Date: Thursday, June 11, 2015 5:01:00 PM
All—
Hope you’re enjoying the beginning of summer. It’s starting to be warm enough to call it summer.
Last week the Web ReDesign for the Water tab/category was launched. In the past, DEQ web pages
have been difficult to maneuver and not very intuitive to use. We hope that this effort fixes some of
those problems. While not perfect, staff have tried to anticipate the many ways that people might
be searching for information. You’ll see that there a now multiple paths to get to the same
endpoint. If you have suggestions for further improvements, we’d love to hear them. This will
continue to be a work in progress.
Monday, | attended the Director’s visit to the Jackson district office. This was the first of the
Director’s new format for district visits and it went really well. Mitch Adelman, along with the JDO
supervisors, invited a diverse group of stakeholders to meet with the Director and share their
thoughts, issues and concerns as part of a roundtable discussion. All had favorable things to say
about the department and the staff that they work with. Revolving Loan staff were mentioned
several times as being particularly helpful! After lunch, | had the opportunity to meet with our
Jackson office staff one-on-one. | appreciated the chance to hear directly from each one.
Tuesday, the DEQ’s Office of the Great Lakes today released a draft water strategy built around a
30-year vision for ensuring Michigan’s water resources support healthy ecosystems, residents,
communities and economies. The draft Strategy was developed in collaboration with a steering
committee consisting of the Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources,
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Michigan Economic Development
Corporation. ODWMA participated in development of the draft strategy. You'll see discussion
regarding drinking water, source water protection, on-site wastewater systems, and infrastructure
in general. | encourage everyone to read the document. The water strategy is not directed solely
to the state, but will require participation from a wide array of individuals and organizations
including business, industry, academia, private philanthropy, environment and conservation
organizations, tribal and local governments, the legislature and others to be successfully
implemented. Everyone will have a role as this moves forward. A brown bag lunch is planned for
July 10",
Meetings with the Office of Auditor General continued this week. The auditors met with staff in the
contamination investigation program and the on-site wastewater program as part of their
preliminary information gathering.
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We participated in a semi-annual call with U.S. EPA Region 5 public water supply program this
week. Conversation focused on commitments and disinvestments for the upcoming fiscal year.
Most of the discussion focused on lead and copper sampling, notification, and reporting particularly
as it relates to the Noncommunity water supply program. In some cases, we were able to reach
agreement regarding changes, in some we agree to disagree for now. Steve Busch and Mike Prysby
were on hand to provide an update on the city of Flint. Lansing District Office sent out a violation
notice this week to Flint for a continued violation of the LRAA (locational running annual average)
for TTHM (total trinalomethanes). The good news is that all of the eight samples this quarter were
below the 80 ppb standard. Unfortunately, one location continues to exceed the LRAA for TTHM
because of the high results last August. Staff continue to work with the city to resolve the problem.
We had an interesting campground program issue this week. At the request of one of our county
health departments, we recently sent correspondence to an unlicensed campground that has been
recalcitrant for more than 15 years. They hold a large event each year over the labor day weekend,
but have done so without either a permanent or a temporary campground license. Unfortunately,
the campground does not have an approved water supply. ODWMA staff met with the
campground owners, along with the Director and the legislator that they contacted. It appears that
they now understand that they need to provide an approved water source and be properly licensed
for the event. Success!
Have a good weekend.
Liane
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