Attorney Chris Bzdok talks to attendees at a Centerville Township meeting on March 12, 2025. (Photo: Izzy Ross/IPR News)
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Centerville Township’s hands are tied when it comes to stopping the use of septic tank waste on a local farm, according to Chris Bzdok, an attorney with the township, which is in northern Michigan’s Leelanau County.
IPR first reported on this story earlier this week. Neighbors had concerns about the use of what’s called “septage” to fertilize fields. Septage refers to sewage pumped from septic tanks.
Officials and some community members wanted to stop the use of septage on lands in the area. The township’s zoning ordinance requires a special permit for septage application on land.
Bzdok said the township board asked him to look into what could be done.
“This is going to be a frustrating discussion, so I’ll give you the bottom line up front,” he said as he began his briefing. “It is my legal opinion that there is nothing the township can do under its zoning authority at this time.”
It’s the latest in the Centerville septage saga spurred by a farmer who began applying septage to his fields last year.
The township sent a cease and desist letter to the landowner and Williams & Bay Pumping, the company doing the application.
But the site falls under the purview of the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, which had granted a permit to use septage at that site. Williams & Bay told IPR that it checked on its right to continue applying septage and that it’s complying with state septage application regulations, which are found in Part 117 of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act.
In this instance, state law trumps the township’s ordinances.
Bzdok said that wasn’t the case in the mid-2000s, when the zoning ordinance was amended to address septage application. Back then, the township had more authority to decide on such issues. But laws changed and placed that authority with the state.
“The laws that govern these things severely curtail the township’s zoning authority — any township’s zoning authority — over the land application of septage waste in Michigan,” he said.
That explanation didn’t go over well with those at the meeting.
“This is not acceptable on any level in my book,” said Kama Ross, a former Leelanau County commissioner, who spoke during public comment. “This is our groundwater. This is our groundwater. My well is within distance of this. Many people in this room live very close.”
Ross urged people to take action by forming a group and talking to regulators and other leaders.
When Township Supervisor Ronald Schaub asked whether she thought it was the board’s responsibility to do that, she replied, “I would love to see you take more of a position. I’m not telling you guys what to do. I’m saying as a concerned citizen, I’m not taking this answer as the last say, it’s not acceptable. It’s not acceptable. It’s my home.”
Bzdok said if the township were to bring a lawsuit, it would likely fail, though he said the circumstances could change.
“And if they were to change, the township could pursue enforcement of its ordinance,” he said. “But I can’t talk in public about any of the details of that, because that would sort of give the thing away.”
Bzdok recommended reaching out to the Michigan Townships Association to find out whether other townships were dealing with similar situations. And he said those who had questions about what they were seeing in the community should contact EGLE.
Still, people have concerns about what exactly is being put into the field, and about how the site is monitored.
It’s fully permitted by the state, and the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department signs off on the criteria and inspections.
But resident Rolf von Walthausen was worried about the state’s capacity to enforce existing regulations.
“The one person that occupies the Cadillac office is in charge of the entire upper state of Michigan,” he said. “That one person I don’t think can possibly keep up with everything that’s going on, even just in our county.”
The Cadillac office covers 10 counties in the northwest Lower Peninsula.
Meanwhile, Scott Collins, who lives across the street from the property in question, said he will take his concerns to Lansing.
“It’s out of the township’s jurisdiction, and it’s out of the county’s jurisdiction,” he said. “So the next place is, go to the state and see what our state representatives can do and make them aware that this is actually happening and being forced upon the residents of this county and this township.”
Collins said he plans to meet with state Sen. John Damoose and Rep. Betsy Coffia later this month.
Editor’s note: Kama Ross, who was quoted in this story, is a member of IPR’s Community Advisory Council. The council has no editorial control over stories.