(ROSCOMMON) The largest single public land deal in Michigan history will be approved, state Department of Natural Resources Director Keith
Creagh said Thursday.
The state is selling 8,810 acres of surface land or underground mineral rights to Canadian company
Graymont
for it to create a vast, 13,000-acre limestone mining operation in the
Upper Peninsula counties of Mackinac and Luce. The deal calls for
Graymont to pay the state $4.53 million.
The divisive proposal has been a subject of debate for 18 months in a naturally beautiful, rural portion of the U.P.
Creagh
said the DNR faced a “very difficult balance” with its mandates to
protect natural resources and allow their beneficial use — as well as
balance the opposing viewpoints from area residents.
In addition to the $4.53 million, Michigan retains surface and public
use rights on more than 7,000 acres of the sale property. The state
additionally will receive a 30-cent royalty on each ton of limestone or
dolomite mined by
Graymont in the area. The state has also agreed to grant 830 acres of mineral rights to
Graymont for the project in exchange for company-held mineral rights in other locations of the U.P.
Supporters of
Graymont’s Rexton
limestone mining project cite the desperate need for jobs and economic
activity in an area where young people often move away to find work
after completing school. Others fear the mining and traffic will
irreparably damage the bucolic setting that called them to live or
retire there.
DNR department heads earlier this year sent a memo to Creagh
recommending rejection of the Graymont proposal, citing numerous
concerns. Company officials continued negotiations with the state and
resolved areas of disagreement to the point that the department heads
earlier this month reversed their stance and recommended approval.
Changes in the agreement included increasing the mineral royalty from
18.75 cents to 30 cents per ton, Graymont agreeing to a minimum annual
royalty payment to the state beginning in 2020 and the company
establishing a regional economic development fund of $100,000 per year
for five years.
“The chiefs had identified what their concerns were, and the staff rolled up their sleeves and went to work,” Creagh said.
P.J. Stoll, plant manager for Graymont’s Gulliver facility, said the public process “very much improved the original proposal.”
The divided local opinion was apparent from those speaking before the
Natural Resources Commission in Roscommon on Thursday. Rexton-area
resident Tonya Emerson’s nearly 100-year-old family farm will have
Graymont mining operations on three sides of the property. She cited
concerns about a reduced water table and water contamination.
“Selling the state’s greatest asset, allowing a foreign company to
destroy our land — while making a huge profit doing so — would be a huge
injustice to the residents of upper Michigan,” she said.
Rexton resident Dorothy Mills was similarly opposed.
“We purchased our property, we built our houses, in an area that didn’t have a limestone mine. So did many others,” she said.
But several speakers who made the trip from the U.P. expressed
support for the project, saying the economic benefit it will bring to a
depressed area is much needed.
“The young people deserve it,” area resident Jeff Dishaw said.
“Myself, I have a job. But the young people in this community deserve
the opportunity to stay and earn a middle-class living.”
Hendricks Township Supervisor Russell Nelson told the Free Press
before Thursday’s commission meeting that it was time to move ahead with
the project.
“This has pitted neighbor against neighbor,” he said.
Graymont officials say the initial phase of their operation will
create 50 mining and transportation-related jobs, along with 100
indirect jobs. The company, the second-largest supplier of lime and
lime-based products in North America, also is considering building a
$100-million limestone processing plant in Nelson’s township years from
now.
“We need the jobs,” Nelson said. “Our township has about 160
residents over 80 square miles. We have one little convenience store and
a couple of restaurants.”
The revised deal still does not address Trout Lake Township resident Kathy English’s concerns, she said.
“It doesn’t change the noise, the traffic, the pollution, the
potential impacts to the water table, the changes to our way of life,”
she said.
The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club also opposed the land deal,
saying the DNR is failing to follow state law in determining surplus
state lands. The land deal involves 10 times more acreage than any
previous sale, club officials said.
“As proposed, the Graymont sale would establish a dangerous precedent
and undermine our longstanding Michigan tradition of ensuring publicly
owned lands that we value today are also there for future generations of
Michiganders,” Sierra Club forest ecologist Marvin Roberson said.
