EGLE details scope of Michigan's contaminated-site backlog, urges consistent funding

LANSING, Mich. — Mike Miller, division director for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy's (EGLE) Remediation and Redevelopment Division, told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy that the state is actively managing a large inventory of contaminated properties and needs consistent funding to sustain progress.

Miller told senators the department and its district offices manage four main cleanup programs: Part 201 of Michigan's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (state hazardous substance releases to ground), Part 213 (leaking underground storage tanks, principally petroleum), the state Brownfield Redevelopment Program (grants, loans and tax-increment financing for redevelopment costs tied to contamination), and the federal Superfund (CERCLA) program. "The average time that a site is on the national priority list is 40 years," Miller said, describing Superfund sites as "the worst of the worst."

The report to the subcommittee said Michigan currently has roughly 27,000 sites on its statewide inventory; about 17,000 to 18,000 are tracked under Part 201 and nearly 8,000 under Part 213. Miller and other EGLE staff said roughly half of known contaminated sites are "orphaned" (no financially viable liable party). The division noted it is actively working on about 1,700 sites statewide, roughly 6% of the total inventory, and that about 1,100 sites are categorized as "risk present and immediate." Miller said the inventory grows because property-transaction reports and routine reporting add roughly 600 newly identified Part 201 sites a year and 100–200 new Part 213 releases annually.

Miller and Deputy Director Travis Bosco emphasized that steady funding matters. Miller said the division currently has funds allocated to hundreds of projects and described how start-stop funding can waste earlier investigative work. Bosco told the subcommittee the governor's budget proposes an increase to the solid-waste surcharge (sometimes called a "tipping fee") that would phase in and allocate revenue across contaminated-site cleanup, local recycling and host-community payments. Bosco described the proposed distribution as roughly 55% to contaminated-site cleanup, 20% to formula aid to local governments, 15% to host communities that host landfills and 10% to materials-management planning.

Senators pressed EGLE staff on technical issues and local impacts. Senator Tom Bair asked how the recent increase in Part 213 closures related to data cleanup and process changes; Miller said the division has adopted a risk-based corrective action approach consistent with national practice and expects that improved guidance and processes will permit more efficient closures. Senator Erika Altman and others asked whether Michigan's higher counts of leaking-tank sites compared with other states reflect more investigation or more historic infrastructure; Miller noted Michigan historically had very large numbers of gasoline outlets and older steel tanks, and said state program differences and historic density of facilities are factors.

On public access to records, EGLE staff described an ongoing effort to digitize remediation files. A department staff member identified as Devin said roughly 1.6 million documents are now digitized and available, and that the department is fulfilling tens of thousands of public records requests annually; the department reported it receives roughly 20,000 FOIA requests a year and that a large share seek remediation records. Devin said the department logs about 15,000 monthly downloads from the digitized site records. EGLE asked the subcommittee for funding to accelerate digitization and indexing so the remaining paper files can be posted online within five years rather than decades.

On risk thresholds, EGLE staff told the committee that Michigan's statutory cleanup criteria are based on a cancer-risk standard of 1-in-100,000. "By definition, clean is anything below criteria," Miller said when describing how the programs evaluate exposure pathways (drinking water, vapor intrusion, direct contact, surface-water connections) and how restricted-use covenants can be used when future use could increase exposure.

The committee's formal business included approval of the subcommittee's minutes from its March 13, 2025 meeting (moved by Senator Singh, supported by Senator Bayer; approved without objection). The meeting concluded after questions and discussion.

The presentation highlighted the scale and complexity of Michigan's contaminated-site workload, EGLE's reliance on a mix of state and federal programs, and the department's request for steady funding and accelerated digitization to sustain recent gains.