PETOSKEY,MI -- At a meeting inside Petoskey Middle School Monday night, CMS Land officials were on-hand answering questions about a proposed deep injection well in Petoskey.
If approved, the well would be used to inject water that has been contaminated by an old cement plant. Currently, that water is shipped to a deep injection well in Johannesburg.
“Our goal is to locally treat the water here on site as opposed to trucking it off site. Trucking is just not a long term sustainable option. In fact, so far (our) trucks have driven over 2.3 million miles,” said Tim Petrosky, CMS Land.
While CMS has submitted an application for the Petoskey injection well, it must first be approved by the EPA. Officers from the EPA were at Monday’s meeting and said that the well appears to be a safe project.
Last week, the DNRE approved a permit that would allow CMS to treat the contaminated water and rerelease it into the Little Traverse Bay.
However, CMS officials said that if the injection well is approved they will likely choose that alternative. “As part of our pursuit of the local injection well, we have an agreement with the state that if the well is proven to be able to accept 100% of the water then we will utilize the well,” Petrosky said.
The public comment period for the well proposal will end after January 31.
