In Lower Michigan, there is no other state park like Saugatuck Dunes State Park and Natural Area. It is a day-use park with nearly 1,000 acres of forested and open dunes and swales, meadows, Lake Michigan beach, and ponds. Development is limited to a small parking lot, picnic tables, a small picnic shelter, pit toilets, and trail markers, making it an ideal destination for individuals, families, and groups who want to experience the Lake Michigan shoreline as it was before people settled here. Its value to scientists studying freshwater sand dune ecosystems is also well established.

1.    By whom and by what process has the Saugatuck Dunes State Park been determined to be the best location for a regional water intake, pumping station, pipeline, and water treatment plant? What studies have been undertaken, under what authority, and by whom? What information has been gleaned through these studies?
   
   
2.    How would a regional water intake, pumping station, pipeline, and treatment plant benefit the Saugatuck Dunes State Park and its neighborhood? How would it benefit the people of Michigan?
   
   
3.    How would construction and long-term vehicle traffic through the Saugatuck Dunes State Park affect the park? Among our concerns are destruction of trees, erosion, run-off, limiting access to hikers/skiers, and endangering those using the main trail, which is proposed to become an access road.
   
   
4.    Relocating the parking lot further south is in conflict with the Master Plan, which was carefully designed to protect the Saugatuck Dunes Natural Area while still making the beach reasonably accessible. What strategies have you considered for the protection of the Natural Area?
   
   
5.    How would the construction and maintenance of a regional water intake, pumping station, pipeline, and water treatment plant affect the ecology, topography, and general wilderness atmosphere of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park and Natural Area in both the short and long term?