Michigan Environmental Report

Michigan's environmental department will continue reducing air pollution levels in three West Michigan counties, a great move for the hearts and lungs of their residents.

The decision was made by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE) on Nov. 3 for Allegan and Berrien counties and part of Muskegon County. Each area registers high levels of ozone, a dangerous pollutant also known as smog that is often created by fossil fuel pollution and wildfires.

The $70 billion state budget, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday, includes funding that will make homes safer and healthier for Michiganders.

Residents will soon have better opportunities to get lead out of their homes, regulate household temperature and keep PFAS and other chemicals out of their faucets.

“The Michigan Environmental Council would like to thank lawmakers and Gov. Whitmer for prioritizing residents' health,” said Tina Reynolds, program director for environmental health at the Michigan Environmental Council. “We spend more than 80% of our time indoors. The safety of our homes is a critical part of a healthy environment.”

It began with a skim through the Yellow Pages.

Lynn McIntosh needed an environmental lawyer. Her thick phonebook yielded only one: AJ Birkbeck, Fulcrum Law.

So she gave him a call, and a short while later she was driving from small-town Rockford to East Grand Rapids in her rundown ’97 Mercury van.

Healthier, more affordable homes; cleaned-up communities; and a premiere electric vehicle workforce could soon be coming to Michigan.

It was all in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's vision for billions in unused American Rescue Plan dollars, which she revealed Monday afternoon.

The Michigan Environmental Council applauded her proposal, noting its emphasis on clean energy jobs and smart development will create financial and environmental resiliency.

This blog post is the first in of "Bellringers," a quarterly series highlighting the major accomplishments of Michigan Environmental Council member groups.

When torrential rain hit Sandra Turner-Handy’s Detroit home in late June, her basement was immediately flooded.

She spent the next few days pumping out water, throwing out furniture, fixing a busted water heater and, worst of all, discarding the personal keepsakes of her late mother.

Then came two other “once-a-century” storms.

While an origin story like this is always debatable, Frank Ettawageshik is certain he’s at least had some role in it.

It was summer 2005. Ettawageshik was in Duluth, Minnesota, with fellow leaders from local, state and federal governments releasing a report on ways to best protect Great Lakes ecosystems. He represented Indigenous tribes as the chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

Sometime during the summit, Ettawageshik spoke about a simple conservation practice: turning off the tap when brushing teeth.

Doing so, he said, means less water is used and less energy is generated to draw, move, dispose and purify it. Not a big deal if only one person does this, Ettawageshik admitted, but if everyone followed suit, the impact would be phenomenal.

This summer, Karen Harrison has watched flowers bloom, frogs plop into water and salamanders waddle across grass from her backyard against the Au Sable River. Then, as summer turns to fall turns to winter, she’ll watch the tree foliage fall away, and in that newfound emptiness, she will take in the full scope of the river, a ribbon of cerulean cutting against the white.

It is this dynamism that Harrison loves best about the Au Sable and the Upper Manistee Rivers some three miles away. The rivers and the worlds in miniature they create perpetually, subtly move and change over the days and seasons.

The Michigan Environmental Council is saddened by the passing of Sen. Carl Levin. As a Detroit native, he was a strong advocate of Michigan’s environmental issues, social justice issues and serving his hometown from acting as the co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Taskforce to securing millions in funding to create the Detroit Riverwalk which is now one of the country’s premier city riverfronts.

Sen. Levin possessed the kind of qualities we aspire to have including integrity, transparency and accountability. The legacy of his leadership and his advocacy of the environment will continue with the countless individuals he inspired throughout his career, including MEC staff.