EGLE director outlines $1.04 billion budget, highlights lead-pipe removal, tipping-fee proposal and records digitization

Director Kevin Roos of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) told a Michigan House subcommittee that the department's current budget and the governor's fiscal 2026 proposal prioritize drinking-water investments, contaminated-site cleanup and modernization of records and permitting systems.

Roos said EGLE's fiscal 2025 gross budget is $1.04 billion with $261 million in general funds and that federal grants currently make up roughly 45% of agency funding. "Over the past few years, the agency on behalf of the administration ... has invested $5,300,000,000 in upgrading that infrastructure," Roos said, citing water infrastructure investments and saying those projects have supported an estimated 75,000 jobs.

The presentation focused on four priorities in the proposed fiscal 2026 executive recommendation: water infrastructure (with a particular emphasis on lead service-line removal), preventing and cleaning up contamination (including brownfield redevelopment), strengthening energy infrastructure and supporting local communities, and modernizing and improving transparency through records digitization.

Roos described the lead-service-line proposal in the executive recommendation as a combination of one-time and ongoing general-fund support: $50 million one-time and $30 million ongoing aimed specifically…