The Place Where Ludington Talks
Equal Eco-Justice Under Law?
Twelve Years Ago
A landlord is sentenced to 5 years and fined $1,000,000 for discharging up to 100,000 gallons of raw sewage into a storm drain thanks to Republican Attorney General Mike Cox. "Today's sentencing should serve as notice that those who jeopardize the health and safety of the public will face severe consequences," stated Cox.
LANSING - Attorney General Mike Cox today announced in December 2006 the sentencing of an Ypsilanti Township landlord for violating the Water Pollution Control Act. David Kircher, a 62-year-old resident of Ypsilanti, was found guilty in October of illegally discharging thousands of gallons of untreated raw sewage into the Huron River.
Kircher (pictured left) was sentenced to 5-years imprisonment and a fine of $1,000,000 by Chief Judge Archie Brown of the 22nd Circuit Court of Ann Arbor.
An investigation conducted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Criminal Investigations, the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Division, Ypsilanti Township officials, and the Ypsilanti Township Police Department determined that from October 12-14, 2004, Kircher, the owner of Eastern Highlands Apartments in Ypsilanti, instructed his employees to pump between 75,000-100,000 gallons of untreated sewage from a sewer line into a storm drain that ultimately discharged into the Huron River. Those providing testimony in the case included Ypsilanti Township employees, an E. coli expert from Michigan State University, and two young boys who became violently ill after unwittingly ingesting the sewer water.
In reaction to today's sentencing, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Steven E. Chester stated, "We must all play our role in protecting Michigan's vast water resources. Those responsible for jeopardizing our waters must be held accountable."
Added Penelope Prochazka, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Area Office of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Division, "The defendant's illegal sewage discharges polluted the Huron River and sickened children. This sentence sends a clear message to other potential violators that such willful noncompliance with the law will be prosecuted."
Concluded Cox, "I am pleased that David Kircher has been held accountable for his actions and, most importantly, that justice has been served for the two young victims in this case."
Eight Years Ago
The City of Ludington effectively dumps 15,000,000 gallons of raw sewage directly into the Pere Marquette Lake Bayou in June 2008 when Madison Street collapses under flood waters and takes the wrinkled tin force sewer main with it. The City received over $300,000 to fix Madison Street from FEMA and FHA, yet nothing appears to be spent on cleaning up the mess in the PM Bayou.
Large sections of the street still remain in the waters, the sediments from the millions of gallons of raw sewage has a nearly toxic effect over the next few years in that area, destroying the livelihoods of several private marinas in the process. The City, whose own marina is unaffected and a ways away, is given a pass for any cleanup.
According to this 2008 MDEQ newsletter: In Ludington, the rain that fell overtaxed the sewer force main at Madison Street, causing the pipe and a 50-foot section of the road to collapse, meaning 90 percent of the city’s raw sewage flowed directly into Pere Marquette Lake. The raw sewage continued to empty into the lake for 60 hours while the force main was repaired. An estimated 15 million gallons of untreated sewage and 10 million gallons of storm water went into the lake.
Four Years Ago
The City of Ludington effectively dumps an estimated 2,000,000 gallons of raw sewage into the PM Bayou (once again) via the Creamery Corners Drain after a section of the force sewer main fails and is discovered several days after it began leaking. While fixing the main, the city manager reports that they bypass-pumped raw sewage directly into the PM Lake.
Though legally required to do so, the City fails to properly notify either the state DEQ or the local health department either before during or after the spill; to this day the leak never occurred according to their records. As in 2008, no attempt is made to mitigate the damage to the PM Lake and surrounding areas.
The City has suffered no penalty for the lack of reporting or for bypass-pumping raw sewage directly into a lake without any authorization.
Read more here, and in the internal links.
Now
As you can see, a relatively small amount of raw sewage landed a man in jail for five years and had him suffer a $1,000,000 penalty (actually much more in legal fees, as this issue continues in some litigation up to this day).
Four years afterwards, A spill 150 times bigger due to a 100 year storm destroying a tin force main unwisely used in the midst of a flood plain not only nets the public entity who owns it no liability, but also gets them $400,000 in relief from the federal government used to repair it. Neither do they take the responsibility of cleaning up the damage they caused to the public.
Then four years after that, an unreported spill 20 times larger than David Kircher's by the same public entity, where they bypass-pumped water into a lake, not a storm drain (like Kircher) nets that city exactly no liability. Is that fair and equitable?
Why is there a double standard for private concerns when compared to public concerns, whether in Ludington, Lake St. Claire (where a brave mayor has recently came out and questioned the public policy which has seen many millions of gallons of raw sewage go into that lake), or elsewhere in Michigan? This topic was recently a topic of consideration in Michigan Capitol Confidential covering other recent Michigan public entity ecological crises in an article called:
The Double Standard in Environmental Protection
If we want to maintain and protect the amazingly beautiful and fruitful Michigan environment, we must enforce environmental standards equally for private individuals, businesses and government alike.
There appears to be a double standard when it comes to the enforcement of environmental law. When a private individual or business harms the environment, regulators rush to identify perpetrators, begin enforcement proceedings, and fine or jail those responsible. Policymakers and the media often seize the opportunity to call for tighter government controls. But when the government itself damages the environment, regulators, politicians, the media and the public show much less interest in holding anyone accountable. They tend to just shrug their shoulders and move on.
But government regularly harms Michigan’s natural environment and what follows are several examples of these incidences — just from the past few months. In each case, the government agencies or employees responsible for the damage faced little to no consequence for their actions. Our reluctance to address government-caused environmental impacts must end.
On Sept. 30, 2016, a tunnel on the northbound M-10 Lodge Freeway in Detroit was closed, as it was flooded with a mixture of rainwater and sewage. The Free Press headline described the road being “flooded with poop water.” Other than general complaints from motorists, no one seemed all that concerned that the city’s sewage system failed and spewed toxic waste into the environment.
On Sept. 19, 2016, Ann Arbor officials reported that 600,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the Huron River. This incident followed two other similar sewage overflows in the area — one in May that resulted in 36,000 gallons of sewage pouring into Huron River and another in April, where approximately 400,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed into Malletts Creek. A city administrator promised not to let this happen again, but no ramifications stemming from these spills were mentioned in media reports.
On Aug. 16, 2016, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Services allowed 572,222 gallons of partially treated sewage to flow into the Kalamazoo River. City officials advised residents to avoid any contact with the river for two days, but did not express interest in holding anyone accountable for this failure.
In each of these cases, a government failure caused a significant impact to Michigan’s environment and water resources. In each case, government officials escaped any serious accountability.
Contrast these examples with what happened when an Enbridge Energy oil pipeline ruptured in 2010. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice launched a multiyear investigation and eventually — and appropriately — imposed a $177 million fine on the company.
But in the case of government-caused environmental damage, you need to search far and wide for examples of vigorous enforcement of environmental laws. Part of the problem is that when the government is at fault, we need to rely on that same government to hold itself accountable. It’s much like when you watch a police officer speeding on the highway. You see the infraction and you can complain to whomever will listen, but who really can hold that officer accountable for violating the speed limit? In the same vein, who will hold governments accountable for their environmental failures?
Unfortunately, a lot people view government failures as inevitable, naturally occurring events. They accept that there is no realistic method of ensuring government officials are held responsible for the environmental damages they cause. To them, it must be reassuring enough that the government they’re paying for is supposedly trying its best.
That type of attitude does a disservice to the public and our environment. If we want to maintain and protect the amazingly beautiful and fruitful Michigan environment, we must enforce environmental standards equally for private individuals, businesses and government alike.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by jfc123 on
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Mayor Fouts has balls of steel, or the info to back his accusations going up against Mark Hackel and the Freedom Hill gang (godfather movies...)! Appears with what was released today on his Facebook page, it is the latter. The people he took on, to quote Trump "are YUGE". The new position of Macomb County executive and the new Sterling Hts. mayor are his targets it seems and they are nervous. The MDEQ supported his statements and they are on his FB page. This is a disgusting mess no doubt, people live very near by? Methane only stinks if the gas company adds the stink, not if it enters your basement from the sewer or a landfill!
Madison and Water St. east were a landfill for the COL for years, it got covered up, never cleaned up, no methane exhausts. This is the area that the Creamy Corners drain is located. Look there, there are pvc pipes that are intended to dump into it? From where? Dumping what? Only Gods knows I guess since the COL will not comment. We were required to remove our underground storage tanks for gas, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for and were monitored for decades until we were cleared, (why you see them on land now).... There is really a ton of shit we could speak of! Funny part is the city thinks it owns the boat launch there, NOPE I have documentation otherwise. They own the part of Madison that FAILED and never cleaned it off of the property rights of the owners around the bayou, similar to dumping around Freedom Hill spoke of!
We took over 1985-6 and a few years later, maybe mid early 90's put in a seawall behind our building on Water st. Soon as we did this we had so much RAW sewage backing up out of the sewers and on our property. WHY?, because the COL was discharging First St and south RAW sewage DIRECTLY into the PM Bayou! Gross! They quickly fixed the sewer lines but NEVER did a thing to correct the Bayou, just like how all of Madison and the other RAW sewage is still there!
WE NEED SOMEONE LIKE MAYOR FOUTS TO SHOW SOME POLITICAL CONCERN FOR THE CITIZENS THAT ELECTED THEM! 3rd, 4th ward deserve this, this is the area that built Ludington! No respect for heritage!
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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It ain't going to happen among our city officials here, if nobody from the Fourth Ward comes forth to face Councilor Mike Krauch in a city election. That leaves it in the hands of the affected people; I am hoping to gather a collection of folks that were and are affected by the City's negligence and willful destruction of this area and seek redress both criminally and civilly, in much the same way David Kircher paid for his sins.
I hope to get a concerted effort underway by next year, so alert others with interests around the PM Lake/Bayou and have them seek me out.
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Today there were contractors working with the MDEQ getting the repairs corrected! Must be nice to have a government stand up for what is wrong! I cant believe it, it has been almost 9 years at the PM Bayou, NOT LAGOON!!!!
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You are referring to Lake St. Clair? Appreciate you getting the word out; drop me a line with who you have or are able to contact. The AG office and other attorneys are more likely to take notice if we have a well-developed complaint and a lot of affected parties involved.
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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That's a harsh penalty given out to Mr. Kircher. He probably would have received a lesser sentence if he had killed someone. He must have done this before to have the law clamp down so hard on him. Following the sentencing guidelines administered to Kircher, Shay should have received 100 years in jail and a $20,000,00 fine for his role in dumping all that sh_t into the bayou.
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Agreed. Nothing in the record indicates Kircher had other environmental offenses, but it appears that the willfulness of his act and his trying to keep it secret helped lead to his large punishment. Those elements seem also to be present in the 2012 spill here in Ludington, as bypass-pumping into a lake was done without any legal authority by John Shay.
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