Blog Posts
Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers
Risky, costly, and ill-advised: New report and webinar analyzes the Enbridge Line 5 tunnel project
Enbridge’s plan to bore a tunnel between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to replace an underwater segment of Line 5 is costly and ill-advised, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The report shows that the aging pipeline is servicing a shrinking market and is facing additional… Read more »
Ontario advocates shut down BlueTriton bottling plant; score big win against water commodification
In a major victory for citizens opposed to the packaging and sale of water as a commodity, advocates in southwest Ontario successfully campaigned for the shutdown of a water bottling plant in the township of Puslinch owned by BlueTriton, which bought the facility from Nestle in 2021. BlueTriton announced in November that it would shut… Read more »
Episode 3 // The Pine River Stories: A little frank talk about E. Coli, fish, and the mess we’re in
By Carrie La Seur, Legal Director — The Pine River. It’s a name that ought to conjure up images of cool water riffles, children splashing on a hot day, the voices of kayakers carrying over the water, maybe a trout rising to a fly. But going on two decades now, since 2005, it’s been off-limits… Read more »
Can wildlife create a sustainable world in the context of climate change?
Nancy Langston is an interdisciplinary ecological historian and visual artist whose work fuses storytelling, visual art, and environmental history to grapple with the unsettling contradictions of climate change in the boreal north. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Michigan Technological University, and she is working on her 6th book, Reindeer on the Run (Yale University… Read more »
EPA bans toxic TCE, which has plagued Michigan’s groundwater
The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week a national ban on trichloroethylene (TCE), a groundwater and soil contaminant confirmed at over 300 sites in Michigan. The move will save Michigan taxpayers millions of dollars in future cleanup costs and protect public health. “EPA’s action is critical to public health and the environment,” said FLOW executive… Read more »
The Safe Drinking Water Act turns 50
The law that protects the quality of America’s more than 170,000 public drinking water supplies is 50 years old as of Monday, December 16. While the Safe Drinking Water Act’s results have been mixed, its purpose and impact have become ever more relevant over the past five decades. The potential impact of unsafe drinking water… Read more »
It’s time for a Water Trust Fund in Michigan
This month, Michigan House Rep. Rachel Hood (D-81) and Rep. Donavan McKinney (D-14) introduced important bills (HB 6273, 6274), based on FLOW’s model legislation, that would impose a $0.25 per gallon royalty on bottled drinking water extracted from Michigan’s publicly-held water resources (including groundwater), and create a Water Trust Fund. The Fund would use the… Read more »
Michigan public beach advisories increased in 2024
Michigan public beach advisories were up during the 2024 season compared to 2023, with the difference likely due to the timing and intensity of storms that washed polluted runoff into rivers and lakes. A total of 127 advisories and closures were reported for 106 beaches in thirty-eight counties, by twenty-eight local health departments in 2023…. Read more »
FLOW, GLBN, and Sierra Club file joint amici brief in Nessel v. Enbridge lawsuit
FLOW, Great Lakes Business Network, and Sierra Club File Joint Amici Brief in Nessel v. Enbridge Lawsuit, Dismantling Enbridge’s Allegations and Defending State Sovereignty Contact: Carrie La Seur, FLOW Legal Director carrie@flowforwater.org (231) 944-1568 Traverse City, Mich. – On December 2, 2024, For Love of Water (FLOW), Great Lakes Business Network (GLBN), and Sierra… Read more »
