From staff and wire reports

Graceland Fruit Inc. and the state have been negotiating a civil settlement in a dumping case involving thousands of gallons of blueberry waste.

Donald Nugent, a member of the MSU Board of Trustees, is president and chief executive officer of the Frankfort-based company.

The State News could not reach Nugent after repeated attempts Sunday, and university spokesman Terry Denbow was unable to be reached for comment.

Farmer Charles Brozofsky said he discovered contamination, illegally dumped upstream from his property in Benzie County, in late 2002.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, began an investigation into the dumping in 2003, and eventually recommended that criminal charges be pursued against Graceland Fruit Inc. and Bonney Bros. Pumping Co., the company responsible for hauling and dumping the waste.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox denied the request to prosecute the case, and opted to pursue the civil settlement instead.

Chief Milton Scales, of the DEQ's Office of Criminal Investigations, said his office's recommendations are not often turned down, but it does happen occasionally. Cox's office most likely did not consider the charges a significant enough priority to pursue, he said.

A lawsuit Brozofsky filed against Graceland and Bonney Bros. is pending.

DEQ Detective Sgt. Thomas Wingate said he thought he had plenty of evidence that could be put before a jury to prove Graceland and the waste hauler committed a crime.

The waste dumping occurred during a three-year period, Wingate said, and ceased after the company was contacted by the regulatory arm of DEQ.

The dumping occurred at a gravel pit owned by the waste hauler's father. The hazardous waste is created during the production of blueberry products when fruit extracts fuse with sugars.

"This stuff looked almost like crude (oil)," Wingate said of the waste. "We suspect that the contamination got down to the ground water."

The waste stained two streams with an orange, rust-like color, and slimes developed in the water, he said.

The waste chemicals depleted the supply of oxygen in the streams.

"There wasn't enough oxygen left for the stream to support living organisms," Wingate said. "Anything that was alive in the stream pretty much got wiped out."

Graceland had been involved in the dumping of wastes from fruit production at another site, and the company was forced to cease that dumping following a water quality survey.

Based on that experience, the company should have been aware that the dumping was illegal, Wingate said.

Since the case was opened, Graceland has made efforts to clean up the site, and now ships its blueberry wastes out of state to be treated.

Staff writer Bob Darrow contributed to this report.