Michigan Environment Watch
Michigan Environment Watch examines how public policy, industry, and other factors interact with the state’s trove of natural resources.
Articles
Michigan Environmental Roundup: Toxic vapors, Great Lakes sanctuary, Legionnaires’ outbreak.
This week’s can’t-miss journalism about Michigan’s natural resources.
Senator wants to defang the ‘radical’ Michigan DEQ. He just may do so.
Powerful Sen. Tom Casperson wants to give industry the power to override decisions from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which he says pushes a “radical left-wing agenda.”
Michigan Environmental Roundup: Ice jams, Lake Michigan and shipwrecks
This week’s can’t-miss journalism about Michigan’s natural resources.
Gov. Rick Snyder wants $5 fee on drinking water for pipe fixes
Michigan has hundreds of thousands of lead water lines. The term-limited governor is proposing new fees to fix them.
Even after Flint, lead-free water lines may be a pipe dream in Michigan
Gov. Rick Snyder is pushing for the nation’s strictest rules for limiting lead in water supplies. But doing so is expensive, and fellow Republicans are skeptical.
Reforms going nowhere to require Michigan schools to test water for lead
After Flint, lawmakers set aside millions to test water used by children. But the money is unspent, and bills to require testing have gone nowhere.
Read Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to remove lead water pipes in Michigan
Flint awakened residents to the danger of lead mains. Explore the term-limited governor’s proposal to fix the problem.
Here’s where Michigan 2018 governor candidates stand on lead pipes
Bridge Magazine asked eight candidates — four Republicans and four Democrats — about what their visions for clean drinking water following the Flint crisis.
Gov. Rick Snyder pitches plan to clean up Michigan’s polluted sites
Michigan has thousands of polluted sites, and funding to clean them up is nearly gone. Its outgoing governor wants to raise the money by boosting trash disposal fees.
Michigan has 7,300 toxic sites. Money for cleanups is almost gone.
Funding shortage threatens to halt toxic cleanups in Michigan, including a 6-mile long plume of pollution that’s tainted 13 trillions of groundwater beneath Antrim County. (with map)
Map: Find PFAS chemical threats to Michigan drinking water near your town
A group of industrial chemicals increasingly is found in Michigan’s environment. See where regulators have flagged them so far.
Cost to Michigan of trusting Enbridge on Line 5: $255 per hour
After Enbridge admitted breaching public trust, Michigan is paying a pair of experts big money to monitor the company’s studies of its controversial pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac.
Michigan environment roundup: toxic blood, salt bombs and solar power
This week’s can’t-miss journalism about Michigan’s natural resources.
What now after Michigan, Enbridge agree to deal on Line 5?
Environmentalists aren’t happy. A shutdown seems unlikely. And other takeaways from Monday’s deal over the gas pipeline.
Environmental cuts could hobble Pure Michigan
Despite broad public support for protecting Michigan’s natural beauty, state and federal budget cuts may stall projects in a state that, after the Flint water disaster, has become synonymous with environmental risk.