FLOW Calls on Regional Body and Michigan Uphold Diversion Ban, to Reject Application TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Failing to meet strict standards or demonstrate a public need, a Wisconsin city’s precedent-setting request to divert as much as 16 million gallons a day of Lake Michigan water outside the basin that drains back into the… 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 »
By Jim Olson This has been a long time coming, inevitable really: Since the California Supreme Court’s decision in the National Audubon “Mono Lake” case back in the 1980s, courts have recognized the hydrologic connection between navigable and non-navigable but tributary streams and the groundwater that replenishes them. Indeed, it would be archaic to recognize… Read more »
Click here to read the article on circleofblue.org By Kaye LaFond July 9, 2014 WAUKESHA, WI — There was a time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when this southeast Wisconsin town was known throughout the Great Lakes Basin for its ample supplies of pure water. The aquifers underlying the forests and meadows… Read more »
Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil and gas in Michigan is the subject of scrutiny in the recent Integrated Assessment report series from the University of Michigan’s Graham Sustainability Institute. The report confirms that the future development of tight shale formations appears to be massive and intensive in size and scope and will require unprecedented quantities… Read more »
As FLOW’s Communications Designer, I have been working in our Traverse City office since January, creating print and web content that gets the word out about FLOW’s policy programs that help protect the integrity of Great Lakes water with the vision of the commons. I have been given the great opportunity to work with our… Read more »
Read the full article in the Allegan County News here By Kayla Deneau, Staff Writer The Gun Plain Township board and the planning commission had a joint informational meeting Wednesday, July 17, to discuss horizontal hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, with residents. For the Love Of Water representatives were at the meeting to give… Read more »
Click here to view the press release as a PDF Fracking suspected cause of residential water well failure in Kalkaska County As Encana’s fracking operation continued in Rapid River Township, local residents losing water pressure. Water coming out of the tap looks like milk. For Immediate Release June 11, 2013 Kalkaska, Michigan Last week, fracking operations… Read more »
Click here to view and download the full press release PDF PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 23, 2013 FLOW Local Ordinance Program Brings Fracking Protection to Two Michigan Townships Michigan Communities Seek Regulation of Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Two Michigan Townships—Cannon Township and Gun Plain Charter Township—signed up… Read more »
Preface from Jim Olson Water in Michigan is recognized as a public resource or the “waters of the state.” Landowners or those leasing from them have a right to use water, but not unreasonably and it generally not by removing it permanently from watersheds. FLOW board member Ted Curran rightly calls on the state to… Read more »
