05/05/2006

Kolke Creek complaint tossed

by sheri mcwhirter

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

GAYLORD — A state administrative law judge threw out a local conservation group's complaint filed against both a state agency and an oil company in an effort to protect a watershed.

Judge Richard Lacasse this week denied motions filed by Anglers of the AuSable and two other family trusts that sought to halt a pollution cleanup project in Otsego County's Hayes Township.

Merit Energy was granted a summary disposition in advance of oral arguments.

"Are we disappointed? Yes. Are we surprised? No," said Lance Weyeneth, board member of the Anglers of the AuSable.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality last year issued a permit to Merit Energy to pump upwards of 1.15 million gallons a day of treated groundwater to Kolke Creek, headwaters of the AuSable.

The groundwater was polluted over dozens of years at a former Shell production facility on Mount Frederick Road. The toxic plume was discovered five years ago.

Monitor well readings taken in February recorded high levels of benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylene. The toxic plume continues to move southwest toward a residential zone, already having destroyed two private water wells.

Poisoned water will be pulled from the ground and an air-stripping process will remove petrochemical pollutants before water is dumped into Kolke Creek. The discharge method is criticized by some as environmentally harmful.

Opponents contend the treated water would negatively affect ecology of the cold water trout stream. Instead, some favor a deep-well injection method that would put the water within underground rock formations.

State officials said they could not comment on the case, and Merit company officials could not be reached Thursday.

Weyeneth said they intend to file a lawsuit in circuit court before cleanup begins.

"I think issues like this ought to be handled in local courts," he said.