“LANSING, MI — Environmental groups say the state is poised to surrender authority to quickly pass environmental contamination rules in response to chemical threats like PFAS as part of a wide-ranging update to Michigan pollution cleanup standards.
The Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) and West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC) issued a joint statement warning the recent passage of enforceable cleanup criteria for PFOS and PFOA — a pair of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS or PFCs — couldn’t be repeated under planned revisions.
The new PFAS standards gave the state legal power to compel cleanup of groundwater contaminated by Wolverine World Wide tannery sludge in Kent County…
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality used that power to sue Wolverine in federal court this month to recoup investigation costs, an action that could put the shoe company on the hook for connecting contaminated areas to municipal water.
But MEC and WMEAC say the update to Michigan’s Part 201 cleanup rules remove the state’s authority to enact similar standards against other PFAS compounds in the future without going through a lengthy rulemaking process that could last a year or more…
The rule package update repeals DEQ authority to ‘determine if the substance is a hazardous substance using best available information about the toxicological and physical-chemical properties of that substance and use that information to develop a generic or site-specific cleanup criterion,’ according to the statute.”
Read the full article by Garret Ellison at mlive.com.