The Alba Injection Well and why it matters to Torch Lake Township

I really don’t want to do this.  I enjoy having a quiet little blog about doings in Torch Lake Township.  I like to tell you about people – the families they raise, the businesses they run, the leadership they provide.  I like to make little jokes about my dogs, and The Rock, and the weather.  I spent a good part of my life in the rough and tumble of politics, and at some point I decided I’d had enough.  I wanted a peaceful life.  Ah well, perhaps peace and quiet are overrated. 

I believe that the proposed Alba Injection Well is simply wrong, and I cannot stay out of it.  It is, after all, about our water.  Our rivers, our lakes, our groundwater, our irrigation wells, the water our children and grandchildren drink.  You can’t get more basic than that.

Anyone who lives in Torch Lake Township understands the importance of clean water at a visceral level.    We test our wells, we monitor water quality on Torch Lake, we patrol the beaches of Grand Traverse Bay for dead birds and fish – because we know that both water and contaminants can travel a long way underground.  We live on a chain of lakes, in a network of creeks and rivers, in a vast watershed.  Alba is not the moon.  Alba is us. 

The dispute is, of course, about money – and whose money will pay for a solution. I believe that “saving” money by trucking contaminated water to Alba and dumping it into a deep injection well is simply shifting the costs from the developers of Bay Harbor to the people of Antrim County. I believe a better solution is to contain the contamination at the Bay Harbor site while the developers build a treatment plant there.  My second choice would be to continue to process the contaminated water at the Grand Traverse County wastewater treatment facility.

The advantage of both these solutions is that the problem and the solution remain visible, rather than being swept under the rug of willful ignorance.  Moving poison from one place to another does not get rid of the poison.  It simply takes the problem away from one place and hides it in another place.  The people of Alba, Star Township, and the rest of Antrim County should not be the recipients of Bay Harbor’s problem.  Our water is no less precious – our children no less dear to us.

I thought you might like to read a couple of items and think about them.  Then feel free to comment. 

• I hold a high opinion of Rebecca Norris’s analytic ability and integrity.  The former Township Trustee and longtime owner of Becky’s Beach Resort issued a plea to the business community this week.  You can follow the link to read her piece, Protecting Our Environment.
• I hold a high opinion, as well, of the work done by the Friends of the Jordan River Watershed, led by Dr. John Richter.  Their website has a long list of documents and links to articles.  I’ve chosen to post a summary by Anne Zukowski, The Alba Injection Well: How Did We Get Here? 

What do you think we should do?  How do you think we should do it?  I think a conversation is in order.