Michigan Laws 324.21323i – Consent order; final settlement
Current as of: 2023 | Check for updates
|
Other versions
Terms Used In Michigan Laws 324.21323i
- Corrective action: means the investigation, assessment, cleanup, removal, containment, isolation, treatment, or monitoring of regulated substances released into the environment from an underground storage tank system that is necessary under this part to prevent, minimize, or mitigate injury to the public health, safety, or welfare, the environment, or natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.21302
- Department: means the director of the department of natural resources or his or her designee to whom the director delegates a power or duty by written instrument. See Michigan Laws 324.301
- Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
- Owner: means a person who holds, or at the time of a release who held, a legal, equitable, or possessory interest of any kind in an underground storage tank system or in the property on which an underground storage tank system is or was located including, but not limited to, a trust, vendor, vendee, lessor, or lessee. See Michigan Laws 324.21303
- Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 324.301
- Property: means real estate that is contaminated by a release from an underground storage tank system. See Michigan Laws 324.21303
- Regulated substance: means any of the following:
(i) A substance defined in section 101(14) of title I of the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980, Public Law 96-510, 42 USC 9601, but not including a substance regulated as a hazardous waste under subtitle C of the solid waste disposal act, title II of Public Law 89-272, 42 USC 6921 to 6939e. See Michigan Laws 324.21303Release: means any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, or leaching from an underground storage tank system into groundwater, surface water, or subsurface soils. See Michigan Laws 324.21303 Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims. Underground storage tank system: means a tank or combination of tanks, including underground pipes connected to the tank or tanks, which is, was, or may have been used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances, and the volume of which, including the volume of the underground pipes connected to the tank or tanks, is 10% or more beneath the surface of the ground. See Michigan Laws 324.21303
(1) The department and the attorney general may enter into a consent order with a person that is liable under section 21323a or any group of persons that are liable under section 21323a to perform corrective action if the department and the attorney general determine that the persons that are liable under section 21323a will properly implement the corrective action and that the consent order is in the public interest, will expedite effective corrective action, and will minimize litigation. The consent order may, as determined appropriate by the department and the attorney general, provide for implementation by a person or any group of persons that are liable under section 21323a of any portion of corrective action at the property. A decision of the attorney general not to enter into a consent order under this part is not subject to judicial review.
(2) Whenever practical and in the public interest, as determined by the department, the department and the attorney general shall as promptly as possible reach a final settlement with a person in an administrative or civil action under this part if this settlement involves only a minor portion of the response costs at the property concerned and, in the judgment of the department and the attorney general, the conditions in either of the following are met:
(a) Both of the following are minimal in comparison to other regulated substances at the property:
(i) The amount of the regulated substances contributed by that person to the property.
(ii) The toxic or other regulated effects of the substances contributed by that person to the property.
(b) Except as provided in subsection (3), the person meets all of the following conditions:
(i) The person is the owner of the property on or in which the underground storage tank system is or was located.
(ii) The person did not conduct or permit the generation, transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of any regulated substance at the property.
(iii) The person did not contribute to the release or threat of release of a regulated substance at the property through any action or omission.
(3) A settlement shall not be made under subsection (2)(b) if the person purchased the property with actual or constructive knowledge that the property was used for the generation, transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of a regulated substance.
(4) A settlement under subsection (2) may be set aside if information obtained after the settlement indicates that the person settling does not meet the conditions set forth in subsection (2)(a) or (b).