Blog Posts

Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers

Elk Rapids Faces Major Decision on Powerboat Race

Photo courtesy of SpeedontheWater.com. The author, Nikki Hayes, who grew up in Elk Rapids, Michigan, is a FLOW intern. Currently a junior at Loyola University Chicago (LUC), she has spent her life close to the Great Lakes. While organizers are optimistic that an August powerboat race that would be hosted by Edward C. Grace Memorial Harbor… Read more »

From PBB to PFAS: How We’ve Failed to Protect Our Health and Water from Toxic Chemicals

On Tuesday, January 19, from noon to 1:30 pm, the League of Women Voters/Grand Traverse Area will host FLOW senior policy advisor Dave Dempsey discussing the topic of toxic chemicals present in our groundwater. Almost 50 years ago, Michigan suffered one of the worst human exposures to a toxic chemical in its history when PBB accidently entered the state’s food supply. In more recent years, our exposure to PBDEs and PFAs has raised the question of whether we have learned anything about the dangers persistent chemicals present to human health.

Support FLOW with a Special Gift

As we look to the close of 2021, we are grateful for gifts of support that allow FLOW to work every day to ensure the Great Lakes are healthy, public, and protected for all. Recognizing that certain methods of giving take a little extra time for donors to arrange, we offer these tips and suggestions:… Read more »

From Earth Day 1970 to Today: 50 Years of Lessons Learned and the Path Forward

Throughout 2020, FLOW has been remembering and reflecting on one of the most consequential years for the environment in America’s history. The 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day — the year in which the U.S. EPA was created, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was authorized, the Michigan Environmental Protection Act became law, and much more — made 1970 a year to remember.

New IJC Report Strengthens Case for Great Lakes Climate Change Framework

Just as water does not stop at the international boundary in the middle of the Great Lakes, climate change is having dramatic effects on both the U.S. and Canadian sides of the shared waters. In its triennial report issued last week on Great Lakes water quality progress, the International Joint Commission (IJC) called for the two nations to begin coordinating the response to wide fluctuations in water levels, warming lake waters, shrinking ice cover, threats to biological diversity, and storms of increasing intensity that release large pollution flows to the Great Lakes and their tributaries.