2003 Senate Bill 560 ↩

Senate Roll Call 261: Passed

To authorize new annual groundwater discharge permit requirements and fees for some 1,400 facilities that discharge wastewater onto the ground or into groundwater, as opposed to the 950 previously required to have a permit. Previously, there was no fee. The bill would apply to facilities which discharge water, even if the water is clean or is only moved from one place to another. The fees would be set by the Department of Environmental Quality at a rate high enough to cover the cost of an expanded groundwater discharge permit program, which the department says would cost some $3.6 million; the bill would levy some $1.3 million in fees. They would apply to any entity which discharges water, even if the water is clean or is only moved from one place to another. This bill is one of many authorizing fee increases totaling some $125.5 million which Gov. Jennifer Granholm is proposing to close a gap between state spending and expected revenue in the Fiscal Year 2003-2004 budget.