Sierra Club Denounces MDEQ

http://www.esalliance.org/food-1/

Gail Philbin, Director of the Sierra Club in Michigan, wrote in the Detroit News on February 22, 2016 (excerpts):

The spectacle of a Michigan city poisoned by a drinking-water crisis caused by cost-cutting surprised few, if any, folks working on environmental issues in this state.

...[W]e’re all too familiar with the Snyder administration’s disregard for public health and the will of the people.

A dangerous culture has taken hold at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). That culture de-emphasizes government transparency, regulatory enforcement and responsiveness to citizen complaints, and instead emphasizes budget reductions and voluntary measures to address significant problems.

In rural Michigan, a disaster that affects us all is brewing. Manure runoff from industrial livestock facilities is polluting lakes, rivers and streams.

This calamity has been unfolding for years, but was aided by Snyder’s appointment of Dan Wyant to head the MDEQ. Wyant ran the Michigan Department of Agriculture for years.

■The MDEQ refused to update its permit for factory farms...to require a ban on the application of manure on snow-covered or frozen ground.

■Until only very recently, records of complaints about factory farm pollution to the MDEQ’s hotline and actions taken were not publicly accessible.

■All but about 37 of the 269 CAFO permits issued in Michigan have expired, but the facilities are still in operation.

MDEQ rarely does field investigations and doesn’t take water samples in response to reports of suspected manure-related incidents by Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan...

In agriculture, we can take two immediate steps: ban the application of CAFO waste on frozen or snow-covered ground throughout Michigan; and declare Lake Erie an impaired watershed, which will set mandatory pollution limits for tributaries.

...[Y]ou have the right to clean air and water.
 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2016/02/22/reverse-states-slide-environmental-protection/80788320/

Well said. Kudos to Detroit News for publishing this.

Dissension over Detroit Water Deal

Concern about secrecy and the public’s right to know caused Macomb County, a principal participant, to balk at ongoing negotiations to create a regional water services authority in southeast Michigan.

A lease of Detroit’s water and sewage treatment facilities by the new Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) was envisioned by bankruptcy officials as a source of revenue necessary to restore Detroit to solvency.

Macomb’s chief executive, Mark Hackel, objects to a gag order imposed on the talks by a bankruptcy judge during Detroit's bankruptcy proceedings.  Court authority for the secret negotiations, administered by a federal district judge as mediator, is set to expire on Sunday, June 14.  

In an editorial in the Detroit News on June 4, Nolan Finley wrote (excerpts):

[The federal mediator] has maintained a gag order on negotiations to finalize the regional water authority agreement, even though a governing board was appointed to publicly conclude its formation after a memorandum of understanding was signed a year ago…

Hackel is dead right that once that public board was in place, the private backroom dealing should have stopped and the gag order lifted.

"It's not about creating an effective water system," [Hackel] says. "It's about how they force this issue through bankruptcy and get what they need for the city of Detroit…”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2015/06/03/finley-hackel-bucks-gag-order/28426647/

In a follow-up note published in the News on June 5, Finley added (excerpts):

Mark Hackel has been on a seven-day rampage since learning he wouldn’t be included in a private mediation session to firm up the regional water authority, which included his Oakland County counterpart, L. Brooks Patterson and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Detroit Federal District Judge Sean Cox [mediator] cut the Macomb county executive out of the meeting…

The mediation session may not have moved the parties closer to a deal. But it did accomplish one thing: It drove a wedge between Hackel and Patterson, who had been united in opposition to the water deal as currently proposed.

And perhaps that was the objective.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2015/06/05/ed-note-secret-talk-hackel-patterson/28496521/

On June 8 in an opinion piece in the News on the same topic, former Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr said (excerpts):

The mediation process has given all the parties a seat at the table. [Emphasis added.] It provided a forum to air differences and consider counter proposals in an open [sic] and collegial environment without concern that a proposal would be taken out of context and blasted across tomorrow's headline. Those that participated in mediation have enhanced the process to the betterment of the the systems' customers. Those that have withdrawn from it have robbed their constituents of the ability to make any agreement that much better by the value of their participation.

To those not participating in the mediation process, it may seem shrouded in secrecy and unfairly hidden from public view. However, the confidentiality imposed on this process is both common and necessary for the parties to have full and frank discussions...

Some say that mediation is gagging the public discourse. But those who hold this position may be allowing themselves to be stuck in the process instead of being participants in a solution...

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/06/08/orr-mediation-best-hope-water-deal/28551457/

It seems obvious to me that “all the parties” are not at the table.  I’m referring to the 120 communities throughout the region that are compelled to rely on and pay for a water and sewage system in the alteration of which they have no voice and can’t even find out what’s being discussed.

UPDATE:  On June 9, 2015, the author wrote Detroit's major newspapers, in part, 

Kevyn Orr’s rationale for secrecy confuses apples with oranges.

The typical bankruptcy case in which secrecy is invoked involves the bankrupt and creditors, i.e. claimants in the case which are commonly savvy, well represented financial institutions, not the public (here in 120 small,unrepresented communities scattered throughout seven counties), which is entitled to transparency.

Furthermore, Mr. Orr’s comments reveal the type of false assumptions that are the undoing of most federal court gag orders.

Forecasting Water & Sewer Rates: Con Game or Reckless Use of the Crystal Ball?

“Each system [water and sewer] as a whole, is assumed to experience revenue requirement increases of not more than 4% for each of the first ten years under [Great Lakes Water] Authority management.” -- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) p.4, September 9, 2014.

“It is important to note that Veolia has not performed an assessment of current costs, nor verified that the proposed projections fit the 4% revenue increase requirement.”  Veolia Peer Review Report to the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, p.ES-3, December 19, 2014.

“The GLWA board will cap annual increases in water and sewer billings at four percent a year for 10 years.”  Great Lakes Water Authority Frequently Asked Questions.

“The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is warning customers that rates could rise an average of either 9.2 or 14.1 percent…” Detroit News, January 27, 2015.

“...[O]ne selling point [of Detroit’s bankruptcy settlement] was the assurance that annual rate hikes would be capped at 4 percent.” Id.

“Promising a 4 percent cap on rate hikes wasn't [the right thing to do]. It was reckless and misleading, and likely was never a real possibility.” Id.

“The cost of water in Flint would likely rise 30 percent or more if the city returned to buying it from the city of Detroit, emergency manager Jerry Ambrose is warning.” -- Ron Fonger, MLive, March 6, 2015