How Michigan piled up thousands of toxic sites with cash shortfall for cleanup

Lana Pollack isn’t happy to have been right in predicting Michigan would end up with a lengthy list of contaminated sites, lots of them left to the taxpayers to clean up and an environmental department with little ability to manage the thousands in its purview.

When Pollack, 79, represented Washtenaw County in the state Senate, the Democrat  drafted what would become known as the strictest anti-pollution law in the nation. The law, known as the Polluter Pay law, was based on the federal Superfund program and held current and previous owners of contaminated places widely accountable for pollution whether they caused it or not.