The latest, although not unexpected, controversy from the Duggan administration’s demolition program is hundreds of sites backfilled with toxic dirt. Testing was supposed to have completed by last month, but the data shows many sites still need to be tested on the West side. Researchers have been raising the alarm on demolition dirt for many years. RJ Koscielniak published his dissertation work in 2019 on “Ground Forces: Dirt, Demolition, and the Geography of Decline in Detroit, Michigan.” Examining backfill dirt sources from 2014 to 2018, RJ found 75% of backfill sources were development projects in the suburbs.