Posted on January 19, 2011 by Jack Shumate
When Michigan adopted the Environmental Response Act in 1995, codifying numerous statutes into a comprehensive code, people throughout the United States hailed Part 201 as the most business-friendly environmental remediation statute in the country. Part 201 of the new Michigan Environmental Response Act (MERA) largely did away with status liability and made it possible for a new owner or occupant, through the use of a vehicle called a Baseline Environmental Assessment (BEA) to take title or occupancy of contaminated property free of liability so long as it did not exacerbate the situation or expose occupants of the property to undue risk.
Almost from the moment that MERA was enacted, staff of the Michigan Environmental Regulatory Agency began to adopt and implement regulations making it increasingly difficult to obtain an approved BEA for industrial, and some commercial, properties. Regulations such as the Draconian ones regulating groundwater-surfacewater interface and vapor intrusion discouraged the re-use and redevelopment of contaminated corporate properties. Some of the district offices of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) even went so far as to flatly refuse to even consider review of a draft BEA seeking approval for a new use of contaminated property if the new owner or occupant was likely to generate any contamination identical to pre-existing contamination.
The debate between MDEQ staff and environmental groups on one side and business interests on the other raged until late 2010, when a lame duck Legislature approved, and lame duck Governor signed, an amendatory act making significant changes in Part 201. Now, the statute – and, hopefully, the regulations implementing the revised statute – will bring the Michigan procedure much more closely in line with the Federal All Appropriate Inquiry rules. It is believed that this will encourage Brownfields redevelopment and badly needed business expansion in the state.
Attached is a brief summary prepared by The Dragun Corporation, environmental consultants, highlighting some of the most significant changes – and also pointing out a few potential pitfalls.
For further information contact Jack Shumate at shumate@butzel.com or 248.258.1405.
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