Emmett homeowners face costly fix for arsenic in water
Some 150 Emmett Township homeowners may have to come up with thousands of dollars to pay for what health officials argue is the best solution to eliminating elevated levels of arsenic from their water: ditch their wells and hook up to the city's public system.
Long-term exposure to arsenic has been found to potentially result in major health problems, but even with sample results that have revealed their levels of arsenic to be more than four times higher than what's considered safe by federal standards, residents of the Cherokee Hills subdivision are worried about a more immediate issue: the financial hit.
If the project comes to fruition, each homeowner could see an estimated $19,000 bill for connection costs — or $26,000 if road improvements are added — through a special assessment.
Some already are saying goodbyes to future plans of selling their homes.
"Who's gonna move into a house and pay $4,000 in taxes for a 1,200-square-foot house?" said Doug Green, whose family moved into his home about 15 years ago to live in the Harper Creek School District.
"I mean, that's insane."
Testing by the Calhoun County Public Health Department found that about 83 percent of samples taken from March to May in Cherokee Hills had arsenic levels higher than the 10-parts-per-billion federal standard. Some tested as high as more than 40 parts per billion.
Officials started testing in the neighborhood earlier this year after they discovered arsenic across the street at the Oak Ridge office complex. In March, Battle Creek and Emmett Township signed an intergovernmental agreement to extend municipal water service to the 22 affected parcels that border South Shore Drive; those property owners are paying special assessments for the hook-up, Emmett Township Supervisor Tim Hill said.
Officials said the arsenic is a naturally occurring, although carcinogenic, element that gets into water when it flows over bedrock. The tainted water can be still be used for showers, dishwashing and watering the lawn, but long-term exposure through drinking and cooking could mean serious health problems: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it's been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver and prostate, and has caused partial paralysis and blindness.
According to the World Health Organization, acute arsenic poisoning can mean "vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. These are followed by numbness and tingling of the extremities, muscle cramping and death, in extreme cases."
Residents told the Enquirer their immediate concern is the financial cost and what they say is little control over whether they will hook up to city water. A proposed boundary for the public water includes 160 parcels, according to a presentation made at a town hall earlier this year.
Continue reading below
Hooking up to city water would require nearly 13,000 feet of water main, 152 service connections and 24 new fire hydrants. Total water main costs have been estimated at $2.4 million.
Greg Marshall, who lives on Belton Avenue, said the township will charge residents "an ungodly amount of money" for a system he said they don't really need — and would force him to take out another mortgage equivalent to what he paid for his home more than 30 years ago.
Marshall said he plans to continue to use his well water for bathing and laundry despite knowing the effects of long-term exposure to arsenic.
"I got news for them — I'll be dead long before then," he said.
The health department said residents have been informed of additional options, including using bottled water, installing reverse-osmosis filters or drilling a deeper well. But none are as good as hooking up to city water.
Reverse-osmosis filters wouldn't completely eliminate the element, said Paul Makoski, the county's director of environmental health.
"So if you have a high amount, in the 40s or 50s (parts per billion), it may only lower it possibly to 10," Makoski said. "Then you’re still where you don’t want to be. And that is only for that one faucet."
Drilling a deeper well also may not be feasible because of the type of bedrock in the area, he said — and devices known as green sand or iron filters are expensive and require extensive maintenance.
"If you don’t keep up on it, you can get to the point where you’re actually concentrating the arsenic and you can actually raise your levels instead of lower them," Makoski said.
Meanwhile, the health department would be required to report arsenic levels at the request of a lending institution if a homeowner tries to sell.
"We would have to say that even if you have treatment, no, there’s arsenic in the water so we would not pass that," Makoski said. "That is an opinion, that is nothing that is legally binding them. But it does affect the home value. Again, if you go with municipal water, well, that also is not an issue."
Kathy Cook said she took her Belton Avenue home off the market after being informed there was arsenic in her water. She's since installed a reverse-osmosis system and has seen drops in arsenic levels — at a monthly cost of $22, she said.
Cook said the township should respect the homeowners' decision to have wells.
"They made their own decisions on what to do with water," she said. "We are adults. We are taxpayers. I think we should have the right to make that choice. They shouldn't say because it goes in front of our houses, 'You have to put it in if it's voted in.' That's not right."
Makoski said the area's arsenic problem likely began more than 10,000 years ago.
"Compared to other parts of the country," he said, "we've had the glaciers that formed a lot of Michigan and it’s ground up and mixed up a lot of the minerals and things, and we just have pockets of it that occur from place to place."
Health officials dismissed residents' concerns that the arsenic problem may have been caused by the 2010 Enbridge oil spill. No tests have showed the oil, which contains arsenic, penetrated into sources of drinking water, they said.
"In a situation like this, I wholeheartedly would’ve expected that question," county Health Officer Jim Rutherford said. "But based upon the viscosity of the product and the significant amount of water samples that we took in water supplies that would’ve been much more likely to be impacted, there’s just no leaching of the product down into the water supply."
Makoski said that the arsenic in the oil is given a "chemical fingerprint" as well, which would identify its source, although such a test has not been done on the arsenic in the subdivision.
Jenny Green said she wants Emmett officials to do more than hint that residents may be hit with a hefty bill.
"I would like Emmett Township do more than say, 'Well, sorry your water's poisoned, you're going to have to pay $28,000 to fix it,'" she said. "We pay our taxes. I think they can come up with something that's a little more affordable for a lot of the homeowners in this area."
Hill said no decision has yet been made, but if the choice is made to hook up to city water, the township board likely would have to approve a resolution. He said multiple town hall meetings would be held before a vote. Public hearings would be required to create a special assessment district and to set the assessment roll.
Hill said while the arsenic issue is localized to that neighborhood, it's an emergency for those who live there.
"My concern is to get safe drinking water in there for everybody," he said. "That's my concern. (But) I don't want to go in there if you've got houses that are worth $40,000, $50,000 — $15,000 to hook up, that's crazy."
Hill said he is seeking grants that could offset costs for residents, and hopes that the water crisis in Flint may have opened opportunities for funding.
"Just like people get tired of being taxed — just like our road millage being shut down — they're just tired of being taxed," Hill said. "And I feel for these guys. And I'm going to do what I can."
You can read the letter affected homeowners received from the health department here:
Contact Jennifer Bowman at 269-966-0589 or jbowman@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @jenn_bowman. Contact Andy Fitzpatrick at 269-966-0697 or afitzpatrick@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @am_fitzpatrick