Two meetings on separate issues held on the same night last week could have a significant impact on how people use Lake Michigan bottomland surrounding Leelanau County in the future.

On Thursday evening, a group of scuba divers and others met with officials of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) for a public hearing on establishing a Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve (GTBUP).

Designed to protect underwater artifacts and attract recreational divers, the preserve could also include the intentional sinking of a vessel in West Grand Traverse Bay somewhere between Leelanau County and the Old Mission Peninsula to enhance “dive tourism” in the region.

Also on Thursday evening, local members of the property rights group Save Our Shoreline (SOS) met to discuss a recent proposal by state Sen. Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau) to establish a “Great Lakes State Park” that could include all of the Great Lakes bottomland.

SOS is opposed to Senate Bill 429 which McManus introduced. SOS board member David Almeter of Bingham Township said he participated in a meeting Thursday evening via a conference call to Bay City, where many SOS board members reside.

“We decided unanimously to oppose the bill as it is currently written,” Almeter reported. He added that there is “no correlation” between the underwater Great Lakes State Park which McManus is proposing, and the local underwater preserve proposal.

“Little by little, people are losing their riparian property rights,” Almeter said, “and our opposition (to the McManus proposal) is pretty basic .”

Despite repeated calls to her chief of staff, McManus could not be reached for comment on this story.

SOS has been active in state politics for several years, since the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) began imposing new rules on “beach grooming” along the Great Lakes shoreline. The group – comprised mostly of waterfront property owners on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron – was dealt a blow last year when the state Supreme Court confirmed that private property rights extend only to the “ordinary high water mark,” not to the water’s edge.

The court ruling means that the public has the right to walk along Michigan’s Great Lakes shoreline – and that all property below the ordinary high water mark belongs to the State of Michigan, not private property owners. Because of recent low water levels in the Great Lakes, the area between the water’s edge and the ordinary high water mark may be hundreds of feet wide in some areas.

According to SOS officials, if Senate Bill 429 becomes law private property owners could be required to purchase a state park pass just to access their own waterfront.

The bill as proposed “would essentially give power to the MDNR to administer private beach property as part of the yet to be developed underwater Great Lakes State Park. … SOS supports expanding the use of the Great Lakes and tourism, as long as it is not inconsistent with riparian rights,” according to a statement released last week by SOS president Ernie Krygier of Bay City.

While SOS members were holding their meeting in Bay City and elsewhere Thursday evening, supporters of the proposed Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve were meeting Thursday evening in Traverse City.

The president of the GTBUP is Greg MacMaster, the chief meteorologist at TV 7-4 in Leelanau County. An avid scuba diver, MacMaster also teaches a course in underwater archeology at Northwestern Michigan College.

MacMaster reported that his group’s meeting with officials of the MDEQ’s Land and Water Management Division last week went smoothly, with only “supporting comments” heard at a public hearing on the underwater preserve proposal.

Last year, MacMaster and others suggested that a vessel might be sunk in Leelanau County waters just offshore of Lee Point in Bingham Township where, coincidentally, Almeter and a number of other SOS members reside.

“The GTBUP goal to sink a vessel is still in our long range goals,” MacMaster said. But, he added, it is “doubtful that it will be in the Lee Point area as this is a tribal fishing grounds and it is our intent to fully respect the tribe’s wishes. With that in mind, we have shifted our efforts and concentrated on a smaller project since there are so many unanswered questions on impacts both aquatic as well as economic,” MacMaster said.

“A pilot project will be presented to the Grand Traverse Parks and Recreation Division in the near future to determine how best to proceed in placing an 80-foot vessel outfitted with sensors to measure various changes over time as well as monitor aquatic species that congregate around the vessel structure,” MacMaster said. “It is proven that an intentional sinking does promote fish habitat as numerous divers have observed hundreds of fish in and around shipwrecks.”

MacMaster said his group is interested in the possible impact of Senate Bill 429 and establishment of a Great Lakes State Park – but current efforts to establish an underwater preserve in West Grand Traverse Bay are unrelated to the proposed legislation.

“There’s no reason why we all can’t enjoy the waters within the Great Lakes,” MacMaster said.