Corporate Fascism triumphs: Failed public policy: wetlands not being preserved

The casual observer traveling through Michigan can easily see the
inevitable sequence: older inner-city properties degrade and empty
out, builders offer newer locations at attractive prices and the
phenomena of urban sprawl is kept in perpetual motion. Americans say
they are in favor of protecting environmentally sensitive areas but
the truth of the facts shows they are unwilling to pay for that
protection. Forcing developers to fix-up or rebuild older locations is
an expensive, unpopular commitment due to the constraints of working
in a crowed urban setting. The lots are scattered across 90-100 square
miles inside of what is largely regarded by developers as risky
investment territory.

So, off to the hinterlands to search for new, untouched space where
the SUV's roam and the skies are not cloudy all day. Much of this
hinterland includes precious wetlands which are needed to produce a
very important product; drinking water. NO Virginia, water does not
come from a plastic jug or bottle.

One could examine this issue at length, a Google search for wetlands
[ http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=wetlands ]reveals
a lot of information. <<-------((

Michigan fails to preserve wetlands

Environment hurt as state enforcement sputters; restored land doesn't
measure up

Michigan has lost hundreds of wetlands to development, land that is
vital to everything from providing homes for animals to preventing
pesticides from seeping into the groundwater.

Lax state oversight has diluted a law mandating the replacement of
every inch of wetland destroyed by construction. More than half of the
775 wetlands that were supposed to be built in the past decade are
inadequate. Some are too dry, too small, lack the proper drainage or
have the wrong type of foliage.

At least 125 were never built, according to state records. 

"It's sad that the wetlands are gone ... and it makes me mad that
nobody is really watching," said Nancy Orewyler, a Chesterfield
Township homemaker and environmentalist.

The 1979 law requiring the construction of man-made wetlands for lost
natural ones is tough to enforce because of manpower. The state has 32
environmental inspectors to oversee 2,200 wetlands -- almost 70
apiece. There are five inspectors total in sprawl-choked Wayne,
Oakland and Macomb counties.

Michigan officials said they're working to remedy the situation
uncovered by a 2001 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The state has since hired five more inspectors and plans to
hire another one this month in Livonia.

That still may not be enough to control the problem, said Robert
Zbiciak, an environmental manager with the state Department of
Environmental Quality.

"We do the best we can with the resources we are given," said Mary
Ellen Kromwell, assistant chief of the DEQ's Geological and Land
Management Division.

Developers have no interest in destroying wetlands without replacing
them, said Steve Perlman, a West Bloomfield Township home builder and
president of the Building Industry Association of Southeast Michigan.

"When properly identified and clearly defined, we make every effort to
protect these natural habitats," he said.


Replacements fall short


The 2001 study found that 78 percent of developers in a statewide
random sample of 159 wetlands projects ignored at least some of the
conditions they were supposed to meet in replacing wetlands. The
replacement wetlands in the study were built between 1987 and 1998.

Sixty-five percent of the sample wetlands in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb
counties were deficient.

Few poor-quality wetlands listed in the study have been corrected. 

"These cases are so old it would be difficult to get enforcement
action now," said Andy Hartz, an analyst with the Michigan Department
of Environmental Quality.

Of the 11 projects studied in area suburbs, seven were labeled "failed
wetlands" by the state because they were too wet, too dry or stocked
with plants not strong enough to survive. Five of the seven were in
Wayne County and two were in Oakland County. Others across the region
were cited for not using enough topsoil and other less serious
problems.

Peg Bostwick, wetlands program specialist for the Department of
Environmental Quality, said the state has no figures on how many
wetlands were supposed to be built since the 2001 report came out.
There also are no data showing how many of them are substandard and
how many have not been built.

The agency, "given our limited resources, has not made a concerted
effort to track down" violators since the 2001 study, the DEQ's
Kromwell said.

Inspectors continue to give higher priority to catching people
building illegal docks, seawalls and culverts and investigating
complaints of illegal bridges and disputes among inland lake neighbors
over water levels, Kromwell said.


Wetland swaps fail


Municipalities sometimes destroy their own wetlands. Romulus was
supposed to build a new 12-acre wetland near Interstate 94 and Middle
Belt to make up for one destroyed in 1991, when Smith Road was
extended, state records show. Romulus never replaced the wetland, and
the state learned of this only because a resident complained.

Since the statute of limitations has expired, Romulus never has been
prosecuted or sued, even though failure to replace a wetland is
punishable in Michigan with fines up to $25,000 and a year in jail for
the first offense. Any officer of the city could be sued or jailed
under the law.

The maximum fine is $50,000 per day and up to two years in jail for
each subsequent offense.

Romulus kept promising to build the replacement wetland, but it never
happened, said Mary Vanderlaan, district director for the Geological
and Land Management Division of the DEQ.

But Tim Keyes, economic development director for Romulus, said last
week the city now wants to create a replacement wetland, even though
it no longer is legally required to do so. The current administration
was unaware of the 12-year-old case, Keyes said.

"We can't answer for what the prior administration did or didn't do,
but we will meet with the (state) to comply," Keyes said. "We want to
clear this up. It's not our intent to take advantage."

Repeated efforts to reach officials who ran Romulus 12 years ago were
unsuccessful.

The largest suburban wetland destruction cited by state officials is
the loss of 30 acres on a landfill construction job in Canton Township
by Wayne Disposal in 1992.

Wayne Disposal, under an agreement made with the Department of
Environmental Quality when it sought a permit, built a 60.4-acre
wetland at a different location. But the state agency never did a
follow-up inspection, and the 2001 state study labeled Wayne
Disposal's replacement wetland a failure. There are at least 475 cases
in Michigan on record in which replacement wetlands are deemed
deficient or substandard.

Michigan's showcase wetland swap began at Detroit Metropolitan
Airport, where 343 acres were wiped out to make way for the Midfield
Terminal. The replacement 467-acre "Cross Winds" wetland, in Sumpter
Township, is considered the state's success model, Vanderlaan said.

The loss of any wetlands is "a crime," said Doug Martz, chairman of
the Macomb County Water Quality Board. Martz is worried that a
170-acre wetland along Metropolitan Parkway between Crocker and
Jefferson in Harrison Township is a prime target for abuse because
"it's secluded, with a 500-year-old tree there and deer, raccoons,
foxes and ducks."

Developers have expressed an interest in buying the property, and
Harrison Township is seeking state grants to buy it to stave off any
building. Because it is pristine and centrally located, the wetland is
an attractive target for home builders who want to offer buyers a
view, Martz said.


Too few inspectors


Under state environmental guidelines, when a natural wetland is wiped
out, a replacement at least twice the size of the original is supposed
to be built. By law, the Department of Environmental Quality is
supposed to inspect the new wetland to make sure the marshland and its
plants flourish.

But Zbiciak, of the Department of Environmental Quality, said
developers sometimes don't build replacement wetlands because they
believe they won't get caught. And they know the state agency has too
few inspectors to police every wetland in the suburbs.

The long odds against getting caught for not building a replacement
wetland or creating one that is substandard tempt developers to do the
wrong thing, Zbiciak said.

"Put yourself in the place of a developer," he said. "It's going to
cost you $100,000 to build a wetland, and there's a 75 percent chance
that no one will come and look to see if you did it and a 75 percent
chance you won't get caught if you don't build the wetland."


Study prompted change


The environmental dilemma might be more egregious than state officials
can acknowledge. That's because three years of records, from 1990-92,
are missing from the southeast Environmental Quality office in
Livonia, said Zbiciak, blaming personnel turnover and sloppiness.

"They had a skeletal staff back then, and ... there was no central
depository," he said. "Each office kept their own records."

Martin Jannereth, chief of the Great Lakes Shoreline Section of the
DEQ, said the scope of the wetlands problem is linked to an inability
to enforce rules 20 years ago.

"The applications came in, and the permits were issued. Once the
permit was issued, we figured the project was done. We weren't
following up, but we have changed our procedures considerably" since
the statewide wetlands study came out, Jannereth said. "We realized
right away we had a problem."

The changes, the DEQ's Kromwell and Jannereth said, include: 

* Requiring "compliance inspections" to make sure new wetlands are
made properly. But with the manpower shortage at the state agency,
there is still a gap in enforcement, Zbiciak said.

* Requiring monitoring reports every six months. Every five years, a
separate monitoring report needs to be submitted to the state showing
the wetland has been built properly, Kromwell said.

* Requiring applicants to post a bond of $50,000 per acre with the
state before they wipe out the original wetland and promise to build a
new one. The state can keep the money to create a new wetland itself
under this change if it learns there has been an abuse. Since the 2001
study, $17.7 million in performance bonds has been collected from
developers to build man-made wetlands if they don't comply. But so
far, none of the money has needed to be spent, Kromwell said. By law,
the money cannot be redirected to boost staffing levels, she said.


Environmental value


Wetlands are lands flooded by surface or groundwater to serve as a
habitat for plants and wildlife that cannot survive in dry or semidry
land conditions.

Wetlands in Michigan vary widely because of regional differences in
soils, climate, water and vegetation. They are needed, Vanderlaan
said, because they act as a filter, straining out impurities that wash
off the land during storms. Although the DEQ in the 2001 study
reviewed only wetlands of 1 to 40 acres, statewide they range in size
from a quarter of an acre to more than 3,000 acres.

That makes them invaluable in suburbs like Troy, where Lon Ullmann,
founder of the Wildlife and Wetland Coalition, is fighting to spare a
wetland near Square Lake and John R.

A developer has been trying to get Troy to swap 5 acres the city owns
near Square Lake with 5 acres the developer owns, Ullmann said.

Ullmann has gone to three public meetings to complain and so far has
blocked the swap, which would result in the destruction of a wetland
in favor of a mitigated wetland.

"This is valuable wetland," Ullmann said. "There's a blue heron
rookery, and if this guy does his project, you can kiss that rookery
goodbye. (His) intent is to bulldoze every inch of it."


Curbing abuse


State officials say they want to stem further abuses of wetlands
because of their value to the environment.

"They provide a lot of water storage during rainstorms, and rainwater
also seeps into the ground and recharges aquifers," Vanderlaan said.

Vanderlaan started a crackdown on violators in 1999 that has resulted
in six developers being forced to build new wetlands in Macomb and St.
Clair counties.

The most recent case involved 4 acres of wetland being developed by
the Elro Corp. of Troy in Shelby Township's Wildwood Pointe II
subdivision near 24 Mile.

Elro took out a state wetlands permit in January 2000, but did not
replace a 1.6-acre natural wetland until pressed to do so by DEQ
inspectors, said Mark Richardson, environmental prosecutor for Macomb
County.

Elro officials declined comment. 

But Jeff King, co-owner of Grand Rapids-based King & MacGregor
Environmental, which monitors and builds about 80 wetlands a year
statewide for Elro and other developers, said most developers want to
provide adequate replacements because "the public has an interest in
maintaining wetlands."

Developer Ed Karam of Washington Township tries to accommodate
wetlands in his projects whenever possible.

"I always work around them," Karam said. "I've found that if you are
up-front with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality from
the beginning and not to try to hide things, you are a lot better off.
If you have a problem, they are there to try to solve it."

Bloomfield Hills builder Robert R. Jones believes the failure to build
some man-made wetlands has been an oversight. He said state guidelines
requiring replacement wetlands be built on land that is undisturbed
for one year make it easy to make a mistake.

Detroit News Staff Writer Tenisha Mercer contributed to this report.
You can reach Gene Schabath at (586) 468-3614 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


)))--->>>>
For more on the benefits of wetlands explore the many links at these
sites:
http://www.detnews.com/2003/metro/0311/23/a02-332557.htm

http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/

http://h2osparc.wq.ncsu.edu/info/wetlands/

http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/fun_val.pdf
A pretty little brouchure from the Bushites massaging the hypocrisy
but still gives some quick facts.

http://www.epa.gov/watertrain/wetlands/
This is about as good as it gets for info;  surprising the Bushites
can be so hypocritical about the truth they supposedly follow at all
costs. I guess its just a matter of what truths and outside the gates
of reality where the Bushites roam and the skies are sulky all day, no
one can tell what the truth is.