began construction on its $900 million engine plant, Mack Avenue Engine I facility, which opened in mid-1998 and began producing 150,000 4.7-liter V-8 engines a year for Jeep Grand Cherokees. DaimlerChrysler has invested $750 million in the development of a second engine plant, Mack II, that will manufacture an additional 300,000 engines annually once it opens next year. The plants were developed under DaimlerChrysler's progressive "Design for the Environment" guidelines to safeguard the site from future environmental problems. These initiatives include: spill containment procedures; conservation and reuse of water; minimal air emissions; and recycling programs for metal, wood, plastic, paper, cardboard and oil. The plants also are free of ozone-damaging CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons. In addition, equipment coatings are water-based and free of heavy metals, and lighting is energy efficient, using little or no mercury. DaimlerChrysler is a globally recognized leader in environmental protection.
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