Legislative Democrats rolled out bills Monday to toughen Michigan’s pollution cleanup standards and force businesses that caused contamination to foot the bill even if it happened decades ago.
A key element would be amending a portion of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act that allows responsible parties to close off access to land or groundwater in lieu of completely cleaning it up.
Senator Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) said nearly 27,000 such sites exist in Michigan and polluters should finish the job of cleaning them up.
“Half of those have been orphaned, have been left behind by companies for the taxpayers to clean up,” he told Michigan Public Radio. “We don’t have enough money to clean up these sites, so the sites remain polluted, remain a threat to communities, and we need to make sure that we hold companies accountable and they need to clean up their own mess.”
But Mike Witkowski, director of environmental and regulatory policy for the Michigan Manufacturers Association, said that is not a reasonable standard “for something that is just going to be another industrial site or even a parking lot.”
He told Michigan Public Radio cleanup plans should take into account how a property is going to be used.
“It’s just not practical and you’re really going to drive investment away from our urban centers, our industrial areas and out into greenfields or, even worse, out of the state altogether,” he said.
The bills would also allow people exposed to contamination to sue for the costs of monitoring before a health condition becomes apparent and allow the state to take action on pollutants that were unregulated prior to 1994. That would include the PFAS group of chemicals used in firefighting foam, cookware, and clothing that has been linked to health conditions including cancer and reproductive issues.
To be adopted in this legislative session, there would eventually have to be bipartisan buy-in since anything adopted by the Senate Democratic majority would also have to pass muster in the Republican-controlled House.
