The Bait & Switch Behind the Granot Loma Launch Plan

Where We Stand Now:

The bait has been withdrawn and expectations have been thwarted with a completely undesirable alternative. 

Now that Oscoda-Wurtsmith airport has been chosen for the horizontal launch site, and Chippewa County chosen for the command and control center, instead of gaining hundreds and thousands of jobs, Marquette County will end up with only a handful. For example, the Kodiak Alaska Aerospace site, when launching rockets like those proposed here, only employs five people.

Moreover, instead of a spaceport located at an already industrially developed site, this switch to the pristine and ecologically sensitive lakeshore at Granot Loma will require creation of an extremely intense industrial use zone:

• which will be built on fragile wetlands and hydric soil within 500 feet of the lakeshore.
• where risk of explosion at launch will require evacuation of at least six nearby family residences.
• where, after even successful launches, rocket nose cones, 1st. and 2nd. stages, and large battery packs will fall to the lake and ground, causing both hazard and pollution below.
• where lightning and water towers will pollute the day and nighttime sky views.
• where extensive clear cutting will strip crucial habitat for many plant and animal species.
• where, at each launch, a water deluge shockwave suppression system will draw large amounts of water from fragile groundwater tables and/or the already eroding lakeshore.
• where each explosive launch blast will be seen and heard for miles around, just like the Wallops Island VA launch site, where the Washington Post describes that flights of rockets, just like those planned for Granot Loma, “are visible up and down the Atlantic Coast.”

And although precise boundaries of the proposed launch site have not been specifically mapped for animal species, data provided by Marquette County shows that Granot Loma, as part of Marquette County, shares habitat with threatened and/or endangered species of bats, bird, lynx, and wolf.

This is a bad bargain, by any measure, and one that will degrade the quality of life which draws people here. The scale for both economic health and ecosystem health, weighs heavily against this ill-conceived rocket launch plan. The lakeshore, including the coast at Granot Loma, is not any one private or public landowner’s front or backyard. It is truly our collective lakeshore, a resource we all have a duty to protect and sustain, regardless of our municipal, township or neighborhood borders. 

This is abundantly clear if we consider Granot Loma’s proximity to coastal areas which enhance the quality of life for all our citizens. For example, the proposed launch site, only hundreds of feet from the lakeshore:

• is within easy conversational distance of kayakers on the Hiawatha Water Trail. 
• is a mile from the mouth of the Little Garlic River, which, with its larger tributary, the Big Garlic, offers world class trout fishing.
• is less than 2 miles from the Donnelly Trailhead and preserve, and the North Country Trail.  
• is just 2 miles south of the Noquemanon Trails at Saux Head Lake.
• is only 3 miles north of the Superior Watershed Partnership Land Conservancy Eagles Nest Coastal Community Forest with its coastal wetlands and beautiful shoreline.
• is within 3 miles of the Echo Lake Nature Preserve.
• and is but 4 miles from the popular granite overlook at Harlow Lake.       

For citizens of Marquette and beyond, these venues for outdoor recreation and experience connect people with nature, raise consciousness, and form psychological and world views, not only intrinsically valuable, but ones which also promote sustainable economic growth in Marquette County. 

Marquette County data notes that Marquette ranks in the “Top 25 Places for Millennial Job Seekers” due to its “national recognition for its excellent quality of life,” afforded by “the beautiful UP wilderness” and the virtually uninterrupted southern shoreline of Lake Superior.

Best Value Schools lists NMU among the “Top 50 Outdoor Colleges” because our students “are surrounded by nature…close to Lake Superior, Marquette Mountain and other beautiful locations.” 

Reader’s Digest praises Marquette as up-and-coming for its quality of life created by its wilderness features and waterfront.

In short, people are drawn here by the beauty and connection with our still wild natural environment and all the enhanced quality of life it offers. They do not come here seeking an industrial hub. The creation of an intense industrial use zone for rocket launches in our pristine ecosystem, and the slippery slope into further erosive industrialization of Lake Superior’s shore, will not promote further sustainable growth. 

There is simply no compelling need to locate a purely commercial, industrial launch site next to the largest surface area of freshwater on earth. Many thoroughly developed commercial rocket sites already exist elsewhere, like Kennedy Space Center’s recently approved LC-48 complex which can launch 52 per year, Kodiak Island, or the new Wallops Island, VA, spaceport, referenced above.

By spreading misinformation, and withholding accurate information, MAMA counts on the silence and inaction of the public. The well-rehearsed refrain of ‘don’t worry, there are many steps to go through before a shovel hits the ground’ is calculated to lull the public, while behind the scenes launch promoters solidify their plans.

But a well-organized vocal opposition now, may succeed in discouraging MAMA and its investors from proceeding further; or, if they do initiate a Federal Aviation Administration permitting process, it will be crucial that a large citizen-coalition be already prepared to participate in public comment and hearings to argue cogently and forcefully to defeat the launch plan.  

Let’s protect our lakeshore!