A years-long environmental saga has come to a close with the relocation of a barge that repeatedly sank in Lake Michigan, according to an announcement from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
In April 2024, Donald Lewis Balcom, owner of Balcom Marine Contractors, Traverse City, Mich., pleaded guilty in the 13th Circuit Court in Leelanau County to a felony violation of the Water Resources Protection Act. The plea stemmed from a November 2020 incident in which Balcom’s 50'x20' crane barge sank and released oil into the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay near Greilickville, Mich.
In 2021, after being ordered by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and the U.S. Coast Guard to remove the barge, Balcom had it towed north to a shoreline site along Grand Traverse Bay in Northport, Mich., where it was abandoned and sank a second time on Lake Michigan bottomlands.
The barge remained there for more than two years until Balcom arranged to have it hauled ashore in 2023, following the attorney general’s filing of seven criminal charges after repeated failed attempts at a voluntary resolution. According to the attorney general’s office, the new onshore location — partly on state-owned bottomlands and partly on private property — continued to violate state law.
Under a deferred sentencing agreement in 2024, Balcom — then 89 — was given until June 27 of this year to move or sell the barge to avoid a felony conviction carrying a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
On June 23, with the court deadline approaching, the barge was relocated to a “legal site” in West Grand Traverse Bay, according to the attorney general’s office.
“After years of environmental concerns and legal proceedings, I am pleased the barge has finally been moved and to announce the resolution of this case,” Nessel said in a statement. “We have made it abundantly clear that the bay cannot be treated as a personal junkyard. My department remains committed to working with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to protect the Great Lakes whenever they come under threat.”
Now partially dismantled and moored at a privately owned dock in Greilickville, the barge is reportedly under new ownership and may be converted into a floating sauna, according to local media reports.
Following the sale of the barge, Balcom — now 90 — qualifies for a reduced watercraft pollution charge, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 92 days in jail. The court has not yet issued an amended judgment of sentence.
The attorney general’s office said it would not seek jail time.
