08/12/2007

Record-Eagle/Sheri McWhirter
John Richter stands in the morning sunlight at an overlook to the Jordan River Valley, which he wants protected from the risk of a nearby wastewater disposal well in Alba.

'Friends' work to ward off injection well

Jordan River group is leading petition drive

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

ALBA — John Richter stood at the top of Dead Man's Hill off U.S. 131 and looked west across the Jordan River Valley, a spot he treasures for its quiet, natural beauty.

"It's a place you can come and never be disappointed,” he said.

That's why the Friends of the Jordan River Watershed is against a proposed deep-injection disposal well for contaminated wastewater in Alba because of the potential impact near a watershed its members cherish, said Richter, president of the nonprofit group.

"Our ultimate goal is to deny the permits to dispose of this toxic leachate here,” he said.

The group organized hundreds of opposition comments and launched a petition drive against the project.

A disposal well is sought by a subsidiary of CMS Energy, an investor in the Bay Harbor development in Emmet County where pollutants seep into Lake Michigan from cement factory kiln dust beneath luxury lakeshore homes.

A $93 million cleanup effort is underway there and the company seeks state and federal permits to drill a disposal well near the small town of Alba along U.S. 131, where it would inject wastewater into underground rock formations. The company also applied to build a treatment plant at the cleanup site near Petoskey, a project that awaits state consideration.

Cleanup wastewater currently goes to Grand Traverse County's septage treatment plant and a commercial disposal well in Montmorency County.

An extended comment period for the proposed well closed a couple weeks ago. State and federal authorities said it will take until the end of October, at least, to finish the permit reviews.

William Bates, permit writer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said 80 people or groups filed close to 200 separate comments about the proposed injection well. The volume of comments will extend the expected permit review period, he said.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will likely complete their case review within a few months, depending on how long it takes the company to submit additional information requested by the state, said Ray Vugrinovich who's a geology specialist for the DEQ. The state wants additional information on the company's site selection process, along with more water well drilling records within a 2-mile radius of the site and other data.

Tim Petrosky, CMS area manager, said the permit review is deliberate and that state and federal agencies need to take their time.

"We certainly want this process to be done in a thorough manner to ensure the application meets all the requirements,” he said.

Petrosky said the company wants control of the entire cleanup process, from collection to treatment and disposal, because it has the overall environmental responsibility for the effort.