Friends:
The Senate yesterday passed unanimously a bill
to designate the American lotus blossom as the "official state symbol for clean
water in this state" (see entire bill below). While this is a noble
gesture, and one to be applauded on its merits independent of comparisons, there
is a sickening irony that at this VERY moment other bills before the
Senate will actually determine the fate of Clean Water in Michigan,
and it looks like the same commitment to Clean Water is absent in the Senate on
these bills.
The bills include:
- a proposal that would allow the wanton destruction of the coastal wetlands that are the HOME of this lovely species (HB 4257), and
- the DEQ Budget Bill from the House currently under debate in
the Senate, which arrived with a huge, gaping hole in it that would gut the
ability of the DEQ to even PRETEND to assure that Clean Water exists by
drastically under funding this program, along with virtually every other aspect
of the environmental protection laws in Michigan
NO CREDIT SHOULD BE GIVEN FOR SYMBOLS --
This was an extraordinarily easy vote -- if there is ANY desire to actually
assure the reality of clean water, not just endorse symbols, the Michigan Senate MUST VOTE NO ON HB 4257, MUST
RESTORE THE DEQ BUDGET TO FULL FUNDING LEVELS and pass the required PERMIT FEES
that would fully fund environmental programs.
To do less is like painting the outside of a house rife with
termites -- meaningless, futile gestures that merely waste the electrons and
paper they use.
SB-0106,As Passed
Senate,May 27, 2003 (37 to 0, one not voting)
SENATE BILL No.
106
January 29, 2003, Introduced by Senators HAMMERSTROM, JOHNSON,
GOSCHKA and
BRATER and referred to the Committee on Local, Urban and State
Affairs.
A
bill to designate an official state symbol for clean
water
in
this
state.
THE
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
ENACT:
1
Sec. 1. The American lotus blossom (Nelumbo lutea)
is
2
designated as the official state symbol for clean water in
this
3
state.
Anne
Woiwode
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Anne
Woiwode, Staff Director, Sierra Club Mackinac Chapter
109 East Grand River
Avenue, Lansing, Michigan 48906
517-484-2372; fax 517-484-3108
anne.woiwode@sierraclub.org
visit the Mackinac Chapter on the web at
http://michigan.sierraclub.org
Learn the
rules so that you know how to break them properly