MARQUETTE — At Monday night’s Marquette City Commission meeting, City Manager Karen Kovacs explained that the Michigan Veteran Homes had ended negotiations on the former Cliffs-Dow property as a potential location to build a new D.J. Jacobetti Veterans Home.

The decision was made after failing to resolve liability issues concerning chemical contamination on the property.

MVH said it was willing to take on the responsibility connected with the development of the site associated with contamination. But the city and MVH had always been clear that they could not accept a deal in which they were saddled with “causative liability” for the environmental condition at the site.

Ryan Engle, MVH’s director of development and strategic engagement said that recent communications confirmed both parties were unable to come to an agreement on the site’s liability issues.

Engle said MVH has already begun the process of exploring alternative properties, and will release information about a possible future location for the Jacobetti Veterans Home in the next few weeks.

Cliffs Dow Chemical operated at the site from 1935 to 1968 before closing in 1969. The property sat idle until 1997 when the city of Marquette purchased the 77-acre site for $1.

Tests performed by the Environmental Protection Agency showed large portions of soil were contaminated with black tar. Chemicals discovered from tests included domethylhenol, benzene, phenol, mehytlnaphthalene, and tetrachloroethnoe.

Despite clean-ups of the site, many of these chemical contaminants still exist at the site.

Kovacs said the state was on a tight deadline to make a decision about the Cliffs Dow site in order to keep funding from the state and federal side. “The state notified us today that there will be no further negotiations on that site.”