Mqt. County Road 595 Update

The Marquette County Road 595 project continues to gain support.

The Michigan DNR, the Michigan State Police, MDOT and other agencies have approved the latest proposed versions of the plan.

The new version minimizes the environmental impacts.

The project has now been modified to only bisect 14% of the high-valued wetlands.

This will reduce the actual fill average to only affect about 13.6 acres.

That represents 0.25% of total wetland acreage along the proposed route.

DNR director Dan Wyant says it’s important that balance be found in any road proposal for the area, and he says he thinks it’s been found.

Wyant says he feels comfortable that as the 595 project now stands, environmental impacts will be minimized.

Escanaba State Representative Tom Casperson says it’s important for state lawmakers like himself to inform their counterparts at the federal level that the community wants this project so that they can inform the EPA of that.

Casperson’s office conducted an informational roundtable in Marquette today for residents to learn more about some of the legislature’s regulatory reform actions.

The latest plan for County Road 595 has not been finalized yet, but the EPA still prefers an alternative wetland preservation as an acceptable mitigation measure.