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Breitung OKs request on landfill

QUINNESEC — A proposal that allows a private landfill in Breitung Township to continue to accept waste sludge from a Menominee pulp mill has gained support from Breitung Township Board, moving it closer to becoming a part of Dickinson County’s solid waste plan.

Officials from Niagara Development, the landfill owner, and the Dickinson County Solid Waste Management Planning Committee were on hand at Monday’s township board meeting to answer questions about the waste sludge.

Resolute Forest Products has been placing some of its waste products in lagoons at the landfill since 2019 when a wet spring prevented them from their preferred method of spreading it over farm fields. Under an agreement with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, Resolute now relies on Niagara Development’s landfill off Kimberly Road for sludge disposal as needed.

At the landfill, the sludge is mixed with waste sand from Grede Foundries in Kingsford before being placed in the lagoon.

Sometimes not enough foundry sand is available, and so the proposed amendment would allow Resolute to then place the waste in the landfill.

The proposed amendment to the county’s waste plan needs the approval of at least seven of the ten local units of government in the county.

Members of the board expressed more concern for the amount of truck traffic coming in and out of the landfill than the actual dumping of the waste.

Tony Edlebeck from the waste planning committee stated that there would be no increase in traffic. “Since 2019, for the last three years, there has not been any increase in truck traffic coming through Lake Avenue and Kimberly Avenue,” he said.

Nick Ghere from Niagara Development said the number of trucks coming into the landfill is actually lower than it was in 2019, and the same amount of material will be transported. However, when no material from Grede is available, the waste will go into the landfill instead of the lagoons.

Township Superintendent Steve Mulka said that complaints about the trucks have been down and the complaints he had been getting were consistent with one driver and that driver was taken off the job.

A motion to approve the amendment passed, with Trustee Rich Wales casting the lone dissenting vote.According to information presented to the board, the proposed amendment was previously approved by the cities of Iron Mountain and Kingsford, along with Sagola and Breen townships.

Felch, West Branch, and Waucedah townships have yet to act, while Norway Township has denied it. A motion for approval failed to gain support at a recent Norway City Council meeting.

Final approval rests with EGLE.

The township board also heard from Lois Ellis of the Dickinson Area Economic Development Alliance on a proposed development and reimbursement agreement for Pine Mountain Resort involving new owner Storie Co. of Indianapolis.

The property has a small area that used to be a maintenance area that has some low-level contaminants similar to what exists on the site of an old gas station that need to be addressed. The property is eligible for brownfield funds.

“This is simply laying out the terms by which the developer will be reimbursed once they make the new investments and that they can document that they are eligible expenses as written out in their plan that has been approved,” Ellis said.

The agreement lays out a procedure in which the developer will annually tell the Dickinson County Brownfield Development Authority what investments were made the previous year, giving the authority a chance to review and approve those expenses.

A motion to approve the agreement was unanimously approved.

In other business, the board resumed discussion on the purchase of a pneumatic mole for the public works department. A mole is a device that can tunnel under roads without tearing them up when installing water lines.

The mole the township currently has dates back to 1996. It frequently breaks and parts are not available so they have to improvise repairs.

In the last board meeting, a lone bid from Roland Machinery of Escanaba for $6,145.88 had been received.

However, a second bid, from Ditch Witch Midwest of Kaukauna, Wis., had been missed. The bid was for $6,512.50.

The Ditch Witch Midwest proposal lists some attachments and it is not known if the Roland Machinery proposal also includes those attachments, or if they would even be needed.

A motion was passed instructing Superintendent of Public Works Jay Davis to review the bids and decide if the bids are comparable, or if the attachments are worth the extra money.

Starting at $4.62/week.

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