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The Toxic Slurry Pit is Bad Government
- LIABILITY FOR SAGINAW COUNTY RESIDENTS: Saginaw County leaders have placed the burden of monitoring and responsibility for the proposed slurry pit on Saginaw taxpayers FOREVER. If there is any future damage or environmental accident or release, Saginaw taxpayers are responsible. As Saginaw's attorney, Andre Borrello, told the Saginaw Board of Commissioners at their September, 2005 meeting
- "...it must be made clear that the County is ultimately responsible for any and all costs as specified in the Agreement, which may include, among other things, costs of clean-up and response, including studies and investigations necessary to determine an appropriate response, in the event of contamination."
- PREEMPTS LOCAL CONTROL: Frankenlust Township, the township that hosts the pit, had zoned the area wetland and agricultural, prohibiting development in its Master Plan. Heedless of that designation, Saginaw County preempted both Frankenlust, and opposition from the other impacted township, Zilwaukee.
- SITE COULD FLOOD: The site is being built in the Saginaw River floodplain that in 1986 was under fifty-two inches of water. Construction in this location will remove critical floodwater storage from surrounding communities. In several Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) internal memos, staff asked that the site be moved to an upland location out of the floodplain. Where will future water go when 400 hundred acres are removed from the floodplain?
- NO CONSTRUCTION, MANAGEMENT OR OPERATION PLAN: A house, a garage, a pole barn — all require plans and approval by local authorities prior to construction. Many require public hearings. This project, a major expenditure of federal and local monies, with major ecological and human impact, has to date no approved construction plans, management or operation plans, although construction has begun. Yet it was granted both a State floodplain and wetland permit. No public hearings on any plans have been held. Build as you go is not the way government is supposed to operate, particularly for a facility that will hold toxic sediment.
- FLAWED PROCESS: Government works best in the bright sunshine of openness. From the beginning of the search for a spoils site a group of river businesses, Saginaw County officials, Army Corps of Engineers representatives and others have made major decisions about this project without public scrutiny or oversight. There have been few public meetings and little response to public concerns about the project. It has generally been very difficult to get information on the project.
- FARMLAND WILL BE LOST: According to the American Farmland Trust Michigan between 1982 and 1992 lost approximately 854,000 acres of farmland, or 85,000 acres per year. The land chosen to site the slurry pit is 400 acres of productive farmland, some of which has been enrolled in Michigan's Farmland Preservation Act.
- PERMIT IS OPEN-ENDED: Most regulatory permits are time sensitive and require renewal. They often include public hearings to determine if new science or best available treatment technologies could better protect the public. The State permits for this site, however, have extended to its entire life of twenty years. That is unacceptable
