The Bowne Township Board of Trustees met last Thursday, May 25, to hear public comments about a zoning ordinance amendment that would permit “the installation of utility anaerobic biodigesters for third-party entities on farms in the agriculture zoning district.”
The amendment was introduced to facilitate the construction of a biodigester on the 91-acre property of Swisslane Farms located on 84th Street in Alto. Currently, there is a proposed $17 million plan for Consumers Energy to undertake the project.
The plan is that the farm will provide manure from its dairy cows for the proposed production facility. The biodigester would then capture naturally-occurring methane to be cleaned and conditioned. The methane would then be sent to existing gas pipelines for consumer use.
Board members held a special public comments meeting alongside a regular board meeting. After the public comments, the board voted 4-1 to amend the ordinance. Board Treasurer Bonnie Lent-Davis was the only dissenter.
Residents Voice Concerns About Project
Approximately 15 members of the public spoke at the meeting, most expressing concerns about the project. Representatives from Swisslane Farms and from Michigan State University were present to show support for the project and answer specific questions from the public. About 30 members of the public attended the meeting.
Concerns from community members ranged from physical safety to nearby homes devaluing. A few comments were made about the now defunct biodigester in Lowell and issues surrounding that unsuccessful attempt to have a biodigester in a small community.
Community member Steve Hurtuk said there has been a lack of transparency regarding this project, and notes from past planning commission meetings are not readily available to the public.
“When we talk about this ordinance, it goes against the Michigan Open Meetings Act in the sense that I’m seeing this proposed amendment even now for the first time,” Hurtuk said.
He encouraged the board to put the ordinances, along with any amendments, on the township website prior to the public meetings. “You can’t really discuss something and have questions about it or vote on something if you don’t have it all in front of you,” he said.
Dana Kirk from MSU works with biodigesters and said they enhance rural communities by creating jobs and will help with the dairy farm’s mission of sustainability. According to Kirk, digesters have been in Michigan since the 1980s with very little environmental issues
“Yes, you are situated next to Lowell, and they had a major issue with the system that was built there. Part of why that issue is because there weren’t ordinances for odor management and into some of the construction standards. That’s an example of where an ordinance like this would maybe have averted that project from happening altogether,” Kirk said.
Project Must Meet Special Land Use Standards
Township attorney Cliff Bloom said that Consumers Energy or any utility company that files an application to do this project will have to meet all special land use standards.
Bloom said as technology increases or if there are any unanticipated smells or noises, the utility company would have to upgrade and implement the technological improvements. He added that this is a rare part of the ordinance.
“I’m not aware of any other zoning provision that requires technological upgrades,” Bloom said. “I think that’s a pretty innovative provision.”
Bloom said the amendment includes a seven-day inspection notice down from a previous notice period of 15 days.
“That’s not an easy issue because of the Constitution. You can’t just do snap inspections absent an emergency. So I think seven days is probably the minimum you can do,” according to Bloom.
Community member Ray Mooney disagreed. He said the complexity of the project should make more frequent inspections important and that a seven-day notice is too long. “The biodigester is an extremely complex project. Anaerobic, it’s got to be manned and operated, it’s got manure as its raw material, and it produces an explosive gas,” he said.
“If the good folks at Consumers Energy are running a good operation, which we all expect they will, I would think they would welcome an inspection,” Mooney added. “It will give them positive, good publicity.”
Several residents encouraged the board to not vote and table the project and any change in the ordinance until further investigation is done into the details and concerns.
Lent-Davis, who voted against the amendment, said she felt there were too many unanswered questions regarding the project.
“We’re working with a lot of unknowns, it seems, and I’m not comfortable with that,” she said.
Lent-Davis said after attending many planning and public meetings, she has found that a majority of the public objects to this project, and she is still unaware of firm benefits to the township.
The board ended the public comments portion of the meeting and then formally voted to approve the amendments to the ordinance.
I would like to say two things. The very first time I saw (and did not smell) a biodigestor at work was at the Green Meadows Dairy Farm in Elsie, MI (did you know that is how Elsie the cow got her name?) which is a huge operation. This was well over 25 years ago. I was told that the farm got most, if not all, of their electricity from the cow manure. There was no odor other than the cow manure smell which I am pretty sure hangs around ALL dairy operations. Secondly, please do not make a comparison to the Lowell Biodigestor – the failed one in Lowell had several strikes against it, the primary one being that they were putting other things in the mix – not just manure. I am confident the good people at Swiss Lane are on top of things and will do an excellent job of turning poop into electricity.