The owner of a barge that’s bounced around Grand Traverse Bay for years – sinking twice in the process and spilling oil at least once – has been bound over to face trial on a host of criminal charges.

Donald Lewis Balcom, 88, owns a barge that first gained notoriety in 2020 when it sank offshore near Greilickville. It was later pulled up to Northport, where it sank again, before ending up several hundred yards offshore not far south of Lee Point in Leelanau County earlier this year.

Balcom had it dragged to shore at that location in October, when a judge told him to permanently dispose of it by today (Dec. 8) or be bound over for trial. The barge still sits on the shore along M-22, and Balcom was bound over for trial on one felony charge and a handful of misdemeanors.

The first sinking involved an oil leak, leading to the felony charge of violating water resources protection. The charges were brought by the Michigan Attorney General’s environmental crimes unit.

“I relaunched the environmental crimes unit to fully harness our criminal prosecuting authority in defense of the State’s natural resources,” Attorney General Dana Nessel says in a statement. “My department is committed to protecting the Great Lakes whenever they come under threat, and this relaunched Unit serves that promise. The alleged pollution and trespass, or treating the Grand Traverse Bay as a dumping ground for abandoned vessels, are criminal offenses against the Great Lakes which are central to both our way of life in Michigan and the livelihoods of many of our residents." 

Balcom will next appear for a pretrial conference before the Leelanau County Circuit Court on December 27th.