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State Legislation

You can help insure that Michigan has good legislation to help protect our valuable water resources. Make your voice heard by taking action on all of the pending bills.

Contact your State Senator and State Representative.

The text and progress of the bills can be accessed at http://www.legislature.mi.gov/

SB 168 - A bill to exempt county road commissions from the Wetland Protection Act.

OPPOSE

The bill would amend Part 303 (Wetland Protection) of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to prohibit the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) from imposing compensatory wetland mitigation as a condition on a permit for an activity undertaken in conjunction with road work without the consent of the entity with legal jurisdiction over the road, if both of the following conditions were met:

  -- The road was in existence on the bill's effective date.
 -- The activity took place within the road right-of-way.  

The bill would define "road" as a city or village street, county road, or State trunk line highway. "Road work" would mean the maintenance, repair, improvement, or reconstruction of a road. The term would not include the construction of a road.

The bill also would explicitly prohibit the DEQ from imposing compensatory wetland mitigation as a condition on a general permit. 

SB 272 – A bill to amend the Administrative procedures Act APA to prohibit a standard more stringent than federal standards unless specifically authorized by the legislature.

OPPOSE

The entire point of having a state law is so that we can determine what is best for our environment and citizens. Michigan is the mitten – the Great Lakes State – this makes Michigan unique. We are surrounded by the Great Lakes, with a very unique and special hydrology that also creates our treasured inland lakes and streams. Michigan regulators should have the ability to be Michigan-specific in their implementation of our environmental programs. States have the right to be more protective than the federal government, whose laws typically are much more general because they have to provide guidance to a large and extremely geographically diverse nation. States need to have a degree of flexibility in the selection of policies and in procedures that are best suited to the needs of the state, provided that basic federal requirements are met. This becomes even more important when we are talking about our waterways and what Michigan specifically needs to adequately protect our natural resources which serve as the foundation of our economy. Any policy that includes “no more stringent” or “not more restrictive” only serves to ties the hands of the state and endanger the health of the environment and citizens. Subsequently, any such language is unacceptable.

 In addition and more problematic, is the bill also includes an invitation for disgruntled companies to sue the state if they do not like the substance of a newly promulgated rule. Under a new provision included with SB 272, a party may sue the state if they do not believe the assessment of the impacts of a proposed rule are not “accurate”. If a court agrees with the challenge the state must pay the challenge up to 10 times any permit fees and actual attorney and expert witness fess incurred.