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March 5, 2006East Park to remain closedBay Harbor contamination cited as reasonPETOSKEY - Environmental contamination tied to Bay Harbor will keep a Lake Michigan park closed to the public for a second straight season, and possibly longer.Resort Township's East Park, closed a year ago, will not open to the public at all this summer. "The park could go back to the public in 2007. We'll get it back to the public as quickly as possible," said CMS Energy spokesman Jeff Holyfield. An official with the local health department said Holyfield's 2007 prediction might be overly optimistic. "I guess it's reasonable, but there's a lot of review that has to happen ... ," said Scott Kendzierski of the Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency. "It could be longer than that." Bay Harbor, the posh residential development west of Petoskey, was built on the site of a former cement plant. CMS was an initial investing partner and agreed to fund the cleanup - now estimated at $85 million - after caustic cement kiln dust was discovered seeping from concentrated underground "piles" throughout the site into Little Traverse Bay. Portions of shoreline were declared unsafe and fenced off, including parts of East Park - adjacent to Bay Harbor and part of the cement plant grounds. The park was developed alongside the resort using state grant money, said township supervisor Robert Wheaton. The township closed it last year when the health agency issued its warnings. "I expected a lengthy shutdown, a couple of years," Wheaton said. Much of the parks infrastructure - parking lots, steps to the waterfront, a pavilion - will have to be torn out to do the remediation. Wheaton said officials "haven't really discussed" how the rebuilding will be funded. "I would say that in our agreement with CMS, they said they'd leave it in better condition than when they got there," Wheaton said. "We're not expecting to use public funds to rebuild." Ralph Dollhopf of the Environmental Protection Agency said CMS and the federal government this week agreed on a preliminary remediation plan for the park - reconsolidating a kiln dust pile there and installing an underground water collection system between it and the lake. That work is expected to start in May, CMS spokesman Tim Petrosky said. "They'll move the material to another part of the park so they won't have to control that much shoreline," Dollhopf said. He stopped short of a guaranteeing such measures would be any part of a long-term fix. "We're going to go along ... so long as everybody understands this does not mean this is going to be the final remedy out there," he said. "Because we're not in a position to say that yet." A reopening date for the park will depend on how soon such an agreement is reached. Township officials have decided to watch and wait. "If they come to a stalemate, where CMS and EPA can't decide and it's been a couple of years, we'd say (to CMS) 'Move your fence back to the lake,' and we'll let the public back in," Wheaton said. "But if they keep moving forward, we'll continue working with them." See related stories:
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