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What is the Grand Rapids Press Reporting?
Sept 12, 2004 February 1, 2004 June 14, 2003 State ruling urges owner
to use COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced with the
permission of Byline: Dave LeMieux / Grand Rapids Press News Service MUSKEGON -- The state wants Nugent Sand Co. to consider sending treated wastewater to "a municipal wastewater treatment plant" instead of directly into Lake Michigan. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Steven E. Chester recently issued an interim decision on Nugent's request to run a wastewater pipeline through a Lake Michigan dune. He decided he wants a closer examination of the possibility of putting the wastewater into a sewer system. The ruling had opponents and proponents of the pipeline scratching their heads. "I'm very, very much disappointed," said Nugent owner Bob Chandonnet, who hopes to build a multimillion-dollar housing development on sand-mine property. "His decision was based on the wastewater, and we already have a permit for that." Chester's decision initially puzzled environmentalist Jamie Morton from the Lake Michigan Federation. "I don't even know what to think," Morton said. "I think it's good he's exploring all the options before making a decision on this precedent-setting case." The longer Morton considered Chester's decision, the more enthusiastic she became. "It's really good for the dunes. He wants alternatives that uphold the Sand Dune Protection Act." Chester has asked both Nugent and DEQ officials for alternatives to the proposed pipeline through sensitive shoreline dunes. "I think it's a wise move," said Darlene DeHudy, vice president of Save Our Shoreline of Muskegon. "The alternatives need to be explored in detail, and they weren't before." In issuing his decision, Chester specifically asked both sides to consider plans that would include discharging the treated wastewater into a municipal wastewater treatment plant. In May, Nugent refused to let county officials analyze the company's wastewater. Following the company's refusal, the county's Board of Public Works voted 8-1 to recommend that the DEQ not permit Nugent's discharge. Nugent produces high-grade sand for foundries and the automotive industry. The company adds pine oil and fatty acids to wash water used to remove impurities from the sand. Nugent officials said then they were worried the county was trying force them to build an expensive sewer main to use the county wastewater system. Chandonnet rejected a second time the idea of sending the company's treated wastewater to the county system. "No. 1, it isn't necessary," Chandonnet said. "The costs associated with it are too high and the sewer lines here aren't adequate to handle the volume of discharge." Nugent wants to build a 600-foot pipeline through a 4,000-year-old shoreline dune in Norton Shores. The company could discharge up to 8 million gallons of treated wastewater from sand mining and processing operations into Lake Michigan daily. South Lake is the site of a proposed residential development. Chester decided that "feasible and prudent alternative locations and methods for the project (were) not adequately addressed during the six days of hearings in 2003." Chester sent the case back to the state's Office of Administrative Hearings for a rehearing. No hearing date has been set. Proposed pipeline sparks war of words as ruling near; Opponents claim the pipeline will pollute Lake Michigan and spoil the beach COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Grand Rapids Press by the Gale Group, Inc. Byline: Dave LeMieux / Grand Rapids Press News Service Bob Chandonnet, president of Nugent Sand Co., says he never saw it coming. He didn't expect that his plans to turn a sand-mining site along Lake Michigan into a complex of luxury homes would generate such opposition. But his development plans now are in the hands of a state administrative hearings judge and he's the target of protests by environmentalists, residents and local officials who claim that a proposed Nugent pipeline will add pollution to Lake Michigan and spoil a stretch of beautiful beach. In April, the DEQ's Geological and Land Management Division denied the Norton Shores sand-mining operation a permit to build a 36-inch pipeline through critical shoreline dunes. Nugent wants to build the pipeline to lower the water level of two man-made lakes on its property and build the multimillion-dollar Dune Harbor residential development around South Lake, where it has ceased mining operations. "Going into it, I was 100 percent confident that we were going to get the approval," Chandonnet said. "I bought the pipe and had part of the ground excavated and everything. I was shocked we didn't get it because we worked so closely with the (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)." Judge Richard Patterson of the DEQ's Office of Administrative Hearings could hand down an opinion on the appeal this week. Meanwhile, local environmental group Save Our Shoreline has been planning protests of Nugent's pipeline. Liz Vos, project director for the Muskegon County Environmental Coordinating Council, said the group remains concerned about beach and dune erosion caused by the pipeline and its discharge. A protest Friday was canceled because of weather. Save Our Shoreline vice president Darlene DeHudy says the pipeline would set a terrible precedent. "It will do great damage to Muskegon. No matter what comes out of the pipeline, it's an industrial discharge." DeHudy says the widespread opposition to the pipeline was not included in the appeal process. The pipeline also will limit public access to the beach, Vos said. "I've walked that beach myself many times. I can't imagine access being restricted." Nugent Sand Co. could discharge more than 3 billion gallons of water a year into Lake Michigan if a state judge upholds the company's appeal of a decision by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. In its denial of the permit, the Geological and Land Management Division said construction of the pipeline would "increase the likelihood of collapse or destabilization of the dune." The DEQ's denial also stated: "The volume of water discharged onto and over the revetment and plunge pool is likely to decrease stability and increase erosion of the bluff face, foredune and beach area." Chandonnet insists the pipeline will not erode the dune or beach. He said the DEQ allowed similar construction on beaches and in sensitive shoreline dunes in the past. Nugent produces high-grade sand for foundries and the auto industry. Local environmentalists are worried about fatty acids and pine oil Nugent adds to water used to remove impurities from the sand. The directors of both the Muskegon and Muskegon Heights water filtration plants have expressed concern about Nugent's discharge contaminating the source of drinking water for more than 120,000 local residents. The city of Muskegon recently adopted a resolution opposing the pipeline. Chandonnet says extensive tests have never detected any additives in the treated wastewater. Diane Carlson of the DEQ's Water Division has said the treated wastewater is cleaner than the Lake Michigan waters where it would be discharged. In January, the DEQ's Water Division granted Nugent a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit that allows Nugent to discharge more than 3 billion gallons of water from its Norton Shores sand-mining operations into Lake Michigan annually. The permit allows Nugent to discharge up to 8.3 million gallons of wastewater a day. In its permit denial, the Land Management Division suggested Nugent consider an alternative to the pipeline: "Staff ... further finds that at least one particular feasible and prudent alternative may exist which would lessen or eliminate the negative impacts of the project as proposed: Replatting the subdivision around the inland lake to accommodate its natural water level." Sand firm must give
residents clean water COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Grand Rapids Press by the Gale Group, Inc. Byline: The Associated Press MUSKEGON -- A company that supplies high-grade sand to foundries and auto manufacturers has been ordered to provide residents near its plant with clean water if it wants to continue letting the wastewater it produces drain into the ground. The ruling by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality could cost the Norton Shores-based Nugent Sand Inc. more than $500,000. The company will have to run water mains to two lakefront subdivisions near its facility. The ruling comes after residents of the nearby subdivisions complained that the millions of gallons of wastewater draining daily into the ground for the past two decades has fouled their well water. The state environmental body, while not blaming the company, said the wastewater is linked to high levels of iron and manganese in nearby residential wells. "They're not necessarily a health concern, but there's certainly been degradation of the water," said Joe Lovato, a representative of the DEQ's water division. Nugent President Robert Chandonnet argues it hasn't been proven that the company's operations are contaminating the wells. But under the recent ruling, the company must now identify which wells are affected by July 23, come up with a treatment plan and provide the households tied to those wells with clean water. Some residents say it's not enough. "We do need a clean water source, but the problem is not going to
go away," said Corene Kufta, whose family has owned a summer home
in the area for almost 50 years. "It may no longer affect us directly,
but it's still going to be there, it's still affecting the groundwater."
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