Hamilton Reef
06-06-2006, 08:45 PM
Smelly debris is spoiling Huron County beaches; some residents point fingers at nearby farms
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-7/114941616886070.xml&coll=4
Sunday, June 04, 2006 By JEFF KARTTIMES WRITER jkart@bc-times.com
CASEVILLE - Warner Price's beach is sick.
He and others call it ''crud.'' The gray, grassy material keeps piling up in front of his Saginaw Bay home, every time it storms. It's gotten as thick as 2 feet deep. It stinks, and is sometimes soaked with high levels of E. coli, a bacteria found in human and animal feces.
''It just keeps coming,'' Price said. ''It's a mess. It's an absolute mess.''
Several miles to the south, Jake Zwemmer runs two large CAFOS, or concentrated animal feeding operations, with thousands of dairy cows and millions of gallons of manure stored in pits.
What the two neighbors have in common is the Pinnebog River, which drains to the bay in Huron County.
Shoreline residents like Price blame mega farms like Zwemmer's for polluting the river, causing the crud and closing public beaches in Lake and Hume townships east of Caseville because of high E. coli readings.
Zwemmer and other farmers say their operations are highly regulated, and that the blame lies with shoreline property owners, who rely on septic systems for their waste, and city wastewater plants that routinely overflow in the watershed.
For now, state officials say they're not sure who's right, or how to stop the mess from cropping up along the beaches.
Something's growing
State officials say the so-called crud is mostly sand and dead diatoms, a type of algae. Phosphorus, a nutrient, is spurring growth of the algae in the bay, and the microscopic plants wash up on the beach when they die off naturally.
The Pinnebog watershed takes in 195 miles. So contributors could include failing septic systems, runoff of manure from farms and fertilizer from lawns, and discharges by area wastewater treatment plants in Bad Axe, Elkton and elsewhere, state officials say.
Some shoreline residents say the beach mess has gotten steadily worse over the last several years, ever since CAFOs began multiplying in Huron County.
There are 14 CAFOs in Huron County, according to a 2005 list from the Sierra Club, an environmental watchdog group.
The club conducted a study that concluded that all of Michigan's 66 CAFOs, located in 15 counties, can be expected to have illegal discharges of contaminants to surface water; many were discharging at the time of inspection or showed clear evidence of past pollution.
But Zwemmer said big farms are not to blame for beach problems.
''We don't want to be polluting the area,'' Zwemmer said. ''We live here too, and we have our own wells.''
Between his two farms, Zwemmer has 2,700 dairy cows that generate more than 20 million gallons of manure a year, he said.
But he said he contains the manure in four pits, which can handle up to 18 inches of rain before they overflow, and that they never have spilled over in the seven years he's been in Huron County.
That's not the case with area wastewater treatment plants that seem to overflow every time there's a heavy rain, Zwemmer said.
He said haulers truck away his manure and spread it onto more than 5,000 acres in the county.
''We're checked very strictly so we don't have any runoff,'' Zwemmer said, noting that he's in a voluntary environmental stewardship program run by the state and his farms are inspected several times a year by regulators.
Zwemmer said soil and manure is sampled before manure is applied to fields, to make sure a safe amount is applied, and the manure isn't spread near ditches.
Need for study
That answer doesn't satisfy beachfront property owner Price.
Price has lived on the bay for 60 years. The retired General Motors employee said he spent more than $1,000 last year having the beach residue hauled away. He planned to have more scooped up last week.
Price hopes a state Department of Environmental Quality project nabs CAFO operators who he thinks are polluting the river and bay. Charlie Bauer, an analyst with the DEQ in Bay City, is working on a two-year, $141,000 project to pinpoint sources of pollution in the Pinnebog River watershed and put together a plan to clean up the area. He hopes to finish by June 2007.
A federal study conducted two years ago of the Pinnebog and Pigeon rivers found that animals and humans are impacting the waterways with antibiotics and E. coli bacteria. But that study wasn't definitive, a researcher said.
Ken Pechette, deputy supervisor for Hume Township, said he doesn't think another study is needed.
Pechette, a retired plumber, thinks it's obvious that CAFOS are mostly to blame.
He says county leaders seem more concerned with farm development than water quality, particularly in a county where agriculture makes up about 80 percent of the landscape. But many Thumb beaches are half as nice as they used to be, and tourism may be suffering, Penchette said.
''How many studies do you want to do? How much money do you want to spend?'' Pechette said.
''As far as I'm concerned, get to the source ... We just can't continue to put our heads in the sand like ostriches.''
At Port Crescent State Park, where the Pinnebog drains into the bay, the river smelled like an open sewer on a recent day.
A public beach at Port Crescent exceeded state water quality standards for E. coli in July 2005, June 2004, July 2003 and August 2001, according to DEQ records.
But Dale Lipar, county environmental health director, said he doesn't think the county has any problem beaches.
Last year, beaches were only closed for one day at Port Crescent and three days at Harbor Beach, he said.
''If you close it once in a summer, it's too bad it's closed, but it's not like it's chronic,'' Lipar said.
Changing ecology?
Milton Etzler, who lives down the road from Price, is happy to show off his beach, if only to get some publicity about the beach crud.
Etzler was born on a Hume Township farm and has lived on the bay for 20 years.
The beach has never been as bad as it is today, he says. His shoreline has thick piles of debris that look like dead shrubs.
He says he used to be able to catch perch off the dock in front of his home, but the fish are scarce these days. He doesn't swim in the water anymore.
''The whole ecology is changing,'' Etzler said of the crud. ''This is what we can see.''
Etzler said there are some failing septic systems out there, but he thinks most are maintained, because shoreline residents use wells for water that are in many cases right next to their septic systems. Many shoreline residents in the area also are weekenders, he said.
Pechette said he thinks the issue comes down to politics.
Lake and Hume townships originally wanted to be involved with the ongoing DEQ study, but the Huron Conservation District is now heading it up with the DEQ, he said.
''In my mind, it's like the fox watching the hen house,'' Pechette said.
The Conservation District works primarily with farmers, and farmers are the primary voters in the county, he said. Most shoreline property owners don't vote, because they're not permanent residents, he said.
Pechette thinks the county's manure should be treated, to begin with.
''The feet are being dragged. ... Anytime someone mentions a solution to the problem, it takes money and change is a tough thing,'' Pechette said.
Greg Renn, technician for the Huron Conservation District, said his group works primarily with farmers, but isn't biased in their favor.
Renn said all sorts of local businesses and agencies are involved in the watershed management plan and public meetings are being held.
Renn believes the latest study will show that shoreline property owners along with farmers are causing the problems.
''There are a wide variety of potential contributors out there,'' he said. ''I've always maintained that if everybody does a little bit, it would make a big difference at the mouth.''
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-7/114941616886070.xml&coll=4
Sunday, June 04, 2006 By JEFF KARTTIMES WRITER jkart@bc-times.com
CASEVILLE - Warner Price's beach is sick.
He and others call it ''crud.'' The gray, grassy material keeps piling up in front of his Saginaw Bay home, every time it storms. It's gotten as thick as 2 feet deep. It stinks, and is sometimes soaked with high levels of E. coli, a bacteria found in human and animal feces.
''It just keeps coming,'' Price said. ''It's a mess. It's an absolute mess.''
Several miles to the south, Jake Zwemmer runs two large CAFOS, or concentrated animal feeding operations, with thousands of dairy cows and millions of gallons of manure stored in pits.
What the two neighbors have in common is the Pinnebog River, which drains to the bay in Huron County.
Shoreline residents like Price blame mega farms like Zwemmer's for polluting the river, causing the crud and closing public beaches in Lake and Hume townships east of Caseville because of high E. coli readings.
Zwemmer and other farmers say their operations are highly regulated, and that the blame lies with shoreline property owners, who rely on septic systems for their waste, and city wastewater plants that routinely overflow in the watershed.
For now, state officials say they're not sure who's right, or how to stop the mess from cropping up along the beaches.
Something's growing
State officials say the so-called crud is mostly sand and dead diatoms, a type of algae. Phosphorus, a nutrient, is spurring growth of the algae in the bay, and the microscopic plants wash up on the beach when they die off naturally.
The Pinnebog watershed takes in 195 miles. So contributors could include failing septic systems, runoff of manure from farms and fertilizer from lawns, and discharges by area wastewater treatment plants in Bad Axe, Elkton and elsewhere, state officials say.
Some shoreline residents say the beach mess has gotten steadily worse over the last several years, ever since CAFOs began multiplying in Huron County.
There are 14 CAFOs in Huron County, according to a 2005 list from the Sierra Club, an environmental watchdog group.
The club conducted a study that concluded that all of Michigan's 66 CAFOs, located in 15 counties, can be expected to have illegal discharges of contaminants to surface water; many were discharging at the time of inspection or showed clear evidence of past pollution.
But Zwemmer said big farms are not to blame for beach problems.
''We don't want to be polluting the area,'' Zwemmer said. ''We live here too, and we have our own wells.''
Between his two farms, Zwemmer has 2,700 dairy cows that generate more than 20 million gallons of manure a year, he said.
But he said he contains the manure in four pits, which can handle up to 18 inches of rain before they overflow, and that they never have spilled over in the seven years he's been in Huron County.
That's not the case with area wastewater treatment plants that seem to overflow every time there's a heavy rain, Zwemmer said.
He said haulers truck away his manure and spread it onto more than 5,000 acres in the county.
''We're checked very strictly so we don't have any runoff,'' Zwemmer said, noting that he's in a voluntary environmental stewardship program run by the state and his farms are inspected several times a year by regulators.
Zwemmer said soil and manure is sampled before manure is applied to fields, to make sure a safe amount is applied, and the manure isn't spread near ditches.
Need for study
That answer doesn't satisfy beachfront property owner Price.
Price has lived on the bay for 60 years. The retired General Motors employee said he spent more than $1,000 last year having the beach residue hauled away. He planned to have more scooped up last week.
Price hopes a state Department of Environmental Quality project nabs CAFO operators who he thinks are polluting the river and bay. Charlie Bauer, an analyst with the DEQ in Bay City, is working on a two-year, $141,000 project to pinpoint sources of pollution in the Pinnebog River watershed and put together a plan to clean up the area. He hopes to finish by June 2007.
A federal study conducted two years ago of the Pinnebog and Pigeon rivers found that animals and humans are impacting the waterways with antibiotics and E. coli bacteria. But that study wasn't definitive, a researcher said.
Ken Pechette, deputy supervisor for Hume Township, said he doesn't think another study is needed.
Pechette, a retired plumber, thinks it's obvious that CAFOS are mostly to blame.
He says county leaders seem more concerned with farm development than water quality, particularly in a county where agriculture makes up about 80 percent of the landscape. But many Thumb beaches are half as nice as they used to be, and tourism may be suffering, Penchette said.
''How many studies do you want to do? How much money do you want to spend?'' Pechette said.
''As far as I'm concerned, get to the source ... We just can't continue to put our heads in the sand like ostriches.''
At Port Crescent State Park, where the Pinnebog drains into the bay, the river smelled like an open sewer on a recent day.
A public beach at Port Crescent exceeded state water quality standards for E. coli in July 2005, June 2004, July 2003 and August 2001, according to DEQ records.
But Dale Lipar, county environmental health director, said he doesn't think the county has any problem beaches.
Last year, beaches were only closed for one day at Port Crescent and three days at Harbor Beach, he said.
''If you close it once in a summer, it's too bad it's closed, but it's not like it's chronic,'' Lipar said.
Changing ecology?
Milton Etzler, who lives down the road from Price, is happy to show off his beach, if only to get some publicity about the beach crud.
Etzler was born on a Hume Township farm and has lived on the bay for 20 years.
The beach has never been as bad as it is today, he says. His shoreline has thick piles of debris that look like dead shrubs.
He says he used to be able to catch perch off the dock in front of his home, but the fish are scarce these days. He doesn't swim in the water anymore.
''The whole ecology is changing,'' Etzler said of the crud. ''This is what we can see.''
Etzler said there are some failing septic systems out there, but he thinks most are maintained, because shoreline residents use wells for water that are in many cases right next to their septic systems. Many shoreline residents in the area also are weekenders, he said.
Pechette said he thinks the issue comes down to politics.
Lake and Hume townships originally wanted to be involved with the ongoing DEQ study, but the Huron Conservation District is now heading it up with the DEQ, he said.
''In my mind, it's like the fox watching the hen house,'' Pechette said.
The Conservation District works primarily with farmers, and farmers are the primary voters in the county, he said. Most shoreline property owners don't vote, because they're not permanent residents, he said.
Pechette thinks the county's manure should be treated, to begin with.
''The feet are being dragged. ... Anytime someone mentions a solution to the problem, it takes money and change is a tough thing,'' Pechette said.
Greg Renn, technician for the Huron Conservation District, said his group works primarily with farmers, but isn't biased in their favor.
Renn said all sorts of local businesses and agencies are involved in the watershed management plan and public meetings are being held.
Renn believes the latest study will show that shoreline property owners along with farmers are causing the problems.
''There are a wide variety of potential contributors out there,'' he said. ''I've always maintained that if everybody does a little bit, it would make a big difference at the mouth.''