A Detroit demolition boss is taking the city to court for $100 million, claiming officials smeared his company by publicly tying it to contaminated backfill and destroying its reputation in the process. The lawsuit lands in the middle of months of soil testing and a mounting cleanup effort, after Detroit flagged hundreds of former demolition lots for potential contamination. Testing at some of those properties has turned up elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other hazardous compounds, triggering extra monitoring and cleanup work at dozens of sites and helping fuel suspensions and criminal inquiries.
What the lawsuit says
According to FOX 2 Detroit, the complaint seeks $100 million in damages and accuses city officials of making public statements that falsely linked the contractor to widespread contamination in the demolition program. Local reporting identifies the company at the center of the dispute as Gayanga Co., and its founder, Brian McKinney, has said the business has shut down and that he filed a defamation lawsuit against the city's Office of Inspector General. Planet Detroit reports that McKinney contends those public statements were false, undercut contracts and long-standing relationships, and ultimately wiped out what he had built over the years. The suit, filed in Wayne County, argues that officials leaned on a limited slice of testing data that, in his view, painted a misleading picture of Gayanga's role in the "dirty dirt" controversy.
How big the 'dirty dirt' problem is
The dirt problem itself has grown well beyond one contractor. Investigations and city testing have steadily widened the scope, and reporting from the Metro Times shows Detroit has now flagged more than 650 former demolition sites for sampling. At some locations, tests have detected arsenic, lead, chromium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the backfill. To keep up with the work, officials requested roughly a $3.5 million increase to an environmental-testing contract to cover sampling at those flagged properties, a price tag that has drawn pointed scrutiny from City Council members. Experts caution that both the number of affected lots and the cost to dig out and replace contaminated fill could rise as additional test results come in.
City tightens testing and source controls
City officials say they are trying to close the barn door before any more bad dirt gets through. Detroit is changing how it vets fill material, now testing soil at the source and increasing oversight, Tim Palazzolo of the Construction & Demolition Department told CBS Detroit. Palazzolo said the city now screens for more than 100 chemical compounds, has cut down the number of approved source pits, and is planning monthly inspections to confirm material meets state residential cleanup criteria. The goal is to keep unvetted soil from being trucked into neighborhoods after houses come down.
Investigations, suspensions and past cases
Detroit's Office of Inspector General temporarily suspended Gayanga last fall while the OIG and Detroit police examined backfill at dozens of demolition sites, BridgeDetroit reported. The current fight echoes earlier chapters in the city's demolition program, including the Den-Man investigation and related prosecutions and cleanup work, which exposed gaps in oversight, as noted by Michigan Public. City officials say they plan to remediate any sites that exceed state standards, then try to claw back those costs from contractors when they believe it is appropriate.
Legal stakes and next steps
City Attorney Graham Anderson told council members that Detroit intends to pursue its own litigation to recover cleanup costs, according to reporting that originally appeared in The Detroit News. Gayanga's lawsuit, meanwhile, argues that city briefings, media presentations, and other public statements relied on selective data and created a distorted image of the company, a claim McKinney has repeated in local coverage. The case is pending in Wayne County Circuit Court and could complicate the timeline for testing and remediation as Detroit continues sampling and cleaning the long list of flagged lots.
