Introduction

On November 25, 2012 there was reportedly a shear break in the sewer force main in the vicinity of First Street and Adam Street in Ludington's Fourth Ward. This break did result in a sewage leak into the Creamery Corners drain. When the City had to shut down the lift stations there was bypass pumping of sewage into Pere Marquette Lake for an unspecified number of hours; the repairs were allegedly finished by the end of the next day.

It was reported in the Mason County Press the next day with a caution by John Shay to avoid the PM Lake area until the break was fixed.  The Daily News reported that Shay had notified the DEQ, and that the leakage was "far, far, far less than what went in during the flood in (June) 2008.” though he could not give any estimate to the extent.  That night he would tell the Ludington City Council it was fixed, and offered no other precautions or additional information regarding the leak.

Nov 26, 2012 LCC minutes

Early the next year, the amount of money the City of Ludington spent on this leak was divulged with me sending them a FOIA request.  It showed that the City Manager did spend over $10,000 on an emergency repair without approval of the city council by contracting with Hallack, who was already in the area working on other city projects.  At the time, it seemed as if it may have been an appropriate use of the city manager's emergency spending prerogative.  But this year, I made some investigations into other aspects of this leak, enough to prompt another FOIA request.  I asked for the following records from the City:

"Communications (including evaluations, determinations, and notifications) between officials of the City of Ludington and the EPA, DEQ, and/or the local health department regarding the nature, extent, and environmental impact of this considerable raw sewage leak into the PM Lake."

As is typical of such requests, what wasn't included in the request (which was granted in full), was as interesting as what was.

The Ludington FOIA

The materials received from the City about this leak start with a letter from Rob Allard (retired superintendent of water and utility, now Pentwater Village Manager) writing a Sunday afternoon e-mail to City Manager John Shay:

"We discovered a leak in our 2094 sanitary sewer force main north of the corner of Adams and first Street this morning, Sunday November 25. The leak is flowing approximately 50 feet to the Creamery Corners Drain.  The drain flows into Pere Marquette Lake.

We are concerned that when we expose the pipe to make the repair we may lose the force main due to the location at a 45 degree fitting. We have mobilized a crew and began the surface and some subsurface preparation. We will need to insure that all the required parts and fittings are available before we attempt to make the repair. I will call you tomorrow and fill you in on the details."

Shay then responsibly mobilizes Hallack Contracting to come over and help repair the problem for a nice one day price of around $11,000, but nothing is in the written record until the next Monday when Allard sends this to Shay:

"Attached is the SSO report for the incidence occurring over the Thanksgiving weekend, November 22 thru November 26th, 2012. Additionally I have attached a signed signature page and a map of the location. Please let me know if you need any additional information."

Form EQP5857 Report of Discharge Sanitary Sewer Overflow Nov 2012.pdf

SSO 12-3-12 signature page.pdf

One may wonder where Allard arrived at the 720,000 gallons of raw sewage figure, he also included a chart comparing the WTP outflows and WWTP inflows for that period. 

The calculations he used as justification of that figure is not part of the public record, but there is reason to believe it is way off the mark.  Consider if we figure that the leak started on the 20th, since the three previous days, and the post-repair days, have the WWTP collecting over 100,000 gallons per day (GPD) on average (107,500) than is sent out at the WTP. 

If we presume that average of differences carried out over the rest of the time, in the seven days where the WTP flow is greater than the WWTP intake (negative numbers), we get not only the deficits of that week, which adds up to 1,298,000 gallons, but the additional 107,500 'normal deficit' for each of those seven days, in other words, 752,500 gallons.  The sum of that one week leak is thus 2,050,500 gallons of raw sewage leaked into the Creamery Corners drain, which flows into the PM Bayou where all those private marinas reside, and beyond. 

The reporting form sent to Shay also indicates that the local health department was not informed until Tuesday 11-27-2012, and that they should have been informed within 24 hours by law; it also says that testing for E. Coli was waived by the health department.  There is no explanation noted (as they should) for why the health department wasn't timely notified. 

But this isn't the only thing missing.  The FOIA request asked for any 'written' records between the City and the various departments about this leak.  I was given only records involving interdepartmental communications, nothing given to or received by the health department or DEQ.  This was quite odd, and required further investigation of those agency's records to confirm this apparent oversight.

The County Health Department FOIA

The county government runs the health department and the drain commission, so one would think they would have a bit of information on this 2 million gallon leak.  They had nothing other than a Miss Dig report from the drain commissioner:  2012 Miss Dig City of Ludington.pdf.  What's more revealing is, once again, what they didn't find.

Two officers of Health Department #10 wrote back that this very significant leak was unreported to them, and even to the state. 

Consider that a leak less than 1/2000th of what went into commercial Ludington waters was reported by a private business, but that City Manager Shay had all the information sent to him on the day the leak was found, had the DEQ report filled out and sent to him, telling that the health department and DEQ had been notified, and yet no records show that he did any of that, as it would have been part of the response. 

One presumes that Shay told his subordinate Allard that the two agencies were contacted to help him fill out his form, but then hesitated to send the form out because it would show that he lied when he didn't contact either in a meaningful manner, and that testing was never considered or 'waived' by the health department.

Legal Penalties

The DEQ report form is mandated by state law MCL 324.3112a, which mandates notification of the local newspaper, the DEQ and the local health department by someone who spills raw sewage into the land or waters of this state.  It notes the DEQ will promptly put such notification immediately on its website.  It mandates testing for E. Coli by the responsible party, who shall then provide those results to the local health department.  The friendly local news media was alerted that an incidental leak occurred, otherwise none of these were followed.

It also states that penalties for violation of that section are found at MCL 324.3115.  The criminal penalties in section two say that the Attorney General can prosecute for some stiff fines to the perpetrator, along with the potential imprisonment up to two years, and allows additional civil penalties for injuries to the natural resources of the state.

Section three says if a court determines the unreported 2,000,000 gallon leak "posed a substantial endangerment to the public health, safety, or welfare, the court shall impose a fine of not less than $500,000.00 and not more than $5,000,000.00".  Section four allows the court to add a million dollar fine and five year imprisonment for the responsible party if the same endangerment occurs. 

These are serious penalties for seriously negligent actions that are clearly existing in this case.  The gross, wanton, and willful recklessness of our city's experienced manager, John Shay, should be taken into account when the Attorney General decides what penalties to pursue.  This cannot be overlooked by the citizens of Ludington as a mistake, as it appears Shay skipped many mandated steps to endanger our health and safety.

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The real criminals are the ones entrusted to protect us. 

And now we know why Shay wanted to move out of the city. He didn't want to drink or bathe in the water that he says is so pure , pure Ludington my ass.

This is outrageous. What entity is supposed to investigate this and determine if there was a violation of State law and what if any criminal action should be taken? Do citizens file a complaint or is it the responsibility of the City Attorney? This is serious stuff but we all know that the Council, Shay and the local press will remain silent about it. This is another excellent work of investigative journalism X, something the LDN should have done years ago. Exactly what purpose does the LDN serve besides propping up bad politicians and turning a blind eye to what is going on?

The Attorney General's Office is the ultimate overseer here, and hopefully they can get involved, but I don't have a lot of faith in our current MI AG when it comes to matters like this.  This is the same AG office that feels the public is well served by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars re-prosecuting Sean Phillips (who is serving 10-15 yrs already) for a murder that they originally couldn't even get past a probable cause hearing with, without help from Judge Cooper.

I would like to revisit this at the next council meeting before getting the ball rolling myself, any other victim is free to pursue their own remedies and exert more pressure for justice; there is very little we can do to make things right at this point other than having the state or our main victims sue John Shay and/or the City of Ludington so that the bayou and beyond can begin the process of healing.

The water that flows out of Creamary Corners drain, flows into PM Lake which flows into lake Michigan which flows past the drinking water intake pipe for Ludington. How many people were sickened after drinking contaminated water from the sewage spill. Shay should be prosecuted for this.

Shay made the decision unilaterally not to contact other agencies dedicated to the public safety, nor did he ever bother to do the mandated testing routinely done at much smaller spills into much remoter areas.  He needs to pay for these crimes against humanity, and if that is an example of incitement, then brand me an inciter.  My friends and family were compromised by his negligent acts, and all he has is slander against me for running a website.

Um....  sewer force main.  Sewer.  Not "treated" water.  As reported.

Jimmy, your point is valid.  Even if 2 million gallons of raw sewage leaked over a week period in November, most of the befouled water and bacteria would linger in the PM Bayou/PM Harbor for the rest of the winter.  The water around the WTP intake would contain very little of this gunk, and what little it had would be treated by the time it reaches people's taps.

What concerns me more is the effect on the mostly stagnant waters of the PM Bayou, the damage it would do. the bacteria and excrement that would remain in wait until spring before it branched out to the PM Lake, or just accumulate on the bottom of the bayou-- negatively affecting the delicate ecosystem and the health of those who unwittingly contact the waters thereabout.   

Congrats Jimmy: since joining here a scant 17 days ago, and who knows how long living locally, you've become an expert in WWTP's, the Bayou disaster, local politics, Chippi's Tamarac docks, and the entire membership here. Quite the misinformation expert, lol.

Anyone with first hand knowledge working at or near the Bayou in Ludington since this began 8 years ago, has a right to be bitter, and upset with crooks that don't report emergency dumping/sewage, nor have any plan to clean it up. As for being older than you, you talk like an immature 20-30 something year old. Happily, I am older and wiser than you kid, you have a lot of growing up to do. But don't let that stop you in defending the city's mgr., and getting paid a lot to do it I'll bet.

...Cool...

But I do think city is completely responsible to cleanup the Bayou and very wrong not to.  It was what it was, but now it is unusable.  If George was still around, it would be cleaned up.

Jimmy, these are facts, no drama! TBH, I am tired of explaining what happened I have said it so many times! What do you dispute? Bottom line the sediment from Madison being there impedes proper flow out of the drain, go there and look you can see the dead area of water, also why our neighbors pulled their unusable docks. There is no fluff here, just want that area restored like it was prior to 2008, it was not our fault it happened and the SOM sent funds to correct the issues, but the bayou was not corrected!

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