Sprol

One of Michigan’s most exclusive communities, prestigious Bay Harbor, stretches along five miles of Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay scenic coastline. This impressive four-season, luxury resort community comes with all of amenities one would expect of such an upper class, high society resort community – the 27-hole Bay Harbor Golf Club (which Golf Digest magazine calls “The Pebble Beach of the Midwest”), the Olympic-caliber Bay Harbor Equestrian Club, and, the part that is supposed to set this community apart from all others, the first-rate deep-water harbor.

But, this spectacular private community, which rests between Charlevoix and Petoskey, has a dirty little secret, and it just so happens to have found its way to the surface – the surface of the waters of Bay Harbor. Throughout the past year, the Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency has issued advisories and even closed certain beaches along Bay Harbor and Resort Township’s East Park. People have been advised to avoid three stretches of beach that actually covers roughly 7,000 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline.

This 7,000-foot area along Lake Michigan’s sandy coastline just happens to be near old, buried kiln dust piles. And, it just so happens that portions of the exclusive Bay Harbor resort and park were developed right on top of the well-known, hidden heaps of kiln dust. The kiln dust mounds, which have caused highly alkaline seepage and toxic heavy metal pollution, is a waste product left behind by the old Penn-Dixie Cement Company which operated at the very site of Bay Harbor’s development for decades until the 1960s.

For more than 100 years the Penn-Dixie Cement Company and mining operations spoiled and disfigured in excess of 1,200 acres and five miles of Lake Michigan shoreline on Little Traverse Bay. The retired cement plant, which lay abandoned for 35 years after closing its doors back in the 1960s, left a desolate moonscape consisting of asbestos, coal, chromium brick, and 2.5 million cubic yards of kiln dust.

This contaminated eyesore sat unchanged until 1993 when David V. Johnson, Bay Harbor Company Chairman, joined forces with CMS Energy and began what was, and still is to this day, North America’s largest land reclamation. Together, Johnson and CMS Energy attempted to do what most true environmentalist advocate. Instead of destroying existing forests, farmable fields, and the very habitats necessary to support native wildlife, Bay Harbor was developed over a desolate, environmental blemish that no one else wanted to mess with.

The vision of Harbor Bay, which started in the early 1990s with the alliance between Johnson and CMS Energy, would definitely be put to the test as the real pollution problems became evident. At the beginning of their partnership, CMS Energy agreed to assume every bit of the liability for all initial necessary environmental cleaning as well as complete responsibility for handling the cleanup of any future environmental mishaps, should any arise.

Beginning in 1994, the bleak moonscape environment seemed to change overnight as synchronized explosions brought down the plant’s obsolete smokestacks. Just eight short months later, the barrier that separated Little Traverse Bay and Bay Harbor was removed allowing water to gush into Bay Harbor with amazing speed. Flowing at a rate of one million gallons per minute, it took just 24 hours to accumulate more than 2.5 billion gallons of water that gave birth to Bay Harbor Lake and created the brand new Nautical Center of the Great Lakes.

Because Bay Harbor ranks as one of America’s best marina resort facilities and is home to the Bay Harbor Yacht Club, Bay Harbor exemplifies the perfect, definitive lifestyle. The Bay Harbor Lake Marina has been revered because it is said to provide a safe harbor, and it has actually grown to be one of the biggest and most well known destinations for Great Lakes boaters. In fact, the Wall Street Journal once called Bay Harbor a “magnet for the world’s magnates.”

But now, just 12 years after the extreme makeover of a once desolate moonscape into a renowned resort community with all of life’s best amenities and $5 million waterfront mansions, it appears that the fantasy-like transformation was, just that, an incomplete fantasy.

As the transformation began, four towering heaps containing toxic cement kiln dust were covered by dirt and rock. These four massive piles of kiln dust were equivalent to greater than 312,000 completely filled, commercial-sized dumpsters. Once, concealed under rock, soil, and new grass, much of the once barren terrain was landscaped with new, young trees and multiple varieties of attractive, healthy plant-life. At the bottom of the biggest mound, a piping system was installed with the very important job of collecting any toxic runoff and transferring it to a nearby wastewater treatment plant in Petoskey.

Unfortunately, this trusted and relied-upon collection system failed. Then things went from bad to worse as the system was not repaired. It was simply quietly shut off for about eight months from the end of 2003 to the beginning of 2004.

Finally, state authorities tested the water in Bay Harbor and discovered a dangerous dilemma. Toxic runoff was seeping directly into the bay in disturbing amounts. As they continued their investigation, it was found that Bay Harbor was being harshly infected at many spots along the bay’s five-mile coastline as well as at the site of the idle collection pipes.

Levels of pH elevated to 13.5 were discovered in some standing water on a number of private beaches. According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, pH levels this high are just about as caustic as the average liquid bleach and drain cleaners. In fact, pH levels of 13.5 are considered well above levels strong enough to inflict irreversible skin damage.

Along the sandy coastlines of some beaches, vegetation and insects appear to have vanished as a result of the noxious seepage. But, the contamination does not stop on the beaches. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has documented that water tests taken as far out as 90 feet offshore still show high alkalinity levels.

As the magnitude of this pollution is still being measured, there are many who suggest that the perils of this type of land and water contamination has been overstated and embellished. These skeptics allege that a lot of the red carpet, resort community’s lake front property has been evaluated and is completely free of contamination. This area, they say, includes a sandy swimming beach designated for residents along with the well known boat harbor.

In contrast, however, a Michigan Department of Community Health evaluation has determined that people who come into contact with the polluted lake water or any of the contaminated shoreline seepage which contains such high alkalinity levels will likely suffer irreparable injuries to bodily tissues, particularly on the skin, in the eyes, and around mucous membranes.

In addition to the dangers of very high pH levels, mercury found in the lake’s water and seepage also presents a significant health hazard. Mercury, which can irreversibly impair the human body’s central nervous system, poses a noteworthy threat to anyone who comes in contact or ingests the chemical. The threat of mercury is especially strong for unborn fetuses and young children. As a result, mercury contamination is a primary concern for health officials when issuing health advisories regarding avoiding or reducing consumption of fish taken from Lake Michigan.

Test results have shown mercury levels in some of the shoreline seepage puddles around Bay Harbor at levels 230 times higher than the safe threshold at which all wildlife can be exposed on an ongoing rate. It is also important to mention that the levels of several other dangerous toxins also surpass Michigan’s safety standards. Some of these contaminates include selenium, copper, zinc and nickel.

Now that Bay Harbor’s ugly little secret has finally churned back to the surface for everyone to see, closed beaches, protective fencing, health advisories, and government workers in white protective suits are the norm along some parts of Bay Harbor. At least a dozen lakefront homes have been directly impacted, and the value of many undeveloped waterfront home sites will probably decrease. The force of such damaging and potentially deadly pollution is bound to flow throughout the roughly 550-home-resort community.

The unfortunate thing about the Bay Harbor pollution crisis is that it, like most other man-made environmental catastrophes, could have been prevented.

As it turns out, Michigan state environmental officials were aware of the toxic brew that was leaching into Little Traverse Bay for several years prior to the development of Bay Harbor. At the time, even though the building and development site for the upscale Bay Harbor community was to be directly over the concealed and abandoned cement-kiln dust piles, the environmental and human health risks were announced and documented as negligible.

According to records examined by the Detroit Free Press, environmental authorities with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had been aware that the nickel, lead and copper levels that were oozing into Lake Michigan surpassed tolerable and safe limits going back to 1989. This is some five years prior to the beginning of the development of the Bay Harbor community.

For some reason, however, at that time, the environmental regulators opted to not require the developer to completely contain and satisfactorily treat all the seepage. Their initial conclusion was that the contamination was, and would remain, insignificant.
As a direct result, in 1989, the state of Michigan established that the kiln dust was to be labeled as an inert byproduct. And, in 1994, environmental officials agreed that the state would not have the right to sue Bay Harbor in the event of any future problems, including any messy environmental problems that may occur.

The federal government, on the other hand, did not make the same agreement.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and CMS Energy have been discussing direct and immediate measures to enclose the poisonous overspill. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will be responsible for the supervision and administration of the continuing, long-term solution.

For now, as the cleanup of Bay Harbor continues, hazardous sections have been fenced off, warning signs posted. Contractors have been draining off lethal stagnant water from along the shore, and the existing collection system is now up and running again. There are also plans all ready in the making for a new, more comprehensive collection system.

Due to their agreement for assuming all responsibility for any environmental mishaps, CMS Energy has laid aside roughly $45 million. All of this is designated for the cleanup of Bay Harbor, but no one can be sure if this huge amount of money will even be enough to cleanse and purify the water and land of this exclusive resort community.