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05/02/2006Plant opposes neighbors' effortsWILLIAMSBURG — Williamsburg Receiving and Storage Inc. opposes efforts by its neighbors and the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council to intervene in a state lawsuit over alleged pollution violations at the fruit processing plant. WRS attorney Joseph Quandt said Monday he'll fight a motion by NMEAC and several neighboring property owners to become parties in the state Department of Environmental Quality's legal action filed in February against WRS. A case hearing is set for May 10 in Lansing before Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula J.M. Manderfield. NMEAC president Ken Smith said his group asked to intervene to make sure neighbors and the public have "a seat at the table" in ongoing negotiations between the state and company. The DEQ alleges WRS violated the state Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act and an earlier consent agreement because the plant's processing water was dumped on the property last year. Up to a million gallons of high-chloride waste also spilled from a storage lagoon last fall, DEQ officials estimate. Smith said NMEAC is concerned about private negotiations going on between the state and company to resolve what's become a highly public dispute in Whitewater Township. They also want the suit moved from Lansing to Grand Traverse County. "That's what we want to challenge here — the closed-door process," Smith said. "We want to be at the table." Quandt said he doesn't care where the case is argued, and that he had "no problem" if NMEAC and neighbors filed separate suits over WRS operations. But he argued it would be "cumbersome" to make them parties to the state's legal action. "To interject 15 parties into that process is woefully inefficient," said Quandt, who added the company and the state attorney general's office are "80 percent through" a negotiated settlement. See Related Stories:
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