Commissioners agree landfill meets local requirements

by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor The county?s public health and safety committee clarified a final issue regarding Wolverine Power Cooperative?s proposed landfill to be constructed in the Carmeuse Lime and Stone quarry. The board of commissioners gave its unanimous approval to a resolution that it would indeed meet all of the standards of the solid waste management plan (SWMP). The resolution will be forwarded to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which will make the final determination on Wolverine?s permit request to construct a type-III landfill near their proposed 600-megawatt power plant. During a 45-minute public comment period, where chairman Carl Altman limited speakers to five minutes, those opposed to the landfill urged the board to not rush to any final decisions and wait until new guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are released at the end of December, as well as taking into account the health and safety of the public.

?The EPA regulations on coal ash will be here very soon ? before the end of the year,? said Jean Veselenak of Rogers City. ?My thought is that Wolverine is in a big hurry to avoid them and get grandfathered in before the health regulations can take effect.? Not so, says Wolverine. ?We expect that when the EPA regulations come out, I think probably, you?ll find what we?ve proposed to do here will meet and exceed those new standards,? said Ken Bradstreet, Wolverine?s director of government and community affairs, who added that the company has been working on the project for 18 months. ?I?VE GOT A feeling most of you people in the audience already know the answers to a lot of the concerns,? said vice chair Bob Schell adamantly, moments after commissioner Mike Darga motioned to approve the resolution and had it seconded by Kris Sorgenfrei. ?There has been a lot of misstatements and confusing testimony made here.? Schell said a Tennessee disaster last December involving a coal slurry dam failing was mentioned by a member of the audience, but had nothing in common with what Wolverine is proposing.

?The (Carmeuse) site already has been excavated and mined,? said Schell. ?It seems like no one in the audience trusts the professionals at the DEQ to protect the interests of the environment, but what is the first organization you call if you think someone is violating. I think it is another typical delay (tactic) to confuse people.? The final sticking point was a zoning question. Presque Isle County prosecuting attorney Rick Steiger reiterated his interpretation at the committee level saying extractive industries falls under industry, meeting the SWMP standards. The location of the proposed landfill is zoned extractive industry, while one of the 13 points of compliance states a landfill can be established in an area zoned ?industry.? The county board requested the prosecutor clarify the issue at its September 25 meeting. BYRON DELONG, who was placed on the agenda to speak about the issue, stated in a letter dated October 13 that placement of the landfill in the quarry is not about the plant or Wolverine. ?It involves the potential environmental impact to our local water supply, including Lake Huron and the health, welfare and safety of the residents of Presque Isle County,? DeLong stated. DeLong also believes a DNR study from the early 1990s, which was accepted by the county board to not sight a landfill in the quarry because of concerns of karst in the area, should not be ignored now. Sorgenfrei asked committee members Darga and Grohowski, what she believed to be the most important issue: ?does it meet the 13 points?? ?It does,? said Darga.

?With reservations, it does,? Grohowski responded. ?Health, safety and welfare of the community, that is part of our charge, that we are sure and confident that it will be. We need to be sure. We look for protection for our health and safety from the government. Yet I can remember, and I know a lot of people from the Vietnam War who were exposed to Agent Orange that our own government dumped on them.? Sorgenfrei believes people who are concerned about the site should visit it. ?What I observed was a pile of rock, essentially. We have this flat top mountain. The karst that was there is no longer there. There is no direct flow to an aquifer. If there was, it all has been destroyed,? she said. JIM DULZO of the Michigan Land Institute in Traverse City urged the board to not lose local control of the disposal of coal ash in the county and added that Wolverine has not provided proof that the material is non-hazardous nor non-toxic. Larry Shepherd of Ocqueoc cited a June, USA Today article, which he believes raises concerns about power plants being the targets of

international terrorists. ?Just think about what would happen to a silo loaded with hazardous materials if it was attacked. The water system from Rogers City to New York would be affected.? Lee Sprague, the clean energy campaign manager for the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club, implored the board to take the time to ensure coal ash is not toxic. Those in support urged the board to stick to the task at hand, which was the 13-point SWMP. Joe Cercone, County Development Commission executive director, reminded the board that the only decision needing to be made was ?yes? the landfill complies or no it doesn?t.

?We?ve heard over and over from the same folks who have presented discussions this morning about the evils and threats that are posed by the proposed power plant? They are asking you to delay,? said Cercone. Bradstreet said, ?There are health and safety concerns with a project like this. Those will be fully vetted in the permitting process at the DEQ. We will be held to a very high standard. As we mentioned to you in one of our first meetings, we have volunteered to build this to a higher standard than the law would require.? Bradstreet said Wolverine will file for a permit with the DEQ by the end of the month. The review process will likely include public hearings in Rogers City.