Sludge Watch ==> Sewage in Great Lakes Sparks Border Fight - Sault Ste Marie Blamed

[Maureen Reilly]

Published December 29, 2006
[ From Lansing State Journal ]

Sewage in lakes sparks border fight
Pact with Canada has done little to address the problem

By John Flesher
Associated Press


SUGAR ISLAND - DeJay and Sherri Bumstead enjoy relaxing on the deck of their 
cottage and gazing across the broad St. Marys River - until sewage floats 
toward them like alien blobs in a science fiction movie.

"It's been miserable this year," DeJay Bumstead says with a sigh, describing 
how dark, smelly plumes repeatedly snaked across the water last summer and 
deposited mounds of stomach-turning gunk on their beach.

The Bumsteads and their neighbors have long complained about sewage fouling 
the shoreline of Sugar Island near the northern end of the St. Marys, 
prompting officials to close beaches and issue advisories not to touch the 
water. After years of simmering discontent, something of a political border 
war broke out last summer over responsibility for the mess.

The 60-mile-long river connects Lakes Superior and Huron and forms part of 
the U.S.-Canadian boundary at the eastern edge of Michigan's Upper 
Peninsula. Because of sewage releases and industrial pollution, it's one of 
43 "areas of concern" designated for intense cleanup efforts under the Great 
Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Improved sewage treatment was among goals for the entire region in the 
original version of the agreement between the two countries in 1972. Despite 
some progress over the years, Sugar Island's misery shows how far they have 
to go.

"I have a boat for salmon fishing. I didn't even put it in the water this 
year," retiree and seasonal resident Wayne Welch says.

Adds his wife, Charlene: "You can't go fishing because you can't handle the 
fish. And who wants to eat it?"

Many residents of the island, which is part of Michigan, and government 
officials on the U.S. side believe the sewage comes from the East End Sewage 
Treatment Plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. (A smaller Michigan city also 
called Sault Ste. Marie is directly across the river.)

No way, Canadian officials insist. The plant discharges wastewater into the 
river, but only after it's treated - except when the system overflows 
because of heavy precipitation, which seldom happens. And it never contains 
the kinds of solid waste plaguing the island, they say.

Angry exchanges

The standoff inspired angry exchanges in local media and at community 
gatherings. The Bumsteads sued the Canadians. State and provincial 
authorities got involved. U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Menominee Democrat whose 
district includes the island, even asked the State Department to intervene.

Technicians from both countries conducted extensive water tests, searching 
for the source of off-the-charts E. coli bacteria levels downstream from the 
East End plant. Both sides produced results they said supported their 
positions.

Tensions eased this fall as the levels dropped and seasonal island residents 
left. But they could flare up again next summer if bacteria counts spike and 
floating waste again washes ashore.

Dave Martin, environmental health director for Chippewa County, Mich., is 
optimistic the worst is over. The Canadian Sault Ste. Marie just finished a 
$70 million upgrade of the East End plant, and Martin thinks it's no 
coincidence that bacteria readings are lower and complaints about solid 
waste have dropped.

"At this point, I think we're looking only at better things for the quality 
of the river," says Martin, whose office plans to resume testing after the 
spring thaw.

Don't count on it, says Don Elliott, engineering services director for the 
Canadian city. He says the upgrade has improved the plant's performance but 
won't solve the pollution problem because the plant didn't cause it in the 
first place.

"I think most agencies would agree the water is too cold for the bacteria to 
survive; that's why numbers go down in the fall," Elliott says. "My opinion 
is that the E. coli readings will be high again."

The city has a second waste plant farther upstream. So does Sault Ste. Marie 
in Michigan. But Elliott doesn't blame them, either.

Then where is the stuff coming from?

"That remains a mystery," he says, but there probably are multiple sources.

New measures

Even untreated sewage is mostly just a grayish liquid by the time it reaches 
the Ontario plant, Elliott says during a tour. It's channeled through 
screens that filter out larger solids, which form a sludge that is dried out 
and trucked to a landfill.

During treatment, wastewater is held in tanks, where tiny solid particles 
settle to the bottom and are pumped out. Fats, oils and greases float to the 
top and are skimmed off.

The remaining water is disinfected, then piped into the river. Previously, 
the Ontario plant used chlorine as its cleanser. The new system zaps 
bacteria with ultraviolet light.

Even before the upgrade, the treatment was good enough for the plant not to 
have caused the high E. coli levels, Elliott says. And the screening made it 
virtually impossible to have ejected the solid waste and muck that found 
their way to Sugar Island.

"The evidence suggests it isn't (coming from) the East End plant, but I 
won't say it's impossible," says Rod Stewart, area supervisor with the 
Ontario Ministry of Environment, which is investigating.

Another possibility, he says: The solids may have been released before the 
era of modern sewage treatment, sunk to the bottom and somehow recently been 
re-suspended in the water column - perhaps during the conversion to a new 
discharge pipe as part of the upgrade.

Not buying theories

Sugar Islanders and their supporters don't buy it. "They keep coming up with 
these brilliant theories, but they don't jibe," Bumstead says.

He recalls the June day when a particularly nasty wave of sewage hit the 
beach. He says he got into a motorboat and traced the brownish plume 
directly to where the plant's underwater discharge pipe extends into the 
river. Immediately upstream, the water resumed its normal color.

"If you were blind and couldn't see to follow it, you could do it with your 
nose," Bumstead says.

He and Welch enlisted support from local health department officials, county 
commissioners and a state legislator by taking them to the same spot.

Martin says his office previously suspected the Sugar Island problem stemmed 
from algae buildup or perhaps droppings from abundant geese instead of human 
sewage. "But when we started seeing ... condoms, feminine hygiene napkins, 
things of that nature, it got our attention."

The health department sent samples of river water and beach muck to Joan 
Rose, a Michigan State University microbiologist. Her analysis found the 
solids had "strong fecal composition" and were "coming from wastes that were 
poorly treated," but she couldn't pinpoint their source.

Water taken from near the Ontario plant's discharge pipe or downstream had 
higher levels of fecal bacteria than water from above the plant, Rose says.

That's more than enough proof for the islanders and their supporters. 
Somehow, they say, the East End facility is releasing raw or partially 
treated sewage - or was before the upgrade.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061229/NEWS01/612290325/1001/news