MONROE COUNTY, Mich. – It’s the latest in a long line of proposed projects that have been presented to Milan Township, located along the border of Washtenaw and Monroe counties.
“We’re the most Northwestern township in Monroe County, and we got the least amount of population, most amount of farm ground,” Milan Township supervisor Mark Bogi said on Wednesday. “There’s not a resident out here I could find that wants it.”
The “it” is DTE Energy’s plans to drill a 4,500-foot “test well” at a site along Ann Arbor Road, which is currently a massive cornfield, to determine if the minerals in the ground are capable of storing CO₂ in the future.
It’s connected to Project Greenstone, a DTE initiative funded by the Department of Energy, which would drill on industrial-zoned land that DTE owns.
In a statement, DTE said:
“DTE has been a part of Monroe County for more than 100 years and has always put the health and safety of the community first. The well will be constructed using safe and proven technology designed to protect ground and water.
This project is simply researching the geology of the land. Its findings may help shape DTE’s plans for generating energy in the future."
One of the primary concerns is the potential impact of the project on the water supply.
“You know, we only have three types of water out here: good well water -- which is a rarity–– sulfur, and then you got no water," Bogi said.
Most people in that section of Monroe County have wells, and parts of the county are experiencing varying levels of contamination.
“People can’t get water. We have no, no way or no means of getting water out here to residents, because Milan can’t support it either, and they’ve already got well problems,” Bogi said.
Water concerns are among the reasons that the proposed construction of a data center in nearby Augusta Township, just on the other side of the Washtenaw County line, has met heavy opposition. It also keeps with a long history of the township fighting back against projects they don’t want.
“We fought the Super Collider [in 1993] that was supposed to come out here,” Bogi said. “We fought it, and they won.
“The next thing that came to town was GM and the railroad [in 2000], and we fought them and won,” Bogi added. “So, and now here comes deep well injection and the data centers. We don’t know what else is coming down the road, but we’re just trying to keep it safe.”
Farming community resists $1 billion data center project in Washtenaw County.
The construction of a proposed data center in southern Washtenaw County has drawn the ire of residents in that small farming community who are weary of other attempts at construction.
