Editor's note: Tenth in a series of stories on the people, places and events that made news in northern Michigan in 2008. To read previously published newsmaker articles, see record-eagle.com/newsmakers.
ALBA -- There's one watering hole in Alba, the kind of place where everybody knows your name -- and your issues.
And Alba residents have big issues with a proposed deep-injection disposal well planned for their backyard, said Green Lantern Bar owner Lori Sheridan. And they talk about it.
"We don't want it and we're still going to battle it," she said.
State and federal environmental regulators approved a deep-injection disposal well in rural Antrim County this year, but local residents and area environmentalists continue to fight to halt the project.
Mercury-tainted water to be pumped underground would come from the cleanup of toxic leachate from Little Traverse Bay in Emmet County's Bay Harbor, the result of water runoff over buried kiln dust left behind by an old cement factory. The contaminated water currently is taken to a treatment facility in Traverse City and an existing disposal well in Johannesburg.
Conservation group Friends of the Jordan River Watershed, Star Township and Antrim County jointly filed appeals to the approved state and federal well permits, but were denied on both fronts. Lawsuits followed.
The trio of plaintiffs filed suit in Ingham County Circuit Court in August to challenge the state permit and in October filed suit in Antrim County Circuit Court to halt the entire project. They also sought an injunction to prevent a hole from being drilled.
"Since the water is presently being treated and discharged into the lake in Grand Traverse County, why put half-treated water into the earth?" said Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop, who represents the county in the suits, along with plaintiff attorney Susan Hlywa Topp of Gaylord, who also represents FOJR and the township.
The Alba well was proposed by Beeland Group, a subsidiary of CMS Energy. The company maintains the concept represents safe and sound science.
"While we continue to pursue an appropriate local water disposal option, we will in the meantime continue to need the disposal well option," said Tim Petrosky, CMS area manager.
Company officials hope Judge Thomas Power of the 13th Circuit Court will dismiss the lawsuit at a Jan. 20 hearing in Bellaire, said Traverse City attorney Joe Quandt, who represents Beeland.
Work to drill and construct the well could begin within 30 to 60 days after a decision by Power, Quandt said.
Power will decide on the plaintiffs' preliminary injunction request on Jan. 29 in Bellaire.
