BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Big Rapids resident Lori Brock, owner of Majestic Friesians, a 150-acre horse farm in Green Charter Township has been a vocal opponent of Michigan’s push for the Chinese-linked Gotion battery plant to be located across the street from her property where she lives and has about 20 horses.

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Brock had hosted a rally against the plant on her property on April 22nd and about nine days later she received a complaint regarding compliance with Generally Accepted Agriculture Management Practices (GAAMPS), a program to promote sound environmental stewardship on Michigan farms.

In a nutshell, someone was alleging that manure might be making its way into the waterways on her property. She had told Michigan News Source at the time that she considered the complaint and investigation to be retaliatory and she believed the state was trying to shut her down because of her opposition to Gotion. She also said, “There’s no way that I’m in violation of anything.”

She was proven right when the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) did a drive-by inspection of her property to look into the alleged violations. They called her soon afterwards.

Erica Rogers with MDARD’s Right to Farm program, told Brock via a phone message, “I had the opportunity to see your farm from the road and I was able to get a great view of the lot, and there is no evidence at this point that I am concerned about as far as you being in conformance with GAAMPs for this complaint. There is sufficient vegetation around the lot, which is something that the GAAMPs recommend and which are again are a voluntary thing, so since you are in conformance with the GAAMPs you would be able to utilize the Right to Farm Act as a nuisance protection for your farm should you need to in the future.”

Michigan News Source looked into the complaint as it would be concerning if it had originated with the state or anyone linked to the Gotion project. Additionally, lawmakers had even discussed an ethics probe concerning MDARD to look into the potential misuse of power by the department.

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request confirmed that the complaint did, indeed, come from an individual who sent their concerns through the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). It was then forwarded to EGLE (Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy) and made its way to MDARD for investigation. The FOIA response from MDARD gave us a first name and first initial of the last name of the complainant and an email address. For privacy reasons, we will refer to him as Austin B.

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Austin B’s complaint was made around midnight on April 24th, two days after Brock’s rally. He said in the complaint to the EPA, “The location described is a large horse farm with fields and horse pen runoff that flow into local Muskegon River watershed creeks. I understand an amount of this for farming purpose can be acceptable but this farm has 30 horses and breeds sells as well as trains them.”

We reached out to Austin B for his side of the story and to see if he was affiliated with the Gotion project or the state of Michigan. He responded by saying, “Thank you for reaching out with a nicely written email asking for my side of the story. The four other reporters have demanded I explain myself like a child that has done something wrong.”

In email correspondence and also through a phone interview, Austin B. told Michigan News Source that the reason for his complaint was because he was not getting transparency from Brock about her horse farm. He said that he had gotten in touch with her through Facebook and texts before filing the complaint to find out if her horse farm was in compliance with the EPA and following regulations. He thought if Gotion was being asked if they were following the rules, there should be transparency about her farm as well – that it should go both ways.

Austin B said that he felt Brock’s response to him was disrespectful and she had told him that he was a “nobody” in the community. A Facebook post on Brock’s horse farm page shows her commenting to him, “Once again you don’t help or volunteer in your community. You just talk. When you give nothing back you should really think about your own self and what you could do to help your community not just take from it.”

Austin B admits that he wasn’t “super respectful” himself when communicating with Brock – that he was “matching fire with fire” but he said that instead of telling him that she was in compliance with the regulations, she basically told him to get lost and that she didn’t have to answer his questions.

It was Brock’s style of communicating with him, not answering his questions and also what he considered to be disparaging comments made about the township supervisor that led Austin B to file the complaint with the EPA.

As for being connected to the government or Gotion, Austin B said, “I have zero connection to the site or the government.”

Does he approve of the Gotion site being built in his community? Living north of the proposed plant and a resident for about 10 years, Austin B says he is on the fence. He supports the idea of renewable energy and owns solar panels to charge a lot of his own things so he sees them working to some extent but doesn’t think that it needs to be an all or nothing approach. He thinks there should be a good “in between” to be found. He added that he supports the job opportunities that Gotion will bring to the community because he says people leave to get better paying jobs and don’t stay in the community.

Austin B said that he wished that the smaller community farmers and others were the ones who had the government looking out for them and not just the huge factories – but that’s not how things work. He said that the Gotion project has too many working parts to know what’s really going on, commenting, “ I think there’s really too much in the air to know if I could approve it or not.”

As for the horse farm, he said, “I’m not going to continue an attack on her” and he explained that he just wanted to prove a point – that “we’re all part of this transparency thing.”

We reached out to Brock for any further comment on the complaint and her communications with the complainant but she did not return our request for comment.