As officials in one Michigan township fight small business owners over concerns about the environment, state officials are backing multi-billion dollar construction projects that pose a far more serious threat.

Brooks Township officials last week promised to appeal a recent Newaygo County Circuit Court ruling that found an ordinance adopted to prevent Peter and Annica Quackenbush from opening a “green cemetery” unconstitutional.

The couple intends to create a place on a 20-acre plot they own in the township where area residents can bury loved ones without traditional chemicals like formaldehyde and metal-laden coffins that are bad for the environment. Instead, the green cemetery would use biodegradable materials such as cotton shrouds and mark sites with natural landmarks like rocks and native trees.

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The couple approached the township with their plan in February 2022, and had 250 people signed up for burial plots, but the township approved an ordinance in June 2023 that effectively banned all cemeteries, Reason.com reports.

“Our concern all along has been with the possible contamination or lack of data regarding the water wells in the immediate area and the Newaygo city well that supplies most all the town’s water,” Brooks Township Supervisor Cory Nelson told WWMT. “That well is within 350′ from the property.”

Nelson contends the township is concerned about folks buried at the site who may have undergone chemotherapy or radiation, or taken medications or are buried with metal joints. Those issues, he suggested, could taint the nearby Muskegon River, or area ponds.

“There is no study on what could be done to the watershed in this area if it is allowed. Not by SHD #10 or any private firm,” Nelson said. “Regulation for cemeteries came from the state for reasons exactly like this. And evolved to what it is today for good reason.”

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The ordinance prompted the Quackenbushs to file a lawsuit with the help of the Institute for Justice, and the township filed a motion to dismiss the case. Following oral arguments last week, Newaygo County Circuit Court Judge David Glancy both dismissed the township’s motion and ruled the ban on cemeteries unconstitutional.

“We’re excited and feel vindicated by this ruling,” the couple told WWMT. “We are delighted that the judge understood Brooks Township’s ordinance violated our right to use our property and operate our cemetery.”

“This victory recognizes Peter and Annica’s constitutional right to start a business. The township can’t just ban a necessity of life like a cemetery,” IFJ attorney Katrin Marquez added. “People won’t stop dying just because the township doesn’t want them buried there.”

Brooks Township, meanwhile, plans to appeal to “stay in that fight to protect the safety of our citizens.”

“We will put thought and care into the protection of our citizens rights to clean water,” Nelson said. “Everything we do legislatively is done to protect the rural integrity of the Master Plan for the citizens of Brooks Township. Make no mistake we will fight for what we as elected officials believe to be right. It is our duty and taken very seriously when surrounding neighbors call on us for help.”

That position is strikingly at odds with how officials elsewhere are managing environmental concerns for several multi-billion dollar construction projects tied to the electric vehicle industry.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has approved more than $700 million in taxpayer subsidies to Gotion Inc. for a massive EV battery component plant in Big Rapids that’s expected siphon about 715 million gallons of water per day from the ground, despite the governor’s campaign promises to address corporate water withdraws.

Gotion, which has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party and is partially subsidized by the People’s Republic of China, is forging ahead despite efforts by township officials to halt the facility, which faces serious issues the potential environmental impact, from the chemicals used to the ramifications for the Muskegon River.

An intent to sue filed by Mecosta County residents and organizations details those concerns:

Crucially, the Gotion Property is also home to numerous endangered, threatened, and protected species. First and foremost, the majestic American Bald Eagle nests on the Gotion Property, making their homes in the very trees Gotion plans to tear down. Additionally, the Gotion Property houses a population of endangered Rusty Patched Bumble Bees whose habitat will be destroyed by the construction of the Gotion Plant. It is also home to the even more endangered (and quite beautiful) Karner blue butterflies, who depend on the wetlands and its sole food source (the wild blue lupine) that grows on the Gotion Property to flourish. Further, the Muskegon River, which the Gotion Property effectively borders, is home to Elktoe, Black Sandshell, Slippershell, Round Pigtoes, Rainbow, and possibly Fluted shell mussels, with the Slippershell being listed as a Michigan endangered species and the Black Sandshell being listed as a Michigan threatened species. Additionally, the now-threatened snapping turtle resides in the Muskegon River within Green Charter Township. Finally, Dalziel Creek is a designated trout stream.

It’s a similar story with a Ford EV plant in Marshall, where the company plans to partner with the CCP-linked company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. to build EV batteries with the help of hundreds of millions in state subsidies. Construction at the site is ongoing despite an unresolved lawsuit from locals and citations for repeated runoffs into the Kalamazoo River.

“[Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy] inspectors said the site didn’t have some necessary protections against sedimentation during heavy rainstorms. They described areas without enough vegetation, a partially unfinished storm water drainage system, ineffective soil erosion control measures, improperly installed silt fencing and other issues that caused the runoff, which violated the state environmental protection las and construction codes,” officials with the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes, and Energy told The Detroit News. “Construction logs also lacked required detail and failed to describe some of the runoff, the department said.”

EGLE has vowed to continue to monitor the site, while the property owners and Ford plan to improve efforts to protect the river, but the environmental concerns aren’t going away.

“There’s legitimate concern for how the site, which is very large and immediately adjacent to the river, is going to be managed from a point of view of protecting the river from all kinds of things, including storm water during construction and storm water coming from the site after construction is done, and managing potential chemical emergencies when raw materials are brought to the site,” Kalamazoo River Watershed Council Executive Director Doug McLaughlin said.

“The fact that we’ve asked and helped elevate concern about losses during construction, sediment losses during construction, and now there’s a violation that’s related to sediment losses during construction, that’s an indicator” that Ford is inadequately protecting the river, he said. “That’s not the only one that we’ve seen… We haven’t been happy with the level of response from Ford.”

On August 19, The Midwesterner also reported on Michigan importing atomic waste to a Wayne County landfill.