Journeyman Distillery has two weeks to start hauling off their waste in a short term agreement with the Village of Three Oaks to deal with water issues.
That was the conclusion to a contentious and well-attended council meeting Wednesday night.
What’s the Problem?
Three Oak’s wastewater ponds use bacteria to break down waste to the point where it is safe to dump into into local waterways. They can’t handle the waste from Journeyman.
Journeyman owner Bill Welter attributed the problem to their success. “And what I’d like to say here today is what we have is a great problem. The business is successful. People are investing in the community behind our investment,” Welter said. “What we have here is a situation where the village needs to catch up with the investment.”
Journeyman isn’t the only business that discharges what is defined as ‘industrial waste.’ It’s just the target of the blame for the most recent issues. A definition that Welter takes issue with.
Welter said he willing to work with the village to solve the problem. He says the agreement to haul their waste for 90 days is a good faith offering to help the ponds and give the council a chance to come up with a better, long-term solution. Council member John Pappa contended that shouldn’t be a village problem.
“I don’t feel like the residents should have to come up with the millions of dollars to put in a pretreatment plant that’s pretty much only for Journeyman’s.”
A Deadline
Pappa suggested a motion that would give Journeyman two weeks to stop discharging and starting hauling. That was after Welter suggested the change could be made in two to four weeks.
The two week motion ultimately passed. Drawing angry comments from the crowd. Including from Colleen Newquist.
“Same B.S. different day.”
Welter said Journeyman would try to meet the deadline but if they can’t find someone else to hual the waste, they’ll have to get a permit from the state to do it themselves. And they still have to find a municipality willing to take it.
He said in a community where it takes three weeks to get a permit to put up a fence, the deadline seems unfair.
Newquist agreed. “I feel like they’re not giving the opportunity for the Journeyman to really get done what they need to get done.” what they need to get done in a short amount of time.”
A Long-Term Problem. A Long-Term Solution?
Welter said this has been an ongoing problem that was only recently brought to Journeyman’s attention. “That day we discharged what is termed as industrial byproduct, industrial waste, into the village’s sewage and sanitation system the town was in violation, on day one.”
That day one was back in 2011.
The council gave themselves until mid-September to flesh out a long-term solution to it’s water woes.
Council President David Grosse said they need the time to make sure the village makes the right decision about what to do moving forward.
“I hope that you will agree with me when we’re talking about spending potentially millions and millions of dollars we gotta get this right,” Grosse said. “Because if we do this, if we decide on a solution we’ve got to go out and borrow the money, we’ve gotta bond it and your water bills are going to reflect it for the next 20 to 30 years. We wanna get this thing right.”
People at the meeting seemed willing to put in the money to do it right.
“Your next decision is a tough one,” resident Tom Flint said to the council. “You have to vote to upgrade our infrastructure to we can continue to welcome people and businesses to our village. Please don’t look at this as improving to accommodate one business, instead understand that you are improving to accommodate us all.”
Mid-September would be right near the end of Journeyman’s 90 day agreement. At that point this whole problem could start all over again.
“Back at square one,” Welter said.
