Moolenaar's dioxin bill up in the Senate

By Kathie Marchlewski, Midland Daily News
12/05/2006

State Rep. John Moolenaar's latest dioxin-related legislation passed in the House last summer, and could be headed to the Senate before year-end.

The Senate's Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs committee is expected to conduct a hearing on House Bill 5872 today. The bill would require the state to recalculate its dioxin contamination cleanup criteria based on a report expected to be released in upcoming months by the National Academy of Sciences.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality already incorporates new information when it is made available, spokesman Bob McCann said in June when Moolenaar's bill passed unanimously in the House.

Moolenaar said the bill will create reassurance. "I see this as a measure of public confidence," he said. "It will be a statement of law that will require (reconsideration)."

The NAS review of the Environmental Protection Agency's 15-year-long dioxin reassessment was released in July. It confirmed that dioxin is a toxic substance, but questioned the level at which it is harmful and the methods used to figure it out.

Moolenaar said he just received the agenda for the committee meeting Monday, and wasn't sure this morning whether he would be able to attend. The House Appropriations Committee, of which he is a member, is scheduled to meet at the same time.

©Midland Daily News 2006

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