Michigan Chapter Update September 1, 2019 - Legislators Must Act to Fund Clean Water

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Michigan is tiptoeing around PFAS in dairy agriculture

By Garret Ellison | gellison@mlive.com

LANSING, MI — Kay Fritz let the cattle out of the bag in Boston.

Fritz, a toxicologist with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), told the National PFAS Conference audience that Michigan punted on testing an Allegan County dairy farm because it worried about killing the farmer’s business.

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Testing Finds Arsenic, Lead, Radium in Drinking Water Near Consumers Coal Plant

Testing Finds Arsenic, Lead, Radium in Drinking Water Near Consumers Coal Plant

Michigan Chapter Update August 18, 2019 - Factory farm fight heats up

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URGE GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO VOTE NO ON THE PROPOSED RESOLUTION ON THE ENBRIDGE LINE 5 TUNNEL

ACT: GT COMMISSION MEETS THIS WED., AUG. 7, AT 8 AM AT 400 BOARDMAN, TRAVERSE CITY The Grand Traverse County Commission has a resolution in front of it that is expected to be voted on THIS WEDNESDAY, that calls for support of Enbridge's Line 5 tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac.   Please contact your County Commissioners TODAY to urge her or him to VOTE NO ON THE ENBRIDGE TUNNEL RESOLUTION.  Betsy Coffia email bcoffia@grandtraverse.org or 231-714-9598 Ron Clous, vice chair, email rclous@grandtraverse.org or 231-590-3316  Rob Hentschel, chair, email rhentschel@grandtraverse.org  or 231-946-4277  Bryce Hundley email bhundley@grandtraverse.org or 231-753-8602  Sonny Wheelock email swheelock@grandtraverse.org or 231-947-3277 Gordie LaPointe email glapointe@grandtraverse.org or 231-409-2607 Brad Jewett email bjewett@grandtraverse.org  or 231-633-9421  DON'T LET ENBRIDGE FOOL THE COUNTY COMMISSION! The proposed resolution offered by Commissioner Brad Jewett is totally off base - here are the facts: keeping the 66-year-old, dented, deteriorating Line 5 oil pipeline in place for a decade or more while a proposed tunnel is built leaves up to 700 miles of Great Lakes shoreline vulnerable to an unparalleled disaster from a break in the pipelines. Michigan has already been the home of the worst inland oil spill in our nation's history, why let a Canadian oil pipeline company continue to threaten our precious water and economy? Line 5 is 645-miles-long, running from Superior, WI, to Sarnia, ONT, crossing more that 400 waterways, and paralleling the north shore of Lake Michigan for many miles. A tunnel would keep the rest of this dangerous 66-year-old pipeline in place for many more decades. 90 to 95% of the oil in Line 5 goes from Canada to Canada, and does nothing for Michigan except use our state as a shortcut. Propane supplies to the U.P. can be replaced readily according to studies done for the state. And to fight climate change, which is harming our state already, we need to reduce fossil fuels, not make it easy for them to continue to be extracted, transported, processed and burned.  The Bad River Band in Wisconsin is suing to shut down Line 5 where it crosses their reservation after Enbridge's easement expired. Michigan's 12 tribes are all calling for a shutdown of Line 5. Grand Traverse County needs to stand in solidarity with native people whose treaty rights and dependence on natural resources are at risk from Enbridge's pipeline.  Attorney General Dana Nessel is looking out for the people of Michigan and the Great Lakes region by suing to shut down Line 5 across the Straits - Enbridge is only looking out for its pocketbook and using millions of dollars to put pressure on to stop AG Nessel from protecting us.  Find out more about how you can help the fight to shut down Enbridge Line 5 here or contact Christy McGillivray at christy.mcgillivray@sierraclub.org.

Michigan Chapter Update August 4, 2019 - The Michigan Chapter Annual Retreat (the Best Weekend of the Summer)

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Michigan's worst 'environmental injustice' areas ID'd

Keith Matheny, Detroit Free PressPublished 5:27 p.m. ET July 25, 2019 | Updated 5:40 p.m. ET July 25, 2019

It's a troubling combination for many Michigan residents: daily exposure to heightened environmental risks such as air and water pollution, heavy traffic and contaminated sites, and having those conditions particularly affect the most socially vulnerable populations — the poor, less educated, sometimes with limited English language skills.

It's situations like this that create chronic conditions that activists and regulators call "environmental injustice":  pollution — and polluters — frequently besetting those neighborhoods with little means and political voice to do anything about it.

"We’re a vulnerable community," Theresa Landrum, a southwest Detroit resident and environmental activist living in the shadow of the Marathon Detroit Refinery and other polluting industries, recently told the Free Press.

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