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The Water Treatment Plant Proposals
Overview
This page contains links to proposal documents submitted to the DNR by Laketown Township and Holland Board of Public Works which we have obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and from other sources.

The details of these proposals have now been rejected by the DNR, as outlined in our February 4, 2003 Update, but Laketown Township and the City of Holland continue to pursue the park as a water plant location. CCSDSP will monitor their progress and keep you informed here.

On this page you will also find links to images of portions of the park directly targeted for construction by the current proposals. Many of these images illustrate the impact construction and permanent access easements would have on the Park. We have included links to images of projects similar to the water treatment plants proposed for construction in Saugatuck Dunes State Park as well.

Laketown Proposal Documents
Letter, Laketown's Robert Scanlan to DNR Land Exchange Review Committee, April 22, 2002
   Response to Rodney Stokes letter of April 11, 2002.
   Attachment to above: Water System Master Plan Intake Feasibility Study map. 381 KB .gif
     Our copy of this map is pretty poor. We added duplicates of unreadable notes and cleaned up
     parts of the image for clarity.
Letter, DNR's Rodney Stokes to Laketown's Robert Scanlan, April 11, 2002
   Intention to recommend DNR's Land Exchange Review Committee deny Laketown's land swap request.
Letter, DNR's David Yankee to Albert Meshkin, Laketown Township Manager, March 23, 2001
   Response to exchange application explaining additional requirments.
Interoffice Communication, Lowen Schuett to Mitch Wells, May 8, 2001
   Informing Wells, Supervisor of Saugatuck Dunes State Park, of Laketown's application for land swap.
   Includes documents, surveys, and maps describing scope of proposed project.
Letter, Laketown to DNR's Paul Yauk, September 5, 2001
   Results of a prudent and feasible alternative study to Yauk, Acquisitions & Trails, Parks and
   Recreation Bureau of DNR.

Holland BPW Proposal Documents
Holland's land exchange application.
   Includes application forms, maps, surveys, and internal DNR documents spanning about February 2001
   to January 2002. Adobe Acrobat Reader .PDF format, 347KB.
DNR's denial of Holland's land exchange application.
   Includes field review comment forms from each land management division and a recommendation to deny
   from Mitch Wells. Adobe Acrobat Reader .PDF format, 132KB.

Download Acrobat Reader®

Images of Saugatuck Dunes State Park Areas Affected by Proposals
The map below depicts the middle section of Saugatuck Dunes State Park. Areas which are proposed for the pump house, pipeline easement and water treatment plant are shown in red. Areas of private property are shown in grey, as is Laketown Township's Shore Acres Park which includes the Felt mansion. The orange traces are Park footpaths.

Both proposals are very similar, so this map is generic in the sense we do not delineate the differences here.



Middle section of Park, proposed treatment plant, pipeline and pump site shown in red. Not to scale.
Click on cameras to see the view from the location and direction indicated.

We also have a printer friendly hand drawn map which provides some good detail on the location of various proposed structures, private property, hiking trails, and surrounding roads.

Some Images of Local Water Treatment Facilities
Grand Rapids Pumping Station
   Very similar to the pumping station proposed for construction in the Park.
Grand Rapids Treatment Plant
   Conveys an idea of what is proposed here.
Grand Rapids Treatment Plant Storage Tanks
   A view of the large storage tanks typical of water treatment plants.
Holland Tunnel Park Plant
   An older version of a water treatment plant. . .
Holland Tunnel Park Plant Storage Tanks
   . . .and its storage tanks.
Holland Tunnel Park "Do Not Enter"
   Would signs like this be posted on our fore dunes?
VanBuren State Park Pumping Station Construction
   For those who think construction of the magnitude proposed wouldn't be devastating.
Last updated June 26, 2007
Comments regarding website design, errors, and maintenance only please.

Park entrance road and sign. Across from park entrance. Point where proposed pipeline would enter woods showing easement width. Most popular trail in park, leading to beach, showing easement width. Beach trail just before crossing last dune to lake. A view North across the proposed 200' by 200' pump site. A view west across the proposed 200' by 200' pump house site. The view North from proposed site of pump house. A view to the South from the beach at proposed pump site.