State Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) takes questions from reporters following the 2024 State of the State Address. | Kyle Davidson
In 1998 Michigan lawmakers approved the Clean Michigan Initiative, a $675 million bonding effort aimed at supporting environmental, health and natural resource protection programs across the state. While the program’s funds were nearly depleted by 2018, State Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) has introduced two bills in a bid to revive the program.
The initial program allowed the state to issue bonds borrowing up to $675 million to support efforts like environmental cleanup and remediation. However, Farhat’s effort — House Bills 5934 and 5935 — would allow the state to borrow up to $10 billion for updates to water and sewer infrastructure, air pollution reduction and the redevelopment of contaminated sites among other efforts.
“There’s different areas of our state that we need to modernize, right? And not just modernize, that we need to enhance for the quality of life of Michiganders, right? And so that’s what we’re trying to accomplish with this legislation, is looking at these different tranches, these different specific areas that we can make big investments in that’ll last for the long run,” Farhat told Michigan Advance.
According to an August, 2017 factsheet from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), now the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), $385 million from the initiative went into environmental cleanup and redeveloping brownfields, properties that are contaminated or could have been contaminated by hazardous substances.
Additionally, $165 million of the bond was used for water quality, $20 million went toward pollution prevention, $100 million was used in support of state and local parks and $5 million was used for lead remediation.
EGLE Communications Manager Hugh McDiarmid Jr. told the Advance the department is aware of an estimated 26,000 contaminated sites in the state, with about half of these sites identified as “orphan sites,” where a responsible party cannot be identified to fund the cleanup.
Farhat said cleaning up contaminated brownfields is a big focus for him and Michigan’s environmental community. Other members of the Legislature have also taken action to encourage redevelopment of brownfield sites, with members of the state Senate successfully passing laws to support housing development through the state’s brownfield development program, and State Reps. Cynthia Neeley (D-Flint) and Curt VanDerwall (R-Ludington) crafting laws to create a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes system for solar energy projects, with smaller incentives for development on brownfields and state-owned lands.
“We can offer aggressive tax incentives. We can offer, you know, abatements and things of that nature. But there’s a lot of orphan sites, sites that have been abandoned, that are actively contaminated, that are damaging our state’s ecosystem and environment, that are causing quality of life issues,” Farhat said.
“In a lot of ways, you know, it falls onto us and to the state, it falls onto us to make sure we’re doing the right thing. And if we can’t hold the polluters accountable, then making sure that at least we’re cleaning up these sites and mitigating the damage that’s being done,” Farhat said.
By opening up funding for various initiatives including water infrastructure, Great Lakes preservation, small business grants and more, Farhat expects the program will create thousands of jobs, including in communities that have had to bear the brunt of pollution or have been historically disinvested in.
“There’ll be thousands of new opportunities for people to get involved. There’ll be new brownfield sites that are revitalized and that people can invest in now, start a business and generate economic activity that way. There’ll be renewed hope in neighborhoods that have historically been overlooked, because of the high penetration costs, or the high cost to penetrate that market,” Farhat said.
“What we’re saying as a state is not only is it a moral good to clean up these sites that are contaminated, leaching into the water table, damaging quality of life for neighborhoods, there’s also a business good there,” Farhat said. “Now these sites can be turned around and used and repurposed and made fit for purpose, right? That now neighborhoods can rely on clean water and in turn attract entrepreneurs that want to invest in that area.”
While the bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation, Farhat said his focus is making sure the policy is ready for when it comes up for a vote, and that it is able to touch every corner of the state.
“[Whether] you are in the urban area that has a contaminated site, or you’re in rural Michigan that wants to see your natural resources, our great natural resources, our lakes preserved, this is a piece of legislation for you,” Farhat said.