Overview:
- Michigan has 18,812 contaminated sites, with one-third concentrated in the Detroit metro area, but most remain contaminated because the state relies on taxpayer funding for cleanups.
- The state repealed its polluter pay laws in 1995, which previously required companies responsible for contamination to fund cleanup.
- Legislation introduced in June 2025 would give state regulators authority to require polluters to clean up sites when feasible and beneficial to public health, but the bill package hasn't advanced since moving to committee.
Michigan’s industrial history is one of the reasons why the state is home to 18,812 contaminated sites and counting, according to the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
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Why it matters
Over one-third of Michigan’s contaminated sites are in Metro Detroit, and a state lawmaker says the pace of cleanup means they won’t be cleaned up in our lifetime.
Who's making public decisions
The Michigan Legislature will decide on a polluter pay bill package.
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What to watch for next
Watch for whether the Michigan Legislature votes on the polluter pay bill package before the end of 2026, when the legislative term expires.
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The list grows every year as more sites are discovered. And that’s often where the process pauses, with most sites nowhere near cleanup. Why?
The state has to rely on taxpayers — not the companies responsible for the pollution — for funds to clean up environmental contamination.
For five years, Michigan had polluter pay regulations just as strict, or even stricter, than federal laws administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Polluter pay” requires companies that contaminate the environment to pay for cleanup. But the state legislature repealed those laws in 1995, creating the system Michigan has today.
State Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) has advocated for polluter pay regulations in Michigan for decades. Requiring polluters to pay is the only way to clean up many of these sites, he said.
“We just don’t have public resources, even though this is a public problem,” Irwin said. That’s created a backlog of contaminated sites that could be spreading pollutants to nearby areas.
“At our current trajectory, we’re not going to be able to address these sites during any of our lifetimes,” Irwin said.
Ben Poulson, state government affairs director at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, said polluter pay has been on Michiganders’ minds for years, and that likely won’t change with the upcoming midterms, said
“In Michigan, where people associate so much of their identity with the Great Lakes and water, people are always paying close attention to threats that impact our groundwater,” and other natural resources, he said.
Polluter pay bills stall in Lansing
Contaminated sites are found across the state, but the largest concentration is in southeast Michigan. About one in five are in Wayne County, with over one-third in the Detroit metropolitan area. Think of the green ooze that appeared on I-696 four years ago, or BASF’s groundwater contamination near the Detroit River.
Organizations like the Sierra Club, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, and Michigan Environmental Council advocate for major overhauls to the state’s environmental regulations through the legislature.
When Democrats won control of the legislature and the governorship in 2022, Irwin and his colleagues introduced legislation that would make major changes to Michigan’s environmental regulations. That package passed the Senate, but did not make it through the House before the legislative term ended in December 2024.
After working with focus groups that included industry stakeholders, lawmakers introduced an updated version of that legislation in June 2025.
Irwin said it’s a more “modest” version of the original bill package.
“What (the 2023 bills) said originally was, ‘no, you gotta clean it up,’” he said. “And what (the 2025 bills) say now is EGLE can make you clean it up, if EGLE determines that it’s feasible for you to do so, and that there would be sufficient benefit to human health to do so.”
Poulson said that’s still progress for the state and its residents.
“We really want to move the ball forward and that we can accomplish some good for the state of Michigan and Michiganders generally, if we can get this advanced,” he said.
The bill package hasn’t progressed since it was introduced and moved to committee. The legislature has until the end of 2026 to vote on it.
Poulson recommended that Michiganders contact their state legislators to ask that the legislation move forward before the end of the term. He also suggested reaching out to the chairs of the committees that would review the bill package.
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