07/03/2007

Editorial

Alba residents are right to distrust injection well

Alba residents' distrust of a proposal to "inject” Bay Harbor toxins into the ground near the corner of Alba Highway and Patterson Road is certainly well-placed.

The record over the last 19 years on the handling of toxins at the Bay Harbor property has proved to be an environmental nightmare for Little Traverse Bay and Emmet County.

And the Department of Environmental Quality's most recent performance at nearby Kolke Creek in Otsego County fails to inspire confidence in the state's commitment to protecting the environment and the public interest.

Why shouldn't Alba residents be concerned that cleanup wastewater pumped into underground rock formations near Alba Highway and Patterson Road in Antrim County might seep into their water supply?

Ultimately, this is Bay Harbor's mess. Why should the Alba area have to take it on?

CMS Energy and the Department of Environmental Quality have no one to blame but themselves for Bay Harbor's reputation and this level of distrust.

The state knew as early as 1988 — when there was no Bay Harbor luxury resort — that elevated levels of arsenic and heavy metals were found in shoreline seepage from kiln dust piles on the former Penn-Dixie Cement plant site.

Even so, state agencies during the Engler years allowed luxury resort developer David Johnson and partners CMS Energy and Boyne USA to create a luxury development there; in fact, they even signed a "covenant not to sue” over toxins in the kiln dust piles provided certain remediation steps were taken.

The remediation system was already raising Environmental Protection Agency concerns by 1996. In early 2004, the city of Petoskey shut down one remediation system because it clogged city wastewater pipes and the discharge often topped maximum arsenic levels. The state Department of Environmental Quality didn't find out about it until seven months later.

The DEQ's record on environmental cleanup at Kolke Creek doesn't boost its image.

An Otsego Circuit Court judge recently halted its hotly contested groundwater cleanup project, saying a state-approved plan allowing Merit Energy to pump 1.15 million gallons a day of treated wastewater to Kolke Creek was unreasonable and would permanently alter the delicate ecosystem of the nearby Au Sable River. After 13 days of expert testimony, he criticized the DEQ for approving the project in 2005 without any environmental impact studies.

A spokesman for CMS Energy, which once owned the Bay Harbor property and is responsible for the $93 million cleanup project, notes that the company already hauls wastewater to Grand Traverse County's septage treatment plant and to an injection well in Johannesburg in Montmorency County. It has applied to the state to build a treatment plant at the contamination site but also wants an injection well in Antrim County.

That statement may mollify some residents concerns about spills, transports and injection. The real concern, however, is a bad track record.