News

Chicago Sewer-and-Stormwater Commission Sounds Alert on Water Markets

June 10, 2021

Last week, the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) unanimously approved a resolution affirming water as a human right and expressing concern about the trend toward treating water as a commodity. The resolution also affirms that “the water of the Great Lakes … shall remain in the public trust for the people of the Great Lakes region.” This resolution promises to be a milestone in the looming controversy over the creation of water futures markets.

FLOW to Host Webinar on Managing High Water & High Tension along the Great Lakes Shoreline

June 10, 2021

The public is invited to join FLOW on Tuesday, June 29, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Eastern for a webinar—Managing High Water & High Tension along the Great Lakes Shoreline—that will provide frontline, scientific, regulatory, and legal insights into efforts at the state and local level to manage high waters and high tensions along Michigan’s Great Lakes shoreline.

Our Great Lakes – Hostage to the ‘Most Destructive Industrial Project in Human History’

June 3, 2021

Some 800 miles north of the Montana border, past vast prairie grasslands, clear, untroubled lakes, and pristine boreal forests, lies a place of profound devastation and desolation. Just north of Fort McMurray in Northeast Alberta, Canada, one encounters an abrupt alteration of the landscape—a ravaged wasteland of disturbed lands and metallic lakes of oil-sheened process waste. Welcome to the place where bitumen—a thick, viscous, oil-containing soil having the consistency of coffee grounds—is extracted for later upgrading and refining into tar sands oil, ultimately destined to cross the Great Lakes watershed by pipeline.

Fact Check: When Line 5 Shuts Down, Detroit Jets Will Still Fly and Union Refinery Jobs Will Still Exist

June 2, 2021

Line 5-owner Enbridge and its enablers continue to engage in a Chicken Little “sky is falling” campaign, with the Canadian company claiming that, “shutting down Line 5 would cause shortages of crude oil for refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and eastern Canada, as well as propane shortages in northern Michigan. In fact, none of Enbridge’s predictions of an energy shortage materialized when both legs of the dual Line 5 pipelines in the Straits were shut down for more than a week in June 2020 and one leg remained closed until about mid-September following damage that the U.S. Coast Guard said likely was caused by an Enbridge-contracted vessel. The research results are consistent with these studies forecasting little, if any, change in energy costs after Line 5 shuts down for good.

During June, Short’s Brewing’s ‘Share the Light’ Campaign Will Raise Funds for FLOW and the Great Lakes

May 26, 2021

Short’s Brewing in the heart of downtown Bellaire, Michigan, is known for giving back to the community as much as for their fiercely creative handmade beers and ciders and seltzers. And the local company with a broad reach knows you can’t make unique, premium beverages without fresh, clean water. That’s why for the entire month of June, consumers can head to your favorite store or restaurant and purchase Local’s Light—Short’s flagship American Lager—take a picture of your receipt, and upload your proof-of-purchase here.

Lifelong Sport Fisherman and Former FLOW Board Member Tom Baird Joins the Michigan Natural Resources Commission

May 24, 2021

FLOW is proud that one of our own, former founding board member, Tom Baird, has been appointed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to serve on the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) and is officially confirmed as of Monday, May 24. The NRC, which oversees the state Department of Natural Resources, has exclusive authority to regulate the taking of game and sport fish in Michigan, and to establish seasons. Its meetings are a forum for a myriad of natural resources concerns.

Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Movements a Powerful Force for Good

May 20, 2021

The Groundwork Center’s Michigan Clean Energy Conference and Michigan Climate Action Network’s (MiCAN) Climate Action Summit are joining forces this year to present the virtual Michigan Climate & Clean Energy Summit, May 24-27. FLOW spoke with MiCAN director Kate Madigan about the summit, climate change in the Great Lakes, the environmental justice movement, and what gives her hope for the environmental movement.

Eviction Day for Enbridge Line 5

May 19, 2021

May 13 marked an inflection point in our water and climate work to shut down Line 5. It was a day of action and a show of force to evict Enbridge as a foreigner occupier—a rogue pipeline company pumping oil through our public waters and lands of the Great Lakes. It was a day highlighting the power of community and solidarity and the power of indigenous leadership in protecting the source of all life: water.