A clean-water report card, released by the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan, PIRGIM, gives the state a failing grade in clean-water enforcement.
The report, released Sunday, found that most of the nine states surveyed failed to properly enforce the Clean Water Act - with Michigan as one of the worst offenders. Most states don't have adequate laws and regulations to enforce the act, it said.
The Clean Water Act, which led to Michigan's failed grade, was passed in 1977 and was designed to eliminate all water pollution by 1983.
Kate Madigan, environmental advocate for PIRGIM, said Michigan received an "F" on the report card for failing 10 out of 12 enforcement policies including failure to enforce mandatory penalties and failure to hold regular facility inspections.
The study shows how a lack of political involvement and money has led to bad enforcement of environmental laws, she said.
Madigan said one step in the right direction is new legislation expected to appear in the Michigan House of Representatives this week. The legislation would create permit fees to fund inspections and enforcement, helping protect the public's health.
"The bottom line is that there isn't enough funding going into this program so that laws could be enforced," she said.
Pollution permits are currently free in Michigan, but the new legislation could change that.
The Government Operations Committee will meet Thursday to discuss the bill, which proposes charging permit fees for people who discharge pollutants into waterways. Permit fees will provide funding for enforcement of clean-water policies.
Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor, said the current permit program operates on $5 million a year and is funded by taxpayers. Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed raising it to $7.2 million.
"Instead of a general fund paying for this program, the people who cause the state to incur this cost would pay for it," Brater said.
The House has yet to vote on the bill.
James Clift, policy director of the Michigan Environmental Council, said the original act did a good job with clamping down on the amount of pollution in waterways, but Michigan started to lag behind in enforcement.
"We got to a point where we plateaued off and weren't going after pollution aggressively," he said. "
We have to return to this. We can make waterways usable again. I do think there needs to be new commitment toward protecting water sources."
Brater said many people involved with environmental quality were concerned with Michigan's water and that Michigan needs to take a leadership role since it is the only state in the Great Lakes Basin.
"It would help Michigan if we had cleaner water," she said. "There's a lot of fish in the Great Lakes and people can't eat that fish right now. There's people who would like to swim in lakes who can't because of pollution.
"We need to make sure our waters are protected."
