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HAPPY NEW YEAR
And we have reason for a great celebration!
As reported in MIRS:
Supremes Rule With Enviros In Au Sable Case
The state Supreme Court ruled today 4-3 against a plan to pump partially contaminated water from a polluted site into the AuSable River in a case decided with only three days left before the Democrats technically lose a majority on the high court.
Departing Justice Alton DAVIS wrote in the majority opinion that Merit Energy Company's plan to clean up a contaminated groundwater plume in the Manistee watershed by shooting air through it and putting the final product into the AuSable was unreasonable.
Merit's proposal, Davis wrote, discharge contaminated water into an uncontaminated watershed.
"It would be unconscionable and destructive for this Court to determine that it is reasonable to spread dangerous contamination throughout Michigan as we have described," Davis wrote. "The necessarily resulting harm would be spread not only to immediate downstream users but, in the end, to anyone in Michigan who relies, directly or indirectly, on our state's water remaining clean."
In Anglers of the AuSable v. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) (No. 138863-6), Davis overturned precedent in Preserve the Dunes by saying the DEQ could be sued for violating the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) when it issued Merit a permit to conduct the cleanup in the first place.
The opinion was immediately tagged by dissenting Justice Robert YOUNG Jr. as "extraordinarily lawless and profoundly dangerous" because it dealt with a case the court had stated at least twice this year was "moot."
"This case represents one of the most shocking examples of the assertion of power that is not grounded in the constitution or any statute," Young wrote. "This case is simply an empty vehicle to reach desired policy results."
Young wrote that under this opinion, the DEQ in the future may be sued for issuing a permit that already was challenged under appropriate administrative hearings.
He wrote that it usurps the ability of the DEQ's environmental experts to determine what action needs to be taken regarding natural resources and creates a new rule governing water rights "out of whole cloth."
In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Marilyn KELLY stuck up for Davis' overturning of Preserve the Dunes, by saying that precedent set by that ruling is "unworkable" because it usurped the Legislature's intent regarding allowing people to sue for environmental harm and represented "an abrupt and largely unexplained departure from precedent."
More coverage to follow in weeks ahead.
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