Jeff Gillies, gilliesj@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Whether local governments in Michigan will still regulate small wetlands is murky after Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed returning the state regulatory authority to the federal government.
Michigan and New Jersey are the only states authorized to enforce the section of the national Clean Water Act requiring a permit for filling wetlands. Under that authority local communities can enact even stricter rules for protecting wetlands valued for providing wildlife habitat and sponging up storm water runoff.
Since 1984, anyone seeking to drain, dredge, fill or build in a wetland must apply for a permit from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. In other states federal regulators oversee such permits.
To help cut the state’s projected $1.5 billion budget deficit, Granholm recently recommended dropping Michigan’s wetlands enforcement. She said the move would save the state $2.1 million.
Canning the program could threaten the local authority that 42 Michigan communities now have over very small wetlands.
“It’s more than just not funding it anymore,” said DEQ spokesman Robert McCann. “You actually have to go in and repeal all or certain portions of Michigan’s wetlands act.”
If the entire act is repealed, federal wetlands laws might overrule local ordinances, McCann said. “We don’t know the answer to that yet. We’re trying to get some of that information from EPA.”
It’s possible that much of the wetlands act could be repealed while the language allowing local ordinances is left intact. Two nearly identical bills doing just that were introduced to the state house and senate the day after Granholm announced the move at her Feb. 3 state of the state address.
But the legislature has been quiet since then, and there is no guarantee that those bills will pass as they are.
“It’s just kind of a ‘wait and see’ situation,” said Troy Langer, a senior planner for Michigan’s Meridian Township near Lansing.
Meridian’s wetlands ordinance, which was adopted in the early 90s, requires a permit to modify a wetland larger than a quarter-acre, said Langer. The state doesn’t regulate those wetlands unless they are within 500 feet of a lake, river or stream.
Most Meridian development projects require some review because of the sheer number of wetlands , said Rick Brown, an associate planner who has been regulating the township’s wetlands for 14 years. Wetlands cover a quarter of the township’s land area, or 5,400 acres.
The township board must deem wetlands smaller than two acres “essential” before they are regulated, he said. The wetland must meet at lease one of ten criteria outlined in the township ordinance.
“They haven’t found one yet that wasn’t essential,” Brown said.
The township board also adopted a “no net loss” policy.
“If somebody is impacting 500 square feet of wetlands, they have to provide 500 square feet of mitigation to compensate for that loss,” Brown said.
The township and the DEQ share jurisdiction. Carol Valor, who works on wetlands permits in the DEQ’S Lansing district, said that joint jurisdiction mostly amounts to permit application sharing: If someone goes to the DEQ for a permit to modify a wetland in Meridian Township, the department will send a copy of that application to the township.
Likewise, the township sends copies of its permit applications to the DEQ.
Langer said that it’s not clear what would happen to the joint jurisdiction if the DEQ were removed from the process. The Army Corps of Engineers, which would take control of Michigan’s program, may not have time to contact every local government with joint jurisdiction about every permit application, he said.
Langer also doubts that the corps would be as responsive to questions as the DEQ.
McCann said the legislature will talk soon with environmental, business and construction groups about the program’s future.
“If the stakeholder group does decide that they want to keep the program here in Michigan it has to include a funding source to pay for it,” he said. “That could be a little harder to get an agreement on.”