Wolverine landfill permit to be decided by March 15

by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor

After 150 minutes, everyone had his or her say. Last week 26 citizens voiced their approval or disapproval of the Type III landfill proposed by Wolverine Power in a mined-out portion of the Calcite limestone quarry in Rogers Township. People in favor of the landfill said it would be safe, within the law and placed in an ideal location. They also recognized the jobs construction of the landfill would bring, and that the landfill is an important part to Wolverine?s overall project, dubbed the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture.

Those opposed found the location, some 3,200 feet from Lake Huron, a bad idea. They questioned the regulatory policies that would allow a landfill to handle what they termed hazardous materials and wondered about the long-term affects of the landfill on the area, regardless of the number of jobs created. THE MICHIGAN Department of Natural Resource and Environment (DNRE), the permitting agency for landfills of this type, conducted the hearing at Rogers City High School, at the request of Wolverine. The 26 who testified could be broke down as 15 in favor and 11 opposed to the project.

Of those opposed, at least five have residences outside of the county and are associated, and possibly paid, by statewide or national organizations including the Sierra Club, the Michigan Land Use Institute or the Michigan Energy Alternatives Project. Five others were county residents, each who have testified against the project in a prior hearing or meeting while one is a chiropractor from Montmorency County. Those 15 who testified in favor of the project could be categorized as six elected officials on the state or local level, or representatives of elected officials, four consultants or engineers contracted by Wolverine, two citizens without affiliations, two local businesspeople, and one appointed county official.

Lonnie Lee, chief of field operations for the DNRE served as moderator of the meeting, advising that comments should be respectful and focused on the landfill. The crowd took his advice and even gave supportive applause as each speaker finished. ?Your comments will be part of the information the DNRE will consider when making a decision on the permit application,? Lee said. The DNRE is obligated by law to make the decision by March 15.

AS HE HAS done in many public meetings, Ken Bradstreet, director of community and government affairs for Wolverine, presented an overview of the landfill project before the table of DNRE officials. The permitted area covers 221.95 acres of sections 25, 30, and 36 with the actual area used to store combustion byproducts covering 58.5 acres. After introducing consultants Matthew MacGregor, Daniel Greene and David List, all of whom have extensive backgrounds in projects of this sort, Bradstreet gave a summary of the landfill project. ?The project we have applied for is a dry storage system, as contrasted with a wet slurry system. In the news over the past couple of years has been the Tennessee Valley Authority where a wet slurry system breached the impoundment and did a lot of damage. This is not that kind of system,? Bradstreet said.

The landfill would be only for the combustion product from the power plant. Approximately 480,000 tons of material, made of roughly 50 percent limestone and 50 percent ash, will be produced each year, Bradstreet said. ?Wolverine has a strong preference for finding a beneficial use for this product. It is our preference to try to recycle that product to the extent possible,? Bradstreet said. The product is used in soil stabilization, road construction and other construction products. WOLVERINE HAS spent much time on the site, with extensive surface and subsurface exploration, he said, before deciding on a mined-out area to the east of the proposed power plant. The company drilled 27 test borings and set 21 test wells for mapping and monitoring the aquifers below the site.

?We have concluded that there is no active karst geology at this proposed site. That geological data has been reviewed by Mr. Ty Black of the DNRE and the DNRE concludes with Wolverine that there is no active karst present,? Bradstreet said. Among the frequent questions Wolverine gets on the landfill are safety concerns. One of those is what would happen should the quarry one day fill with water. Bradstreet showed a drawing that indicated the lowest line of the landfill would still be some 30 feet above the waterline, should that happen.

The site is approximately 3,200 feet from Lake Huron, beyond the 2,000 feet of separation required by the state. County regulations require a 1,000-foot setback from any residences or school and the site will be about one mile from the nearest residence and more than two miles from the nearest school. The company will put a double liner on the landfill, to ?go the extra mile for health and safety,? Bradstreet said. This means the landfill will have six distinct layers, four of which are impermeable. FOLLOWING THE summary of the project by Bradstreet, those who signed a comment card were invited to the microphone, as Lee called them. Representatives from Congressman Bart Stupak and State Representative Andy Neumann were first to the microphone to voice their support.

County commissioners Carl Altman and Mike Darga added their support to Wolverine. ?By visiting the site, I was impressed with the site as selected,? Altman said. ?I came away satisfied that the site was well suited for its selected purpose.? Darga said Wolverine has selected an ideal location for the landfill, away from schools and residences and on high ground, away from Lake Huron.

?The test wells in and around the landfill site shows me that Wolverine has done their homework,? Darga said. MAYOR BEACH Hall read several resolutions the city council had passed supporting various aspects of Wolverine?s project since 2006. ?A vast majority of the residents who have contacted me over the years have been supportive of Wolverine and Governor Graholm has received letters to that effect,? Hall said. Ralph Kortman, supervisor for Rogers Township, said the township board had passed resolutions supporting Wolverine.

Joe Cercone, executive director of the Presque Isle County Economic Development Commission, said many opposed to the project might erroneously look at it as if it were happening 100 years ago, using outdated technology. But that is not the case, he said. ?American industry has developed significant safeguards over the last 100 years,? he said. He praised Wolverine for balancing environmental concerns and the significant economic gain promised by the project.

Joe Cheveroux, site manager of the Calcite limestone operations, said Wolverine has been ?environmentally sensitive and cautious,? and agreed that the site has a ?good margin of safety.?

Jennifer Kuznicki of Hawks, who has followed the Wolverine saga extensively with her Web site jennerationx.com, praised the project for the amount of jobs it would bring. ?I don?t see anything that Wolverine has been doing that has been anything but the utmost caution, and due diligence, and embracement of the community,? she said. Lena Turske of Rogers City presented the DNRE representatives a packet containing signatures of 3,000 people in favor of Wolverine?s project.

AS WITH MANY of those in support of the project, all who spoke against the landfill have been familiar voices in public forums on the power plant. One opposed said Wolverine should have taken the extra mile and added it to the distance away from Lake Huron. Lee Sprague, with the Sierra Club, said it is dangerous to build the landfill so close to the lake, calling it ?absurd.? He called the landfill a ?ticking time bomb? that will leak and that the landfill permit should be delayed to allow more research time.

Sprague?s associates, Jim Dulzo, Glenn Puit and Tom Karas, each brought disparaging comments about the landfill and Wolverine?s project, taking their three minutes or more to question Wolverine?s operational plan for the landfill, the amount of material to be put in the facility, and the merits of a coal-fired power plant in general. Bob Brietzke, a retired teacher from Rogers City, said concerns about arsenic and mercury bothered him about the project, as did what he called a high rate of cancer in the area.

Wayne Vermilya, long a watchdog for the Allis Township landfill, spoke twice during the comment period. He said that more than 20 years ago two proposals for landfills were presented, including the one proposed in the quarry. According to the audio from a meeting in 1988, a Department of Natural Resources staffer called the Calcite site a bad idea. He submitted that audio as part of a packet of information given to the DNRE officials.

Jean Veselenak, a retired second-grade teacher from Rogers City said her concern is for ?everyone?s grandchildren.? She addressed concerns with the power plant emissions, saying, ?no one can say this is a clean energy venture. This is dirty.? Dr. Richard Olree of Hillman said that the circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology is a concern because of the use of bromine in the process. He said he couldn?t find out how much bromine is used, since it is a trade secret.

?This is a real scary scenario,? he said about the prospect of bromine getting into the water supply, should the landfill retaining walls become punctured. THE GIVE AND take between supporters and opposition continued as Mike Centala stepped to the microphone. He said those opposed used scare tactics to make their point.

?I appreciate that because you have to be wise before you venture forward,? Centala said. ?I submit to you that the facts are what you have to base your decision on.? Tom Harkelroad followed Centala and said many questions had to be answered to satisfy him. He was concerned the Wolverine landfill site would not ever become a burden to the taxpayers as a cleanup problem. Wolverine consulting engineers Deborah Saxton, MacGregor, Greene, and David List each told why they thought the landfill was safe, properly sited, and within the legal constraints of the law.

?One of the advantages of using pet coke as fuel is that it results in a significantly lower quantity of ash, compared to the 5-to-20 percent associated with the burning of coal,? Saxton said. She is employed by the Shaw Group, specializing in the permitting of landfills for coal and petroleum coke CFB technology power plants, including the CLECO plant in Louisiana visited last year by several officials from Rogers City.

?The combustive byproduct is not considered toxic or a hazardous waste and will likely be regula

ted as a low-hazard industrial solid waste,? Saxton said. A higher sulfur level is produced using pet coke, but the use of limestone in the combustion process removes sulfur dioxide from the resulting combustion gases, she said. ?The byproduct ash contains mostly gypsum and lime and is typically collected and conditioned for subsequent beneficial use rather than (put in a) landfill,? she explained. MACGREGOR SAID his firm searched for endangered species in the project area and found none, mostly because the area had been used for mining operations for many years. Mining of limestone began in 1912 in the quarry.

Greene, a geologist, told the DNRE representatives that the area selected by Wolverine provides an excellent site for a landfill. List said his firm has assisted in many landfill permits and finds this design greatly exceeds the standards for a landfill. Two more people spoke out against the landfill including Angela Sherigan, an associate judge for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. She said she represents a group of spiritual leaders concerned with American Indian burial sites and asked Wolverine and officials from the DNRE to hear the group?s concerns at another time. She was followed by Joe Veselenak, a retired teacher from Rogers City cautioned that Wolverine would eventually leave town and the landfill. ?We have to do something for the children,? he said. ?I have a bad feeling about this plant and I want a better place for our children to come.? THE DNRE STAFF now has until March 15, 120 days from Wolverine?s filing for the application, to decide on the landfill permit.