From: | Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org> |
Date: | Wed, 9 Jun 2010 10:10:29 -0700 (PDT) |
Reply: | cpeo-brownfields |
Subject: | Re: [CPEO-BIF] Michigan's brownfield laws |
Because of the policy issues raised by the Michigan legislation, CPEO
welcomes discussion of these issues.
I want to clarify in advance, however, that CPEO does not take positions for or against such legislation. Lenny Evans Paull wrote: For those of you that may not have paid attention to this one, it isreally interesting and I'm hoping to get some exchange going. Basically there are six bills pending in the legislature - Senate Bills437 <http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=93189> , 1345 <http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=119009> , 1346 <http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=119010> , 1347 <http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=119011> , 1348 <http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=119013> and 1349 <http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=119014> - that have the collective effect of throwing out the state DNR's regulatory guidances for brownfields in favor of case-by-case decisions. The article claims that the intent of Michigan's brownfields laws have been undermined by DNR staffers who never bought into the risk based cleanups, developed guidelines that make the program inflexible, and who keep moving the goalposts, making "finality" an allusive target for developers. Two of the Bills also say that Michigan's cleanup standards may not be more stringent than the federal guidelines.I hear this complaint in a lot of states, especially as brownfieldsprograms mature and become more bureaucratized - less flexible and less user-friendly.Could others comment on this problem relative to their states? Andthose of you who are close to the situation in Michigan - what's youropinion? Ev Paull ev@redevelopmenteconomics.com www.redevelopmenteconomics.com________________________________ From: brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org on behalf of Lenny Siegel Sent: Fri 6/4/2010 8:27 AM To: Brownfields Internet Forum Subject: [CPEO-BIF] Michigan's brownfield laws Changes in Brownfield Laws Will Help Michigan By Russ Harding Mackinac Center for Public Policy (MI) June 3, 2010 Michigan's brownfield contaminated site cleanup program, once considered by many to be the best in the nation, is today largely dysfunctional. The main problem is that it is nearly impossible to get closure - once you check in you can never check out. Businesses are reluctant to invest money to clean up contaminated sites when they are at the whim of state environmental regulators for a never ending series of additional cleanup requirements. Michigan made significant changes in how it deals with brownfield cleanups by amending state environmental cleanup laws in the mid 1990s. Michigan abandoned the federal model which makes a business responsible for cleanup costs just by being in the chain of title even if they were not responsible for the contamination. Instead Michigan lawmakers with bipartisan support adopted a causation standard that says if you caused the pollution you pay to clean it up and if you did not cause the pollution you are not responsible for costs. Another significant change in the law was to tailor cleanup standards to environmental and human health risks rather than the previous requirement that all sites be cleaned up to background levels. These two changes in the law opened up a floodgate of investment in brownfields around the state. ... For the entire article, see http://www.mackinac.org/12899 -- Lenny Siegel Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight a project of the Pacific Studies Center 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545 Fax: 650/961-8918 <lsiegel@cpeo.org>http://www.cpeo.org <http://www.cpeo.org/>_______________________________________________ Brownfields mailing list Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org -- Lenny Siegel Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight a project of the Pacific Studies Center 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545 Fax: 650/961-8918 <lsiegel@cpeo.org> http://www.cpeo.org _______________________________________________ Brownfields mailing list Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org | |
References
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