Elk Rapids — Burnette Foods violated environmental laws at its irrigation fields used for treating millions of gallons of wastewater, a federal court has ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering agreed with the claims that the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and two other plaintiffs raised that the food processor had exceeded the limits of its state-issued groundwater discharge permit and violated federal law.

The company exceeded the 15-million-gallon-per-year cutoff four years in a row starting in 2019, and runoff from the spray fields ran into a nearby swamp, Beckering wrote. Between January 2018 and July 2024, Burnette Foods reported exceeding daily and weekly application limits more than 100 times at the fields, which are west of Elk Lake Road and north of

See Full Page