A Lone Tree for vigilance
 Sunday, April 22, 2007, The Saginaw News
 BARRIE BARBERTHE SAGINAW NEWS

Nearly three decades ago, Terry R. Miller listened to warnings about radioactive releases and isotope counts and worried whether that might someday threaten those who lived near a nuclear power plant under construction in Midland.

The lecture from Midland resident Mary Sinclair in Bay City galvanized Miller, 61, and four others.

"We sat there," he said, "and we couldn't believe this facility was being built upwind from us. We would receive any emission that came out of it."

That day in 1978 sparked the reaction for some environmental activists, who over the coming years would issue a call to arms on a myriad of concerns about pollution, public health and nature.

They called themselves the Lone Tree Council.

Now, the small band of about 100 -- under a dozen active -- members, who drew the name from Bay City author Les Arndt's 1970s environmental book "By These Waters," engages in battles against government and corporations regularly.

Lone Tree, which marks Earth Day today, has raised hackles with Dow Chemical Co. over dioxin contamination in the Tittabawassee River watershed. The group has struggled against federal, state and local agencies over a 220-acre Saginaw River dredging spoils site under construction in Zilwaukee and Frankenlust townships.

Miller, longtime chairman, makes no apologies for the environmentalist's role as an activist watchdog.

"Citizens need to keep their government accountable," he said. "The idea that the government will take care of you or regulators will take care of you is simply not true. A vigilant citizenry is required to make democracy work."

At its height, Lone Tree counted about 300 members. Now, Miller said, it has nearly 100 dues payers from Pennsylvania to California.

Carol L. Shackelford, 85, remained a member of Lone Tree even though she moved to Madison, Wis., last year from Saginaw.

"I do think they have made a difference," she said. "The public is more aware of that's happening in the area because of the Lone Tree Council."

He estimates 10 are active members. They meet at Delta College monthly. Dues payers receive the newsletter "The Leaf-let" every month for $10 a year.

"As you might guess," Miller said, "we don't have a large treasury."

The estimated $1,500 annual budget covers the cost of the newsletter. When he last checked the group had $200 in its coffers, he said.

Lone Tree has a Bay City post office box as its corporate address.

The environmentalists rely on an outside 501(c) 3 nonprofit, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination in Clare, to funnel grant money to Lone Tree, Miller said.

Lone Tree, which relies on volunteers to run the group, maintains its non-profit, status through a license from the state Bureau of Commercial Services.

'Vigilant' activism

Group members say they've exercised activist vigilance in ongoing battles.

Lone Tree, which relies on larger environmental groups or pro bono work to bear the cost of litigation, has unleashed a one-two punch with two lawsuits against the Saginaw River spoils site.

Proponents say the site is needed to dump dredged muck to keep waterborne commerce and about 250 jobs afloat at companies with Saginaw riverfront addresses.

Lone Tree joined forces with the National Wildlife Federation to contend, in part, that the state failed to set adequate water quality standards on future discharges of polluted water fom the spoils site. They filed suit in Ingham County Circuit Court because of its proximity to the state's Department of Environmental Quality.

The Reston, Va.-based National Wildlife Federation is a longtime conservation organization that says it protects wildlife for future generations.

In the second lawsuit, the National Environmental Law Center and Lone Tree contend the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must complete a full-fledged environmental impact study on the site. The suit remains in U.S. District Court in Bay City.

Miller contended the spoils site sits in wetlands and a flood plain that water covered in the 1980s, and near homes, the Crow Island State Game Area and along a waterfowl migration route.

Lone Tree isn't opposed to dredging the river, he said, just where the spoils end up. A brownfield would have made more sense, he said.

"We still scratch our heads in wonderment why they would possibly choose the area that they did choose and what the politics were of that selection," he said.

Saginaw County, which owns the facility, and the state have denied the charges in court. Officials say the facility will meet or exceed environmental standards.

County Public Works Commissioner James A. Koski has locked horns with the activists and vows to win.

"Am I satisfied it's safe?" he asked. "You bet I am.

"They have totally disregarded any of the facts that go contrary to their beliefs. It's like they don't hear it.

"They always have a cause. They have a cause against everybody."

Michelle Hurd Riddick, 52, a Lone Tree activist and spokeswoman, said the volunteer group's critics are off target.

"We've never been paid a dime to do this," she said. "That's not a pity story. That's a commitment to clean air, healthy communities, clean water and public health.

"It's easier for them to attack the messenger than engage in dialogue with us. They want control. They don't want dialogue."

Miller, a Delta College adjunct history professor, said he spends an average of 20 to 30 hours a week engaged in environmental issues. Riddick, a nurse, said she devotes at least 20 hours a week, too.

'It's about the watershed'

In a sign of the group's influence, the National Environmental Law Center -- with main offices in Boston, San Francisco and Seattle -- posted a recent "front page" interview with Hurd-Riddick on its national Web site.

But she insists the movement isn't about Lone Tree leaders.

"This isn't about Michelle Hurd-Riddick; it's not about Terry Miller," she said. "It's about the watershed. ... We have lived among these contaminants for so long, we just accept them. Other communities don't."

A clean environment raises the quality of life and attracts business investment, she said.

"We do have a cause, we do have an agenda, but it's a good, healthy, wholesome cause," she said.

State Rep. Kenneth B. Horn criticized Lone Tree last year as a Saginaw County commissioner.

Today, he said it has a useful role to play.

"They serve a purpose," the Frankenmuth Republican said. "They go a little bit too far sometimes, but I certainly think they serve a purpose. Being part of the conversation makes us a better community.

"I just love passionate people and the fact that they get involved, and when we have a little family spat, it's over issues, not personalities," said Horn, who has clashed with Hurd-Riddick in the past. "It's just the way the system works, but I truly appreciate the fact that they are there. ... Apathy is something of a pet peeve."

Lone Tree and Dow: Partners?

Even adversaries can join forces.

Lone Tree joined with Public Interest Research Group In Michigan and sued Dow in 1995, alleging it had violated its clean water permit, Dow spokesman John C. Musser said.

The environmentalists won a $1 million judgment. A federal judge gave the company a $200,000 credit. The rest ended up in a trust fund dedicated to environmental projects that benefit water quality and aquatic life in the Saginaw Bay watershed, Musser and Miller said.

Today, Miller sits with Dow and Department of Environmental Quality representatives who determine where to hand out the windfall.

The trust fund has paid for a litany of projects from river and coastal wetlands to protect water quality to giving half of the windfall to the Bay Area Community Foundation to dole out for Saginaw Bay watershed projects.

The birth of activism

Miller's activism has deep roots.

He came of age in the 1960s, witnessing the tumult of the civil rights marches, political assassinations, anti-war protests against U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the rise of the women's movement.

Protest remains in his blood.

"It's a continuing concern for injustice that really came out of the '60s," he said.

The fight against then-Consumers Power's plans for a nuclear power plant in Midland re-energized him. The group has always had a commitment to nonviolence, he said.

"It was during this six-year period (the time the group battled the plant until Consumers canceled it) that I became very disenchanted with the government role as regulators," Miller said.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection found shortfalls in the plant's construction. Today, the Midland Cogeneration Venture occupies the site.

To Miller, the nuclear plant earned the label "white elephant."

"It was a disaster in the waiting," he said. "It was terrible."

A first protest of 80 people exploded in a later demonstration to 5,000. They joined forces at a 1979 gathering with Flint native Michael Moore, then editor of the Flint Voice, years before he became internationally famous. The protests happened in Midland near the plant.

The nuclear project was plagued by years of delays, construction snafus and skyrocketing cost overruns that reached $5.7 billion on a plant estimated to cost $267 million in late 1967.

The utility, in a joint venture with Dow Chemical Co. and a handful other companies, canceled the project in 1984.

In 1987, Consumers and Dow agreed to convert it to a natural-gas fired power plant generating nearly 1,500 megawatts of energy. Cogeneration Venture powered up in 1990.

Later, Hurd-Riddick would join forces with Miller to stop plans to build an incinerator. The partnership led the registered nurse to sign on with Lone Tree.

She charts her start into the waters of the environmental movement from spending childhood summers on the shores of Lake Huron.

"I've always been kind of an armchair enviornmentalist," she said.

Years later, she realized any contamination in the Tittabawassee would flow into the Saginaw River, Bay and eventually into the giant lake.

"We are the only state that is completely within the Great Lakes basin," she said. "We have a responsibility like nobody else to protect it." v

Barrie Barber covers politics and government for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9725.
 

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