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Michigan runs out of money pledged to environmental cleanup

EPA
A picture of the White Lake Montague dump site contaminated decades ago by a tannery and chemical company before the cleanup.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan has spent or obligated almost all of a dedicated source of funding needed to clean up and redevelop 7,000 polluted sites across the state.

  So lawmakers are questioning the Snyder administration on what, if any, plan there is to ask voters for permission to borrow more money.

  A 1998 ballot measure authorized the state to issue $675 million in bonds for environmental protection, but the money will soon dry up.

  Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is proposing to shift money from another fund - one used to address 8,000 leaking underground fuel tanks - as a one-time "buffer" to continue the remediation of abandoned paper mills and other properties next year. The proposal worries some legislators who already are upset about past raids on the tank cleanup fund.

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting.