Raisin Township residents seek information on how to stop proposed gravel mine

RAISIN TWP. — Residents concerned about a proposed gravel mine in Raisin Township heard from a geologist Thursday about what should be considered when township officials are presented with a mining plan.

The project has been before the Raisin Township Planning Commission once. Phillip Daluca of Lucky Strike Sand and Gravel in Macomb Township presented the project in October, according to the meeting minutes. It would develop a gravel mine on property northwest of the intersection of Occidental Highway and Gady Road. The site is generally bounded by the Uniloy plant on the west, the Kiwanis Trail on the north and west, and Gady Road on the south. It has frontage along Occidental Highway between Uniloy and the new Midwest Energy & Communications office. The Gerken Materials gravel mine off Ives Road is just across the Kiwanis Trail from the proposed mine site.

Several people spoke in opposition to the proposed mine at the October meeting. They cited concerns about how the mine might affect groundwater and wells, noise, traffic, dust and air quality, and property values. No one spoke in support of the project.

The planning commission tabled the proposal and asked Daluca to return with more complete information. Planning commission chairman Marcus McNamara said Thursday that the project is expected to be back on the commission’s agenda at its meeting Feb. 13.

Michael Wilczynski of Pangea Environmental LLC gave Thursday’s presentation at a special meeting of the planning commission. He told the more than 60 people in attendance that he has worked for 45 years as a geologist, including for oil and mining companies. He retired from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and has taught at Macomb Community College. He said he started Pangea five years ago and mostly does free consulting work with communities on environmental issues, including sand and gravel extraction.

Michigan’s Zoning Enabling Act generally protects mining operations with an exception for what are called “very serious consequences,” Wilczynski said.

“The way it is worded, you have to look at the need for the material and its value and weigh that versus potential very serious consequences that may result from the mining,” he said.

The need for the value would consider how the mined material would be used, such as for road construction.

The very serious consequences (VSCs) spelled out in the Zoning Enabling Act are:

• The relationship of extraction and associated activities with existing land uses.

• The impact on existing land uses in the vicinity of the property.

• The impact on property values in the vicinity of the property and along the proposed hauling route serving the property, based on credible evidence.

• The impact on pedestrian and traffic safety in the vicinity of the property and along the proposed hauling route serving the property.

• The impact on other identifiable health, safety and welfare interests in the local unit of government.

• The overall public interest in the extraction of the specific natural resources on the property.

Residents can raise any of those VSCs as possibilities and the developer has to show that they don't exist, Wilczynski said.

The Zoning Enabling Act allows townships to set “reasonable regulation of hours of operation, blasting hours, noise levels, dust control measures and traffic.”

Wilczynski said he had not done a detailed review of this site, but he examined potential concerns with groundwater, wells and the water table level in the area.

To determine the depth of the water table around the proposed mine site, Wilczynski said he looked at state data on nearby individual wells. Forms submitted to the state when the wells were dug show how far down the water is and the types of soil the well goes through. This data gives a rough idea of where the water table is, but a more accurate study would use a groundwater monitoring well and soil borings to measure the water table's depth.

The area of the proposed mine is about 797 to 814 feet above sea level, according to the forms he showed. The wells he looked up showed the water table at 16 to 32 feet below the ground surface.

“There’s not a lot of material here above the water table,” he said. “Any mining here, to me, to make this a real mine, has to go below the water table and start to create a lake.”

If the developers intend to make a lake of at least 5 acres, they would need to get a permit from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, he said.

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Wilczynski also looked at wellhead protection areas, which are areas designated by the state to protect public water supplies. Wellhead protection areas for the Lee Villa Mobile Home Park, Milton C. Porter Education Center, Sutton Elementary School, Lake Arrowhead Estates and Uniloy are in the area of the proposed mine.

The wellhead protection program protects public water supply systems (PWSS) from potential contamination, according to EGLE. “Protection is provided by identifying the area which contributes ground water to PWSS wells, identifying sources of contamination within the area, and developing methods to manage the area and minimize the threat to the PWSS.”

Wilczynski also looked at how mines could affect property values and air quality, such as by creating silica dust that can blow up to 6 miles in a 6-mph breeze. Silica dust breathed into the lungs can cause serious health problems over time, but the state’s air quality permit for mining is only for operations that involve crushing material. It doesn’t apply to material leaving the site. Mine operators have to meet the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s permissible exposure limit, but that is for workers who are at the site 8 hours a day, not for residents living near a mine. EGLE has air particulate limits, he said, but the mining industry is exempt.

Wilczynski recommended that planning commissions presented with a gravel mine application hire experts at the expense of the applicant to review the application, make sure the local zoning ordinance is in compliance with the Zoning Enabling Act, hire experts to inspect the mine, get legal advice from attorneys with experience with the ZEA and the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, and support the State Geological Survey to map and protect natural resources.

Dale Witt, the township board’s representative on the planning commission, told the audience the township’s ordinance can collect any information it needs and pass that cost along to the applicant. He said they have discussed with Lucky Strike about consulting with EGLE on the project.

The township is obligated to follow its zoning ordinance and the ZEA, McNamara said after the meeting.

“There are very specific things that are needed,” he said. “Some of them, as (Wilczynski) mentioned, are subjective. How serious is ‘very serious?’ So there’s a little bit of that, but it’s laid out in the ordinance that if we’re uncomfortable with anything that we can table a decision and direct them that we want additional information.”

McNamara described a situation where Gerken Materials wanted to sell crushed materials at its Ives Road mine, and the township didn’t allow it because it wasn’t allowed in the ordinance.

“Nothing is going to be rubber stamped,” he said. “It will be reviewed against the ordinances and the laws, and if it complies, then it complies, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And if we need more information to make that determination, we’ll let them know that.”

Even if the township follows the ordinance and ZEA and denies the application, there is a possibility the applicant will sue the township to try to get court approval, he said.

Wilczynski’s presentation was useful, McNamara said, but as a civil engineer he said he was familiar with much of what was presented.

“There are a ton of resources out there, and he showed a lot of the maps and the state repositories of different information,” McNamara said.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Gravel mine permitting process topic of Raisin Township meeting