LANSING – As part of the jobs initiative announced Monday, Governor Jennifer Granholm unveiled Tuesday the 47 environmental cleanup projects around the state that would share in $38 million in new bond funding.
The projects are part of the Jobs Today Initiative and are intended to address sites that present “imminent and substantial endangerment” to the public, Granholm said.
“In communities across Michigan, valuable land which could be used to spur economic development sits idle as a result of environmental contamination,” Granholm said. “This plan not only puts scores of Michigan women and men to work in a variety of jobs, from the skilled trades to service and sales, but it accelerates cleanup of many of these contaminated sites.”
The largest chunk of the money, $5.5 million, will go to Gratiot County. Wayne County will receive $4.6 million and Monroe County gets $4.3 million. The smallest amount is $25,000 for Saginaw County.
Gratiot County is also home to one of the largest of the projects, $4 million for a groundwater treatment system and to track movement of contaminants from the Velsicol Chemical Corporation site in St. Louis. The Consolidated Packaging Corporation site in Monroe will also see $4 million to clean up PCB-contaminated sludge in lagoons bordering the Raisin River.
Park Township in St. Joseph County will receive $3 million for, among other actions, extension of municipal water to an area where groundwater is contaminated by pesticides. Of the projects, seven will see work begin during the current fiscal year.
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