Speaking to the seven members of the Cass County Board of Commissioners, with the approving nods of many of his fellow Ontwa Township residents behind him, Nick Donis didn’t mince words about his opposition to the township’s proposed wastewater treatment plant near Garver Lake.

“There’s almost no public support among the people in Ontwa,” Donis said. “The people don’t want to put a plant in to help Granger out. Period.”

The fight that has erupted between Ontwa Township leaders and citizens over the $8 million project in recent months spilled over to the central authorities in the county Thursday. Several Edwardsburg citizens denounced the proposed plans to board and other county officials, while around 25 of their neighbors sat behind them in the audience.

Donis, a representative from Edwardsburg’s Save Our Resources and Environment (SORE), said that he and the committee oppose the project for a variety of reasons, including potential lawsuits from Elkhart, which currently handles the townships wastewater. They are also opposed to the fact that the new plant is designed to handle wastewater from property located in Granger, according to the preliminary report from engineers at Wightman and Associates.

“There is growing opposition,” Donis said. “We have our state representative, Dave Pagel. He’s against the plant; he wants things to be slowed down. On the other side of the border, in Indiana, you have other things brewing just like that.”

The controversy surrounding the proposed plant has been brewing for months, since the township board of trustees approved the project in Feb. 10. The county board also signed off on the plans in early March.

In May, though, the township placed a 120-day moratorium on the project, establishing a new seven-member board to determine whether or to proceed with construction. The furor also resulted in a recall petition to be filed against five of the seven members of the township board, including Supervisor John Brielmaier.

One of the Edwardsburg citizens who spoke on Thursday included John Harsh, who asked the county to terminate the project.

“The board of commissioners has the power to stop this atrocity dead in its tracks, by passing a resolution requiring the board of public works to cease and desist from all further activity,” Harsh said. “If the board is comfortable with having the citizens of this county being forced to pay for infrastructure that will benefit the residents of an upscale community in another state, please signify by doing nothing.”

Later in the evening, Commissioner Roseann Marchetti, herself a resident of Edwardsburg, also condemned the project. She had developed several reservations about the township’s plans since the board signed off on it in March, most significant of which would be the possible legal consequences facing the county should Elkhart take legal action if the current deal between Ontwa, the city and the county be severed, she said.

“I would have voted no, no, no, no and no had I known that the due diligence was not done,” she said. “No conversation had held among Cass, Ontwa and Elkhart in regards to breaking the agreement, nor was there any conversation that breaking the agreement might set up Ontwa and the county up for suit by Elkhart.”

Marchetti asked that the board consider a motion to revoke their permission. However, several members advised against taking immediate action on the issue, including Chair Robert Wagel, who backed the township’s initial decision to construct the facility.

“The rates that the residents are paying down there are going up at an enormous rate,” he said. “If they do not build this plant, they will be paying up the nose. They’ve already paid a bunch of fines.”