Not long after, we were stunned to learn that radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project was being shipped into Wayne Disposal in Van Buren Township. Imagine the outrage of families, workers, and local leaders who were suddenly told that waste from the dawn of the nuclear age would be buried just minutes from their homes, from their schools, and from their workplaces. Communities organized, and leaders across every level of government stood together. Thanks to that strength, our local communities filed a lawsuit and were able to block additional shipments and protect the 1.8 million residents of Wayne County, but only after winning their court case. Let’s be clear: it should not take outrage, lawsuits, and court rulings every time to keep Michigan from becoming America’s dumping ground. That’s not sustainable, that’s not safe, and that’s not justice.
This legislation today makes sure that Michigan can stand on its own two feet and say with one voice, We will not be your dumping ground. My bills will finally raise tipping fees because right now, we are one of the cheapest places in the country to dump garbage and hazardous waste. That is unacceptable for a state that holds 90 percent of the nation’s fresh water. This legislation will also ban new hazardous waste wells, where toxic materials are injected into the earth and left to sit beneath the bedrock—beneath our communities, our farmland, and our water. They will require EGLE to put real limits on hazardous waste disposal, and develop a comprehensive statewide plan, including a five-year moratorium planning period so we can stop any new facilities from getting approved or from expanding, while we get ahead of these problems instead of reacting after the fact. Because right now, even after all this pushback, Wayne Disposal is asking for a massive expansion, and unless the Republicans in the State House join us, they will likely get it, which would send more toxic waste flowing into our state. That is unacceptable. However, our bills today would stop them from expanding.
This is what government at its best looks like: stepping in, protecting people, and standing up for the common good. We have a choice. Do we allow Michigan to be a dumping ground for the nation’s toxic waste? Or do we rise to the responsibility that we have to protect our people, our land, and our water? Let’s do the right thing. Join me in protecting our state by voting “yes” on these bills, because Michigan is done being the nation’s dumping ground. Thank you to our local leaders for standing shoulder to shoulder with us in this fight. Thank you to my colleagues who’ve been working on this for a long time, including the other Senator from Downriver. Let’s get it done.
Senator Irwin’s statement is as follows:
I rise to encourage my colleagues to support this legislation, and to respond to the comments that were just made from the Senator from the 16th District. You know, there was a breathless claim about what a large tax increase this would represent, and I just want to point out that there’s a certain aspect of mathematics that when you get incredibly small numbers, you can multiply them by big numbers and still end up with a relatively small number. That’s how decimals and fractions work. And here in Michigan, we have bizarrely low tipping fees. Our tipping fees are 32 cents a ton, when the states around us average over $5 a ton. Wisconsin, our neighbor, has a $13 per ton fee; ours is just over 30 cents. When you’re talking about increasing that by X percent, the final amount this proposes increasing it to is actually pretty small. It amounts to something like $5 a year per resident. So while the House Republicans are talking about increasing gas taxes, which is going to be a significant impact on Michigan pocketbooks, we’re talking about a trash fee that is infinitesimally tiny and has a tiny, tiny impact on people’s budgets, but has a big impact on making Michigan a magnet for trash from all over the region.
I just want to point out to my colleagues, this is something that has been lingering, festering in Michigan for a long, long, long time. I worked on this issue back in 2006—back when I was a local government official—when we were pointing out that Michigan has such abnormally low tipping fees that we’re a magnet for out-of-state trash. We were talking in 2006 about what we can do to stop out-of-state trash. The governor at that time was saying, We ought to increase tipping fees. The governor after that—Governor Snyder—when I was in the State House proposed the same thing, proposed increasing tipping fees in the same way over 10 years ago. Every time it gets proposed—it gets proposed by Democratic governors, it gets proposed by Republican governors, and it gets proposed by every sensible person who looks at this issue, but we continue to fail to do it, continue to leave Michigan open as a dumping ground for our neighbors. And the sort of, you know, political games that we heard just a second ago being played are exactly why we’re stuck in this spot as the region’s cesspool.
Let’s stop trying to play political games and just do the right thing for once. Our fee is incredibly tiny. Senator Camilleri is trying to do something to protect our environment, to protect future generations, and to raise this fee that governors of both parties—for decades—have been saying is far too low. I wanted to rise to say that here in the body today. Thank you, Mr. President.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 247, entitled
A bill to amend 1994 PA 451, entitled “Natural resources and environmental protection act,” by amending section 62506a (MCL 324.62506a), as added by 1996 PA 168.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: