EGLE extension granted to DNR to develop safe drinking water source in Ontonagon County’s Greenland Township
A Michigan Department of Natural Resources crew uses a backhoe to uncover a wellhead in Ontonagon County's Greenland Township in August. Photo courtesy of Michigan DNR.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has granted a 1-year extension to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to comply with terms of a violation notice issued late last year.
“This will allow the Department of Natural Resources to work with the availability of the well driller and to account for the upcoming snow and frost seasons that will soon set in,” said Eric J. Oswald, director of EGLE’s Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division in a Sept. 25 letter to the DNR. “…EGLE will continue to work with the DNR and Greenland Township to ensure this process moves forward and residents of the area are provided with a safe new water source.”
At issue is an informal drinking spigot located along the Bill Nichols Rail-Trail that has been used for decades for drinking water and other uses by locals and passersby.
Last year, EGLE said the water could not be considered safe unless the source of the water could be located and inspected. There is a sign posted at the spigot warning the public not to drink the water.
The DNR has worked with many partners over the past several months to successfully locate the source of the water, which was located about a half-mile away from the spigot, where a main accessed a suspected artesian water resource underground.
The water main and piping were determined by EGLE to be unsuitable for continued use because of their aged, delicate and deteriorated condition. The water source was thought to have been initially tapped by the surrounding community of Lake Mine during the area’s 19th-century copper mining heyday.
Today, in addition to serving an untold number of users at the trailside spigot, two households are connected to the water source by piping.
The plan now of the DNR and local officials is to have a well-drilling company drill a new well closer to the homes and the trailside stop that could be developed as a safe drinking water source endorsed by EGLE.
Greenland Township officials have expressed an interest in owning and maintaining the new water source when it is developed.
The DNR requested the extension from EGLE to find a schedule opening for an available well driller and to avoid having to try to get the well drilled before the onset of winter.
Meanwhile, DNR trail workers are performing trail upgrades in the area that had previously been put on hold during the water source exploration. DNR officials continue to work with local officials, impacted residents, lawmakers, state agency partners and Lyme Great Lakes Timber, which owns property in the area.
