Petition to Oppose House Bills 4526, 4527, and 4528

Legislation newly introduced (House Bills 4526-4528) under the guise of solving aggregate supply chain issues will eliminate all local authority over sand and gravel mines and silence communities and residents over these high-impact operations. Contact your state representative and senator today to oppose this legislative attack and ask them to stand with Michigan communities and oppose House Bills 4526, 4527 and 4528. 

House Bills 4526-4528 put profit over people, ignoring local governments, residents and property owners by:

• Prohibiting municipalities and affected residents or businesses from requesting any permit modifications, silencing the community from issues impacting their daily lives and livelihood
• Permitting EGLE to grant modifications requested by the mine operator only
• Allowing 70-foot-high aggregate stockpiles just 50 feet from property lines—an obvious impact on neighboring property owners.
• Holding neighboring properties hostage for years by allowing mines to bank sites for up to a decade. 
• Artificially limiting required financial assurances at levels that do not provide for proper protections for amounts needed for land reclamation.
• Codifying operation hours for activities such as truck loading, blasting and crushing to begin by at least at 6 a.m. six days per week—and allows for hours beyond that time for state or county contracts.
• Limiting local government and resident input only through public comment periods
• Prescribing noise levels required for worker safety hearing protection only and weighted over eight hours—with no considerations for the impact of noise to nearby homes, businesses, schools and property.
• Vacating previous judicial and administration opinions related to all mining permit applications—including those previously submitted to a local unit of government
• Removing the right of referendum by impacted residents