06/14/2006

Cleanup plan foes file suit

They say there's a better way to handle toxic water

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

GAYLORD — Opponents of a state-approved petrochemical cleanup plan filed suit to halt work and demand what they contend is a more environmentally sound way to handle toxic groundwater.

Conservation group Anglers of the Au Sable and two local family trusts sued the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality over proposed discharge of treated groundwater into Kolke Creek, part of the headwaters of the Au Sable River.

"It is the belief of the petitioners, collectively, that there is a better way to handle the wastewater that would avoid the detrimental issues we're concerned about," said Gaylord attorney Susan Topp, representing the landowners.

Those concerns include water transfer from the Manistee to the Au Sable watershed, the risk of pollutants dumped into the stream, increases in water flow and temperature, among other issues.

The anglers group hired groundwater attorney Jim Olson of Traverse City. He said the Kolke project undermines state water laws because it effectively "homogenizes all water" with the proposed transfer from the Manistee to the Au Sable watershed.

A toxic plume was discovered at a former Shell production facility on Mount Frederick Road in Otsego County's Hayes Township. Merit Energy bought the property and is liable for the cleanup.

State officials last year approved a plan to treat the water by air-stripping and pumping up to 1.15 million gallons a day of the discharge into nearby Kolke Creek.

Anglers of the Au Sable and other landowners appealed, but a state administrative law judge dismissed the case before oral arguments could be heard.

DEQ deputy director Stanley Pruss said officials investigated costs and environmental impacts of various discharge methods after last spring's public outcry about the project. Officials chose the method with the least harmful impact, he said.