|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
July 20, 2003McManus steps out of district to help friendDeveloper says he filled wetlands to plant cropsByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - State Sen. Michelle McManus has roamed outside her elective district to fight for a Grand Traverse County developer who state regulators say committed serious wetlands violations. McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, contends developer Bill Clous is a farmer harassed by regulators who've accused Clous of illegally filling up to 90 acres of wetlands and streams in East Bay Township's Mitchell Creek Watershed. "That's why Michelle McManus is involved," McManus said last week. "She's involved because she believes a citizen is being denied the right to farm." McManus said she also believes Clous' case demonstrates the need for a state law requiring soil erosion control regulations to be enforced uniformly across counties. Clous comes from a farming family and has planted crops on his East Bay Township land. State regulators and local officials doubt he's seriously interested in farming and believe Clous, president of Eastwood Construction, Co., filled the wetlands to pave the way for development. Maureen Kennedy Templeton, Grand Traverse County's drain commissioner, believes the case has statewide implications if Clous is able to avoid sanctions by claiming a farming exemption. "What I think he's hoping is, he'll go in there, farm it, you know, hopefully the wetland issue will just go away, and when he goes in to develop it he'll be able to develop more land than he initially would," Templeton said. She said Clous came to the drain commissioner's office five years ago with plans to develop the property, commissioned a wetlands study and learned much of the property was wetlands. McManus, Clous and his attorney, Matthew Vermetten, say farmers are exempt from some environmental regulations under state law. Templeton, however, says what happened on Clous' East Bay Township property, which is located between Hammond, Townline and Three Mile roads, goes beyond what the law would allow under an agricultural exemption. Grand Traverse Prosecutor Dennis LaBelle has cited Clous with a civil willful soil erosion control violation that carries a maximum penalty of $10,000 per day of violation. That case is pending in district court. McManus, who is chair of the senate subcommittee for appropriations for the Department of Environmental Quality, has also attempted to intervene on behalf of Clous in local and DEQ investigations. In April, a day before Clous and Vermetten were to meet with DEQ investigators, McManus faxed the DEQ's legislative liaison with her concerns. A meeting the following day led to a tentative resolution. According to documents provided by McManus, Clous agreed to carry out site improvements that DEQ regulators said were necessary to stem further degradation of the Mitchell Creek Watershed. Vermetten said Clous has undertaken work ordered by the DEQ, such as buffering streams. Clous also commissioned a new wetlands delineation for the property, he said. "He's working with all the appropriate agencies in putting a conservation plan together for this piece of property," McManus said So far, however, McManus' involvement doesn't seem to have created any great favor for Clous at the DEQ, where his case is still pending and a spokesperson called Clous' wetlands violation one of the "most egregious" the agency has ever seen. "It is not as simple as a farmer moving around a little dirt," DEQ spokesperson Patricia Spitzley said. "This was several acres of wetlands that were filled, a couple of streams that were destroyed." In May, McManus also intervened for Clous in the Grand Traverse County case. McManus sent a letter to Templeton, whose office investigated Clous for failing to apply for soil erosion control permits on the property. Templeton believes the message of McManus' letter was clear - "it's a way to tell a public official to back off," she said. "Thank you in advance for your efforts at assisting Mr. Clous in the agricultural development of his property," McManus wrote in the letter. "My family has known the Clous family for years and I am keenly aware of Mr. Clous' agricultural experience," McManus wrote. "From what I can see, the efforts under way on his property are being done to promote agricultural production and are in compliance with state law." Templeton fired back in a memo addressed to Sen. Jason Allen and Rep. Howard Walker, the state legislators who represent Grand Traverse County, and copied the memo to McManus, who represents, among other counties, Leelanau and Benzie. "I am in support of agriculture and all that it entails but I in no way will support someone destroying numerous acres of wooded wetland in the headwaters of the Mitchell Creek Watershed," she wrote. "I would think the majority of the farming community would be appalled by what is going on and would not want to have their good name attached to it." The East Bay Township property is not Clous' first brush with environmental regulators and it isn't the only case where McManus has tried to intervene on his behalf. Clous and Eastwood are tied to a wetland fill in an Elk Rapids development. In that case, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled last year that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over several acres of wetlands off Fourth Street for the Elk Rapids Preserve housing development. Until the East Bay Township development, environmentalists described the Elk Rapids site as one of the largest wetlands fills in Michigan in recent years. That development has stalled since the Army Corps took jurisdiction and a spokesperson at the agency said they are waiting for a permit application for the development. Clous attempted to get McManus to help in Elk Rapids, even though the question surrounding that case does not involve farmer's rights. Emily Carney, a McManus spokesperson, said Clous requested McManus' help and the senator visited the site, but she said that because the Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency, Clous was referred to congressman Dave Camp, R-Midland. Carney defended McManus' work for a constituent of a neighboring senator. She said Clous was a constituent of McManus' when she was a state representative for Grand Traverse County. Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, whose district includes both the East Bay Township property and the Elk Rapids development, said he does not mind McManus working in his district. "Michelle's been a very good friend," Allen said. He said that because McManus chairs the DEQ subcommittee, she has the experience and understanding to handle the Clous matter.
|
|
