GRAYLING, MI -- The four-year legal battle between a fishing group and a fish hatchery on the East Branch of the Au Sable River has been settled.

The Anglers of the Au Sable announced Thursday, Sept. 27, that a settlement was reached in its case against Harrietta Hills Trout Farm LLC. As a result, the Anglers group will assume operation of the hatchery in 2019 and pay $160,000 to take over the current lease.

The group is trumpeting the legal settlement as an important victory that eliminates a serious threat to the Au Sable, while the hatchery's owner says fears over his business' impact were unfounded.

"The state's issuance of this permit was a green light for a commercial fish farm operation to pollute the Au Sable River, plain and simple," Anglers of the Au Sable President Joe Hemming said in a statement.

Harietta Hills owner Dan Vogler argues aquaculture is not the "hairy scary monster" that it has been painted as by groups like the Anglers of the Au Sable.

"The concerns that they raised have been unfounded from the start," Vogler said. "We never posed a threat to the river."

Anglers of the Au Sable filed a lawsuit in March 2017 against Harrietta Hills Trout Farm, claiming the farm's plan to raise up to 300,000 pounds of rainbow trout at the 104-year-old state hatchery. The group argued the company's plans would pollute the iconic river and ruin the downstream fishery, particularly a beloved stretch known as the "Holy Waters."

The hatchery is located on the east branch of the Au Sable, about 1,200 feet upstream from the river's main branch. Water flows directly into the hatchery and through eight north-to-south raceways before exiting.

Once owned and operated by the state, Crawford County purchased the property in 1995. Vogler's company, which also operates a fish farm in Wexford County, began leasing the property in 2012. In 2014, Harietta Hills and Crawford County signed a 20-year lease.

Vogler's company releases fingerling rainbow trout into the raceways and harvests them when they reach a weight of 1.25 pounds, selling them to restaurants and a grocery distributor.

Harrietta Hills' plan to raise 300,000 pounds of trout would have been a significant increase from the current production level of 70,000 pounds of fish.

Opponents contended that expanding the operation would send huge volumes of feces and uneaten fish food into the river, potentially exposing wild trout to illness and boosting phosphorus levels.

The Anglers of the Au Sable and Sierra Club brought two legal challenges after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued a revised permit to Harrietta Hills in 2016.

One of those challenges was argued in 2016 before state administrative law judge Dan Pulter. The judge ruled the new permit be upheld, but that Vogler should conduct additional testing for pollutants and the hatchery should add 'quiescent zones' where fish poop can be vacuumed out of the water.

The group also brought a lawsuit against Vogler in Crawford County Circuit Court, where Judge George Mertz said last year that Vogler's use of former state and county property violates deed restrictions and state law.

Under a mediated settlement in that case, the Anglers group will buy out the lease for $160,000 and operate the hatchery as a tourism and educational attraction, under a new nonprofit entity, Grayling Hatchery, Inc. Visitors will be able to see and feed trout but no commercial fish farming will take place there. Harrietta Hills will shut down its operation by the end of the year.

Vogler said the settlement, reached after years of litigation, took a toll on his small family business.

"We do believe that if we were financially able to see this to the end we would have been vindicated," Vogler said.

Shutting down the hatchery at its current capacity impacts local demand for locally produced food, he said.

"If you don't want fish farms producing locally, where do you get fish locally?" Vogler asked. "I feel like we've been booted out of something that is good. I just spent my day telling people they'll be losing their jobs."

Two full-time and two part-time staff members will lose their jobs as a result of the settlement, he said.

Hemming argued that the fish hatchery should be operated as a historic landmark and tourist attraction, not as a higher-volume production business.

"Such permits, and such operations, have no business being located on one of the most popular wild trout streams in the world," he said. "Today is a new chapter in the life of this historic facility."