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EDITORIAL: Cleaning Up for Prosperity: Good Water, Air Will Strengthen Michigan's Allure

Posted on: Thursday, 11 May 2006, 06:07 CDT

By Detroit Free Press

May 11--The environment can become an unfortunate fault line in the push for jobs and economic growth. The develop-first, check-for-damage-later crowd often argues:

-- Environmental regulations hamper business and deter job creation.

-- Only rich societies can afford to clean up, anyway.

But in the quest for more jobs and better times, Michigan doesn't need to drop its environmental guard. The rules are largely uniform nationwide, and rarely a factor in location decisions.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has kept working on being more flexible and faster on permits. That's the right strategy to meet both economic and environmental goals.

A lot of what makes Michigan attractive is its abundant freshwater. The state, its corporations and citizens have tried to keep it clean and have done a lot of expensive work, through good times and bad, yet clearly more needs to be done. The air, while not perfect, is better than in a lot of the major regions with which Michigan competes for jobs. The Great Lakes and thousands of inland waterways offer recreational opportunities few states can rival, a strong selling point in attracting and keeping growing businesses.

Michigan's abundant resources also have helped nurture a strong conservation ethic. That deeply rooted passion generally sustains itself in tough times, but more jobs and a stronger economy do make it easier to turn ideals into reality.

A certain level of wealth clearly helps with the big communal tasks: cleaning up old contaminated sites, finding ways to contain storm water, and keeping sewage treatment and water systems up to date. These projects seem frighteningly large under state and local government budget constraints. Residents on layoff or fearful they're next will have no appetite for the bills.

It's important, nonetheless, to keep pushing ahead. Fouled waters will become a turn-off, harming one of the state's best assets for recruiting. As manufacturing declines, the brainpower industries of the future likely will have far more interest in recreational opportunities as well as cool cities for their employees.

Michigan cannot rest in its quest for jobs, building on pride in -- not dismissal of -- the stewardship ethic that keeps this state sparkling.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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