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2/16/2021 Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining | Bridge Michigan Popular Topics Special Reports Archive About Sign Up Contact S E A R C H Michigan’s nonpartisan, nonprot news source If you care about Michigan, please support our work. DONATE TODAY TRENDING: Coronavirus Michigan | Gov. Gretchen Whitmer | 2020 Michigan election | Michigan climate change | 2020 U.S. presidential election Michigan Environment Watch Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining January 6, 2021 Kelly House https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-gravel-industry-again-try-limit-local-control-mining 1/12 2/16/2021 Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining | Bridge Michigan Michigan Environment Watch SHARE THIS: Michigan Environment Watch Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining Donate METAMORA TOWNSHIP—Depending who you ask, this community’s decades-long crusade against a proposed gravel mine is an inspiring story of a small town’s ght against big industry, or a display of “not in my backyard” politics that shelters well-heeled communities from bearing their share of society’s burdens. ENVIRONMENTWATCH Michigan Environment Watch examines how public policy, industry, and other factors interact with the state’s trove of natural resources. And it’s become ground zero in a larger policy debate over who should decide whether, and under what circumstances, gravel mines can set up shop in communities across the state. Neighbors of a Boy Scouts camp nestled between the rolling pastures of Metamora Township argue that a plan by the Edw. C. Levy Co. to extract sand and gravel from about 500 acres of the scout land would destroy their community’s quiet pastoral vibe and risk spreading a contaminated groundwater plume that has soured nearby wells. Levy’s is the latest in a long string of attempts by various companies to extract sand and gravel from the scout camp. “We already can’t drink the water,” said resident Michelle Joliat, whose well is among those contaminated with dioxane from a nearby landll. “If the Levy company comes in 2,000 feet east of a leaking Superfund site, my neighborhood is basically obliterated.” Levy disputes that. The company can mine in Metamora without worsening pollution, said Eliot Weiner, Levy’s executive vice president. He argues that Michigan needs sand and gravel to build roads, bridges and homes and the increasing frequency of ghts like the one in Metamora is driving up construction costs for everyone. “The real loser is the taxpayer,” he said, who must pay more for construction materials when companies have to transport them from distant mines in Northern Michigan or Canada. After two failed attempts to pass bills in Lansing that would make it harder for communities like Metamora to keep gravel mines out, ofcials in the aggregate sector (an industry term for sand, gravel and other loose materials used in construction) and their allies in the Legislature say they will try again in 2021. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-gravel-industry-again-try-limit-local-control-mining 2/12 2/16/2021 Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining | Bridge Michigan SPONSOR This time, though, anti-aggregate mining activists and local government advocates say they’re preparing a counterattack: Compromise legislation that would tighten Michigan’s mine siting laws while still allowing local governments to say no. “I’m a believer in local control,” said Sen. Kevin Daley, R-Arcadia Township, a former township supervisor who represents Metamora Township and plans to introduce competing legislation. Daley said he shares industry concerns about dwindling access to Michigan’s mineral deposits, but “I just don’t believe taking complete control of this issue away from locals is the right answer.” The two sides agree on little, other than this: Something must change about Michigan’s system for approving local mining operations, so decades-long disputes like the one in Metamora don’t become the norm. A failure to plan Before the midcentury suburbanization of Michigan's population centers, few took notice as sand and gravel mines cropped up in the sparsely-populated areas outside the state's big cities. There weren’t as many nearby residents to complain about the loud noises, unsightly pits, dust and truck trafc from the mines. Many of those former mine sites have since been transformed into private lakes ringed with luxury homes, such as Island Lake in Novi, while others languished as unremediated pits. As homes and businesses lled in the suburbs and exurbs of Michigan’s cities, government leaders plotted out land for new neighborhoods, business districts and industrial parks in their growing communities. But often, said John Yellich, director of the Michigan Geological Survey at Western Michigan University, those plans didn’t leave room for underlying sand and gravel deposits that might help build and maintain those communities. That, Yellich said, was a mistake. “Any development of infrastructure or cities needs to have a reliable source [of aggregates] close by,” Yellich said. In the decades since, sand and gravel operators say, it’s become increasingly difcult to open new pits without angering neighbors. Meanwhile, Michigan’s demand for the materials continues unabated. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-gravel-industry-again-try-limit-local-control-mining 3/12 2/16/2021 Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining | Bridge Michigan Gravel everywhere, but not a rock to mine? Michigan is poised to spend $7.3 billion over the next ve years on road and bridge construction projects, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s $3.5 billion bond initiative doubled planned spending in keeping with her 2018 campaign promise to “x the damn roads.” In 2021, the Michigan Department of Transportation’s pavement program will spend nearly $2.26 billion to address nearly 3,000 lane miles, a department spokesman said. Sand and gravel for those projects has to come from somewhere, said Sen. Adam Hollier, D- Detroit, who sponsored the latest industry-supported bill package, which died in the just- completed lame duck legislative session. Under the 2006 Michigan Zoning Enabling Act, local units of government can consider a host of factors in deciding whether to allow a new mine, including what kind of use the land is zoned for, mining impacts on nearby property values and road safety. They can also regulate a mine’s operating hours and order limits on noise, dust and trafc. Those provisions give local communities valuable leverage, said Judy Allen, director of government relations for the Michigan Townships Association, empowering them to deny pits when necessary, and work with owners of existing pits to prevent conicts with neighbors. But Hollier contends that too much local control has created a patchwork of different policies from one municipality to the next, hindering the gravel industry’s growth and funneling pits into communities with the fewest resources to ght them. “It often comes down to: is one side or the other willing to le a lawsuit?” Hollier said. “Which means, only communities with the money [are able] to le suit.” 9,160 members pay for this After adding thousands of paying members in 2020, 221 more joined Bridge Club in January 2021. Please support our work. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-gravel-industry-again-try-limit-local-control-mining 4/12 2/16/2021 Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining | Bridge Michigan JOIN BRIDGE CLUB HERE I'm already a member! However, neither Hollier nor industry representatives could cite a specic example of dissent in wealthy communities shifting the burden of mining onto a poorer community. It’s true that residents in Metamora — a mix of grand estates and small older homes — have spent signicant sums ghting Levy. In 2018 alone, tax records show, a citizen group called the Metamora Land Preservation Alliance spent $107,962. But the Dearborn-based Levy company, too, has paid lawyers to sue the township over its resistance to the mine proposal. And the Michigan Aggregates Association, along with the state chamber and labor groups, lobbied aggressively in support of Hollier’s legislation and a similar bill by the late Sen. Tom Casperson that failed in the 2018 lame duck. The association made a $1,000 campaign contribution to Hollier in 2019. “It’s insulting that someone is using social justice as an excuse for a land grab,” said Victor Dzenowagis, who owns the White Horse Inn in downtown Metamora and helps lead the Metamora Land Preservation Alliance. Hollier said his intent is not meant to make it easier to mine, and his bill would have in fact strengthened mine siting standards in many communities. After hearing Metamora residents’ concerns about possible water contamination, he also introduced a companion bill to strengthen water quality oversight at mines. “I just want it to be as hard in Delta Township (a suburb of Lansing) as it is in Birmingham or Iron Mountain (a Western Upper Peninsula community with a mining legacy),” he said. Less gravel, higher prices? Michigan is a sand and gravel-rich state. As glaciers moved across the state during the last ice age, they carried minerals from as far away as Canada, and deposited the pulverized detritus https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-gravel-industry-again-try-limit-local-control-mining 5/12 2/16/2021 Michigan gravel industry to again try to limit local control on mining | Bridge Michigan in their wake. That abundance makes Michigan among the nation’s biggest sand and gravel producers.

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