Common Sense Environmental Stewardship
Stewardship
We have been given the unique responsibility by our Creator to be good stewards of the vast resources in our world. While this responsibility is primarily carried out by the daily decisions of individuals, there is a role for state government. What one person or business emits into the air, dumps on the ground, or pours into a stream can have damaging effects on the entire community.
Common Sense
The laws that are created by the state must be based on sound science and old fashioned common sense. As an engineer, I have been required to obtain a stream crossing permit to build water main across a ditch that was dug the previous year to drain a parking lot. We are also regularly required to get a permit to fill “wetland” (cattails in a road side ditch) that is in road right-of-way and was created when the road was built. These permits regularly take 90 days to obtain, often take thousands of dollars to apply for, and can delay necessary and desirable land improvements for a whole construction season.
Wetlands, streams, or ponds created by people should not be regulated (except those that are mitigated due to a previous permit requirement). Those wetlands that are regulated should have no more than a 45 day permit process.
Local Control
Our Governor has decided that wetland and stream crossing permits should be handled by the federal government. This means that responsiveness will be even worse, permits will take from months to years to obtain, (there is no federal law stating the maximum length for the permit process) and there is much less local accountability. The state should maintain control of the wetland program; however, the program needs to be improved. If the state does not want to administer this program, it should be delegated to a more local unit of government or governmental agency.
Practical Environmental Solutions
New technologies are creating opportunities to be both environmentally friendly and practically efficient. I was the first engineer in West Michigan to specify and have installed a relatively new corrugated plastic pipe that is made with 40% recycled content by ADS, the largest manufacturer of corrugated plastic pipe in the United States. ADS claims this pipe has the same cost, same durability, and produces the same results as pipe without recycled content. Yet such opportunities are not being taken as they should. This pipe is currently not an approved material for use in Michigan Department of Transportation right-of-way. While understanding that we do not want to try something new under M-6 or US 131, there are many storm sewer locations in the state or county road rights-of-way where this pipe could be safely tried.