SWAMP FEVER

Officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality charge that what Nile Young did was the worst violation of wetland law in years.  The evil Young wrought upon us was his expansion of 2-acre pond on his property in Mecosta County into a 7-acre lake.  In doing so he cleared out some of the swamp surrounding the pond.  The MDEQ claims he destroyed a wetland.  Hmm, I'm don't know how much wetter land can get than being a lake.  Nevertheless, Young must now pay a $21,000 fine and bring back the swamp.  So much for thinking ownership of property means anything.

Of course, while the MDEQ has been having a convulsions over Young's environmental terrorism, it has done nothing about the 26,000 tons of arsenic, lead, and mercury laden waste that Pioneer Inc. and Dykema Excavators Inc. spread all over the northeast side of Grand Rapids -- as followers of the Toxic Towers story know.  But then that wasn't a violation of a wetland, just a violation of the health of hundreds of construction workers and members of the general public.  Plus the potential fines for Pioneer's and Dykema's dirty work is only $40 billion and counting.  Certainly nothing to expend the MDEQ's limited resources upon when there are criminals like Nile Young to track down.

And by the way, what Young did was not the worst violation of wetland law in years.  For starters there was the dumping of all the waste soil from the excavation for Fifth Third ballpark in Comstock Park into the Grand River by Dykema Excavators.  The Grand River is public waterway which is what all of these so-wetland laws and regulations were originally devised to protect.  Of course, the MDEQ never did anything about that either.