Michigan Laws 324.20102 – Legislative finding and declaration
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The legislature hereby finds and declares:
(a) That there exist in this state certain facilities containing hazardous substances that pose a danger to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment of this state.
Terms Used In Michigan Laws 324.20102
- Attorney general: means the department of the attorney general. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
- Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Department: means the director or his or her designee to whom the director delegates a power or duty by written instrument. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
- Environmental contamination: means the release of a hazardous substance, or the potential release of a discarded hazardous substance, in a quantity which is or may become injurious to the environment or to the public health, safety, or welfare. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
- Facility: means any area, place, parcel or parcels of property, or portion of a parcel of property where a hazardous substance in excess of the concentrations that satisfy the cleanup criteria for unrestricted residential use has been released, deposited, disposed of, or otherwise comes to be located. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
- Hazardous substance: means 1 or more of the following, but does not include fruit, vegetable, or field crop residuals or processing by-products, or aquatic plants, that are applied to the land for an agricultural use or for use as an animal feed, if the use is consistent with generally accepted agricultural management practices at the time of the application or stamp sands:
(i) Any substance that the department demonstrates, on a case by case basis, poses an unacceptable risk to the public health, safety, or welfare, or the environment, considering the fate of the material, dose-response, toxicity, or adverse impact on natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.20101local unit: means a municipality or county. See Michigan Laws 324.301 Local unit of government: means a county, city, township, or village, an agency of a local unit of government, an authority or any other public body or entity created by or pursuant to state law. See Michigan Laws 324.20101 natural resources: means land, surface water, groundwater, subsurface strata, air, fish, wildlife, or biota within this state. See Michigan Laws 324.20101 Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 324.301 person who is liable: includes a person who is described as being subject to liability in section 20126. See Michigan Laws 324.20101 Release: includes , but is not limited to, any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of a hazardous substance into the environment, or the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing a hazardous substance. See Michigan Laws 324.20101 Response activity: means evaluation, interim response activity, remedial action, demolition, providing an alternative water supply, or the taking of other actions necessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare, or the environment or the natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.20101 state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o this part: includes "rules promulgated under this part". See Michigan Laws 324.20101 threat of release: means any circumstance that may reasonably be anticipated to cause a release. See Michigan Laws 324.20101 United States: shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
(b) That there is a need to provide for a method of eliminating the danger of environmental contamination caused by the existence of hazardous substances at facilities within the state.
(c) That it is the purpose of this part to provide for appropriate response activity to eliminate unacceptable risks to public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment from environmental contamination at facilities within the state.
(d) That there is a need for additional administrative and judicial remedies to supplement existing statutory and common law remedies.
(e) That the responsibility for the cost of response activities pertaining to a release or threat of release and repairing injury, destruction, or loss to natural resources caused by a release or threat of release should not be placed upon the public except when funds cannot be collected from, or a response activity cannot be undertaken by, a person liable under this part.
(f) That liability for response activities to address environmental contamination should be imposed upon those persons who are responsible for the environmental contamination.
(g) That to the extent possible, consistent with requirements under this part and rules promulgated under this part, response activities shall be undertaken by persons liable under this part.
(h) That this part is intended to provide remedies for facilities posing any threat to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment, regardless of whether the release or threat of release of a hazardous substance occurred before or after October 13, 1982, the effective date of the former environmental response act, Act No. 307 of the Public Acts of 1982, and for this purpose this part shall be given retroactive application. However, criminal and civil penalties provided in this part shall apply to violations of this part that occur after July 1, 1991.
(i) That a facility that is owned by the federal government, the state, or a local unit of government, or a facility where a release or threat of release is caused by the federal government, the state, or a local unit of government, should not be treated differently in terms of the expenditure of money for response activities than any facility.
(j) That if a person who is liable under section 20126 is the state or a local unit of government, this part should be enforced by the attorney general and the department in the same manner as it would be for any other person who is liable under section 20126.
(k) That this part is not intended to impose penalties or exemplary damages upon parties conducting response activities pursuant to a decree or order to which the United States is a party.
(l) That this part is intended to foster the redevelopment and reuse of vacant manufacturing facilities and abandoned industrial sites that have economic development potential, if that redevelopment or reuse assures the protection of the public health, safety, welfare, and the environment.
(m) That it is the intent of the legislature that, in implementing this part, the department shall act reasonably in its exercise of professional judgment.