A request from CMS Land was submitted in the form of an application to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System on 19 November 2009, seeking permission to treat and release stagnated water at the Resort Township’s East Park. This move is a part of the Little Traverse Bay Environmental Project.
The application was submitted to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. CMS has come up with this effort with an aim to improve the environment by finding a solution to dispose stagnated water present at the Bay Harbor development and East Park. About $90 million was spent on the Little Traverse Bay Environmental Project over the past five years and this has led to advancements in the environment.
Alkalinity levels of up to 35,000 gallons of leachate are expected to be reduced at East Park and the processed water would then be allowed to mix with purified ground water. A storm sewer will be used to release this water to Lake Michigan. Water Quality standards will examine the presence of impurities in the water and the low concentrations of mercury. Each day, up to 31,000 gallons of water is collected, processed and then sent to the respective areas. This water is transported in 27 large sized tankers to all the licensed sites in Traverse City and Johannesburg.
David Mengebier, president of CMS Land, remarked that this effort is an eco-friendly move and that CMS Land is also planning to pass a separate NPDES application that aims in using a much advanced technology for the removal of at least 90% of mercury present in water. This will indeed help in saving the time consumed by trucks in the water disposal process.
Remedial measures were derived by CMS Land to prevent the high alkalinity ground water from entering the Little Treverse Bay and the outcome of these measures has been environmentally productive. The sites allotted for this project include Bay Harbor and East Park that were saved from two deserted sites that include a cement factory and a limestone quarry that spreads across five mile and 12 acres in the shoreline of Lake Michigan. CMS Land has decided to represent specific issues in relation to the cement dust left back by the cement plant, though CMS Land is no longer a partner in the project that adopted these deserted sites.