Few reporters took note of, and few members of the public recognized, the significance of reorganization of the Department of Environmental Quality that took effect in mid-September. A longtime DEQ employee contacted MEC to explain its effects. Because the employee fears retribution by DEQ management, we agreed to publish the article without identification.

We are now the reorganized Geological and Land Management Division and part of the new Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). I thought you might like an insider's view. The bottom line is that nobody who really cares about the environment or this department seems to know what is going on. The situation is a real mess.

Within the new Geological and Land Management Division, we now have a geologist who is Michigan's top oil and gas official running the state's wetlands, inland lakes and streams and great lakes protection programs. We have a storage tank expert supervising the Wetlands and Great Lakes Submerged Lands Unit in Lansing. Geologists are supervising the field wetlands, inland lakes and streams, and great lakes protection programs in the entire Upper Peninsula (Marquette District), northern half of the Lower Peninsula (Cadillac District), and Mid-Michigan (Shiawassee District). We also now have biologists supervising geologists and running the oil and gas programs in most of the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Are you confused yet? It gets better.

The justification for this re-organization was the loss of 10% of the DEQ's work force (approximately 160 employees) to the latest early retirement plan offered by Governor Engler. The early retirement was offered to save money during this latest budget crisis. Losing 10% of our workforce is painful, and the loss of the institutional memory is significant and troubling. But losing one out of every ten employees does not justify the total reorganization of a 1,600-employee agency. Especially when the result of the reorganization is that many remaining supervisors (and their institutional memory) are moved into totally unrelated positions where their experience and expertise are wasted.

The DEQ's field staff is especially affected and provides a good example of the mess that Director Russ Harding and Deputy Director Gary Hughes have created. We now have a former top notch Land and Water Management Division Supervisor in the Upper Peninsula with 14 years of experience in wetlands, lakes and streams, and great lakes protection, being demoted two levels and assigned to work in a totally unrelated position with another division. The new supervisor for the wetlands, lakes and streams, and great lakes protection programs has spent the last 15 years dealing with totally unrelated programs. In the Bay City District, a supervisor in the Surface Water Quality Division with over 20 years in that position is now supervising Waste Management Programs (landfills). The Waste Management supervisor (with approximately 13 years experience with landfills) was demoted and is now an assistant supervisor in the Air Quality Division.

Many of the DEQ's most experienced field supervisors (and Lansing supervisors as well) who remain after the losses from the early retirement program have been removed from their areas of expertise and forced to take supervisory jobs in programs where they have little or no experience. It is imperative that district supervisors in the field and unit supervisors in Lansing have real experience in the programs they supervise. Many supervisors now lack that experience and knowledge.

Director Harding and Deputy Director Hughes are now planning to have staff within the Lansing headquarters physically relocate to their new locations. Approximately 1,200 DEQ employees were relocated to the new Constitution Hall Building in late 2001 and early 2002. The time, effort and expense to move these employees into this new facility must have been enormous. I know that I spent at least seven working days packing up my office and related files and equipment and another two or three days unpacking and setting up in my new office. That's approximately 10 working days or two full weeks for just one employee. Now less than 12 months after we moved in, many, if not all, remaining 1,200 employees will be packing up and reshuffling around the two six-story towers.

How much is this re-organization and the associated movement of employees, offices and equipment costing the taxpayers of Michigan? I am one of those taxpayers, and I would sure like to know. If the state is so hard up for money, where are the funds coming from to do this?

For the past 12 years, I have watched the Engler Administration undermine Michigan's once world-class natural resource protection programs and the agency that administered them. In the early years much of the damage was done behind the scenes and hidden from the public view. However, when Governor Engler split the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 1995 and appointed Russ Harding as Director of the new DEQ, it was obvious to anyone who bothered to notice that a full-scale assault was underway against Michigan's environment. As a longtime employee with the DNR/DEQ I have seen first-hand many examples of this assault. Governor Engler and Director Harding have ruled against the environment in virtually every decision they have made since taking office. I am hard pressed to think of one example where they did the right thing for the environment or the public trust.

I can say with absolutely no hesitation and total confidence that the current reorganization of the DEQ will set back the effectiveness of the DEQ and the protection of Michigan's natural resources and environment for many years. The effects will be felt long after John Engler and Russ Harding have left office. I have no doubt that is exactly what they have intended.