The owner of a Macomb County construction company and another individual must pay $4.7 million to the City of Detroit after using contaminated dirt to fill holes and charging for that free dirt. Den-Man’s owner, David Holman, was also banned from doing business in the city for 20 years and contracting manager, David MacDonald, is forbidden from working with the city for 15 years, according to Detroit’s inspector general.
Den-Man is based in Warren. The disciplinary action was disclosed in a debarment report handed down earlier this week by the Detroit Office of Inspector General. A six-year investigation determined the company was hired to demolish vacant homes and then use the contaminated dirt from Interstates 96 and 94 reconstruction projects and commercial properties to fill the holes left behind.
Toxic materials were found in that dirt, including arsenic and mercury, said Ellen Ha, Detroit’s inspector general. Den-Man allegedly continued using contaminated dirt to fill roughly 90 residential properties throughout Detroit over a two-year period. “By then, they had already received millions of dollars in contracts,” Ha told Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK-TV).
A portion of the $4.7 million fine was used to successfully remove that “dirty” soil and replace it with clean materials, according to WWJ-AM (950). Holman, 48, of Metamora, and contracting manager, David MacDonald, 51, of Howell, were each charged with felonies in Wayne County Circuit Court and were sentenced to p.
