Houghton County Approves Conservation District, Plans to Address PFAS, and Awards CDBG Loan

Houghton County will look to address a discovered landfill that has the potential for leaching PFAS chemicals. At last night’s County Commission meeting administrator Ben Larsen shared with the commission the discovery of an old landfill under the county’s control and was a former private dumping site. Larsen added that the polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS chemicals, likely come from old carpeting that was dumped at the site many years ago. The county’s concern with the site lies in that tests have not reached any regulated threshold. Commission Chairman Tom Tikkanen says that Houghton will reach out to local representatives for help in sourcing remediation and clean-up funding. He added the county will seek to address the issue aggressively.

Another environmental project the county addressed included approving a conservation easement for EGLE and the Keweenaw Outdoor Recreation Coalition near the county air park. The conservation easement will remove a dam that creates a retention pond near the airport from Gooseneck Creek. Airport Manager Dennis Hext says that the dam removal and shrinkage of the pond should help the airport avoid future flooding in the area. As well as restore the creek’s natural flow that was previously known for trout fishing. EGLE and KORC will only have access to the conservation district.

Houghton County will move forward with a project to remedy the county courthouse’s back parking deck infrastructure. Along the wall below the deck signs of corrosion have appeared at the joint sections that create the deck’s structural integrity. The county will employ LLJ construction and Superior Polymer Proposals for the 21,000 dollars project.

A final action from the commission included approving a CDBG loan from the county revolving loan fund for Red Hen Food and Gifts LLC in Nissula. The county has awarded the new business 25,000 dollars toward its 200,000-dollar project to renovate a storefront in the area. The project was endorsed by the Keweenaw Economic Development Corporation and the revolving loan fund’s committee. Commissioners expressed that the loan fund seeks to help businesses in the county make improvements that as a whole generate more economic activity within the county.