Drumroll please! It’s time to unveil the top 10 most popular, most clicked, most-talked about blog posts written by FLOW in 2019.
The threat of diverting water from the Great Lakes basin generated significant interest among our readers. Our most read blog post this year, written by FLOW founder and president Jim Olson on March 7, concerned FLOW’s challenge to the proposed Great Lakes water diversion for Foxconn in Wisconsin. Second on the list, also written by Olson on May 8, was a post about Michigan citizens and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians challenging a state of Michigan permit for Nestlé’s water grab.
PFAS and Line 5 also dominated the public consciousness this year. FLOW board member Rick Kane’s essay on the environmental and public health crisis posed by PFAS that needs answers and action made our most-viewed list. So did a blog about our effort to stop the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners from supporting Enbridge’s proposed tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac. Also on the list was Olson’s blog about restoring the rule of law on Line 5, and how Michigan’s new leadership can protect the Great Lakes from the risk of a catastrophic oil spill at the Straits of Mackinac.
This year began with great hope, as a new Governor and Attorney General took office in Michigan, and FLOW worked to encourage state officials to reverse Michigan’s anti-environmental, lame-duck lunacy of late 2018. Some of that effort paid off when new Attorney General Dana Nessel and Governor Gretchen Whitmer in late June took bold legal actions to shut down Line 5 and apply the rule of law.
This was the year of high water. Great Lakes water levels in 2019 eclipsed their all-time high on Lakes Superior, Erie and Ontario, and fell just short on Lakes Michigan and Huron. As such, readers were concerned about their ability, and right, to walk the shorelines. Olson addressed that in his June 3 blog, “Walking the Water Line—A Legal Right, But Difficult as Great Lakes Levels Rise”.
FLOW helped generate interest in the importance of septic regulations this year, as a proposal to abolish required septic system inspections threatened Kalkaska waters. Our Nov. 6 Michigan Septic Summit helped further the conversation.
Rounding out the top 10 list was a helpful primer of facts on what everyone should know about the Great Lakes.
FLOW’s top 10 most read stories of 2019:
1) FLOW Challenges Proposed Great Lakes Water Diversion for Foxconn in Wisconsin, March 7
2) Michigan Citizens, Tribe Challenge State Permit for Nestlé’s Water Grab, May 8
3) PFAS: An Environmental and Public Health Crisis that Needs Answers and Action, March 20
4) What Everyone Should Know About the Great Lakes, March 26
5) Walking the Water Line — a Legal Right, But Difficult as Great Lakes Levels Rise, June 3
6) A 2019 Resolution to Reverse Michigan’s Anti-Environmental, Lame-Duck Lunacy, January 2
7) No ‘Line 5’ Oil Tunnel in the Great Lakes! August 7
8) Proposal to Abolish Required Septic System Inspections Threatens Kalkaska Waters, March 27
9) Bypassing, and Now Restoring, the Rule of Law on Line 5, January 29
10) Attorney General Nessel, Governor Whitmer Take Bold Legal Actions to Shut Down Line 5 and Apply Rule of Law, June 27
