Michigan Power Plants need to Clean Up

[Willi]

St. Clair County electric generation facilities discharge yearly around
12,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into local waterways.
They include 124 pounds of arsenic compounds,
10,200 pounds of barium compounds,
290 pounds of chromium compounds,
36 pounds of lead,
6 pounds of mercury,
and 122 pounds of nickel.

Wayne and Monroe counties, where DTE also operates power plants,
also has large releases of toxic pollution.
Wayne had 4,205 pounds of toxic pollutants yearly from power plants
released into surface waters and
Monroe released 30,847 pounds of pollutants yearly into surface waters.

[Gpwrangler]

Probably better clean up all the asbestos from all the scrapped and vandalized buildings in town first.

Power plants burn fuel and there is bound to be some hazardous stuff left over. They are a lot cleaner than they used to be. We really need more nuclear plants though.

[Willi]

Why should water come second ?
When will it become a priority, next year, next decade ?

The House passed the Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act
that would ultimately eliminate requirements for the
Environmental Protection Agency to review and update
hazardous-waste disposal regulations in a timely manner,
and make it more difficult for the government to compel
companies that deal with toxic substances
to carry proper insurance for cleanups, pushing the cost on to taxpayers.

In addition, the bill would result in slower response time
in the case of a disaster, requiring increased consultation
with states before the federal government calls
for cleanup of Superfund sites.

The bill amends both the Solid Waste Disposal Act
and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act
- often referred to as Superfund, which was created in 1980
to hold polluter industries accountable for funding the cleanup of hazardous-waste sites.