Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers
By Liz Kirkwood FLOW Executive Director — Michigan, the Great Lakes state, sits in the heart of 20 percent of the planet’s fresh surface water, and 95 percent of the U.S.’s fresh water supply. All Michiganders will tell you of their deep connection to these lakes. And now, Big Tech and other national manufacturing businesses are… Read more »
Out of sight, out of mind: measures designed to shield public from contamination push costs on future generations Here in Michigan, 45% of the population gets its drinking water from groundwater, including two million who rely on private wells. Groundwater also feeds streams and rivers, and sustains wetlands. It is an invaluable resource, but Michigan… Read more »
Every four years – including this month – voters in the overwhelming majority of Michigan counties elect a drain commissioner on the partisan ballot. But many of those voters likely do not understand the office. Although the office of drain commissioner was explicitly created by the Legislature in the 1890s to drain wetlands, today that… Read more »
This week we acknowledged the 49th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking – the doomed freighter that met the November gales early and sank in Lake Superior in 1975. Gordon Lightfoot’s hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” (which many of you are mentally humming as we speak) is filled with haunting lyrics and… Read more »
I’ll be honest: Wednesday was a hard day. While there are a few silver linings, our uphill climb to protect and preserve the waters of the Great Lakes Basin just got a little bit steeper. Journalists, political scientists, and social media keyboard warriors will conjure many pixels over the days and weeks ahead, seeking to understand… Read more »
On Wednesday, November 20 at 6:00pm, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) will hold an in-person public hearing on the proposed Groundwater Discharge Permit for the Fremont Digester, at the request of FLOW and the coalition of residents and organizations working to strengthen environmental protections. What is the Fremont Digester? The… Read more »
By Carrie La Seur FLOW Legal Director I first encountered the Pine River of central Michigan in May 2024, a season when I was reading Wendell Berry’s The Way of Ignorance as meditation. The robins were nesting a second time on the drain pipe of our house outside Traverse City and indigo buntings had taken… Read more »
Prompted by the drinking water crisis in Flint 10 years ago, the U.S. EPA announced on October 8 a 10-year deadline for replacement of all lead service lines in the U.S. This important project will be largely funded by more than $15 billion from the 2021 federal bipartisan infrastructure law. EPA’s final Lead and Copper… Read more »
Traverse City, Mich.—On October 22, FLOW (For Love of Water) and Great Lakes Business Network (GLBN) filed a brief calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals to stop a pipeline company from stripping away Michigan’s power to protect the Great Lakes. Enbridge Energy, which owns the dual Line 5 pipelines, launched the 2020 federal lawsuit… Read more »
I recently spoke before a lively and well-informed audience at the St. Clair Public Library in Port Huron. As is always the case, when I opened the floor for questions and comments, a dozen arms shot up. Everyone had thoughtful and important things to say, but most of the questions boiled down to two major… Read more »
