GAYLORD -- Janney Mayer Simpson is anxious for the end of a long-running legal battle she and some neighbors and area conservationists launched more than a year ago.
"Every citizen has to be a watchdog in their own back yards," she said. "We're just doing our job as riparian landowners."
Simpson did not want an energy company to use a tributary to the Au Sable River near her home as dumping grounds for wastewater from a toxic groundwater plume cleanup project, so they took the case to 46th Circuit Court and won in May.
But it will be another year before judges at the Michigan Court of Appeals hear a challenge from the state and Merit Energy to the lower court's decision to halt the discharge into Kolke Creek, court officials said.
Meanwhile, state and company officials look to other wastewater disposal methods for the cleanup work on the contaminated plume in Hayes Township, which crept far enough to destroy two residential water wells.
"Rather than pumping into Kolke Creek, they want to pump it into a rapid infiltration basin," said Bob Versical, hydrogeologist with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
That would involve lagoons of the wastewater on nearby company-owned property, where it would slowly drain back into the ground. That proposal is under state review.
"We have some serious concerns over the infiltration basin because of concerns it could potentially alter groundwater flow in the area and push the plume beyond the current boundaries," Versical said.
It simply could be too much water at once, he said.
Another option explored and ruled out this year was aerial dispersal of the wastewater on a nearby 40-acre parcel owned by Merit, state officials said.
That's why the DEQ is pursuing an appeal on the Kolke Creek discharge case -- it's the only option state officials think is both feasible and environmentally sound, said Bob McCann, DEQ spokesman.
Lansing attorney Charles Barbieri, who represents Merit, could not be reached for comment. Neither could Tonatzin Alfaro Maiz, assistant state's attorney on the case.
Rusty Gates, president of the plaintiff group Anglers of the Au Sable, said they are confident in the arguments of their civil case.
"We're going to come out with a new respect for trout streams," Gates said.
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