Large Water Polluters
Fight to Keep Taxpayer Subsidy
Conservation groups note decline in funding puts public
health at risk
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For
Immediate Release:
June 11, 2003
|
Contacts:
James
Clift, MEC, (517) 487- 9539
Cyndi Roper, CWA (517) 203-0754
Anne Woiwode, Sierra Club (517) 484-2372
|
Lansing
– Michigan residents would likely face increased health
and environmental risks while continuing to subsidize water
pollution under a bill being considered Thursday by the Senate
Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee. The
action follows a meeting between the Committee Chair, State
Sen. Patricia Birkholz, and the state’s biggest polluters
who oppose paying for permits that allow them to discharge
waste into the Great Lakes and other waterways.
“We
are shocked at Senator Birkholz’s proposal to continue
making Michigan residents pick up the tab for legal water
pollution,” said Cyndi Roper, Clean Water Action’s
(CWA) Michigan Director. “This would increase risks to
the public health at a time when we should be protecting our
water and ending polluter subsidies.” CWA has spoken
with more than 300,000 residents about the state’s polluter
giveaway. Roper reports that more than 40,000 residents have
written their lawmakers saying ‘enough is enough’.
“Clearly, their voices are not being heard in the backroom
where these proposals are being negotiated,” Roper said.
Currently,
water discharge permits are free for water polluters. The
proposed water discharge permit fee would still require more
than $4 million in taxpayer subsidies for the program that
issues permits and monitors polluters for violations of water
quality laws, including the discharge of dangerous toxins
such as PCBs, mercury and dioxin. The proposed program will
result in a further decline in the effectiveness and frequency
of our water quality monitoring and enforcement program, placing
the program’s future could in doubt. Michigan’s
currently underfunded program has already been placed on a
national watch by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
“Under
current funding levels, polluters are only ‘visited’
once every three to four years – and unannounced inspections
to verify levels of toxic discharges at major facilities only
occur once every five to six years,” said James Clift,
Policy Director of the Michigan Environmental Council. “This
lax oversight places public health at risk as we have seen
recently with PCB contamination in Lake St. Clair, and dioxin
contamination in the Saginaw and Tittabawasee Rivers.”
“Last
week the Governor promoted our Michigan lakes and waterways
as critical to our state’s tourism, and this week the
Senate Committee is considering shortchanging programs designed
to protect those water resources,” said Anne Woiwode,
State Director of the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club.
“The proposed program is shortsighted, and fails to reflect
the value that Michigan citizens place on protecting the Great
Lakes.”
