LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is taking civil action related to unresolved sediment cleanup of Morrow Lake in Kalamazoo County.
The lawsuit filed against STS Hydropower, LLC, and Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, LLC Tuesday alleges what Nessel calls “the companies’ grossly mismanaged drawdown of the lake to complete repairs of their dam on the Kalamazoo River.”
Nessel says the companies’ mismanaged drawdown resulted in hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sediment mobilizing down a stretch of approximately 30 miles of the Kalamazoo River, creating a public safety hazard, choking the river and smothering aquatic life and habitat, as well as impeding recreational use.
Officials say the sediment deposits in the river span up to multiple acres and are up to approximately 12-feet deep in some locations.
“The lack of urgency by the companies to address these hazards left no other alternative than to take this civil action,” Nessel said. “STS Hydropower, LLC, and Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, LLC, should now bear the burden of repairing the damage and being held accountable for neglecting legal obligations.”
Specifically, the Ingham County Circuit Court filing seeks:
A declaration that Defendants STS Hydropower, LLC, and Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, LLC, violated Parts 17, 31, 301, 303, 401, and 487 of the NREPA, as well as the common law doctrines of conversion, and public nuisance; a declaration that Eagle Creek is the alter ego of STS Hydropower; civil fines; recovery of the full value of natural resource damages; a declaration that Defendants’ violations of the common law and NREPA have created an ongoing public nuisance and an order requiring the abatement of the public nuisance; an order requiring Defendants to restore and repair the damage they caused; and an order reimbursing the State’s enforcement expenses, including oversight costs, litigation expenses, and attorney fees.
State Senator Sean McCann of Kalamazoo said, “I applaud Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy for moving forward with litigation against the parties responsible for polluting our Kalamazoo River with many tons of ecology-choking, smothering sediment and silt. While this lawsuit moves forward, I will continue pursuing all avenues for immediate cleanup of the river, and also for legislation to equip our state officials with escalated enforcement tools for this and any future similar disaster.”
McCann and State Representative. Julie Rogers of Kalamazoo introduced bills in December 2021 that they say would strengthen the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s (EGLE) authority to protect Michigan’s inland lakes and streams from damage by dam operators.
Senate Bill 813 and House Bill 5661 would amend the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to give EGLE the authority to issue written emergency orders when inland lakes and streams are threatened with harm to “public health, safety, welfare, property, or the natural resources or the public trust in those natural resources.”
The bills would allow for state environmental regulators to order responsible parties to conduct the immediate cleanup of sediment in the Kalamazoo River and similar situations, without the need for long periods of negotiation.
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