STATEWIDE WATER MONITORING PROGRAM - S.B. 108 (S-1): COMMITTEE SUMMARY
Senate Bill 108 (Substitute S-1)
Sponsor: Senator Dave Jaye
Committee: Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs
Date Completed: 3-6-01
CONTENT
The bill would amend Part 31 (Water Resources Protection) of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to require the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to implement a statewide water quality monitoring program, which would include identifying sources and locations of sewer and on-site disposal system discharges, assessing their effect on water quality, posting the findings on the DEQ's website, and providing the findings to the Legislature. The bill also would amend Part 88 (Water Pollution Prevention and Monitoring) to require the expenditure of money from the Clean Water Fund to implement the statewide monitoring program.
Specifically, the DEQ would have to develop and implement a statewide monitoring program to identify specifically the sources and locations of discharges of untreated sewage or partially treated sewage from sewer systems onto land or into State waters, and discharges from on-site disposal systems.
In implementing the program, the DEQ would have to do the following:
-- Assess the effect on water quality due to identified discharges.
-- When a discharge was identified under the monitoring program, contact the city, village, or township and the county in which the discharge occurred and provide the source and location of the discharge and the DEQ's assessment of the effect on water quality due to the discharge.
-- Post the findings of the monitoring program on the DEQ's website, including the sources and location of the discharges and the DEQ's assessment of the effect on water quality due to them.
-- Annually provide the findings of the monitoring program to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and the standing committees of the Legislature with jurisdiction over natural resources and the environment.
The DEQ would have to review and evaluate the monitoring program at least every three years. If the DEQ determined that changes should be made to the program to improve its effectiveness, the DEQ would have to implement those changes.
The bill provides that the DEQ would have to spend money from the Clean Water Fund, upon appropriation, to implement the statewide monitoring program.
Under the Act, the DEQ must spend money from the Fund, upon appropriation, to implement programs described in the DEQ's document entitled, "A Strategic Environmental Quality Monitoring Program for Michigan's Surface Waters". The bill provides that the DEQ would have to evaluate this document on the same schedule that it would evaluate the statewide monitoring program.
MCL 324.8807 et al. - Legislative Analyst: N. Nagata
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would result in an indeterminate increase in Department expenditures for monitoring activities. The magnitude of the increase would depend on annual appropriations, and on the extent to which the activities and responsibilities required by the bill are being carried out currently under existing discharge notification provisions of Part 31 of the Act and with the $2.5 million appropriated from the Clean Water Fund in FY 2000-01 for water quality monitoring.
The Clean Water Fund, the proposed funding source for the monitoring program, under the bill, is supported primarily with a $90,000,000 allocation from the Clean Michigan Initiative bond fund. To date, $43,700,000 has been appropriated from the Fund, leaving $46,300,000 uncommitted.
- Fiscal Analyst: P. GrahamS0102\s108sb
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.