Ongoing state fight involving local control
They say all politics are local. That is especially true when decisions are being made to dig gravel mines essentially in someone's backyard.
In our October 2022 longform, “Local control threat: The implications of mining fight,” Downtown looked at how aquifers throughout Michigan were becoming contaminated by aggregate mining, which can strip the land away of clay and other materials that serve as a natural filter and that slows the spread of the toxic plume of gravel mines. Lapeer County, for example, is already home to 30 aggregate mines, and while local municipalities have approved mining plans and operations, companies which mine the aggregates – large, very affluent companies – have repeatedly sought to wrest local mining permitting control away from Michigan’s local governing bodies and place it in the hands of the state.
In the current lame duck legislative session, as in previous lame duck sessions of the state's lawmakers, bipartisan bills have been introduced to give the state's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) authority over issuing permits for any aggregate mining operation with more than 1 million tons of material, rather than the local municipality. Of particular note is a gravel mining operation in Metamora Township, where The Edward C. Levy Co. said aggregate materials are essential to everyday life and more is needed beyond what existing mining operations can supply. Those in favor of transferring control to EGLE state that more aggregate is needed to reduce the cost of fixing Michigan's roads as Governor Whitmer's road bonds will expire in 2026. Sorry, we are not buying into this argument.
Local municipalities repeatedly state: hands off local control.
There are also concerns over the details in the proposed legislation, which include equipment must not be located within 200 feet of a roadway, 300 feet of a property line or 500 feet from a residential building. The business must set aside between $3,000 and $8,000 per acre for reclaiming the land after the sand and gravel has been extracted. Inadequate, to say the least.
Opponents note the toxicity to air and water of gravel mining. Environmentalists, officials and grassroots organizations are concerned that the EGLE is not up to the task. They say the agency is chronically underfunded and understaffed and cannot take on the complexities and nuances of permitting mines down to the municipal level.
We’ve seen this battle before in which lobbyists are able to whittle away local control on important issues. It happened during the term of former Governor Rick Snyder, involving legislation preventing communities from banning plastic bags. We have also seen loss of local control in the current administration when it comes to alternative energy placement decisions.
Although gravel mining may not be an immediate concern in the Birmingham-Bloomfield area, the move to wrest away local control should be a concern for all officials and residents, as should the disproportionate influence wielded by deep-pocket industries and their lobbyists in Lansing.
Critical decisions which affect local municipalities and the quality of life of residents must stay with the local officials who know and understand local concerns the best.
