Clean Energy / News & Views / Articles from 1995 to 2012 / Among Michigan's Citizen-Led Restoration Projects, Three Noteworthy Models
Among Michigan's Citizen-Led Restoration Projects, Three Noteworthy Models
December 1, 1999 | By Keith Schneider
Great Lakes Bulletin News Service
Michigan's land use statutes to protect watersheds from uncontrolled runoff are in desperate need of strengthening and enforcement.
"It just feels like cleaning up this lake is something I'm supposed to do."
"I stood up at that meeting and said 'What about the raw sewage that came down the Clinton River a couple of weeks ago,' " Mr. Martz said, recalling his awakening as an activist. "It wasn't something I planned to do. I just did it because I knew they weren't telling the whole story."
While his wife, Patty Martz, earned the bulk of their income, he abandoned his building trade and devoted most of his time to prodding the county and state into acting. Calling himself a "Sludge Buster" he arrived at public meetings and rallies in an old Cadillac limousine fitted with a toilet and loudspeakers on the roof, wearing a rain suit and gas mask, and waving a plunger. Working with his neighbors he gathered reams of in- formation from state files, including data that showed treatment plants were pouring a flood of raw sewage into state waters while the DEQ chose to do nothing about it. The reason: DEQ officials did not want to force communities to spend millions of dollars to modernize treatment plants.
By the winter of 1995 Mr. Martz had become the most prominent citizen activist in Macomb County and had attracted powerful allies in the county government. They included John Hertel, chairman of the county commission, who appointed Mr. Martz to a special task force, and prosecutor Carl Marlinga, who filed a lawsuit to require the state to enforce the law. (See the article on page 15.)
"Doug Martz is a gutsy guy with moral courage," said Mr. Marlinga. "The work he did to bring everybody's attention to the problem-- dressing up and driving that car -- was done at great risk to his own reputation."