The Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners voted during their June 18 meeting to make their first payment to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) since a settlement was reached regarding state’s “notice of liability” for pollution at a former landfill in Owosso Township which closed more than 40 years ago.
The county had a deadline of Aug. 31 to make the county’s first payment, $43,350, on the settlement but decided to make the initial payment at the soonest possible time.
The total amount of the settlement reached between Shiawassee County and the MDEQ was not revealed on Thursday. “This issue has been a long time in the making and we are glad to be putting it behind us,” said Commissioner Hartmann Aue.
More than a month ago, Owosso was among entities that agreed to settle, saying it will pay between about $175,000 and $200,000 on the MDEQ’s “notice of liability.” It was more than five years ago that the state notified the city and others of nearly $1 million in state costs tied to monitoring the contamination. The former landfill is at the west end of Frederick Street, west of Southwest Owosso. It is just over half a mile south of M-21. The settlement involves the city building a water main to service about six homes where drinking water wells are affected by the pollution.
