Tag: media release

Michigan Supreme Court grants review of Line 5 tunnel permit

Published on September 20th, 2025 by - Blog Posts, Reports & Media Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 19, 2025

Lansing, Mich. – The Michigan Supreme Court has granted a landmark application for leave to appeal, paving the way for a review of the Michigan Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) decision to approve a permit for Enbridge’s proposed oil pipeline tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac. This order, issued on September 19, 2025, also invites the State Bar of Michigan Environmental Law Section and Real Property Law Section to file amicus briefs.

Support Flow’s work to defend the Great Lakes.

For Love of Water (FLOW), a Traverse City-based environmental nonprofit recently rebranded as Flow Water Advocates, initiated the legal challenge, arguing that the MPSC failed to uphold its public trust obligations to protect Michigan’s waters. The Supreme Court’s order specifically directs the parties to address whether the MPSC is required to comply with the common law public trust doctrine in its permitting decisions.

“This is an incredibly important step forward for the protection of the Great Lakes,” said Flow Water Advocates Legal Director Carrie La Seur. “The public trust doctrine is a fundamental principle of Michigan law that must be considered in decisions that affect our natural resources. We are eager to argue this case and ensure that our state’s waters are protected for generations to come.”

The case will be heard alongside a related appeal from the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, a testament to the broad legal and public interest in this issue. The Supreme Court’s decision to grant review signifies the high stakes and critical legal questions surrounding the Enbridge Line 5 tunnel.

Flow is represented in this case by its legal team and co-counsel.

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Flow Water Advocates is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Traverse City, Michigan. Our mission is to ensure the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are healthy, public, and protected for all. With a staff of legal and policy experts, writers, and community builders, Flow is a trusted resource for Great Lakes advocates. We help communities, businesses, agencies, and governments make informed policy decisions and protect public trust rights to water. Learn more at www.FlowWaterAdvocates.org.

Flow, Sierra Club, and Surfrider Foundation to EGLE: Reject the Line 5 tunnel permit.

Published on September 9th, 2025 by - Blog Posts, Reports & Media Releases

PRESS RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 9, 2025

Download the written comments to EGLE (PDF)

Traverse City, Mich. – On August 29, 2025, Flow Water Advocates, a Great Lakes water protection organization, together with the Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation, submitted written comments on Enbridge’s application for a Water Resources Permit for its proposed Line 5 tunnel project through the Straits of Mackinac. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is reviewing the application for compliance under the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA), Parts 303 and 325.

Flow’s comments demand that EGLE’s review consider the entire project, and detail the many adverse environmental impacts that will or are likely to result from the project’s approval, including:

  • a projected six years of construction traffic and noise, light, and air pollution; 
  • the destruction of precious wetland ecosystems; 
  • climate impacts from the tunnel’s construction and the products it will transport for the duration of a 99-year lease, and 
  • the potential impacts resulting from a project failure, including a catastrophic oil spill.

Flow’s comments also highlight the expert reports and Enbridge’s own expert testimony that have confirmed available alternatives for transporting the products currently flowing through Line 5.

Because the proposed tunnel will have significant–and potentially catastrophic–impacts on Michigan’s public trust waters and natural resources, and because these impacts can be avoided through available alternatives, EGLE must deny the permit under Michigan’s controlling environmental laws and regulations.

Michiganders are counting on the State to uphold its responsibility to protect the public trust rights of current and future generations who depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, subsistence, and way of life.

An additional public comment period for Enbridge’s application to EGLE for a wastewater discharge permit under NREPA, Part 31, is anticipated in the coming months.

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Flow Water Advocates is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Traverse City, Michigan. Our mission is to ensure the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are healthy, public, and protected for all. With a staff of legal and policy experts, writers, and community builders, Flow is a trusted resource for Great Lakes advocates. We help communities, businesses, agencies, and governments make informed policy decisions and protect public trust rights to water. Learn more at www.FlowWaterAdvocates.org.

Affirmed: EGLE’s authority to issue General Permit with stronger conditions for factory farms

Published on August 1st, 2024 by - Blog Posts, Reports & Media Releases

July 31, 2024: Michigan Supreme Court affirms EGLE’s authority to issue General Permit with stronger conditions for factory farms

Traverse City, Mich.— FLOW applauds the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision yesterday, rejecting the Court of Appeals’ dangerously flawed ruling in Michigan Farm Bureau v. Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Unsatisfied with permit terms that have allowed their industry to pollute Lake Huron and Lake Erie to such an extent that, at one point, the City of Toledo had to shut down its municipal drinking water intake 2.5 miles from shore, Farm Bureau – the lobbying arm of an insurance agency – and its allies had sued to block slightly firmer permit standards.

The lower court held that EGLE’s 2020 Clean Water Act General Permit for Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) should have been challenged by Farm Bureau as an unpromulgated rule. The General Permit is an environmental compliance document developed by EGLE, whose terms CAFOs agree to abide by under a Certificate of Coverage. Affirming this ruling would have meant that EGLE could never tighten its CAFO General Permit, because in 2006 the Legislature stripped EGLE of its authority to enact new water protection regulations. A bill is pending in the current Legislature to restore that vital governmental function.

Thanks to this protracted litigation, factory farms have enjoyed an additional four years of lax regulation, continuing to dump pollution into Michigan’s ground and surface water.

Now the Michigan Supreme Court has held that EGLE acted within its authority to amend the CAFO General Permit. Stronger permit terms will take effect immediately. Litigating every attempt to reduce factory farm pollution is standard procedure for Farm Bureau and industrial ag, but this time, thanks to Michigan’s spirited defense of our freshwater heritage, they failed.

FLOW has vigorously supported AG Nessel and EGLE in their defense of the 2020 permit, including submitting an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief to the Michigan Supreme Court in partnership with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Michigan Environmental Council, the Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan, Freshwater Future, Food and Water Watch, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

FLOW looks forward to prompt issuance of a more protective 2025 CAFO General Permit, so that Michiganders may begin to make up some of the ground lost on water quality due to this procedural odyssey. FLOW and its many supporters and allies remain committed to this goal, and we are grateful for the leadership of AG Nessel, Gov. Whitmer, and EGLE in this fight.