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Voters in Manistee yesterday went to the polls and
resoundingly turned down a multi-million dollar plan to expand to the
Waster Water treatment facility by a margin of around 4-1. City officials
were asking voters to approve a $9 million expansion. Currently the plant can
treat up to one million gallons of water a day, and the expansion would have
doubled that capacity. $2 million for the expansion would have come from Federal
grants, with Manistee residents paying for the rest. The
expansion would have added an approximately additional $12 a month,
collectively costing city residents and additional 5 million dollars per year
for 30 years---and the 7th highest Water and Sewer rates in the
state.
Many opponents of the plan saw the proposed
expansion plan as a direct tie-in to the proposed coal-fueled power plant
proposed by the Tondu Corporation of Houston, Texas. Tondu would have made
a one-time payment of $4 million for the plant's expansion and use.
Without the expansion of the plant, the Tondu
Corporation is faced with the serious dilemma of not having sufficient capacity
at the Treatment Plant to properly operate the power plant, should it be built.
Late last month the Manistee City Planning Commission
made a request to extend their April 1, 2004, deadline concerning their decision
whether or not to accept a Special Use Permit applied for by the Tondu
Corporation to build the 425-mega-watt coal-fired plant on the shores of
Manistee Lake, stating that they had too many serious questions and
concerns about the project to make an informed decision on whether or not to
approve the SUP. One Commissioner made the request clear, explaining that
if the Tondu Corporation wouldn't accept the request for an extended deadline,
that he would be glad to make the decision now (implying that he would vote to
turn down the application). Other Commissioners agreed.
~Monica Evans
Traverse Group of the Sierra Club
"Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of
Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also
human to other forms of life." ~Dalai Lama
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