Upper Peninsula wolves, surging Great Lakes, and examining the impact of the 1973 mass poisoning in St. Louis, Michigan. As 2019 winds down, take a look back at Bridge’s most impactful environmental stories of the year.
Michigan Environment Watch
Michigan Environment Watch examines how public policy, industry, and other factors interact with the state’s trove of natural resources.
Great Lakes News Collaborative
Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, The Narwhal and Michigan Public work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. You can find all of the collaborative’s stories here.
Shockwave
The Great Lakes region is in the midst of a seismic energy shakeup, from skyrocketing data center demand and a nuclear energy boom, to expanding renewables and electrification. In 2026, the Great Lakes News Collaborative will explore how shifting supply and demand affect the region and its waters. Read the series here.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
As surging Great Lakes threaten Michigan, homeowners beg Canada for help
As Gov. Gretchen Whitmer weighs an emergency declaration for towns besieged by rising waters, a movement is growing to ask Canada to stop dumping millions of gallons of water per day into the Great Lakes through dams in northern Ontario.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan Democrats take aim at Nestlé. Farmers urge caution.
Amid tensions on water diversions, Democrats propose legislation that would limit Nestlé’s ability to pump Michigan groundwater and export it out of the state. But farmers say such a law threatens their groundwater rights.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Deal reached between state, townships and Wolverine World Wide over PFAS
Wolverine will pay $69.5 million to extend municipal water to PFAS-affected residents in northern Kent County under the tentative agreement.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Enbridge lost rods in the Straits. It didn’t tell Michigan for two months.
Enbridge says the accident involving lost rods at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac doesn’t pose an environmental risk. But some environmental groups are worried it indicates problems to come.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan DNR said it killed wolves to protect humans. Then we got its emails.
State wildlife leaders violated the state Freedom of Information Act, concealing details surrounding calf deaths and the 2016 shootings of protected gray wolves. Records suggest a different motive for the kills.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Poisoned Michigan: How weak laws and ignored history enabled PFAS crisis
Michigan lawmakers said ‘never again’ after an agricultural mishap sparked one of the worst poisonings in history in 1973. But serious reform never came and some mistakes of that crisis are being repeated with the PFAS threat befouling state waterways.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
In a Michigan town with a toxic legacy, residents fought for decades to heal
In the town of St. Louis, a group of rabble-rousers ensured state and federal authorities didn’t forget their toxic legacy. The work is only half done, but could be a lesson for communities now battling PFAS contamination.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan’s PFAS cleanup costs are mounting. Taxpayers may get stuck with the tab.
When a chemical disaster strikes – as it did in the tiny town of St. Louis – bills mount far faster than polluters’ willingness to pay. It’s a lesson survivors of the crisis fear will repeat with PFAS, which Michigan already has spent tens of millions to address.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan found PFAS in Oscoda in 2010. There’s still no plan to clean it up.
An ignored 2010 report about PFAS is just one of several bureaucratic hurdles that has slowed Michigan’s response to the chemical that is now befouling waters. The delays are reminiscent of those that prolonged the PBB contamination of livestock in the 1970s.