New Environmental Law Has Great Therapeutic Value'

Michigan Congressman John Dingell I (D-Dearborn) yesterday brought two of I his colleagues from the House ComI mittee on Merchant Marine and I Fisheries to Dow Auditorium, Towsley I Center, in the University medical comIplex to hear how the state of Michigan I passed the nation's first law allowing ciItizens to sue to stop pollution and enI vironmental degradation. Purpose of the field hearing, chaired by Dingell with Reps. Joseph A. Karth I(D-Minn.) and George A. Goodling (R■ Pa.) in attendance, was not only to hear I how the law had been initiated in MichI igan, but also to find out how it had I worked since it was signed into law in I July of 1970 by Governor Milliken. Sir p passage in Michigan, 27 other I state ' have put similar bilis into the I legislative hopper, and several different versions of the legislation have been troduced into Congress. But as in Michigan, the bilis have run into opposition in a number of the states, and the bilis in Congress have had some opposition from certain forces within the executive branch, including Secretary of Interior Rogers C. B. Morton, the legal staf f of the Council on Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Attorney General's office. As sponsor of one of the bilis now before Congress, Dingell wanted to take testimony to disprove many of the fears and allegations about the effect of such legislation. To do so he called upon a host of experts from throughout the state, including administrators, state legal officials, legislators, environmental organizations, and citizen groups. Speaking for the bill, and the concept of such legislation on a federal level were Dr. Ralph MacMullan, head of Michigan's Department of Natural Resources; Rep. Thomas Anderson, who sponsored the bill in the Michigan Legislature; a representative of the Michigan I Attorney General's staff; U-M law I professor Joseph L. Sax (who wrote the I Michigan bill and assisted with the I eral legislation); and Mrs. Willard I Wolf e of Grand Rapids, an officer in the I West Michigan Environmental Action I Council. It was the latter group which first I came to Prof. Sax and requested him to I work on such legislation, and which led I the citizen fight throughout the state to I pass the bill. Opposition in Congress, as well as I er states considering the bill, has 1 tered on the possibility of a flood of I court suits which might harass state I officials and businessmen. "I thought perhaps I might be in court I every day instead of doing my job," testified DNR Director MacMullan," but 1 this simply has not been the case. Conservation groups and concerned citizens are proceeding cautiously. Perhaps 12 cases have been initiated in the 7 months the law has been in force." MacMullan noted that the law had had "great therapeutic value" in forcing state agencies and industries to be responsible because they knew a suit could be initiated if they did not. Robert Carr, reading a statement from Attorney General Frank Kelley, added the "enthusiastic endorsement" of that office. Rep. Thomas J. Anderson, who first introduced HR 3055 (known as the "Anderson Bill," the "Sax Bill" for its writer, or the "Michigan Environmental Protection Act") and shepherded it through the Legislature, agreed that only one case which might be called a harassment action has been filed, and this has not interfered_with the orderly process of government or business. He called for early passage for the federal bilí, stating that he had been called upon by a number of states to testify on similar legislation, and in some of these opposition is strong. He also noted that the federal bilí has one of the same problems Michigan faced, because it refers to "unreasonable" pollution only. "I have found that courts always consider reasonableness as part of their opinions. The word is redundant, it offers an avenue of escape that we did not want. We threw it out." Sax attacked various arguments against the bill with illustrations of actual court cases and he gave assurances to the hearing officers that not only was such legislation vitally needed, but also that it would not, in fact, créate the problems imagined or envisioned by its opponents. The afternoon session of the hearing was devoted primarily to citizen groups I and conservation o r environmental I organizations who backed up the I timony of the morning. Chief among these was Mrs. Willard I Wolfe, the sparkplug of the West 1 igan Environmental Action Council, who I led the citizen fight throughout the state I to gain support for the bilí Michigan I finally led the nation in passing. She made an urgent plea to extend I this bill to the federal level so that 1 pie everywhere have the standing to I take action in court on behalf of the I environment, a right that is now 1 cally denied them in most instances. She was followed by almost two dozen I individuals and representatives o f I groups, including the Sierra Club, the I League of Women Voters, the United j Auto Workers, the Michigan Natural! Áreas Council, the Michigan Parks I Association, ENACT and the Ecologyl Center, and the Michigan Botanical Club.