celery pond

A wetland specialist emailed with a reminder of what to concentrate on to write a letter to MDEQ to ask that the application for permit be denied. Specifically, he said to go to www.legislature.mi.gov to the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act 451 of 1994, Part 303 on WETLANDS PROTECTION. (451-1994-III-1-INLAND-WATERS-303).

Specifically he said to go to Section 324.30302, the Section on Legislative findings which documents the functions that wetlands perform as found by the Michigan legislature. It’s important for you to document which of these functions are being performed by the wetland Celery Pond, which we’re trying to protect.

Probably the most important part of the Statute is 324.30311 which describes the criteria the DEQ must examine to determine whether a permit can or cannot be issued. Your letters should cite the specific criteria in section 30311 and state how or why the proposed project does not satisfy this criteria.

Last week (3/22) we looked at points to address the DEQ in writing about reasons why to deny the permit of application for Celery Pond. Today we again look at specific points to make to justify a denial.

Along with working on letters to the DEQ, the Celery Pond Advocates strongly recommend that each council member be approached individually with a copy of the letter. At the same time, remind them of the ecological rarity and value of the area. Present alternatives. Don’t give up in your persistence.

One of the reasons why to justify a denial, according to the Natural Resources & Environmental Proection Act(NREPA), Act 451 of 1994, Part 303 on Wetlands, is that there is no economic hardship to the City as potential developer (ie. under section for “other feasible and prudent alternatives”). There is no argument for economic hardship if denial is given, because the City will not lose anything if the permit is denied, primarily because there are other uses for the site of Celery Pond by the City which would create less environmental harm and still add value to the City.

Keeping the wetland as a wetland and making it a point of tourist destination, ie. the City could let the lands be used as part of a Nature Center for learning and visiting. This is an important point to emphasize both with the DEQ and local officials.

A second reason to justify a denial is that this project would result in unacceptable and irretrievable impacts to a Great Lake coastal marsh wetland. The ecosystem of Celery Pond, is an ecosystem that is unique to this part of the world, which is disappearing rapidly. What needs to be done, and has not been done by any of the developers, is a taxonomically correct species inventory over an entire growing season.

Celery Pond Advocates plans to initiate such a study this spring, when the breeding/growing season is starting. Funds from the upcoming fundraiser will help contribute towards that information.

Finally, and very importantly, the proposed mitigation cannot adequately replace the functions of the existing wetland (flood storage, infiltration, water quality,habitat, coastal flyway, etc.) especially in relation to the watershed as a whole. Thus there would be a net loss of wetland value.

These three points, with some elaboration, take the important issues upfront, for all sides. Celery Pond is a unique coastal wetland in that it is near Lake Michigan. It is the last/first wetland on the huge Black River Watershed’s outflow/inflow. This makes Celery Pond a wetland that needs to be preserved as a fully functioning wetland, with no marina development.

Letters to MDEQ should include the file # 05-80-0061-P, re: Celery Pond. Send to Michell DeLong, File Manager, and Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor, MDEQ - Land & Water Management Division, 7953 Adobe Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49009-5026.

If you’re new to the blog, and want to know more about the group called Celery Pond Advocates, this blog entry will serve as an introduction.

Celery Pond Advocates started last summer in July 2006, with with a group of 15 people hearing Erin Fuller, Coordinator of the Black River Watershed, talk about the importance of the watershed and the position of Celery Pond. We decided to form a group to see if we could preserve Celery Pond as a wetland. We did not endorse the City Plan to develop it as a marina nor did we endorse the 60 foot channel cut into the emergency access road of Dunkley Avenue; we wanted to see the public lands kept in public hands too.

The blog was set up to give a steady stream of information along with a posting of on-going events to keep the blog readers informed. Right now, it is a very critical time, because the permit application is in the last leg of its journey to be either approved or denied. (Scroll down the blog to catch up on the latest developments of a new plan.)

The three developers, the City of South Haven, J&B Landing (Barney Pero) and 1st Choice Marina (Steve Schlack), submitted a third and final revised plan to the MDEQ in early March. Up to a three month period is given (June 5th) for the MDEQ to decide.

A site survey and mitigation site visit is scheduled for April 4th, with MDEQ regulators, the Corps, maybe EPA, and DNR fisheries and wildlife people, along with applicant representatives attending. Depending on what they see, and how they evaluate the marina/channel cut plan, a decision could be reached at a date, possibly sooner than the June 5th deadline.

If you are opposed to the plan, please write letters (info on previous blog listings).

The Celery Pond Advocates are in their final stages of application too for a 501(c)(3) status. We’re hoping that approvals will be forthcoming within the next couple weeks.

Since July, we’ve organized two community walks on the public lands off Dunkley, and one fundraiser in November. We’ll be having our second fundraiser on Friday, April 20th from 6-8pm, and we invite you. Tickets are $50, on-sale at Wolverine Hardware and Whimsy, both on Phoenix Street.

Annie Brown and Jeff Filbrandt have generously offered their newly remodeled house, on 114 Michigan Avenue for the artful event. Suzie Blair, culinary artist, is generously offering her talents, donating a wonderful menu of a light dinner and desserts, over 16 choices. Wine and champagne will also be included in the ticket price. Monies collected from the event will go towards an environmental and fisheries report we’re planning to submit to the MDEQ file.

As an organization, we hope that the permit will be denied so we can begin to solicit monies to acquire the wetland lands. We then hope to set up a nature reserve, with look-out stations installed, and signage to inform curious viewers about the treasures that Celery Pond freely given us as a wetland.

It is highly unusal to have a wetland so close to the downtown area. It is also the last/first wetland on the Black River’s outflow/inflow into a huge 287 mile watershed. The waters of all the tributaries and streams within the watershed flow through our 2 piers!

To acknowledge your support of our efforts, we invite you to join as a member, as this will be a key factor to set up our intentions as a full-operating conservancy. Send you name, address, phone and email address (to be kept confident), along with a check made out to Celery Pond Advocates. Sent these to: CPA, PO Box 693, South Haven, MI 49090. Please choose your membership level:

• Student and Senior (60+) - $10
• Individual - $15
• Couple - $25
  
• Family - $30
• Contributions above these amounts, would be greatly appreciated, making you a Super Advocate!

To further support the preservation of Celery Pond as a wetland, please dip into the blog more, from recent entries, or search for a subject (right hand search bar) and the subject will come up, taken from the previous months. If you want to contact us, our email address is keeptheawetland@lycos.com.

We encourage you to get involved, stay informed and write a letter to MDEQ if you really oppose the idea of a marina/channel cut proposed by the City. The MDEQ address and more information is on previous blog postings. It will also follow this message, next week, as more pertinent points will be given for you to mull over to write a letter of objection.

To write a letter to MDEQ you may want to be clear on what wetlands do. Next week will be a review of those facts. If you want to address the current proposal, CPA suggests that you concentrate on one or more things.

(Check the blog: March 16th: details the new plan; other listings include quotes from State law, etc. March 17th’s aerial picture shows how narrow the channel is near and around the bend of the river where the plan is proposed. Check the JJR harbor study on the 11.12.06 blog for understanding the density of the marina slips, although this fact does not necessarily factor into the MDEQ decision.)

The following points are things you could address in your letter:

1. Identify the problems.

• Real problems are biological concerns and the concerns of the wetland operation itself. How would a wetland be affected by a marina of 155 slips? If the wetland were reconfigured into the new plan that the City, J&B Landing and 1st Choice Marina propose, the normalcy of the wetland would be changed. Celery Pond would not operate with its current efficiency with excavation and dreding. A wetland filters pollutants. The contained water body of contaminants that Celery Pond naturally dissolves would be an open field. (Remember the environmental reports handed into the MDEQ by the developers were inconclusive; they were done on frozen ground conditions, and more study was recommended on water contaminants. Nothing further was done.) Celery Pond is a a Great Lakes coastal marsh with an ecosystem that is important. It is unique in that it is close to the Lake and important for the migration/breeding of many birds.
• Another problem that has been discussed by officials/developers is the blocked culvert from Dunkley Avenue to the Pond. We won’t speculate on what is blocking it, but it is advertised to create a “death trap.” Fish (carp) migrate into the pond when stormwater flushes into/out of the pond, creating a higher water level which in turn opens up a flowing stream from the Pond to Black River (such as a quick winter melt which we had a week ago). But once the runoff flush recedes, the pond returns to its normal, ie. shallow, state, and the fish meet their death because they cannot get out. With their numbers, the dissolved (DO) of the shallow waters can’t accomodate their needs and they die.

2. Identify solutions.

• Is there a solution to the carp dying? Apparently. A state official wrote, in his report last April, that 2 aluminium poles and wire mesh could alleviate the problem for $20. This information was given the City Manager and developers but, to date, none have taken any action, that we know of, to test to a solution. Head and heart would dictate it, wouldn’t they? You could write about this suggested solution, and make note that nothing has been done. A blocked culvert is no reason to carve out a 60 foot channel for $9+million as the plan suggests. A channel of 60 feet would affect populations of aquatic, bird and plant life way beyond the problem cited, and more life would be killed or dislodged than the carp population that comes into the Pond under flooded conditions. There is a potential solution. Why wasn’t it tested this spring, with that professional clue have been given a year ago?
  

3. Consider the new mitigation site.

• The first mitigation plan was very poor because it was 5 miles away and landlocked. This new mitigation plan, however, is even further away from the Pond, over 5 miles straight out on Phoenix Road, on the private residence of the Barner farm. While it complies with mitigation 2:1 ratio, there are certain facts to look at. Having seen the site last October with another CPA member, we can verify that land is full of clay. (We had just had lots of rain and water stood around, pooling in puddles that stood on top of the ground. They were not being absorbed quickly. The earth was solid mud, full clay adhesions. We got stuck twice.) There are no apparent natural filtration of waters, such as those of Celery Pond, which takes excess waters automatically into its sandy bottom, near the river and Lake Michigan. This fact could affect life in a proposed mitigated site, again, in a more major way than the carp problem, if waters were not properly adjusted.

• This new mitigation site is advertised to be near a creek within the watershed, and a storm drain nearby, which we saw in our visit. At more than 5 miles inland distance, no fish or wildlife from Celery Pond would likely find it, by narrow creek stream or by storm drain! Mitigation sites are usually required to be near the wetland, and near the source of the river/lake to which it sources from. The natural breathing process of Celery Pond, at one with the Lake and the River and the seasons, the water saturations and the filtrating process that it provides for those waters and its wildlife, would be lost in such a plan. This is not a good plan for mitigation, clear and simple. It would also demand a tremendous budget to try to duplicate the porous land near Celery Pond. The wetland gives us free service of water quality, but with this plan, your tax dollars will once again be raised, undoubtedly, to accomodate yet another man-made plan to reconfigure nature’s balances. The plan could potentially add pollutants to the River and Lake as well.
  

4. Address the question of what a MDEQ official might have to ask himself in his evaluation: Are there ways that to alter the proposal to minimize impact? Is the any other alternate solution? What would be its feasibility?

• Underline the fact that any impact on the natural processes of a wetland, in the climate of enviromental awareness, is reason enough to say no to a permit application. The MDEQ official at Lake Michigan College told us last week that wetlands are so important to life that he wished that the state law would not even consider issuing permits for a wetland take-over. No private, commercial interest should rank above what is nature’s balance, so needed by us. A marina would impact the wetland, which might cause more problems in the future. Wetlands that were filled in by agriculture one hundred years are needed, and being actively sought to restore by the State, at great time and expense. It is also a proven global fact that the decreasing bird population is related to loss of wetlands. That impact is reason enough to write a letter now.

More facts on what wetlands do, will be on the blog next week, if you want to refer to these things before you address your letter. But you may already have that letter in your mind, so please pass it along to MDEQ. The February public hearing needed more input on the reasons why not to approve a permit. This is your last chance to really state your reasons. We encourage you to write.

Be sure your letter has re: Celery Pond, File # 05-80-0061-P, on it. Direct it to Michelle DeLong, File Manager and Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor, MDEQ-Land and Water Mgt. Division, 7953 Adobe Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49009-5026.

Include a cc: to your ward representative, the whole Council and the City Manager to affect the local level. Celery Pond’s fish and wildlife, and your children, will thank you for thinking of them and their future!

Last Wednesday, after the LMC lecture on Wetlands, someone asked Robert Zbiciak from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality about letters to the MDEQ for the last part of permit application for Celery Pond. The decision soon to be reached will lead either to a denial or approval of the permit. He suggested studying the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA), Act 451 of 1994, Part 303 on Wetlands Protection, for key points.

Easiest way to find it is to google: michigan government section 303. Take the third choice under Michigan legislature (ie. www.legislature.mi/gov/mileg.asp?pdge=getObject&objectName which opens you directly to all the sections of 451-1994-III-1-Inland-Waters-303. If you want to write a letter, address the adverse impact on the environment and the poor choice of mitigation site, over 5 miles away.

The latest plan advertises less slips, less excavation, etc but really, any and all invasion into a wetland which is the size of Celery Pond is an “adverse impact” on its environment.

Note: Black River is already low, to the point of the City having to raise more money (unexpectedly) to dredge a deeper channel for boats on the River.

Celery Pond is basically a shallow wetland except in the Spring, when snow melts and stormwaters flush into the pond. Taking the average low level of waters in Celery Pond, wouldn’t you think that a marina proposal would affect the River levels? Of course. If Celery Pond were to be dredged, adjacent flows from the already low River and low Lake Michigan levels, would fill the dredged area, making the River lower again.

The mitigation site, now located more than 5 miles from the Celery Pond just off Phoenix Road, is another real reason for writing a letter of objection. (The author visited the site last October, kindly taken to it by the owner of the property.) It has a drain nearby, giving water, and a small creek advertised near it.

What the mitigation plan does not tell is that the soil has high clay content and would make a wetland’s porous naturalness, an impossibility. The creek is small and it is virtually impossible to think that any life from Celery Pond, would find its alternative homesite at this distance and with such a circuitous route inland.

And you can be sure, whatever life that might locate such a proposed man-made attempt of a wetland, would miss the sandy bottom of the current wetland and its natural hydrology that breathes with the rise and fall of waters so close to Lake Michigan’s seasonal fluctuations.

Alternative sites are supposed to be made close to the wetland. The current plan advertises the creek to be part of the watershed but it surely is “landlocked” in comparision to the present position of Celery Pond’s wetland habitat which is a stone’s throw from the main tributary flow of Black River.

Ending with a quote from the www.epa.gov site, one wonders why permits are even allowed.

“When we destroy wetlands, there can be enormous impacts. If we preserve the health of wetlands and restore wetland ecosystems, it simply follows that we generate associated environmental, social and economic benefits.”

Letters must include the Celery Pond file number, 05-80-0061-P. Send to MDEQ, attn:Michelle DeLong, File Manager, and Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor, Land and Water Management Division, 7953 Adobe Rd, Kalamazoo, MI 49009-5026.

If you want to write a letter to the MDEQ, the file is open. Letters should include the file number for Celery Pond, 05-80-0061-P. Direct your letters to MDEQ, Michelle DeLong, File Manager, and Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor,Land & Water Management Division, 7953 Adobe Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49009-5026. The MDEQ plans to visit the mitigation site and the Celery Pond during the first week of April, so things are moving fast.

Protection and conservation of Michigan’s wetlands are given Executive Directive from Governor Jennifer M. Granholm’s office and from legislative initiative of Section 8 of Article V of the Michigan Constitution of 1963. The reigning Governor is reponsible to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

Conservation and development of the natural resources of the State of Michigan are “of paramount public concern in the interest of the health, safety, and welfare of the people under Section 52 of Article IV of the Michigan Constitution of 1963.”

“Wetland conservation is a matter of state concern since a wetland in one county may be affected by acts on a river, lake, stream, or wetland in other counties.”

“The conservation of wetlands is crucial to the continuing vitality of Michigan’s natural resources and economic development because wetlands provide such critical functions as flood and storm water control, widlife habitat, breeding, nesting, and feeding grounds for endangered species; protection of subsurface water resources and recharging of ground water supplies; pollution treatment; erosion control; sources of nutrients for aquatic food cycles, and nursery grounds and sanctuaries for fish…”

These quotes from the Constitution of the State of Michigan verify the need of wetlands. The State Constitution clearly states that wetlands are critical for maintaining many levels of existence. The State Constitution also declares that one local decision over a wetland/floodplain in a watershed can affect many other counties.

How then can anyone believe that dredging or developing a wetland such as Celery Pond is right?

With these words of law, is the silent rule of our conscience, one that knows that Nature’s balances are meant to be sustained. If you feel strongly about the wetland and believe that it should be kept a wetland, please write a letter to the MDEQ now.

A Wetlands 101 Workshop held last Wednesday featured speakers Rob Zbiciak, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Land and Water Management Division and Nate Fuller, Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. They were met with an attentive audience of 78 people.

Hosted by Lake Michigan College, we’d like to thank all those involved in making the event happen: Amy Lockhart, Administrator, Van Buren Conservation District; Erin Fuller, Black River Watershed Coordinator; Marcy Colclough, Southwestern Michigan Planning Commission; and Janice Varney, Suzanne Trenkle, and the others from Lake Michigan College.

The main message was clear. Water quality affects us all. Wetlands provide guaranteed water quality because they naturally filter groundwaters at no cost to us, that is, if we don’t disturb them.

Drawing participants from South Haven, Bangor, Douglas, Saugatuck and other towns in the Black River Watershed which covers hundreds of miles and many communities, the gathering confirmed that there is a growing awareness over the key issues of clean water and wetland preservation. Many also expressed a need to know more about how the natural balances work and are sustained.

There were also questions that asked how to challenge the local politicians/developers who do not want to save the wetlands. More details on what-to-do will be forthcoming.

Two years ago this program would probably have taken in only a handful of people, especially on such a cold, windy March night. The upsurge of interest is truly a remarkable record of public concern.

Celery Pond has a future as a preserved wetland, only if we move forward to preserve it. We need your comments and we need your support. Start a dialogue on the blog to share your thoughts (click on “Comments”).

Our next fundraiser is on Friday, April 20, 2007, 6-8pm. Tickets can be purchased at Whimsy (415 Phoenix) and Wolverine Hardware, across the street.

Give us your support by attending a Strolling Light Dinner of 16+items, including desserts, wine and champagne. Annie Brown and Jeff Filbrandt have generously donated their lovely “new” home for this benefit. Suzie Blair donates her creative cuisine. Celebrate Earth Day. Become an Advocate to save Celery Pond.

(c) Carol Niffenegger

This aerial shot was taken last August during the South Haven Blueberry festival when airplane rides were open to the public. It was a remarkable day. Once you see the Celery Pond and the public lands from an aerial perspective, along with the density of marina slips surrounding it and the narrowness of the Black River, you’ll have a different opinion about possible development in the Dunkley area as proposed by the City.

Yesterday’s blog gave details on the new plan. Next week will give more facts on the reactivation. Work with the Celery Pond Advocates to save the wetland and preserve the public lands on the floodplains of Dunkley Avenue. Check the blog from previous months to see how we’ve been supporting the vision of making a ecotourism/cultural destination in the area. Stay tuned and reading as you’ll see how that vision is becoming a more tangible plan for RFP as the area non-profits are working together to make it happen.

Rather than having to accept the City’s proposed plan for the area, full of condos and a marina, let’s take another look at what we have.

We should also ask ourselves if in 20-30 years from now, people will thank the City for a plan that will affect the balances of the wetland and cover the floodplain with condos, driveways, and seal off the porous land function which floodplains give us and which we need. We could ask ourselves, if in this same amount of time, more green space, a preserved wetland and cultural center on the public lands might be more appreciated.

Let’s take another look at what we have. Get involved. Send us your comments. Email us at keepthewetland@lycos.com to find out about membership.

A FOIA request to the MDEQ headquarters in Kalamazoo, gave the contents of the newly submitted plan by the three developers of Celery Pond, along with a detailed letter by their agent, King & MacGregor Environmental Inc. All pertinent information from this FOIA request will be given over the next few days. Also uncovered in the FOIA was a correspondence from last October(after the file had been withdrawn for the second time) between Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor, MDEQ-Land and Water Mgt. Division and Adrienne Peterson of King & MacGregor.

Peterson’s October 30,2006, email to Jordan included an aerial photograph of Celery Pond, along with facts that the wetland area has about 80% of broad-leaf cattails and about 20% of stands of phragmites. He noted that purple loosestrife “has not taken hold in large stands in this wetland area.” He also wrote “that the culvert under Dunkley Avenue is broken therefore the fish migration into and out of the “Celery Pond” is very limited.”

Jordan replied that he was aware of the blocked culvert but that the carp do find their way in. He also discussed a decision from Lansing concerning the mitigation ratio issue. He wrote, “We will consider the Celery Pond as a coastal wetland, but not rare or unique. What this means is the mitigation ratio (if a permit can be issued) will be 2:1.”

In the new Mitcell survey plan which was completed on September 6, 2006, but just sent with the reactivation and received by the MDEQ on March 7, 2007, listed these statistics:

• 0.05 Acres: Wetland Fill
• 0.87 Acres: Wetland Excavation
• 5.51 Acres: Open Water Excavation (Note: Reduction of 1.94 acres)
• Finished Open Water = 7.89 acres* (Author’s Note: The Original application had 9.83 acres of finished open water.)

The information on the boat slips has significantly been altered as well. In the original plan (dated September 15, 2005) shown the public and considered at the public hearing, the City had 8 slips, J&B Landing had 137, First Choice Marina had 50, making a total of 195.

Now the applicants are saying there is a reduction of 40 slips but watch the change in allocation of who has what. Out of the new total of 141 slips:

• City of South Haven….71 slips
• J&B Landing …. 60 slips
• 1st Choice Marina …. 60 slips

Added onto this are new figures called “Broadside Dockage.” The new figures for 13 new Broadside Docking break-down to this:

• City of South Haven … 8
• J&B Landing …………….. 5
• 1st Choice………………….. 0

These changes from the original plan of September 15, 2005, which the public looked at when entering their public hearing with officials will determine the final permit application. No new public hearing is planned.

Great news on attendance levels for regional/local environmental workshops. The all-day conference in Lawrence on Monday brought in over 60 city officials and concerned citizens from the Black River and Paw Paw Watershed areas. Tonight’s Wetlands 101 workshop at Lake Michigan College, from 6-9pm had over 60 people signed up in the last check. With over 120 people in these two groups, one could say, these are winds of change.

Mayor Appleyard, City Manager Kevin Anderson, and two from Council Vikke Andersen and Tim Stegman along with Dick Brunvand and Dick Varney, joined the day-long event on “Filling the Gaps: Local Government’s Important Role in Environmental Protection,” given by Mark Wyckoff. We’ll hope to hear if Council schedules a workshop for these participants to share the wealth of information given with the other Council members.

Environmental information is vitally needed to make us all informed, as we are all part of the problem of environmental imbalances, a fact which Wyckoff reminded the audience on Monday. Individuals and local governments are as critical to start change as depending on DEQ or federal agencies to make restrictions.

We hope that the city government officials will digest this information and re-think the idea of developing the wetland and the floodplain. With the information given Monday, it really impresses one with the moral issue involved with any plan to disturb the balance of Nature.

Keeping the wetland as a wetland, fully preserved, and leaving much green space on the floodplain, leaving it as a park in public hands would be the logical plan for us to consider. More will be coming in the next few weeks on making an alternative plan for Dunkley lands and Celery Pond more tangible.