After spending thousands of dollars to dig a pond, a family in Freeland is fighting against the Department of Environmental, Great Lakes, and Energy to save it.

The Wenzlick family said that after they hired a contractor to deepen the pond, EGLE received an anonymous, confidential complaint regarding concerns over digging a pond and drainage issues.

An EGLE official accessed the property in May 2023 without permission of the owner, Joshua Wenzlick, leading to an 18-month saga that has cost his family $15,000 in attorney fees so far, according to his brother, Zachary Wenzlick.

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“My brother woke up [and] saw them on the back of his property,” Zachary Wenzlick told The Midwesterner. “The people of Michigan need to know you’re only one anonymous confidential complaint away from losing your personal property rights.”

According to EGLE, the family dug the pond in a regulated wetlands area without obtaining the proper permits. EGLE officials responded to a complaint about excavation and fill during pond construction on Wenzlick’s property in the wetland area, according to Jeff Johnston, EGLE public information officer.

However, the complaint was reported on March 3, 2023, after the work was completed by Schlicht Ponds. EGLE officials did not show up to investigate the claim until May 16, 2023. In May 2023, Attorney General Dana Nessel and EGLE filed a lawsuit against Schlicht Ponds for repeated violations of Michigan’s environmental laws, according to a news release.

“If you talk to EGLE, we should have looked into our contractor better, but the lawsuit wasn’t made public,” Zachary Wenzlick said. “Where is EGLE’s accountability to the residents of Michigan? Isn’t that the Attorney General’s job to protect the average citizen against some rogue contractor?”

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Zachary Wenzlick, who lives a mile from his brother and uses the pond as well, said the family’s fight with EGLE is an example of government overreach and bureaucracy.

“During this whole situation, we’ve felt totally alone and have been treated like we are common criminals,” he said. “We had no idea that this can happen and you’ll be left totally alone. The company, the township, the county … they’ll say ‘good luck,’ but they’re not going to try to protect you.”

After knocking on his brother’s door and not getting an answer, an EGLE employee proceeded to go look at the pond area, according to Zachary. EGLE later found them in violation of Section Sec. 30304 of Part 303 and ordered them to fill in the pond, remove all unauthorized fill around the area, and restore the pond back to the original grade.

The Wenzlick family has tried to work with EGLE to resolve the matter. They stopped any work to landscape around the pond, which included plans to create a natural environment that benefits wildlife and waterfowl.

As avid outdoorsmen, the whole point was to enjoy nature and the property. The pond is fully stocked with multiple species of fish and serves as a migratory home for ducks and geese throughout the year, which the previous ecosystem did not. The pond also has rooted aquatic species and emergent plant species like cattails, Zachary Wenzlick said.

“We have migratory birds and geese have their babies every year on the island [in the pond] so the coyotes can’t get to them,” Zachary said. “There are ducks that hang out there. We were going to plant strawberries and blueberries and create a path back to it.”

Zachary alleges EGLE has been unwilling to work with the Wenzlicks to find a reasonable solution, forcing the family to hire an attorney to defend their rights and save their pond.

“They have treated us, the elected officials, and our lawyers very unprofessionally and very cruelly,” Zachary Wenzlick wrote in an email. “They are now asking for tens of thousands of dollars in site restoration fees and will not give us or our lawyer the ability to argue the validity of their alleged violation.”

The property is located in Tittabawassee Township in Saginaw County. It used to be a topsoil and sand mining operation in the 1950s and was left as a wasteland. According to Zachary Wenzlick, EGLE, formerly the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality made a previous ruling on the property 20 years ago and determined the area where the pond was dug was a non-regulated wetland.

After accessing the property without permission, EGLE changed its determination to a regulated wetland with no factual basis for their change, Zachary claims. EGLE sent a letter dated Jan. 11, 2024, that ordered Joshua Wenzlick and Scott Schlicht of Schlicht Ponds to bring the property into compliance by July 1, which he shared with The Midwesterner.

“There were no issues for 20 years,” Zachary Wenzlick said. “The land never changed, and if you look at their wetland determination data and mappers and website, the data showed the exact same thing in the previous rulings.”

Johnston said the wetland is regulated due to the size of the pond and wetland and its surface connection to a stream.

“In the early 2000s, the wetland in question was stated to be unregulated but with a clear notification that the determination was valid for only three years,” he wrote in an email to The Midwesterner. “Wetland regulations have changed over the past 20 years, and the exemption used to designate the wetland unregulated no longer applies.”

Johnston refutes the Wenzlick family’s claims that they have been ordered to fill in the pond. EGLE will not comment on ongoing enforcement negotiations other than to correct errors of fact, Johnston wrote in an email.

“It is not accurate to state that Mr. Wenzlick is being asked to restore the property to its previous condition, i.e. to fill the pond,” he wrote in an email. “It is also inaccurate to say EGLE has provided no factual basis for the change in status to a regulated wetland.”

Owner Joshua Wenzlick bought the property in 2015, and hired Schlicht Ponds to dig the pond in 2021. Since it was under an acre, township officials said Wenzlick did not need a permit.

In 2023, he decided to dig the pond deeper to stock it with fish. Besides the amount of money his brother Joshua has spent, he has since turned the area around the pond into a thriving ecosystem, Zachary said.

“We were told by the township and pond company that no permits were needed,” Zachary wrote in his email. “The great financial hardship it has cost my brother is unbelievable. This situation has caused great stress and turmoil for my entire family, and Michiganders should know how their government is negatively affecting an everyday citizen.”

Since the ordeal started, Zachary Wenzlick alleges EGLE has hid data and results from them and told the Wenzlicks they needed to fill out a FOIA request to get information at the cost of hundreds of dollars.

“We are now in a situation where we have to agree to EGLE’s plan to fill in the pond or likely get sued by the State of Michigan,” Zachary Wenzlick said.

Johnston said EGLE has offered to revisit the site with Joshua Wenzlick, at his request, to explain the agency’s determination and discuss possible restoration options.

The Wenzlicks also contacted state Rep. Matthew Bierlein’s and state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet’s offices in order to reach a reasonable agreement with EGLE.

Bierlein wrote a letter to EGLE Director Phillip Roos expressing his dissatisfaction with EGLE’s lack of communication and handling of the issue.

“As a legislator, I believe that the intent of Part 303 of NREPA is not to be used against private landowners in the way it is currently being applied to Mr. Wenzlick,” the letter states. “It is the government’s responsibility to protect the environment and public health of the people in the great state of Michigan, which have both been improved with the work Mr. Wenzlick has performed on his property.”

The family has supplied information to EGLE, proving the area in dispute was previously determined by EGLE not to be a wetland. Part of the issue stems from a neighboring pond and a rule that says any other pond needs to be at least 500 feet away. The Wenzlick’s pond is 607 feet away, based on aerial photos supplied to EGLE and The Midwesterner.

“In addition to not having factual support for EGLE’s change of opinion over the previous determination, my office also believes it would be a greater detriment to the environment to destroy the current ecosystem that Mr. Wenzlick has created,” Bierlein’s letter states.

Zachary Wenzlick said the way that EGLE is treating property owners in Michigan is unacceptable. Unfortunately, many people do not have the resources to fight back.

“This two-acres of apparent wetland, is that really the most pressing issue that EGLE needs to go after,” Zachary said. “There’s no way this can be what the state of Michigan believes private citizens should have to go through in these situations. We should not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars. We’re not trying to be unreasonable. Give us a restoration plan that does not impact the current pond because it is an improvement to the ecosystem.”