The overzealous prosecution of a Freeland property owner is costing the family tens of thousands in legal bills, and potentially millions in fines.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy may soon learn how much the ordeal will cost the agency.

“EGLE needs a lot of change and I have a feeling big budget cuts are coming for them,” Rep. Brian Begole, R-Antrim Twp., posted to Facebook last week, along with a clip of testimony from Freeland resident Zach Wenzlick in the House Oversight Committee.

Wenzlick explained how a two-year dispute with EGLE over an expansion of a pond on his brother Joshua’s property evolved from officials trespassing unannounced in May 2023 following an anonymous complaint into threats of millions in fines if they don’t comply with demands to fill it in.

“I can assure you that to us this is so much more than just a pond,” Wenzlick said. “This is where we spend every Fourth of July celebrating, where I wake up on Saturday mornings with my son and we go fishing with my brother.

“We paddle around in kayaks, my wife and daughter go around in the paddle boat as a family, … we watch geese have babies on the island protected by predators, as well as multiple species of ducks that now use this pond as a migratory home,” he said.

“What my brother has done is taken a previous mining wasteland and turned it into a thriving ecosystem,” Wenzlick said.

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He told The Midwesterner in December an EGLE official accessed the property in May 2023, about two months after an anonymous complaint and well after the pond was expanded and stocked with about 700 fish, including bass, bluegill, crappie, and perch.

EGLE alleged the pond violates the Wetland Protection Act and Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, and ordered the Wenzlicks to fill in the pond and restore the area. The family attempted repeatedly to compromise or work with EGLE bureaucrats on another solution, noting they consulted with local zoning authorities before the work began and hired experienced contractor Schlicht Ponds to carry it out.

EGLE responded by threatening fines, which attorneys at FosterSwift note can run up to $10,000 per day, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

“We were told by the township and pond company that no permits were needed,” Zachary previously wrote to The Midwesterner in an 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.”

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“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.

The situation is frustrating lawmakers working with the family to help resolve the dispute. While the Wenzlicks contacted both state Rep. Matthew Bierlein, R-Vassar, and former state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, for help, the latter was elected to represent the state’s 8^th Congressional District in November.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has not called a special election to fill McDonald Rivet’s former 35^th Senate District seat more than 100 days later, leaving the Wenzlicks and about 270,000 other constituents flapping in the breeze.

Regardless, Bierlein sent a letter to EGLE Director Phillip Roos on behalf of the family in hopes of working toward a solution, to no avail.

“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 read. “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.”

Jeff Johnston, EGLE’s public information officer, told The Midwesterner in December a previous ruling from the former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality that deemed the Wenzlicks’ property an unregulated wetland is no longer valid.

“Wetland regulations have changed over the past 20 years, and the exemption used to designate the wetland unregulated no longer applies,” Johnston wrote in an email.

It’s an explanation that’s not sitting well with lawmakers, who’ve made it clear that determination will likely come with some consequences.

“My office has stood with Zach and his family since last year as they face a situation no Michigander should ever have to endure,” Bierlein wrote in a recent social media post. “This isn’t about a pond. It’s about property rights, government accountability, and ensuring that no hardworking family is forced to defend themselves against this kind of overreach.”