In Michigan, we have laws in place that give the state the power to essentially rope off polluted areas instead of cleaning them up. Instead, those laws tell the public: don’t drink the water or build your house here.
Sometimes these sites are cleaned up to a certain point and sometimes they’re just left polluted with some measures in place to control the risks.
Through a public records request, we’ve found that there are now more than 2,000 sites like this in Michigan.
In 1995, a law was amended that took polluters off the hook for polluting and shifted that cost to taxpayers. It made it easier to partially clean up a contaminated site and expanded the ability to set land use restrictions. These restrictions (also called institutional controls) let people use these sites while keeping them from coming in contact with toxic chemicals.
Sybil Kolon is retired from the Department of Environmental Quality. She worked in the Remediation and Redevelopment Division for 24 years.
Listen to the interview with Sybil below:
Current R.O.A.D. Issues
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- Get Acquainted with our New Voting Districts
- Flower Creek 2020 Final Watershed Report
- Flower Creek 2020 E. coli results
- 2020 FC water test update
- A conversation with Eileen Reavey on the National Popular Vote Initiative
- Michigan Does Not Need Another Public Health Crisis
- Manure spill turns portions of West Michigan trout stream ‘ink black’
- Please Help Protect our Water: Community Forum on Flower Creek March 12, 2019 at 7:00 pm.
- Right to Pollute: Factory Farms in Michigan, Part 2
- ROAD sues to stop construction of factory farm
- Right to Pollute: Factory Farms in Michigan
- Resist the Flower Creek Swine CAFO: Please donate.
- Press Release: CAFO Contested Case Filing
- CAFO Contested Case Petition to MDEQ
- Iowa Residents to Sue State Over Air Emissions from Hog CAFOs
- Toxic algae blooms are invading lakes (and rivers) across the country!
- Act NOW to save this important citizen water-monitoring program!
- Living in a fecal mist of CAFO manure
- ROAD, CAFO Meeting the Montague City Hall Council Chambers, 8778 Ferry St, for 7:00 PM on Monday, April 30,