I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Michigan’s solid waste program is funded by a 21 cents per ton dumping fee at landfills. Between recycling and the economic recession Michigan landfills took in 5 million fewer cubic yards of trash last year. This means that unless a new method of funding is established this year, the state will be unable to inspect 81 landfills.
This latest grim environmental news comes from Josh Garvey of the Capital News Service.
Garvey quotes Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment press secretary Bob McCann as saying that without new funding for the solid waste program, “We won’t be able to give communities the assurance that landfills are being operated properly, that there are not materials leaking out of the landfill and potentially getting into the groundwater supply and things like that.”
Michigan’s fee per ton is the lowest in the Great Lakes States, with Ohio charging $4.75 per ton and Wisconsin charging $12.98. That low charge spurred Canada to send 9 million cubic yards over the state line last year, which was still a drop of more than 1 million cubic yards from 2008.
McCann told Michigan Messenger that the DNRE needs the tipping fee to go up to around 35 cents per ton to keep its monitoring program running.
Funding landfill oversight with a per ton dumping fee is problematic because the landfills will need to be monitored for leaks even after they stop accepting waste.
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