LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – State leaders are pushing lawmakers to take advantage of an opportunity this year to strengthen aging infrastructure, expand redevelopment efforts, and protect recent gains made by the agency as state budget negotiations continue.
During an interview at the Mackinac Policy Conference, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Director Phil Roos highlighted several accomplishments from the Whitmer administration, including investments in drinking water infrastructure, contaminated site cleanup, air quality improvements, and recycling programs.
Roos said the department has made measurable progress across several priorities over the past several years.
“We set out some goals at the beginning of my tenure and some of these that go back to the beginning of the administration on air quality and contaminated site cleanup and a bunch of other things,” Roos said. “And we made some really good progress. So we’re just trying to cement those gains and maybe accelerate them if we can here before the end of the term and a new governor comes in.”
Roos pointed to $6.4 billion in drinking water infrastructure investments, increased lead service line replacement efforts, improvements in air quality and growth in the state’s recycling rate.
“Contaminated site cleanup, we’ve got 27,000 sites across the state, but we have doubled the number of sites that we address in a given year,” Roos said. “And that’s, I think it’s four times what it was 10 years ago.”
One of EGLE’s legislative priorities this year is an update to the state’s Renew Michigan brownfield redevelopment program.
“This program, I think it’s something like 500 properties and lots of jobs, lots of money. For every dollar we put into it, more than $40 in private investment is generated,” Roos said. “It can be a game changer for communities and the quality of life and attracting jobs.”
Roos said parts of the program have not kept pace with rising redevelopment costs.
“There was a cap on the amount of loans or grants that could be given for an individual site that was set at one million dollars years, years ago, and this plan would raise it to two million because we’re missing out on a lot of sites,” he said. “Costs, we all know, have gone up quite a bit in that time period, and sometimes one million dollars isn’t enough to get it over the edge and move forward.”
The legislation would make some of the most significant changes to the program since its creation. The bill would increase the maximum grant or loan award from $1 million to $2 million per project, eliminate the one-project-per-community limit, reduce cost-sharing requirements for local governments that own contaminated property, modernize eligibility rules for asbestos abatement projects and simplify the application process.
“The other thing is there currently is a limit of one site per community,” Roos said. “Can you imagine Marquette, which has multiple brownfield redevelopment sites, only being able to do one a year? This would take away that cap.”
Roos is also backing a bill that would overhaul Michigan’s dam safety oversight system. He said recent flooding events and increasingly severe storms have highlighted vulnerabilities in aging infrastructure.
“A few years ago, we had the Edenville disaster,” Roos said. “We’ve just had another period where we’ve had near 500-year floods in the state. It seems like they happen every other year now.”
Roos said more than 40 dams across Michigan recently faced varying levels of risk during heavy rainfall events, reinforcing the need for stronger oversight.
“What this legislation would do is it would modernize the way we do oversight with dams,” he said. “It would raise the standards so we’re not solving for the weather of 20 years ago, but for the weather of today. And it would implement some new tools to be able to address issues before they get to an emergency level.”
The proposal would require dam owners to register with the state and submit long-term asset management, maintenance, monitoring and emergency response plans. It would also increase inspection requirements for higher-risk dams, require more comprehensive engineering evaluations and establish additional enforcement tools for EGLE.
Roos said changing weather patterns make those updates increasingly important.
“The climate models show that. We’re seeing what was predicted 20 years ago, but worse in many cases, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Roos said. “These are storms that we got to deal with. They’re affecting multiple communities across northern Michigan and the UP in a very direct way, and it’s scary.”
The legislation would also create a dedicated Dam Safety Emergency Fund and a Dam Risk Reduction Grant Program to help communities repair, rehabilitate or remove aging dams before they become public safety threats.
Roos pointed to the ongoing situation involving the Au Train Dam in Alger County as an example of why state officials are seeking stronger oversight tools.
The facility was previously regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) before losing its federal license. Roos said the proposed legislation would improve information sharing when dams transition from federal oversight to state regulation and give Michigan more authority to intervene when safety concerns emerge.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of oversight going on, and things deteriorated to a point where they lost their FERC license. So now it is in our hands,” Roos said. “One of the other things in the bill is better communication with FERC, sharing information about their dams, because we very often inherit these when they get to be in a bad shape and need repair.”
He added, “If no regulation is happening, it would give us the ability to step in and do what’s needed to protect life and property.”
As lawmakers work to finalize the state budget, Roos said additional funding reductions could affect EGLE’s ability to maintain current service levels.
The agency received cuts during the previous budget cycle, and Roos said further reductions would likely impact permit processing times and other core services.
“With the cuts last year, we are at the place where there will be trade-offs,” Roos said. “One of the biggest trade-offs is permitting, permitting lead times.”
Roos said staffing investments made in recent years have helped speed up permit reviews while maintaining environmental protections.
“There were some significant additions in staff, and it’s made a difference we see in our permitting lead times and the level of service we can provide to get those permits out the door, but also make sure they’re protective,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest thing that’s at risk if there are significant cuts to our budget.”
Roos said both the brownfield redevelopment package and dam safety proposal have attracted bipartisan support and could help communities address long-term challenges while promoting economic growth.
As lawmakers continue budget negotiations and consider the legislation, Roos said maintaining recent progress will depend on both policy changes and continued investment in environmental and infrastructure programs.
