Posted on September 19, 2016
The Otsego County Board of Commissioners voted to rescind its earlier approval of a possible donation of property to the county by Georgia-Pacific.
The 160-acre donation, located on the former G-P particleboard site in Bagley Township, was being considered as an area to place dredged material from Otsego Lake.
Commissioner Ken Glasser, citing possible negative environmental impacts and liabilities if the county accepted the donation, brought the measure back before the board at Tuesday’s meeting to rescind and reconsider.
If the property donation had been accepted and funds procured to do the dredging, ponds that would receive dredge sediment from Otsego Lake would have been constructed on the site, according to the proposed donation agreement documents.
During an environmental study, however, concerns arose about causing the movement of contaminants that already exist on the property from the additional soil and water dumped from the dredging.
“It could affect the groundwater and already existing (contaminated) plume,” Glasser told the board. “I like the idea of the dredging process, but I don’t like moving the plume.”
After several motions to bring the donation issue back to the table, the board unanimously rescinded the vote it had made at the Aug. 23 meeting, thus rejecting the plan.
After the meeting, Ken Borton, commission chairman, said the board made the right move.
“More information came to light,” Borton said. “There could be some issues with the dredgings from the lake. Some of the contaminants in the ground could push to more populated areas and affect wells. We don’t want to take on any environmental liability whatsoever and wind up spending more trying to clean it up. … The water (coming with the dredging material) itself could move contaminants already on the property.”
Glasser also spoke after the meeting and said that additional information prompted the board’s reversal.
“Kevin Sagasser (who performed the Phase I Environmental Assessment of the property for the county) indicated a load of suspended solids … added to groundwater could potentially push the plume further to inhabited areas,” Glasser said.
Both Glasser and Borton said G-P has indicated the contaminated water plume is moving southwest and away from populated areas, but both commissioners said the assessment found the plume more likely heading northeast toward Gaylord and more populated areas of Bagley Township.
“We don’t want to do anything to exacerbate the problem,” Glasser said.
After Sagasser & Associates of Gaylord, an environmental consulting firm, was hired to perform the assessment, John Burt, county administrator, said he began having meetings with Sagasser to learn more about possible liabilities.
“During that process, it became apparent that the county could mitigate the risk of liability, but it couldn’t completely eliminate it,” Burt said in an email. “There’s a risk of what happens when you dump a lot of soil with water on the property and what that would do to contamination plumes as well as introducing more contaminants into the groundwater, meaning things like total dissolved solids, nitrates and leached lead. The county didn’t want to take on any liability for future boards to have to deal with.”
Total dissolved solids “comprise inorganic salts (principally calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides, and sulfates) and some small amounts of organic matter that are dissolved in water,” according to www.water-reasearch.net, which can originate from natural sources and human activities.
The search will continue for a site to more safely place the dredged material, Borton noted.
“We are also looking at other options,” he said. “This is not our only option, but it was the most economical and close to Otsego Lake.”
The county also had been seeking to work out a plan with G-P to do something about the concrete slabs left behind after the plant buildings were razed in 2013. The proposed property donation agreement had called for creating berms and planting trees along Dickerson Road to obscure the slabs.
“We’ll have to discuss those items more on how to resolve,” Burt said.
Source: Petoskey News
