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Sunday,
February 29, 2004
Residents, environmentalists fight dune
water pipe plan
(Norton Shores-AP, February 29, 2004, 4:36 p.m.) A leading auto glass company's proposal to pipe treated waste water through a sensitive stretch of Lake Michigan sand dunes has upset residents and state environmental regulators.
Last week, an administrative law judge recommended that Nugent
Sand Co. be allowed to build a 600-foot wastewater pipeline beneath
the dunes.
"We learned a decision had been rendered when people started
calling," said Pat Spitzley, spokesman for Department of
Environmental Quality Director Steven Chester.
Nugent plans to use the pipeline to discharge more than 8
million gallons a day of treated wastewater from its Norton Shores
sand mining and processing operation. The company produces
high-grade sand for foundries and the automotive industry.
Nugent and the DEQ agree that the processed wastewater would be
cleaner than Lake Michigan water. The pipeline also would be used
to lower the level of a man-made lake on the company's property,
site for a proposed multimillion-dollar residential development.
The DEQ's district office in Grand Rapids originally denied
Nugent the permits needed to build the pipeline, saying it would
cause too much beach and dune erosion.
Nugent appealed the decision. Following a two-week hearing in
July, Patterson said Wednesday that the pipeline would have minimal
impact.
Chester can accept, reject, modify or return Patterson's
recommendation to an administrative law judge for a rehearing.
Chester must cite specific legal reasons for rejecting,
modifying or ordering a rehearing, said Administrative Law Judge
Dennis Mack.
Nugent spokeswoman Mary Ann Sabo said the company is taking a
wait-and-see attitude.
"We're pleased with the recommendation. We won't look at
alternatives until Chester makes his decision," Sabo said.
Spitzley said not to expect a decision soon.
"I suspect this one won't be decided quickly. The director will
want to look at the entire record once he receives it," he told
The Muskegon Chronicle for a recent story.
Meanwhile, local opponents are already planning how they will
stop Nugent from building the pipeline.
"We'll definitely be talking about fund raising to pay for a
lawyer," said Darlene DeHudy, vice president of the local
environmental group Save Our Shoreline. "If Chester approves the
pipeline, we'll have a whole horror story on our hands. If he says
no, we'll have to counter whatever Nugent does."
In June, the Department of Environmental Quality ordered Norton
to give clean water to residents near its facility as a condition
for continuing to letting the wastewater it produces drain into the
ground.
Residents of nearby subdivisions had complained that the
millions of gallons of wastewater draining daily into the ground
for the past two decades has fouled their well water.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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