Defending the Great Lakes from factory farm pollution
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Search Results for: CAFO
Flow appeals EGLE rejection of FOIA request; seeks public disclosure of factory farm sewage land application.
Traverse City, Mich. — Flow Water Advocates (“Flow”) has filed an administrative appeal of a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) decision to reject Flow’s FOIA requests for logs Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are required by permit to maintain and disclose to EGLE and the public. These logs from fourteen CAFOs… Read more »
Michigan’s new FY 2025-26 budget, and what it means for water.
Flow’s mission is to ensure Michigan’s waters are healthy, public, and protected for everyone. Our priorities include water infrastructure funding, tackling nitrate contamination in drinking water, factory farm pollution, and the need for a statewide septic code. We track state budgets closely because they signal real-world priorities. The newly approved FY 2025-26 budgets for Michigan’s… Read more »
Fighting back against factory farm pollution
What is a factory farm and how do they harm the environment and communities? Factory farms, or CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), cram thousands of animals into confined spaces, producing sewage on the scale of a small city. This waste isn’t just manure — it’s loaded with E. coli, chemicals, and other hazards, and is… Read more »
Policy Brief: The hidden costs of anaerobic digesters and biogas
Anaerobic digesters are facilities that decompose organic waste, separating biogas from a sludge called “digestate.” Biogas can be used on-site, paired with a facility like a livestock confinement, or processed into purified pipeline-grade biomethane for electricity or transportation. While biogas can be part of a sustainable farm operation, it has many potential shortfalls that must… Read more »
Factory farm webinar: Weigh in on how Michigan regulates factory farm waste.
Watch the recording Factory farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), threaten our waters with immense quantities of sewage, which too often are sprayed on fields where it can then runoff into streams and leach into groundwater — including into our drinking water. On August 8, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy… Read more »
The Story of a Watershed: Meet the Pine
By: Carrie La Seur, FLOW Legal Director Rivers tell tales. They remember what’s been done to them, decades back. They report on what happened this morning. They don’t lie or hold back the truth. It’s all there, in sediments and suspended solids, temperature, pH, chemical load. Sit a minute and listen to what the Pine… Read more »
What is nitrate pollution, and how does it affect drinking water?
Nitrate pollution might not be a familiar term, but it could be affecting your drinking water more than you realize. Nitrates are a naturally occurring form of nitrogen found in soil and water, but human activities, particularly industrial agriculture, have significantly increased nitrate levels in rivers, lakes, and groundwater. This invisible, odorless, and taste-free contaminant… Read more »
Manure maelstrom: the Great Lakes are drowning in livestock waste
Stand aside Silicon Valley, the next big tech disruptor might be a giant manure scooper. Why? Because the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater system on Earth, are becoming a sea of livestock excrement, thanks the number of large-scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) found in Michigan. We’re talking about 81 million people’s worth of fecal… Read more »
What we’re working on
Our programs Who we are Our story is about water. 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water – and the need to educate citizens and leaders about protecting the Great Lakes as a commons held in public trust now and for future generations. At FLOW (For Love of Water), we believe the enduring ideas… Read more »
