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Losing a Legacy: Why Michigan's
Magnificent Places are at Risk
A Report on How Funding Cuts to the DNR and the DEQ Threaten Michigan's Natural Resources By Robert E. Martin One of the great atrocities with the current budget battles and tax increases coming out of Lansing centers around how greedy & protective legislators are about assuring the well-heeled pension & health insurance plans of teachers and so-called 'public servants', yet how woefully inept they are at protecting the greatest resource that Michigan currently has: the fresh water supply of the Great Lakes.
The sad fact is that Michigan's state
conservation agencies, the Department of Natural Resources
and the Department of Environmental Quality, are vastly and
disproportionately under-funded, according to a new report released
by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.
The report, which analyzes the
state's fiscal budget over the last 25 years, finds that the DEQ
and DNR have suffered major cuts in critical funding that
have resulted in Michigan's Great Lakes, state lands, and wildlife
being placed in unacceptable peril.
Key findings in this report, entitled
Losing A Legacy: Why Michigan's Magnificent Places are at Risk,
outline that over the last decade these two state agencies have
suffered a 62 percent cut in funding compared to other State
Agencies, causing the closing of campgrounds and failures to clean
up toxic contamination.
"As just one example of the
importance of these departments to Michigan's future, currently the
DEQ is working to drastically reduce mercury emissions that pollute
our Great Lakes and threaten our way of life and health - a crucial
milestone in Michigan's history. Without the proper DEQ funds and
staff, programs such as these are threatened and Michigan's Great
Lakes could become an open dumping ground for polluters," notes
Kim Pargoff, Energy Advocate with Environment Michigan.
Howard Tanner, former Director
of the DNR expresses his concern over the report's conclusions.
"Michigan was once a leader on conservation and environmental
protection of our vast natural resources. Somehow that trend has
been reversed and our leadership in conservation has been tarnished.
It is up to our leaders in Lansing to work together to return to our
once proud legacy of environmental stewardship by properly funding
the DNR and DEQ."
Some of the major findings of the report include:
* Conservation Funding
Slashed: Since 2001, The DNR and DEQ departments have suffered a
62 percent decline in funding. This decline is not at all
proportionate to overall declines in statewide funds: for the same
period, total general fund spending dropped only 6 percent.
* DNR and DEQ unfairly targeted: No other state department has lost as much proportional support as DNR and DEQ. * Family vacationers bear consequences of budget cuts: Cuts in this year's appropriation caused the agency to close 20 of its 138 state forest campgrounds early this summer, despite the fact that voters have approved ballot initiatives over the years that are supposed to channel dedicated funding into the arenas or parks and acquisition of more recreational land. * Communities abandoned: By next year, there will be no more funding for the state's contaminated site cleanup program. Without this program, thousands of toxic sites around the country will be left as is, posing serious public health and environmental risks. * As a share of the General Fund Budget, DEQ & DNR expenditures dropped to 0.9 percent - less than a penny on the dollar. This is dramatically less than what citizens assume is being spent on our vital resources.
In Saginaw, increased budget cuts to
the DEQ will have consequences for local citizens. "The most
pervasive toxic contamination in the state threatens Lake Huron.
The DEQ has worked five years to bring the responsible party, the
Dow Chemical Company, to a point where some dioxins and other
toxics are being removed. What happens if the DEQ's budget is cut
again? What happens to our rivers, our lakes, our drinking water,
our fisheries, if our first line of defense is hamstrung by budget
cuts," notes Lone Tree Council Chairperson Terry Miller.
"And the DEQ's Saginaw Bay Coastal Initiative, an effort to deal
with the shoreline muck, invasive species, and sewer overflows -- do
we just tell people to hold their noses and hope?"
Given these major funding cuts, the
Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund along with
dozens of environmental and conservation organizations are calling
on the State Legislature and Governor Granholm to invest in
Michigan's future and place Michigan's air, land, and water as a top
priority for the prosperity of our state by providing the critical
funding necessary to fully fund the DNR and DEQ.
"Water quality is a public health
issue and it is a huge economic issue," adds the Lone Tree
Council's Michelle Hurd-Riddick. "Tourism is our third
leading industry. It is incumbent on clean water, beaches and fish.
Look at Saginaw Bay - muck, dioxin, sewage, phragmities, and fecal
material. Monitoring, investigation, enforcement and clean-up are
not free. The DNR and DEQ should not be on the chopping block. They
have taken enough hits."
"Our legacy, like our history, should
be rich in stories and experiences with these lakes. Report after
report demonstrates declining water quality, closed beaches,
increasing issues with invasive species, and toxic build up."
"This is about our Great Lakes. I
submit to you that any legislator who thinks funding of Great Lakes
protection is not a priority deserves to be booted in the next
election."
To download a full copy of
Michigan's Legacy at Risk, go to
www.michiganlcvedfund.org
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