The latest headline from The Horinko Group is entitled “Michigan Renewal Coalition Report” and was published by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce on August 26, 2009.
The Michigan Chamber and The Horinko Group participate in a coalition called the Michigan Renewal Coalition. This coalition developed a background paper on the need for reform in the brownfields program.
Download a PDF copy of the report.
Learn more about the Michigan Chamber of Commerce by visiting their website at www.michamber.com.
The Horinko Group has posted a new headline entitled “When 'Gray Water' is Good Enough.” The article was posted to the MIRS News Service on August 21, 2009.
Synopsis
A former federal environmental official urged a Senate committee today that it should support legislation that bans the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) from creating redevelopment site cleanup rules that are stricter than federal standards.
Marianne Horinko, who worked during two different periods with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said state environmental officials can get too hung blackjack online up on making water crystal clear instead of being more sensible about clean up efforts.
"In general, if something is good enough for across the country, it should be good enough here," said Horinko, a guest of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. For example, if a company wants to redevelop a brownfield in the middle of a heavily industrial area, it doesn't make sense to require pristine groundwater if nobody is going to use that groundwater for drinking for many, many years to come.
The Horinko Group has added a new headline from BNA’s August 21, 2009 Daily Environmental Report entitled “EPA Official Solicits Advice on Policy, Rules, Guidance in Waste Programs”
Synopsis
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous waste cleanup programs is soliciting advice on how the office can make policymaking more open, develop better strategies for handling waste or cleaning up contaminated sites, and ‘‘bring about more community involvement at cleanup sites.’’ Mathy Stanislaus, assistant EPA administrator for solid waste and emergency response, released a letter Aug. 17 that is being circulated online. ‘‘I believe that government works best when it listens carefully to the opinions and criticism of interested stakeholders,’’ Stanislaus wrote.
Former Official Calls Effort ‘Laudatory.’
Marianne Horinko, president of The Horinko Group, said it is ‘‘laudatory’’ that Stanislaus is ‘‘reaching out and saying ‘I need your good advice’ to stakeholders.’’ Horinko heads an environmental consulting and research firm, but was in charge of EPA’s solid waste office from 2001 to 2004.
Among other things, Horinko thinks the office should examine ways to streamline the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act corrective action program and find ‘‘a different measure of success’’ for superfund cleanups.
The Horinko Group has added a new headline from BNA’s August 2009 Environmental Due Diligence Guide Report entitled “Looking Ahead, Revitalization of Cleanup Programs Is on the Horizon”
About the Article
"While the Environmental Protection Agency made ‘stupendous efforts in reform' to make cleanups faster, fairer, and more efficient during the 1990s, those efforts along with the agency’s ‘culture of completion’ have lagged and need to be revitalized, a former EPA assistant administrator told BNA July 6. Marianne Horinko, president of The Horinko Group, told BNA the agency must to take another look and focus on remedy optimization. For example, is pumping and treating really the best way to go? ‘We need to step back and see if this [approach] is a cost effective use of the money or are we really just chasing the tail of the plume,’ she said."
