LANSING — Today, House Democratic Floor Leader Yousef Rabhi (D-Ann Arbor) and state Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) introduced identical bills in the House and Senate to require polluters to clean up contamination they cause. Under current law, polluters can simply restrict access to a site or an aquifer instead of treating or removing pollutants. House Bill 4212 and Senate Bill 116 would require that pollution be cleaned up as much as technically feasible. In response, state Rep. Isaac Robinson (D-Detroit), a co-sponsor of the legislation, issued the following statement:
“In Detroit and Hamtramck, we have long been at the mercy of corporate polluters, and no one has held them accountable for the harm they’ve done. From old factories to hazardous waste facilities to the incinerator, many areas of environmental risk have been overlooked for years. Public oversight of the damage caused by these corporations is long overdue. The time has come to make polluters threatening the health, safety and wellbeing of Michigan families clean up their toxic messes.”
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