Nugent Responsible for its own problem

By Jeff Alexander,
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITE

If you create a problem, it's your responsibility to fix it without creating another one.

That was the overriding message delivered Wednesday
when Michigan's top environmental official denied
Nugent Sand Co.'s proposal to build a 600-foot
pipeline through a 4,000-year-old Lake Michigan dune.

Nugent was seeking a state permit to build the pipeline so it could discharge 8
million gallons per day of treated wastewater from its sand-cleaning process into
Lake Michigan. Company officials said they needed the pipeline to lower the
water level in a manmade lake Nugent created at its mining site; the company wants
to build 65 homes around the lake in a development called Dune Harbor.

Nugent officials said they were surprised when the water level in the man-made
lake rose six feet after mining ceased on the south portion of its 440-acre site.

Steven Chester, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and
a Muskegon area native, called the company's alleged surprise a "red herring."

"Beneath Dune Harbor's position that the higher lake level was unexpected lies
the tacit acknowledgment that it failed to monitor the rising lake level," Chester
said in his ruling. "There is no excuse for this surprise.

"Given the history of annual fluctuations (in water levels), given the importance of
lake levels to its (development) plans, given the ease of observing the lake level,
how Dune Harbor could fail to notice a six-foot increase in the lake level is hard
to fathom," Chester said.

Nugent owner Bob Chandonnet declined to comment on Chester's order. Chandonnet
said he wanted to thoroughly review the order before commenting on it.

Nugent could appeal Chester's ruling in circuit court.

Environmental activists praised Chester's decision.

Chester's ruling does not affect Nugent's ongoing sand-mining operation. The
company is still mining the north portion of its property and is seeking renewal
of a state permit that would allow mining to continue through 2012.

But the company's plan to lower the water level in the man-made lake by piping
water to Lake Michigan is dead unless Nugent takes its case to court and wins.

Since Nugent created the lake, Chester said, the company must solve the high
water problem on its own -- without building a pipeline that would damage
a coastal dune protected by state law.

"It is unrefuted that by its very scale, the project will fundamentally alter the
physical characteristic of the dune," Chester said in his 21-page ruling.
"I find, as a matter of fact, the proposed project will likely cause an adverse impact
to the dune."

Chester offered a solution to Nugent's water woes: Build fewer houses around the
lake. Chester said Nugent could build 48 homes around the lake, without lowering
the water level, and still earn a profit of between $900,000 and $1.9 million on
the project.

"Such a development would eliminate any need to impact the critical dune,"
Chester said in his ruling. "Dune Harbor can realize the benefit of the
proposed alteration, residential development of the site, while the environment
and ecology of the dune is assured."

During an earlier hearing on the pipeline project, Chester said Nugent officials
testified that the company expected to earn as much as $5 million by building 65
large homes around the man-made lake.

Downsizing the Dune Harbor development would not deny Nugent's right to
a reasonable use of its property, Chester said.

The proposed pipeline sparked a fierce community controversy.

Many area residents and officials from the cities of Muskegon, Muskegon Heights
and Norton Shores expressed concern that Nugent's plan to discharge millions
of gallons of treated process wastewater into Lake Michigan could pollute the
lake, which provides drinking water for those communities. DEQ officials had said
the discharge would not pollute Lake Michigan, but many area residents
remained skeptical.

Critics said the proposed pipeline -- which would have dumped water
treated wastewater from Nugent's sand-cleaning process into a 1,925-square foot,
rock-filled plunge pool on the Lake Michigan beach -- would have been an eyesore
and a potential hazard to kids playing on the beach.

In his ruling, Chester said the proposed pipeline project would not threaten human
health or public safety. But he said the proposed plunge pool constituted a structure
and, as such, was prohibited by state law from being constructed on the beach.
Nugent officials had argued the plunge pool did not meet the legal definition of
a structure.

Nugent critics called Chester's decision a watershed event in the annals of
Muskegon County's environmental history.

"It's a great step forward for Muskegon. We're finally protecting our environment
and taking a stand to protect the most beautiful place on Earth," said Darlene
DeHudy, vice president of Muskegon Save Our Shoreline.

©2006 Muskegon Chronicle
© 2006 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.