Download PDF Our invisible water crisis. Michigan faces a long-standing and largely invisible water quality crisis driven by failing septic systems. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) estimates that 330,000 of Michigan’s 1.3 million septic systems are currently failing. Untreated sewage is entering groundwater, rivers, and lakes at alarming rates. Studies… Read more »
Download PDF At issue: The rapid rise of data centers in our communities Data centers are multiplying across America in response to increases in computing intensity, including the growing use of artificial intelligence. Significant growth in cloud computing, big data analytics, and cryptomining also contributes to demand for data centers. Viewed as the next job-creating… Read more »
This month, people across the globe celebrated Human Rights Day. Every year on December 10th, the world celebrates the anniversary of “one of the world’s most groundbreaking global pledges: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR].” The UDHR was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, over 75 years ago, as a result… Read more »
Traverse City, Mich. — On December 17, the District Court for the Western District of Michigan issued its opinion in Enbridge v. Whitmer. The federal case was brought by the Canadian oil company to stop Michigan state officials from enforcing Governor Whitmer’s 2020 Notice of Revocation and Termination of the 1953 Easement for the operation… Read more »
by Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director For fourteen years, Flow Water Advocates has stood on a simple, powerful truth: The waters of the Great Lakes belong to everyone—and must be protected for all time. Not just for this generation. Not just for human use. But for the entire living water cycle that sustains our region, our… Read more »
By Liz Kirkwood, Flow Executive Director This piece originally appeared in Bridge Michigan. Michigan’s abundant water has turned into a cash cow for private bottled water companies. They’re making large profits off publicly owned water, while paying next to nothing to the state for water extraction. At the same time, low- and middle-income families often… Read more »
DOWNLOAD: Flow Water Advocates, Sierra Club, and Surfrider Foundation comments on Line 5 Tunnel Project Supplemental Draft EIS on the HDD Installation Alternative Traverse City, Mich. — On December 5, Flow Water Advocates (Flow), a Great Lakes water protection organization, in partnership with the Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation (known collectively as the Water Coalition),… Read more »
Wetland protection advocates across America recoiled earlier this month when the Trump Administration proposed opening up millions of acres of wetlands to be filled or drained and developed. Michigan will fare somewhat better because of a 1980 state law that shields many wetlands that the U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are proposing… Read more »
Why we oppose House Bill 4385: A threat to Michigan’s shorelines, the Public Trust, and the Great Lakes. House Bill 4385, currently being considered in the Michigan Legislature, would weaken critical protections for the shorelines of the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair. Although the bill is framed as a support for property owners to… Read more »
Updated December 19, 2025 Five years ago, on November 13, 2020, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Department of Natural Resources revoked and terminated the 1953 easement that had allowed Enbridge to locate and operate its dual Line 5 pipelines on the lakebed and in the waters of the Straits of Mackinac. As public trustee… Read more »
