Green burial site a grave concern for Michigan township

A Michigan township is using a new ordinance to block a natural burial business six months after losing to the cemetery’s owners in court.

Peter and Annica Quakenbush bought a 20-acre property housing a white oak and white pine forest before Brooks Township banned new cemeteries in June 2023.

The couple sued and won in court, Michigan Capitol Confidential previously reported, but the township in Newaygo County banned the “green” cemetery via zoning laws.

The 3,500-population township 48 miles north of Grand Rapids wants to avoid thousands of dead bodies possibly contaminating the nearby Muskegon River and local wells, Cory Nelson, Brook Township’s supervisor, told CapCon in a phone interview.

“There is no data on what green cemeteries, what 3,000 dead bodies would do that potentially have chemotherapy, immunotherapy, high blood pressure meds, high cholesterol meds, fake joints — all these things that we put in our body today that would go into the ground,” Nelson said.

In green cemeteries, human remains are buried between three-and-a-half feet and four feet under the surface without embalming fluids, according to the Green Burial Council. Burials in these cemeteries may use a container, or a wooden or wicker casket. Traditional cemeteries often bury bodies at least six feet under the ground in a vault, which is a stone or concrete container surrounding a casket. There were about 445 green burial cemeteries and burial grounds in the United States and Canada as of Dec. 13, 2023, according to NHfuneral.org, a resource for those interested in green burials.

“When we would bury horses and cows, if you didn’t put those things six feet or deeper, the coyotes, the bears, will tear into that stuff and it will unearth,” said Nelson, who grew up on a nearby farm.

Michigan cities such as Flint have a history of contaminating water supplies, Nelson said, adding that Brooks Township allows cemeteries in the zoning district R1, which covers more than half the township.

Courtesy of Brooks Township

District Health Department #10 gave an initial OK for the cemetery, according to a Feb. 17 letter signed by Health Officer Kevin Hughes. But the cemetery still needs to meet zoning rules.

“The above process is NOT a final approval, but rather only a piece of the process to getting a cemetery started,” the letter said.

Courtesy of District Health Department #10

Communities protect their groundwater with land use planning, said Jason Berndt, environmental quality specialist for drinking water at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

“Land use planning and local ordinances are local options to help reduce these risks to the drinking water sources,” Berndt told CapCon in an email.

The Quackenbushes’ lawyer said the zoning ban aims to bury their business.

“This is a blatant attempt by the township to rob Peter and Annica of their victory — to stop them from opening their dream business,” Katrin Marquez, an attorney for the nonprofit public interest law firm Institute for Justice, said in a news release.

The federal government investigated how a traditional cemetery affected groundwater quality within the Lansing Wellhead Protection Area in 2016-2017. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey monitored nearby wells and found high concentrations of trace metals, including arsenic, manganese and aluminum.

Research on how green cemeteries affect water quality is limited, Angela K. Brennan, an author of the Lansing study, told CapCon in an email.

“Overall, there has been limited research conducted on the effect of cemeteries on water quality in the United States, and even more limited research on the effect of ‘green’ cemeteries on water quality,” Brennan wrote. “It is likely that the data do not exist to make a thorough comparison.”

The Brooks Township ordinance points to the significant amount of land cemeteries take up and claims the business could lower property values and attract vandalism.