LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Michele Hoitenga has introduced a series of bills to lift costly mandates for rural schools, child care centers and adult foster care facilities while maintaining the requirement to pass state testing standards for safe drinking water.
“These are commonsense solutions to ensure that well-intentioned decisions made in Lansing do not cause unforeseen harm to local schools and businesses in rural Northern Michigan,” said Hoitenga, R-Manton. “Providing safe drinking water for our children and fellow residents while also supporting our local communities are not mutually exclusive partisan issues. My bills would simply allow facilities that regularly pass safe drinking water testing requirements an option to forgo costly and unnecessary across-the-board mandates.”
Senate Bills 1035 and 1036 would work to exempt schools and child care centers from requirements to install filtration systems if the facilities do not test positive for lead during regular sampling cycles already conducted by the state. Both bills have been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment for consideration.
SB 1012 would allow adult foster care facilities that serve 50 or fewer residents to maintain well water service so long as the supply is sufficient in volume and does not exceed the maximum permissible level for any potential contaminant before government authorities could compel connection to other waterworks systems. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on Housing and Human Services for consideration.