Michigan Environment Watch

Republican lawmakers decried the Whitmer administration’s response to Benton Harbor’s lead-in-water crisis as a failure while state officials defended their actions Thursday. National Republicans are also entering the fray.

Senate Oversight Committee Chair Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, is looking into state environmental regulators’ response to elevated lead levels first detected in the city’s drinking water in 2018

Above-average temps are becoming the norm in October. Climate change means warmer waters that threaten salmon and trout, a possible rise in tick-borne illnesses and delays in bird migration.

Unlike Michigan, the buckeye state regulates septic systems and provides money to fix the ones leaking sewage into waterways. Could such a program in Michigan address the pollution that fouls our lakes and streams?

The state’s stepped-up timeline follows pressure from local water activists who argue state and local government officials have been too slow to respond to lead-tainted water that has plagued the city for years.

Tribal leaders have called upon the Biden administration to make “a serious commitment” to uphold the rights of Michigan tribes and shut down Line 5. Last week, Canada cited a 1977 treaty with the U.S. in hopes of keeping Line 5 open for the Canadian-based company.

Dangerously high lead levels have appeared in water tests in this low-income, majority Black community since 2018. Residents and activists say they fear the problem dates back longer, with Flint’s crisis as a backdrop.

Canada argues a 1977 treaty between the nations leaves Gov. Gretchen Whitmer powerless to order Line 5 shutdown. A lawyer for Canada asked a federal judge to halt the lawsuit until diplomats can talk.

As the Taliban seized Kabul, the lives of Afghan grain researchers affiliated with MSU became imperiled. “We will kill you,” the insurgents wrote to a woman scholar. This is the story of how an obscure group of MSU food researchers helped them evade capture.

Michigan farmers irrigate with 187 billion gallons of groundwater a year, double what was used a decade earlier. Is the state prepared for more?

Residents in roughly 1,100 homes were advised to evacuate after a gas leak last month at a Ford assembly plant contaminated the city’s sewers and leeched hazardous fumes into homes. On Thursday, health officials said all but a few homes are cleared for return.

As Michigan state parks experience a visitor resurgence and the federal government funnels gobs of pandemic relief dollars to the state, parks officials want lawmakers to send some of the windfall their way — lawmakers say they’re listening.

A new policy giving state beach managers power to ticket people who enter the water despite warnings during rough waves, bacteria outbreaks or other dangerous conditions. It is set to take effect in May.

A chemical mishap forced residents of a company town out of their homes. They may be away for weeks. And answers are scant.

An investigative report released Monday sheds light on the problems that left the dam vulnerable, from a failure to compact the soil during construction to missing drain tiles that the dam’s owner never addressed.

Once thought too cold for cyanobacteria to grow, Lake Superior in recent years has joined the other Great Lakes as a breeding ground for potentially-toxic algae as a changing climate warms its waters.

Visitors to public lands and outdoor recreation are overwhelmingly white. State land managers say they want to reduce this “nature gap,” while African-American and Latino groups are encouraging more exploration of Michigan waters and trails.

After years of collecting samples from killed deer that overwhelmed state resources while failing to provide the information biologists need to track chronic wasting disease, state officials are taking a more targeted approach.

Public health advocates and bipartisan lawmakers are advocating for new funding to fix the failing septics that leech fecal bacteria, viruses and toxins into Michigan’s waterways.

The massive storms that ripped through southeast Michigan this summer are likely the state’s new normal, but our aging infrastructure was designed for the climate of the past.