Tuesday at the Women's City Club in downtown Grand Rapids, local environmental and progressive groups--Clean Water Action, the Dwight Lydell Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, the West Michigan Sierra Club, Republicans for Environmental Protection, and Progressive and Friends of North Kent County--sponsored a presentation by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The DEQ's presentation was titled "Outta Sight!--Outta Mind!--Outta Money! Trouble Brewing Underground as Funding Levels Dwindle for Michigan's Cleanup Program" and addressed the lack of funding for the DEQ's cleanup programs.
The presentation consisted primarily of a PowerPoint presentation by Sharon Goble, who is a Part 213 Program Specialist in the Remediation and Redevelopment Division. Goble began by telling the audience that Michigan is second to the bottom for conservation spending per capita in the United States at $25. Not surprisingly, the DEQ will soon be out of money for cleanup projects and "Brownfield" development (previously developed sites that appear contaminated), despite the fact that nearly half of Michigan's population lives within half a mile of a contaminated site. Much of this contamination is due to Michigan's industrial legacy--a legacy that has left tens of thousands of contaminated sites with hundreds discovered each year.
According to Goble, her division of the DEQ is a "safety net" for contamination not covered elsewhere. Her division's work is split into two areas--"remediation" and "redevelopment." Remediation includes drum removals, tank removals, abating imminent fire/vapor/explosion hazards, emergency spill response, demolition, and alternate water provisions. The redevelopment portion of her work includes facilitating redevelopment of Brownfield sites in order to build a stronger economy. This work is spread across five program areas--the Michigan Contaminated Site Cleanup Program, the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program, the Federal Superfund Program, a Brownfield redevelopment program, and the State Owned Sites Cleanup program. Through her division's work, there have been 12,000 leaking tanks closed, $32 million spent from state funds used to conduct cleanup operations at 59 Superfund sites, and $95 awarded to 228 Brownfield redevelopment projects.
Despite what she termed the "successes" of the DEQ's work, her division might lose the majority of its funding. To maintain the current level of work $95 million is needed annually (excluding the tank program, which needs an additional $177 million). With current funding levels and sources, by the beginning of the 2008 Fiscal Year (September 2008), her division will have a substantial shortfall. One-time funding and grants for her division have been depleted and other sources--including the 7/8ths of a cent Refined Petroleum Fund Fee on gasoline purchases--will only account for $14 million in continued funding. If the money is not somehow appropriated, the immediate consequences will be that no new projects will be undertaken, they will be unable to address emergency needs, and existing projects will be scaled back.
The $95 million cited by Goble includes $60 million for projects focused on sites that are critical threats to public health or natural resources, $25 million for staffing, and $10 million for Brownfield grants and loans. Her division's tank program will required an additional $177 million per year with $140 million going towards newly reported releases, $25 million towards cleaning up orphaned sites where there is no liable party (ex: an abandoned gas station), and $12 million for program administration. Goble argued that this $177 million is urgently needed as Michigan has 21,000 confirmed releases (leaks) with 9,000 that have gone unaddressed. Because of its history with the auto industry, Michigan is third in the nation for the number of unaddressed releases. The top three states--Michigan, Florida, and California account for one third of all unaddressed sites in the United States. This includes 835 in the nine county that constitutes the DEQ's Grand Rapids District.
Susan Erickson of the DEQ's Environmental Stewardship Grants and Loans Unit argued that her area--slated to receive $10 million under the amount proposed by Goble--will otherwise run out of grant funding within a year and loan funding within two years. Her program offers low-interest grants and loans for the development of Brownfield sites with grants up to $1 million and loans up to $1 million (with no payment or interest for the first five years, and two percent each year after on the 15 year loan). Erickson said that the program discourages sprawl by encouraging development at sites already connected to the transportation and utility infrastructure, spurs private investment, and has created 12,000 permanent jobs.
