This past year marked an extraordinary year for FLOW, as we celebrated a decade of keeping our water public and protected. In reflecting upon this past decade, we have much to be grateful for, even in these challenging times.
A recently-released survey of residents of the Great Lakes watershed reveals strong support for government funding and actions to protect the Lakes, but also suggests the public believes the lakes are not in good shape.
FLOW senior policy advisor Dave Dempsey recently posted a survey on both Twitter and Facebook asking followers and friends to name their favorite Great Lake and to explain their allegiance. The answers were both quantitative and qualitative.
Photo of Grand Traverse Bay by Jerry Stutzman Breaking News: The Traverse City Commission on December 6, 2021, unanimously approved a resolution Proclaiming Water and Sanitation as Basic Human Rights, and that Water Shall Remain in the Public Trust. The resolution was advanced by FLOW and in comments to the City Commission, FLOW Executive Director… Read more »
By Liz Kirkwood Water is life. It is the resource that not only keeps us alive, but also powers everything we do on this small blue planet. Living here in the Great Lakes, we are stewards of some 20 percent of the planet’s fresh surface water. It is an enormous gift and an enormous responsibility,… Read more »
Register today for FLOW’s Dec. 8 conversation with author Dave Dempsey on freshly updated ‘Great Lakes for Sale’ Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of the prologue to Great Lakes for Sale (Mission Point Press, 2021) the freshly updated, must-read book by Great Lakes luminary and FLOW Senior Advisor Dave Dempsey. Be sure to buy… Read more »
Michigan Technological University professor Nancy Langston is a nationally recognized environmental historian and the author of five books . In her latest, Climate Ghosts: Migratory Species in the Anthropocene, she explores the fate of three species historically found in the Great Lakes watershed: woodland caribou, common loons and lake sturgeon. Nancy reports on stresses imposed on these signature species by European colonization and now by climate change. Can we restore them? Perhaps, she answers, if we’re willing to make difficult choices. FLOW interviewed Langston recently by e-mail.
In the end, it took outside intervention to begin moving the people of Benton Harbor toward a clean, safe water supply this fall. Why? Despite three years of data showing that the city’s drinking water exceeded state standards for lead contamination, it wasn’t until the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center filed a petition with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on September 9 that the State of Michigan took decisive action to address the problem. The EPA followed suit with an order to the city on November 2 to improve disinfection and corrosion treatments at the water plant, monitor for disinfection byproducts, repair plant filters, and contract with a third party to study the long-term operation of the city’s drinking water system.
Michigan has a gigantic opportunity to provide clean drinking water, clean up sewage and stormwater runoff, and restore the Great Lakes—while promoting access for all to clean, safe, affordable water—after last Friday’s final bipartisan Congressional action on the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act.
Equality of opportunity and treatment regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, culture, national origin, religious commitments, age, and ability status is an ideal to which FLOW is fully committed. In the arena of environmental quality and policy, this ideal is far from being realized. For example, pollution disproportionately affects racial minorities and… Read more »
