After 70 years with no invoice, ‘free fuel’ underneath menace for some in West Michigan

ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI – In the center of the cornfield, ringed by freeway guardrails, steel tubing coated in valves and gauges protrudes from the earth.

As a child serving to out on his grandparents’ West Michigan farm, Todd Zoerhof took it as a right. The gear was all over the place. Riding round on bikes, he and his pals would shoot the squat steel buildings with BB weapons.

Today, the pipes aren’t for goal observe. They’re the rationale he’s at odds with one of many state’s largest utilities.

That firm, Consumers Energy, isn’t any stranger to friction with prospects over frequent energy outages, criticism when it seeks elevate power charges or skirmishes on the trail of massive infrastructure tasks, like fuel pipelines.

But quietly in West Michigan, a singular power battle is brewing. There, in sprawling geologic formations deep underground, Consumers swimming pools pure fuel for the winter earlier than piping it to houses and companies throughout the state when it’s wanted most.

In alternate, some residents dwelling above the deep fuel storage fields have been grandfathered into an association that gives them fuel freed from cost from dozens of steel wellheads that dot their farmland, just like the one on Zoerhof’s property close to Holland.

It’s unclear precisely what number of Michiganders have so-called “farm faucets,” the non-public fuel hookups that join on to pipelines or storage fields, reasonably than conventional fuel mains, however it’s doubtless solely within the lots of.

It’s a set-up Zoerhof’s household and his neighbors counted on because the Fifties, however it might all be coming to an finish. For some, Consumers is wriggling out of the deal, citing security and reliability points forcing the decommissioning of outdated fuel wells.

But residents say it’s one other instance of an enormous utility getting its manner, whereas leaving them to abdomen pricey options. And the battle could rear its head throughout different elements of Michigan, a state with extra subterranean fuel stockpile area than another within the nation.

“It’s the large man pushing the little folks round, that’s what we really feel it’s,” stated Zoerhof, now in his 50s and nonetheless dwelling on his household’s centennial farm in Allegan County.

But Consumers says it’s merely assessing fuel wells as required underneath federal security laws which had been instituted after a large California methane leak in 2015 brought about hundreds close to Los Angeles to evacuate their houses. After inspection, some wells are plugged, and the “free fuel” service goes with it, Consumers maintains.

“Consumers Energy is dedicated to the protection of the purchasers we serve, our co-workers and the general public,” stated spokesperson Brian Wheeler in an announcement.

West Michigan residents push again on lack of ‘contract fuel’

The letter arrived through UPS in March, with one other quickly behind.

Dennis Kroeze had till May 1 to seek out one other supply of fuel, it stated.

Kroeze lives above Consumers’ 11,000-acre Overisel storage area, lower than 10 miles from Holland and close to Zoerhof. As Consumers decommissioned a fuel nicely serving his house, he stood to lose what the utility known as “free fuel.”

He and his neighbors have one other title for it. “Contract fuel.”

It’s a nod to the truth that they or their predecessors granted Consumers subsurface rights on their property and the power for workers to put pipelines and entry the land to keep up their gear. Zoerhof’s grandparents inked his present contract in 1957.

Access roads crisscross their farmland, and so they’re accustomed to seeing firm vehicles and employees. Zoerhof can keep in mind Consumers workers handing out sweet when he was a boy. But at this time, he says, they don’t even wave.

Residents at Overisel and the neighboring Salem area are surrounded by pipelines and fuel gear. And mishaps have occurred, like a 2007 explosion that scorched complete bushes, abandoning a crater however no accidents.

“You’re dwelling on a minefield right here, actually,” stated Zoerhof.

The free fuel service to their houses is a good discount, residents say, and a few paid extra for his or her houses because of this.

An electrician and farmer by commerce, Kroeze stated he doesn’t need to be a lawyer to seek out issues with the upcoming shutoff letter, studying over his personal decades-old contract working together with his land.

“They’re principally bullying us out of the fuel, however they nonetheless need to use our property,” he stated.

He appeared into his choices.

Service from SEMCO Energy, an alternate supplier, would run greater than $5,500 for set up on prime of $200 fuel payments he’d by no means factored into his finances, he stated. Consumers solely supplied $2,500 in “courtesy help.”

In a letter that summer time, a Consumers lawyer pushed again on his place that the corporate was nonetheless obligated to supply him fuel, even when it shut down his nicely. Under fashionable laws connecting to a different nicely might run $450,000 to $500,000, the lawyer wrote.

“That was form of a kick within the face,” Kroeze stated.

Gas reservoirs play key function in Michigan heating

For the utility, Michigan’s largest power supplier, fuel storage fields are a key a part of its enterprise. They supply the “secret” to reliability and affordability, Consumers boasts on its web site.

The fields, many depleted underground oil or fuel formations, let the utility buy fuel in the summertime when prices are usually lowest, or squirrel it away to climate value fluctuations.

Half of buyer fuel deliveries within the colder months concerned the saved gasoline, in line with the utility. It’s an enormous deal for a state the place three-fourths of households depend on utility fuel for warmth.

Since 2017, Consumers has been working its manner by way of a federally required “storage integrity administration program,” involving baseline evaluation of all its fuel wells, Wheeler stated.

While some landowners may erroneously really feel focused, the inspections apply throughout the board and don’t single out fuel customers, he stated. The program has led to 218 wells being plugged throughout Michigan, with 60 “free fuel” customers transitioning to a different gasoline supply because of this.

But Consumers’ place that shutting down a nicely on somebody’s land means termination of their fuel is underneath dispute.

In the Overisel and Salem fields, contracts embrace reference to proper to fuel from wells on owners’ land and property “pooled or unitized” collectively for the needs of fuel exploration.

The landowners imagine so long as Consumers is working a nicely on the storage fields, landowners there can’t be lower off from their fuel, stated Kyle Konwinski, an environmental lawyer representing Zoerhof, Kroeze and dozens of others.

The landowners teaming up is essential to combating the behemoth that’s Consumers, he stated.

The firm has taken a scattershot method, he claims.

Landowners have been supplied various quantities of cash as Consumers threatens to close off fuel, in line with Konwinski and residents. Wheeler disputed this, saying “financial courtesy help” has been the identical underneath the nicely integrity program begun in 2017.

Some have obtained the notices near the winter heating season, sparking anxieties, Konwinski stated, and others can’t afford the sudden expense of a swap.

“We undoubtedly need consistency,” Konwinski stated. “This piecemeal method that Consumers is at the moment taking is inflicting big quantities of concern and angst amongst that neighborhood.”

Farm faucets pose security dangers, regulators say

From Konwinski’s perspective, it’s clear Consumers would like to not have landowners hooked as much as its storage fields through farm faucets courting again to the ‘50s.

“These utilities completely need to eliminate them,” he stated. One motive is perhaps as a result of they contain “big legal responsibility,” the lawyer added.

In Pennsylvania, when a service line working from a fuel nicely to a house failed, the ensuing explosion destroyed the construction and severely burned one of many owners. Farm faucets have stirred security issues as distant as Colorado.

In 2015, Michigan regulators opened an inquiry into the hookups, flagging a slew of issues of safety.

In some circumstances, the fuel supplied isn’t pumped with components offering the distinctive rotten egg scent that helps establish leaks, they stated. In different circumstances, emergency valves are missing, and the non-public strains can cross roads and different properties, leaving them susceptible to break.

As it stands, the Michigan Public Service Commission, which oversees fuel security in Michigan, doesn’t have any applications to incentivize abandonment of farm faucets, however it encourages compliance with pipeline security guidelines, in line with spokesperson Matt Helms.

In 2018, the fee did ban future set up of the hookups except they are often constructed, inspected and maintained in accordance with fashionable security requirements.

Asked what number of farm faucets exist within the state, Helms directed MLive to submit a Freedom of Information Act request for official paperwork, which continues to be pending.

In a 2016 regulatory submitting, DTE Energy reported 57 houses linked to storage fields in Mid-Michigan and the Thumb, and Consumers now has about 230 landowners linked to wells on eight of its 15 storage fields, in line with Wheeler.

Gas dispute continues unresolved

About 130 of these Consumers customers obtained a letter this fall requesting a laundry listing of documentation on particular person houses’ farm faucets and fuel strains. Failure to reply might imply termination of fuel service, it said.

Zoerhof stated a mechanical contractor he consulted estimated checking off the listing might run $1,000, on prime of extra ongoing prices. Several years in the past, he invested greater than $2,000 to repair his fuel line.

Konwinski sees the requirement as one other try to push landowners. “I feel they’re making an attempt to make use of some leverage to get of us off this free fuel,” he stated.

The letters had been prompted by “latest incidents” highlighting the truth that some fuel customers aren’t safely sustaining their privately-owned techniques, in line with Wheeler, who didn’t specify.

“Consumers Energy is dedicated to public security and believes that it isn’t controversial to require fuel customers to exhibit their compliance with their contractual and authorized obligations which might be in place to make sure the general public’s security,” he stated.

In the meantime, residents in Allegan County say they gained’t be deterred. Though they’ve a lawyer, they haven’t but ended up in court docket with Consumers.

They aren’t towards dropping their “contract fuel,” so long as they’re pretty compensated, Zoerhof stated.

“We don’t really feel it’s proper for Consumers to have their cake and eat it too,” he stated.