Michigan lawmakers plan to re-introduce bills to give the state more power to respond to environmental crises. The 2019 drawdown of an impoundment near Comstock inspired the bills.
Environmental regulators say the large amount of sediment released by the drawdown damaged the Kalamazoo River’s ecosystem. But the dam’s owner has done little to clean up the mess. These bills wouldn’t fix it either. But they would give the state’s environmental agency more power to compel cleanups going forward.
State Representative Julie Rogers of Kalamazoo says Democrats first introduced the bills last session when Republicans were in control.
“It has been a very long, slow process, but I am doing my piece.” said Rogers.
She says she expects to introduce the new legislation in the now Democratically-controlled statehouse by the end of the month.