Opinion | Aggregate mining bills threaten our environment, waterways and local control

For the second lame duck session in a row, the favorite Christmas wish of mining conglomerates and opponents of local control has found its way before the Legislature. House Bills 6108 through 6111 would risk the health of our environment by stripping local governments’ authority to make zoning decisions for the communities they represent. This plan would create a bureaucratic rubber stamp for mining operations across our state, with little to no consideration of the potential risks.

No one is questioning the importance of aggregate mining. It’s an essential industry that supplies us with the materials we need to maintain our infrastructure. However, just because I acknowledge the importance of mining operations doesn’t mean I’ll throw away my values and allow questionable companies to pollute our communities, devastate our forests, and gut local officials’ ability to make decisions on behalf of the people that elected them.

We only have to look to our friends in Metamora Township to see just how real the threat is. The newest aggregate plan would cripple all local opposition to a proposed 496-acre gravel mining operation that would destroy over 400 acres of forest. The project would also be located directly above a toxic mixture of dangerous gasses that, if ruptured, further risks the public health and nearby waterways. 

One of the key factors a local municipality must consider when deciding to approve or deny an aggregate operation is whether the project will have “very serious consequences” on a community. I don’t see how chopping down almost 400 acres of trees, the risk of toxic gasses, or another devastating water pollution crisis in the Flint River does not result in very serious consequences for the greater Metamora community. Luckily that’s an argument that those opposed to the mining operation have made successfully twice already and are preparing to do so for a third time.

They’ve operated within our current system. They went to court, won, and successfully protected their community from significant risks to their local environment. That’s the way the process is supposed to work. That’s the way local control is supposed to work. These community activists got wind of a project that posed a great risk to their community, so they called their local elected leaders and voiced their concerns. Any ability to challenge future projects would die with the passage of these bills — regardless of past court decisions.

I guarantee you that whoever would be making these decisions should this plan be approved will not be a phone call away, and they most definitely don’t attend your church or work at a local business. The people making the decisions about the health and well-being of our communities will be wearing suits in a stuffy office building in Lansing. We’ll be lucky if they’ve ever even heard of places like Metamora, let alone seen the communities they’re affecting firsthand. 

We need to let local communities make decisions to protect the local environment and their residents. These bills are a Christmas gift no one asked for. I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle can come together and realize that local governments are best suited to decide what coal gets mined and what gets left in the stocking.