ALBA -- Opponents of a deep-injection wastewater well filed suit to block project permits after a state official rejected their appeal.
A group that includes Antrim County, the Friends of the Jordan River and Star Township sued the state Department of Environmental Quality in Ingham County Circuit Court on Thursday to challenge a state permit issued in February for drilling a waste disposal well in Section 14 of Star Township.
The well is for an affiliate of CMS Energy to take leachate from the cleanup of Bay Harbor Resort in Emmet County.
The suit comes on the heels of a decision from a state administrative law judge last week that the anti-well group had no legal ground to challenge the permit through administrative channels of the DEQ. Joseph Quandt, an attorney for CMS affiliated Beeland Group LLC, said the project isn't a threat to the environment.
"We're obviously pleased with the result; it's consistent with the law," Quandt said. "We believe the well can be operated safely and within the regulatory requirements."
Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop said the county and township continue to oppose the well as a "poorly thought-out cure" to contamination problems at the posh resort on Lake Michigan.
"This is all about people wanting to play golf at Bay Harbor, and not properly cleaning it up before they put the golf course there," Koop said. "They want to dispose of the contamination on the cheap."
The project calls for a well that would be 2,150 feet deep and into underground rock formations. The leachate comes from water seepage contaminated by kiln dust from an old cement factory on the Emmet County lakeshore that's now home to Bay Harbor.
The cleanup cost is estimated at $140 million.
The wastewater presently is treated at the site, then trucked to a septage plant in Grand Traverse County, as well as to an injection well in Montmorency County. Grand Traverse officials recently extended the disposal contract for 18 months and cut the rate charged CMS by 25 percent, a fee reduction demanded by CMS.
Opponents also appealed a federal permit for the project. The appeal is pending with the Environmental Appeals Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Township attorney Susan Topp said she didn't know when that decision would be released.
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