Southfield is not a community under state emergency management – but you wouldn’t know it based on a recent Michigan Department of Environmental Quality decision.

The same MDEQ of Flint water crisis infamy approved a permit this month to drill for oil at the corner of 9 Mile and Evergreen Road despite the fact that the Southfield City Council issued a lawful
moratorium against such activity within the city’s borders.

When I first started to tell my colleagues in Lansing about this proposal and my community’s outrage, someone pointedly replied, “At 9 Mile and Evergreen? Everybody lives near 9 Mile and Evergreen!”

The population density of this area only amplifies problems related to drilling: spills, emissions release, transport accidents and others.

Further, not all of Southfield is hooked up to the Detroit water system and many residents use well water. Should any groundwater be contaminated during the drilling process and anything other than the crystal-clear water we expect comes out of Southfield faucets, we’ll have a huge problem.

That’s why I introduced House Bill 5258 to limit oil drilling in densely populated residential areas.
After holding two crowded town halls on oil drilling attended by hundreds of concerned Southfield residents, I asked MDEQ officials to conduct a public hearing on the permit in February to listen to my constituents. I didn’t want them to simply sign off on a backroom decision.

Alas, the meeting that night may have been just for show.

Among the thousand residents who turned out on Feb. 17 was our deputy city planner who read an unanswered Jan. 19 letter from the city to the MDEQ. The letter requested more information from the permit’s applicant, including the impact of the drilling on nearby residential water wells, wetlands and endangered species, and details on protecting our residents from air pollution, odors and waste.

At the public hearing, MDEQ officials promised, in public, to provide answers to the city’s concerns before making any move to issue a permit.

The city ended up getting its answers from the MDEQ – about four hours after they issued the permit, and a month and a half after a response was first requested from the city.

Fortunately, the city has been granted a restraining order against any oil drilling as the legality of this permit works its way through the court system.

Ultimately, in addition to the health and environmental concerns (which are not to be underscored),
Michigan residents in every city have another concern upon which to reflect: When can our local government govern?

Prior to being elected state representative, I served on the Southfield City Council. During my tenure and for years before it, our City Council passed countless ordinances on the city level to provide stricter zoning, inspection, setback or operation regulations that what is permissible at the state level.

That’s how local units of government work in this state. Or at least how they’re supposed to.
Some examples:
  •  When I first arrived on the council, we had a newly implemented ordinance that placed stricter city regulations to approve in-home day cares than what the state allows.
  • In 2012, we adopted an ordinance to limit the zoning for fast check-cashing businesses and pawnshops in Southfield, permissible under state law, but now subjected to local zoning regulations.
  • At the end of 2014, the council approved limited zoning and operations of medical marijuana facilities, a service approved in statute by voters in 2008 but one that can be locally restricted.
This is why I strongly believe that the MDEQ’s rulings on oil drilling permits are incompatible with our city’s ability to implement our lawful moratorium on such activities and future zoning regulations.

I also was on the council when we denied a proposed Walmart from being built at 12 Mile and Southfield Road in 2013 due to zoning concerns.

Walmart did not appeal our decision because, as founder Sam Walton once said, “If some community, for whatever reason, doesn't want us in there, we aren't interested in going in and creating a fuss.”

If only the MDEQ operated under the same philosophy.

Jeremy Moss, a Democrat from Southfield,  represents Michigan's 35th District in the state House of Representatives. 
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