Approvals recently granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pave the way for a long-term agreement to be worked out for the management of caustic seepage that has affected parts of Bay Harbor’s shoreline.
The EPA approved “Remedial Investigation and Alternatives Evaluation” reports submitted by CMS Land, a former Bay Harbor development partner responsible for remedying shoreline seepage of cement kiln dust leachate along parts of the resort corridor. The report concerning East Park, a site located immediately east of Bay Harbor, was approved on April 19, with the EPA approving another report concerning Bay Harbor itself on Monday.
“It is a big step,” said EPA remedial project manager Kevin Adler.With the recent approvals, Adler said the EPA verified that CMS has adequately investigated environmental conditions along the Bay Harbor corridor and the patterns in which leachate tends to move there, and explored various options for controlling the seepage.
“We are pleased that the project has reached this important milestone and that the measures that we’ve already installed are proving effective in protecting the health of the public and the environment,” said David Mengebier, the president of CMS Land. “Those remedies have performed well and we expect that performance to improve over time.
“I’m also pleased that the proposed long-term remedies approved by the EPA were studied and analyzed by the Regional Stakeholder Group, which was comprised of a large number of local parties, and that group issued a majority opinion supporting the long-term remedies proposed by CMS Land.”
Monday’s approval put in motion a 120-day timetable for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality — which is taking on a greater oversight role at the cleanup site for the long term — to negotiate out an agreement with CMS for a final site remedy.
“I think all the parties believe that that’s a workable timeframe,” said Bob Wagner, a remediation division supervisor with the DEQ. “Everyone is pretty optimistic that (the agreement can be worked out on that timetable).”
The leachate along the corridor is a caustic liquid formed when water comes in contact with cement kiln dust. Deposits of this dust, a waste product from the cement plant that once operated in the area, remain buried beneath parts of Bay Harbor and East Park.
In recent years, CMS has taken steps to control the flow of seepage into Little Traverse Bay, such as installing collection lines in affected shoreline areas to capture the liquid and wells that can be operated to divert groundwater from kiln dust deposits.
The leachate’s caustic nature has been a public health concern, with health officials noting that the seepage could burn or otherwise damage human skin and tissue coming into contact with it.
Environmental regulators have said these steps have been effective in controlling surface water’s causticity along the shoreline.
The seepage also contains toxic metals such as mercury in concentrations too high for surface water release, and CMS’ long-term management approach will need to address these releases.
Wagner expects that the remedies already put in place for the interim will continue to be used for the long term. In working out a final remedy, Wagner said the parties will need to establish how these features will work together, and how monitoring and inspections are to be handled over time.
No well decisions yet
For now, leachate diverted from Little Traverse Bay along the Bay Harbor corridor is treated as needed to reduce its pH readings to an acceptable level and trucked to a commercial injection well near Johannesburg for disposal.
But for the long term, CMS Land, the company responsible for managing the leachate, has noted a preference to put the leachate through a more extensive treatment process on site and then release the treated liquid into Little Traverse Bay. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has approved a permit that would allow for this approach.
At environmental regulators’ request, the company agreed to explore another disposal option — development of an injection well at Bay Harbor — and sought initial permits needed for that process from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Neither agency has reached a decision on its permit as of yet. This week, staff from both agencies said responses to various public comments received about the well proposal need to be finished before decisions are made.
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