Only 29 Michigan state representatives voted today against a Dow Chemical Company-backed bill to conceal awareness of widespread dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed.
Approved 77-29, the bill would require the state specifically to test any one of the thousands of property units in a large area like the downstream stretches of the Saginaw River before declaring it contaminated. The goal is to prevent DEQ from publicizing the truth about such gross contamination by tying it up in prohibitively expensive testing. This would also prevent prospective land buyers from knowing when they purchase contaminated parcels.
The 77 votes are a veto-proof margin, should the Governor choose to deep-six the bill.
The 29 "good" votes were cast by:
Stephen Adamini of Marquette, Glenn Anderson of Westland, Kathy Angerer of Dundee, Doug Bennett of Muskegon, Steven Bieda of Warren, Pam Byrnes of Dexter, Dianne Byrum of Onondaga, Brenda Clack of Flint, Paul Condino of Southfield, Marie Donigan of Royal Oak, Matt Gillard of Alpena, Lee Gonzales of Flint, Hoon-Yung Hopgood of Taylor, Herb Kehrl of Monroe, Chris Kolb of Ann Arbor, Kathleen Law of Gibralter, Lamar Lemmons Jr. of Detroit, Alexander Lipsey of Kalamazoo, Gary McDowell of Rudyard, Andy Meisner of Ferndale, Fred Miller of Mount Clemens, Clarence Phillips of Pontiac, Gino Polidori of Dearborn, Alma Wheeler Smith of Ypsilanti, Steve Tobocman of Detroit, Mary Waters of Detroit, Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing, Carl Williams of Saginaw and Paula Zelenko of Burton.
Four representatives didn't vote:
Republican Jack Brandenburg of Harrison Township and Democrats Marsha Cheeks, Morris Hood III and Lamar Lemmons III, all of Detroit.
The rest have cast their lot with polluters.
Posted by Dave at June 29, 2005 10:34 PM