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Ink Disposal at Issue in Case Involving Portage Company

Sehvilla Mann
/
WMUK

Update: read the DEQ's Violation Notice and view the Complaint Inspection file.

A Portage company that is poised to receive a violation notice for washing ink-manufacturing waste into its septic system is suing the former employee who brought the issue to regulators. American Inks and Technology on Shaver Road says that Stephen Ferguson, who left the company last year, has defamed the company to customers.

Ferguson claims that the company routinely dumped ink waste into the septic system, potentially putting the soil and groundwater at risk for contamination.

“The septic tank will do nothing to treat these chemicals and then they will go from the septic tank into the leaching field or the dry well whichever the situation is, and they essentially just go into the environment,” he said.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says that, when it tested the company’s drain field, it found no evidence of regular dumping and no pollution requiring a cleanup.

However, the agency also says that enough ink went into the septic system to turn the drain field blue and cause its failure.

Environmental Quality Analyst Terri Shattuck says the company will receive a violation notice, but not a fine for the un-permitted discharge. She said the company has cooperated with the investigation and taken steps to make sure ink waste stays out of the septic system.

American Inks has taken Ferguson to court to block him from contacting customers with what it calls “false and defamatory” statements. Attorney Stephen Hessen represents the company.

“That runs the risk of losing business with that customer if that customer is not happy with what they’re hearing from Mr. Ferguson and we believe that his, what he’s communicating to them is not true, which is the genesis of the lawsuit,” he said.

Ferguson is seeking to have the company’s case dismissed.

Sehvilla Mann joined WMUK’s news team in 2014 as a reporter on the local government and education beats. She covered those topics and more in eight years of reporting for the Station, before becoming news director in 2022.
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