KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — There’s another environmental crisis brewing on the Kalamazoo River and local officials are banning together to express their concerns.
County Commissioners waived their own two-week rule on proposals to immediately send a letter to Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, which drained Morrow Lake to fix gates on the dam.
That action allegedly sent tons of silt downstream.
County Board Chair Tracy Hall says its been an ecological disaster for the fish, the turtles and the wildlife that live downstream, literally choking them to death.
Commissioner Zach Bauer, who co-authored the letter says he hopes it will carry some weight with Eagle Creek’s owner, The Province of Ontario. He says the Canadians would not like the idea of an American firm coming into their area and creating ecological problems, and he hopes hearing from local elected officials might have some impact.
The City of Kalamazoo will consider sending the same letter on Monday, and they plan to work with other local municipalities to do the same.
The local units have no legal authority over the issue, but Commissioner Julie Rogers says she and board member Christine Morris will have some say when they take their seats in the State House next month. She said she was surprised that some dams and bridges can be owned by private firms in Michigan, even though they exist as public infrastructure. She says she has also heard from some environmental groups on the larger issue.
State environmental officials have already slapped the firm with two violations, and more legal action may be coming to pursue a clean-up along the waterway, which has been badly abused for most of the last century between the Paper Plants, the Enbridge oil spill and now this.
— Copy written by John McNeil —
Comments