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MDEQ: Construction of lagoon system for Mt. Bohemia
must begin before permits can be issued
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has asked Crosswinds to submit a basis of design for the lagoon system of sewage treatment they plan
to construct on Mount Bohemia. Besides showing what they're going to construct and the amount of treatment it will be capable of providing, the
company needs to submit plans for beginning the lagoon construction this fall in order to obtain any permits, including the Pump-and-Haul permit
for temporary transport of sewage to an existing facility during the first year of operation.
"You have to lay out your basis of design so you'll know what the flows are going to be," said Jim Sygo, chief of the
MDEQ Waste Management Division in Lansing. "Before we would consider a Pump and Haul permit, we would expect them to have a design for a
lagoon and sewer system as well as plans to begin the construction of it this fall."
Sygo said pump and haul can be done as long as Crosswinds begins constructing the lagoon system in the fall, even if they are
unable to finish the construction until after the winter season.
"They have to be actively constructing it," Sygo said.
He added he was not aware of the petition for a referendum of Keweenaw County residents on the recent rezoning of the Mount
Bohemia area by the County Board of Commissioners. The referendum will allow county registered voters to approve or reject rezoning the area of the
ski hill from Conservation District-Environmental Protection (CD-EP) to Resort Service (RS) and amending Resort Service zoning to include a ski
hill under permitted uses.
The Keweenaw County Zoning Board of Appeals will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, July 10, at the County Courthouse in Eagle River
for a public hearing to interpret the provisions of the county Zoning Ordinance pertaining to permitted uses in the CD-EP and RS districts of the
county. The Board of Commissioners is expected to approve the date for the referendum at their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, July 11.
"That is certainly something we would want to look at ... how the referendum is worded and what implication it might have
relative to a permit issued by the department," Sygo said. "I would think all of that would have to be submitted as part of the
application package."
The package would include applications for the Pump and Haul permit, a Part 41 Sewage Disposal and Waterworks System Permit for
construction of a sewer and lagoon system and a Part 22 permit for Discharge to Groundwater. Sygo said it usually takes 90 days to issue these
permits. Parts 22 and 41 are under the state Natural Resources and Environmenal Protection Act 451 of 1994. Sygo said normally the Pump and Haul
permit is limited to a year or less.
According to John Sullivan, senior vice-president of UP Engineers and Architects, Crosswinds hopes to build a lagoon system for
sewage at Mount Bohemia. However, since it cannot be completed in time for the ski hill's scheduled opening for the winter of 2000-2001, a
pump-and-haul system will be needed the first year.
At their June 7 meeting the Grant Township Utilities Board heard a request from U.P. Engineers and Architects (on behalf of
Crosswinds) for using the Copper Harbor sewage treatment system temporarily to dispose of their sewage by a "pump and haul" method. The
Grant Township Utilities Board requested a written opinion from U.P. Engineers and Architects on the impact such an operation would have on the
Copper Harbor lagoons, both short- and long-term. A draft copy of the minutes of that meeting said the board would "also look into possible
problems with this arrangement."
A July 3 article in The Daily Mining Gazette said discussion between Sullivan and Tom Beveridge, Grant Township supervisor, brought out township concerns
that led U.P. Engineers to seek other temporary sewage treatment options for Crosswinds' proposed development.
Sullivan said their first choice would be the North Houghton County Water and Sewage Authority on M-203 in Calumet Township.
Calumet Township Supervisor Paul Lehto, chairman of that authority, said Crosswinds would have to pay $4 per 1,000 gallons to use the facility.
Lehto said even Crosswinds' estimate of 50,000 gallons per week would not be a problem for the system, which now handles 2.4 million gallons per
day and has a 60-million gallon storage capacity for the spring season. The facility is also being expanded.
"We're building another holding pond," Lehto said. "We're bidding it now."
Sullivan said the North Houghton County facility "has been in operation for probably 130 years." It was previously expanded in the early 1970s
and in 1990. He noted the system has a holding, or equalization, lagoon and a series of infiltration basins. The sewage is allowed to infiltrate
into the ground and is moved from one basin to the next.
"What we're proposing at Mt. Bohemia is a lagoon and spray irrigation," Sullivan said. "The lagoon would hold and treat the wastes through
natural processes. Once the wastewater has had a certain degree of treatment it can be sprayed into the forest land."
Sullivan added the treated wastewater would not end up in the stormwater.
"It'll be a system designed to prevent any problems of detriment to the environment," he said.
Sullivan noted plans are to build the system in 2001. He said he anticipated the lagoons would start collecting the sewage in 2001-2002. While it would
be operational, or ready to spray, in the spring of 2002, it would probably not actually be sprayed until that summer.
"It's usually sprayed during the growing season when there's something there to take up the nutrients," he said.
- Michele Anderson
July 7, 2000
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