Posts tagged ‘DEQ’
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The last few weeks have been busy ones in Michigan environmental news. The big story out of Lansing is Thursday’s announcement by Gov. Jennifer Granholm of the merger of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). By merging the departments Granholm reverses the actions of prior Governor Jim Engler, who created the DEQ by separating its functions from that of the DNR.
As reporting in the Traverse City Record-Eagle makes clear, the merger will result in the creation of a new joint department to be called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. The decision goes into effect on January 17th. Under the conditions of this new order, the governor will hold the power and authority to appoint both the department’s director, along with the state agriculture director.
In general, Michigan environmental groups are supportive of the governor’s decision to pursue the merger, although several have specific concerns with the details of the operational consolidation and also with the decision to leave the appointment of the director in the hands of the governor.
Also in environmental news impacting Michigan anglers, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that, “Huron-Manistee National Forests officials will complete a court-ordered environmental impact statement for a proposed natural gas well near the Mason Tract, a remote state wilderness area along the South Branch of the Au Sable River in Crawford County, east of Grayling.”
This has been a keystone issue for the Anglers of the Au Sable and the Michigan Sierra Club, who have been pursuing vigorous court action to keep Savoy Energy of Traverse City from drilling wells in the boundaries of the Mason Tract — specifically, “the Anglers group had concerns about noise, spills, loss of old-growth forest and the well’s proximity to wetlands near the Mason Tract, a 4,679-acre parcel donated to the state in 1954 under the condition it remain wilderness.”
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The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Great Lakes Commission have chosen six organizations to receive volunteer water quality monitoring grants as part of the Michigan Clean Water Corps program. The six organizations will share nearly $50,000 in grant funding. Grants were awarded to the following organizations:
1. Jackson County Conservation District : Monitoring is to involve 16 sites in the Upper Grand River and tributaries including Cahaogen Creek, Huntoon Creek, Portage River, and Sandstone Creek.
2. Superior Watershed Partnership: Six sites are to be monitored within the Millecoquins River Watershed.
3. Muskegon County Conservation District: Monitoring is to involve eight sites within the Duck Creek Watershed.
4. Clinton River Watershed Council: Three additional sites within the North Branch Clinton River watershed will be monitored.
5. Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited/Kalamazoo Valley Chapter: Initially six sites within the Spring Brook and Dickinson Creek watersheds will be monitored along with the development of a more extensive monitoring plan that can potentially receive full funding in the near future.
6. Branch County Conservation District: The grant funding will be used to develop a Coldwater River Watershed volunteer-based monitoring plan that can potentially receive full funding in the near future.
Funding awarded through the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program is to be used to provide training and support for volunteers to collect quality data on the state’s water resources. As evinced by the programs that were selected, much of the funding will go to collect information on the state of Michigan trout streams.
