State will foot costly heating oil cleanup on Grand Lake

by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor

The Michigan Department of Environmental, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) continues the cleanup of home heating oil in the northeast section of Grand Lake. 

Oil spill booms will remain in front of a cottage at 17201 Grand Lake Boulevard, according Jill A. Goldberg, EGLE spokesperson, although the spill has been classified as fully contained. The cause is believed to be a 300-gallon tank on the north side of the cottage with a small leak. 

A crew from GFL Environmental Inc. from Kalkaska arrived about midafternoon, Feb. 5, and cut into the ice just offshore, before deploying booms.

“What we found is that there is a drain tile that goes underground from the fuel tank to a rock wall…and this fuel oil went down the drain tile,” said Goldberg. “Because of that it was concentrated in the tile and we were able to recover 15 to 20 gallons of fuel oil from the drain tile before it reached the lake.”

Goldberg added that there has been some excavation behind the rock wall. 

“They have removed soil from behind the rock wall and near the home,” Goldberg continued. “And there is a crawl space, so when the leak happened, it’s sort of where it went in and then down to the rock wall.”

According to Presque Isle County emergency management coordinator Sarah Melching, her office has been working with EGLE and the Presque Isle County Road Commission during every step since EGLE received a message from the 24-hour Pollution Emergency Alerting System hotline. 

“It’s great to have had an established working relationship with both prior to the incident,” said Melching. “We all work extremely well together…communication has been excellent.  In a previous article it was noted that the spill had been contained, which is our first priority. Now it is a matter of removal of the contaminated earth.”

“We have tanks on-site removing contaminated material, that’s soil and contaminated water that has the heating fuel in it,” said Goldberg. 

The final price tag of the cleanup is far from being determined, but as of last Thursday, it was $56,000 to GFL for one and one-half day’s work and it is going to be $20,000 to an engineering firm over the next six months to assist in the cleanup until the end.

“And we are going to have additional costs as we need est

imates for the total excavation and pumping and disposal,” said Goldberg. “Who covers this? This will be covered by the state because the owner is not liable…the cleanup has to happen. Our role is to protect the environment, and if someone does not have money for it, then the state has to cover those costs.” She was unclear if the leaking tank was going to be removed by the state.

“It is probably going to go, but I don’t have all the details,” said Goldberg.

Goldberg was not sure why the owner, who last filled the heating oil tanks, three years ago, is not going to pay for the cleanup.

“Grand Lake Boulevard is a beautiful area that holds a ton of history for the community of Presque Isle…some homes and cottages have been around for a very long time,” said Melching. “In order to preserve our waters and land anywhere in Presque Isle County, it is important to remind property owners who may have dated septics, drain fields, fuel tanks etc. to at a minimum check on an annual basis to be sure equipment is properly operating and intact.  If we all invest in mitigation of our own property, we reduce the risk of potential harmful effects.”