LANSING – Though work is not yet completed on the package, the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee reported bills Wednesday that would reduce the number of cleanup levels to two and allow polluters to begin cleanup without an order from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

All sides agreed the package was improved over its introduced version, with business groups supporting the bills, but expecting changes, while environmental groups opposed the bills while expecting changes.

“All sides in the process have the same goal, and the goal is to get sites cleaned up,” said Randy Gross with the Michigan Manufacturers Association.

Changes to the definition of surface water and the provisions to allow self-directed cleanup will help to close more sites more quickly, said Arthur Siegal, an environmental attorney for Jaffe Raitt Heuer and Weiss speaking for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

“You don’t always want to wait for the DNRE to direct and demand cleanup,” he said.

But the bills may still let some hazards slip through, said James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council.

“We do want to increase the rate of cleanup and development while protecting the public health,” Clift said. “Whenever we let somebody self-implement and not tell the department, we can’t be sure we’re protecting public health.”

Sen. Raymond Basham (D-Taylor), minority vice chair of the committee, also raised concerns that the measures could put additional workload on the department at the same time proposed budgets would cut funding for the programs.

The package had originally been only SB 437 , but the committee broke the measure into smaller pieces, adding SB 1345 , SB 1346 , SB 1347 , SB 1348 and SB 1349 .

Among the provisions of the package is creating two cleanup levels (residential and non-residential), allowing some spills to be cleaned up without an order from the DNRE (though the department would have to declare the site closed in the end), developing an inventory of cleanup sites, and protecting state and local governments from liability for polluted sites as long as the public is prohibited entrance. The bills would also create a Response Activity Review Panel to advise the DNRE director in cleanup disputes.

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