Some of my favorite childhood memories include hiking trips across Northern Michigan and taking in the beauty that is our Great Lakes. As my own children grew up, we regularly went on family trips across Michigan because I wanted to make sure the natural wonders of our state could be passed along to the… Read more »
FLOW is forever spreading awareness. It is our job to educate people about public trust and about what is happening with the Great Lakes in the world today – the joys and potential threats, and what we can do about our water. Part of that awareness is through social media. We teamed up with Eightfold… Read more »
Observations by some that the State of Michigan has no regulatory authority over hazardous liquid pipelines is correct to the extent that it is understood in the context of safety regulations — standards, inspection and enforcement; safety code enforcement is covered by the federal PHMSA law, regulation and agency. However, it is not true that… Read more »
What Are Harmful Algal Blooms? Harmful algal blooms (HABs) represent a grave systemic threat to our waters, underscoring the inextricable connection between water-energy-food and climate change, and the need for comprehensive and holistic policies and regulations. The slimy green algae excrete toxins that threaten our drinking water, fish populations, and water recreation. Urban, industrial, and agricultural phosphorus… Read more »
Extreme Energy Extraction and Transportation As humanity approaches the end of Earth’s conventional, easy-to-reach oil and gas, we are now turning to the fossil fuels that are most difficult to reach and process. The fossil fuel age continues thanks to extreme energy extraction processes, such as the mining of oil sands bitumen (i.e. from… Read more »
What Happened to Flint’s Drinking Water? The city of Flint, Michigan, suffered a man-made public health crisis caused by failed public policy. Toxic levels of lead in Flint’s drinking water beginning in early 2014 harmed the developing brains of young children and caused massive hardship for city residents, who were advised to avoid using the… Read more »
“Troubled Water” film screening: July 19 Recent Posts + News Join Email List Support FLOW LINE 5 ACTION TOOLKIT
Filling a void left by the state, a Great Lakes law and policy group and its scientific advisors released a report today calling on the Snyder administration to take interim steps – including the immediate temporary halt of oil flowing through two aging pipelines in the Mackinac Straits – and swiftly pursue an “action plan”… Read more »
LANSING – This morning Attorney General Bill Schuette and DEQ Director Dan Wyant released the long-awaited Michigan Petroleum Pipeline Task Force report, outlining specific recommendations to address the significant risks surrounding a Canadian pipeline company’s controversial twin pipelines (known as “Line 5” or the Straits Pipelines). The Task Force report establishes a framework to determine… Read more »
A great article calling for full transparency from Enbridge and the State in relation to the Line 5 oil pipelines, written by Sarah Koehn (a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, and the policy intern at West Michigan Environmental Action Council), was recently published in the Grand Haven Tribune. She concludes: “The people of Michigan… Read more »
