Wetlands deregulation bill drafted by industry-minded Saginaw commissioner
By Eartha Jane Melzer, Michigan Messenger 3/16/09 1:00 PM
Hemlock Semiconductor plant site, Saginaw County, Mich. (Graphics: Google Maps
and Wikipedia) When Gov. Jennifer Granholm laid out a plan to end state wetlands
regulation during last month’s State of the State address, she billed the
transfer of oversight to federal authorities as a way to save Michigan $2
million. But State Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw), who recently introduced
legislation to make the proposal part of state law, said his aim with the bill
is to reduce the burden of environmental rules on business.
And the man Kahn credits with drafting the legislation, Saginaw Public Works
Commissioner Jim Koski, said he dislikes the state program and has ignored its
rules at least twice when he felt they were inconvenient to local industry.
“Jim Koski pointed out that by rulemaking, [the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality] has expanded the definition of wetland,” Kahn said in an
interview with Michigan Messenger last week. “Koski drafted the bill.”
Opponents of the legislation, which has also been introduced in the House by
State Rep. Jim Stamas (R-Midland), are planning on converging at a meeting of
the House Great Lakes and Environment Committee and the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Environmental Quality scheduled for Tuesday in Lansing.
Elected Saginaw County drain commissioner in 1976, Koski left public service for
a decade to work as a wetland consultant in the private sector. Now as Saginaw
County public works commissioner, Koski is working to help the Dow Corning-owned
Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. expand. He also spearheaded local arrangements for
an Army Corps of Engineers project to create a disposal site for dredged
material from the dioxin-contaminated Saginaw River watershed.
“I’ve been living this stuff for 30 years,” Koski said of the ins and outs of
wetlands policy. “I was a big advocate of keeping [regulation] local and raising
more fees to pay for it,” the commissioner said, explaining that about 10 years
ago, he changed his mind when as a consultant for the Saginaw Homebuilders
Association, he was unable to work out definitions for the terms “stream” and
“contiguous” with DEQ regulators.
“It was becoming very evident to me in following the laws that the laws weren’t
changing but the definitions and the way they were applying the laws was
changing and the state was regulating more stringently,” he said. “Their
definition of stream is anything with a bed and a bank that shows continuous
occurrence. … It can be any ditch they want it to be.”
State wetlands regulations have been problematic in the course of his work with
the Army Corps for the dredging disposal site, Koski said.
State law classified the farmland Koski purchased for the dredgings dump as a
wetland. “I had to spend $1.2 million to buy wetland to mitigate this … plus
five years to have it turned back into wetland,” Koski said of the requirements
to create new wetland when an existing one is displaced or destroyed.
In contrast, Koski said, the federal Clean Water Act classifies any piece of
land that’s been farmed since 1985 continuously as “prior converted farmland”
and does not fall under wetlands regulations.
Little Government Oversight Looms
Some critics of the plan to shift wetland regulation to the federal government
worry that there will be little to no oversight. Koski said that based on his
conversations with the Army Corps of Engineers, that is exactly what will
happen.
“I was with [an Army Corps] colonel two weeks ago and he said: ‘We are not going
to have as many people, but frankly we don’t regulate as much as they do.’”
All of the regulatory programs on inland lakes and streams should go back to
federal government, Koski said. “That is what the DEQ and environmental groups
are afraid of.”
And it all comes down to jobs. “We are trying to compete with other states for
jobs. Everybody I’ve talked to who builds in other states and builds here is so
frustrated with dealing with DEQ on these issues that they don’t want to build
in Michigan.”
Dow Corning’s Hemlock Semiconductor facility, which produces polycrystalline
silicon for solar panels, is a prime example of this tension, Koski said. “I am
directly involved with [Hemlock] Semiconductor. They are so frustrated.”
Semiconductor’s engineers are frustrated with the state’s requirements for
relocating county drains that run through the company property, he said.
“Does anybody disagree that it is a good thing to get an open ditch away from a
chemical plant? I spent $2 million of Semiconductor’s money,” Koski said. “They
wanted it moved, and I did it without a state permit.”
That was two years ago. Now, Koski said, he is in the middle of moving another
drain for Hemlock, again without DEQ approval.
“I say sue me,” Koski said. “If they sue me they are suing [Hemlock]
Semiconductor, and the governor doesn’t want to do that.”
Peg Bostwick, chief of the DEQ’s Wetlands, Lakes and Streams unit, disagrees
with Koski’s interpretation of the law.
She said that several years ago her office “bent over backwards” to work with
Hemlock as it tried to secure permits for a project that would have a large
impact on a high quality wetland.
“Our people went out there and they were taken aback when they realized [the]
county [was] doing work without permit from the state. There is certainly a
violation of wetlands law,” she said of Koski’s actions for Hemlock. “Obviously
we don’t want to run into these type of adversarial relationships. It’s not an
issue of letting him or not — he never applied for a permit.”
Bostwick said the department is “still investigating and looking into” how to
respond to Koski’s sidestepping of state regulation.
Under state law a person who “willfully or recklessly” violates wetland law more
than once can be charged with a felony, fined up to $50,000 per day of
violation, and sentenced to up to two years in jail.
For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.