06/29/2007

Public comment period extended

Input on injection well will be taken until July 27

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

ALBA — State and federal officials extended by one month the deadline for public comments on a proposed injection well near Alba, following a request from a local conservation group.

A public notice of the extension was sent out Wednesday, the original deadline for comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

William Bates, EPA permit writer, said the Friends of the Jordan River Watershed group requested an extension to the public comment period, which now runs through July 27.

The extra time gives people and organizations a better opportunity to investigate the well proposal, said John Richter, president of the nonprofit conservation group.

"The sense that I had was that if we can't find a technical problem with the well, it would be approved,” Richter said.

He also said the conservation group is concerned that any future problems or spills at the well site likely would affect the Jordan River, the first natural river designated in Michigan in 1972.

A deep-injection disposal well was proposed near the intersection of Alba Highway and Patterson Road in Antrim County by Beeland Group, a subsidiary of CMS Energy, an investor in the Bay Harbor development in Emmet County. The site would be used to inject into underground limestone formations wastewater from a $93 million pollution cleanup project in the Bay Harbor area along Little Traverse Bay, if permits are issued by the EPA and DEQ.

Most of the 30 submitted written comments are about wastewater transportation risks and fear of contamination to local watersheds, Bates said.

"We take into consideration every comment, but it needs to be of a technical basis in order to sway us,” he said.

Tim Petrosky, CMS area manager, said company officials hope for an expedient permit review by state and federal authorities. Whether the extension was necessary will be known by the quality of further comments, he said.

Bay Harbor wastewater currently is taken to the Grand Traverse County septage treatment plant and an existing disposal well in Montmorency County. Company officials also applied to build a treatment plant at the cleanup site.

Copies of the draft well permit are at libraries in Bellaire and Mancelona.