Two sides struggle to find resolution to waste water discharge

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was written prior to the Yale City Council voting 5-1 to approve its new sewer ordinance on Monday night, June 1. The city also approved additional language that will allow a permit to be issued for C. Roy’s Inc. to connect to the city’s sewage discharge system. Through that process, the city will determine the cost of the permit and set parameters for compliance. The full story will appear in the June 10 edition of The Expositor.

By Dave Fredrick

Expositor staff

YALE — Although they had the impression they had reached a resolution to a problem with their waste discharge program, longtime business owners Dick and Nancy Roy, owners of C. Roy’s Inc., found themselves at odds with city officials on what to do with animal waste coming from their slaughterhouse.

A special meeting was scheduled for Monday, June 1, to allow council to take action on a new proposed sewer ordinance and, most likely, further conversation with the Roys and officials from the Michigan Rural Water Association on how to correct what some have called a critical situation.

At past meetings, state officials have said Roys cannot continue to dump remnants from slaughtering animals into the city’s lagoon system. According to Roys, they believed they had an agreement with the city last fall on how to proceed and correct the situation.

The family, which has operated the business in Yale for decades, began working on excavating a site that would allow for the installation of two polyethylene tanks, a storage container made from high-density plastic widely used to safely store drinking water, agricultural fertilizers and industrial chemicals. 

The Roys say they have spent thousands to do as the city asked, only to find out earlier this year they could not connect to the city’s sewer system afterall, even though corrections had been made.

The operation of the city lagoons, or lack thereof, is a bigger issue after 30 years of alleged non-compliance by the city and its failure to properly maintain the three-pond system.

State officials have now become involved and have threatened major fines and costs to Yale taxpayers, if something is not done to correct the situation. According to MRWA officials, a number of Yale businesses appear to be in violation with illegal waste being put into the Yale sewer system.

At a council meeting earlier this year, Nancy Roy reminded council members: “Our first communi\cation from the City of Yale regarding compliance occurred in April of 2024. We were informed we were not in compliance with the city sewer ordinance.”

She said that upon receiving that notice, “we acted immediately and proactively to evaluate and address the issue. As part of an attempted resolution, our engineer developed a comprehensive work plan that we submitted to the city, detailing the steps we would take to rectify the situation.”

Roy said that the city agreed on Oct. 13 to “let us proceed with the installation of two 2,500-gallon septic tanks with the agreement [that] we would be responsible for water sampling and testing and sampling costs to evaluate if the added treatment was successful.”

Since the apparent change by the city, C. Roy’s has seen its project to correct the problem halted for the tanks to be connected to the sewer system. Instead, both sides have retained attorneys amidst the threat of looming litigation.

C. Roy’s has operated its processing plant at the current location at 444 Roy Drive in Yale for over 50 years and has served the greater Yale area for over 100 years. The business was originally located in downtown Yale, south of McMillin’s Furniture. 

There has been strong public outcry over how the long-standing business has been treated. Another large crowd was expected for Monday’s meeting.

In a social media post, councilwoman Shelly O’Brien — who made it clear she was speaking only on her behalf and no one else on council — said: “There is absolutely not one person that is looking to close down C. Roy’s. On the contrary, we are trying very hard to come up with a solution that satisfies the state.

“Our sewer system has been mismanaged for at least 30 years. It was on this council’s watch that the problems were discovered and we’ve been doing nothing but trying to better the city’s position” and comply with state regulations, she said.

“The city of Yale is currently negotiating an administrative consent order with the state of Michigan. Serious action must be taken, because fines and penalties will be far higher if we don’t do every single thing we can to demonstrate that we will manage our lagoons properly from here on out,” O’Brien said. 

Also on the agenda for Monday evening was the contract for a licensed lagoon operator.