Chapter 6: Sierra Club Michigan Protects the Great Lakes

Michigan is defined by the Great Lakes, but our region’s relationship with the largest reservoirs of fresh water on earth has alternated between treating them with respect and turning them into cesspools of waste. The Great Lakes have always provided abundant fresh water, transportation and fisheries that helped both indigenous and post-European settlement communities become major sites of commerce and industry. Michigan’s mineral resources, forests, food and fur resources were exploited more efficiently because of easy access to shipping on the lakes.  Each of these developments, along with growing population centers, had an adverse impact on the lakes.

From the time that fur traders first used voyageur canoes to carry their goods to markets, to the blue-green algae creating a dead zone in Lake Erie from nutrient run off today, the Great Lakes have suffered from pollution, impairment and destruction. For 50 years, the Sierra Club in Michigan has worked to reverse the harm caused to the Great Lakes, its tributaries and its shorelands, and to restore health to its unique ecosystem. Paraphrasing Sierra Club founder John Muir, it is fair to say,“when we try to pick out anything in Michigan by itself, we find it hitched to everything else related to the Great Lakes region.” You’ll find stories of Sierra Club’s work on many of the issues related to the Great Lakes throughout our history blog. In this article, our focus will be on issues directly related to Great Lakes water pollution threats, clean up and prevention, and the Sierra Club’s Great Lakes program, founded in the 1980’s by then Sierra Club Midwest Regional Director Jane Elder, (http://vault.sierraclub.org/planet/199509/great.asp ) who had also served as the Michigan Chapter’s first staff member.

Sometimes the more obvious something is, the harder it is to see. No one can miss the Great Lakes, but their very size means that it has taken major crises for the impact of pollution in the lakes to be recognized as more than just a localized issue. The “death” of Lake Erie in the 1960s, and the multiple times the Cuyahoga River, an Ohio tributary, caught fire helped galvanize nationwide concern about the dumping of pollution into our waterways, and helped spark the environmental movement. The Sierra Club Mackinac (Michigan) Chapter was born in this time, with significant focus on protecting wild lands, including the iconic shorelines of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Sierra Club worked with local, state and national organizations through the 1970s and 1980s in securing the bedrock pollution laws that created the basic policy framework we live with today, including both water quality and air quality laws.  In that somewhat giddy time when we had achieved a national consensus that environmental protection was critical for the well-being of our state and nation, not only were efforts supported to stop new pollution, there was a growing awareness that additional threats that were less visible than black smoke and dead fish needed to be tackled as well.

The Fight to Regulate Air Toxics

One particularly insidious pollution problem came to light in the late 1970’s as scientists documented the presence of DDT, PCBs and other toxic substances in the fish in Lake Siskiwit, a lake in the middle of Isle Royale. These chemicals could only have come into this largest lake in the largest island in Lake Superior through air transport, a previously unrecognized source of pollution. Over time, “air toxics” have been identified as one of the largest contributors to contamination of our waterways and the creatures living there. In Michigan, virtually every waterway carries a warning about limiting consumption of wild caught fish because of the presence of persistent, bioaccumulative chemicals and mercury, with much of the source of these pollutants known to come from the air. While there are many sources of air toxins, major contributors include emissions from coal fired power plants, incinerators of both solid and hazardous wastes, emissions from chemical factories and other industrial operations. DDT, which was banned from use in the USA, was found to have been transported extremely long distances from countries where its use was still allowed.

Jane Elder, whose passion for the Great Lakes has been at the heart of her long, storied career of environmental activism, became one of the lead advocates in the nation for controlling air toxics, tying the importance of controlling these pollutants to protecting the lakes. These airborne chemicals and metals were not identified among the so called “criteria pollutants” addressed in the Clean Air Act adopted by Congress in 1970. Michigan Chapter members were active participants in lobbying efforts in Congress to require the regulation of air toxics. Chapter staffer Anne Woiwode became part of the Sierra Club Great Lakes team working on air toxics issues, including producing educational information and organizing Michigan volunteers.  Michigan Chapter leaders had engaged in fights against air toxics including dioxins and furans starting with the Detroit Incinerator fight in the mid-1980’s (see article in this blog), and brought that skill and knowledge to the national fight as well. 

In 1990, the Congress adopted amendments to the Clean Air Act that directed the US Environmental Protection Agency and, through delegated authority, state environmental agencies, to move toward the regulation of 189 specific air toxins.  The same law brought about additional controls of Acid Rain causing emissions of sulfur dioxide (read about the Michigan Chapter’s engagement on this issue here https://annewoiwode.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/acid-raid-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-part-1/ ). The fight over how these provisions are implemented has continued since that time, with former Michigan Chapter staffer Alison Horton (now Central Region Organizing Director) among those participating in work groups for setting Michigan’s regulations. Under the Snyder Administration, efforts to weaken air toxics regulations remind us that victories such as these will always demand vigilance.

Great Lakes Water Diversion

With 20 percent of the world’s liquid fresh water in the Great Lakes, the potential threat of diversion of waters out of the Great Lakes basin only became a concern as ideas for diversion began to emerge in the 1980s, including proposals to send water to the drought-stricken southwest United States. Sierra Club’s Great Lakes Program and many volunteers in Michigan and beyond played a role in advocating for an unusual agreement among the eight Great Lakes states and the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The Great Lakes Charter signed in 1985 was a common agreement across the basin that laid the base for protection of the quantity of Great Lakes water. Sierra Club members joined with allies across Michigan to lobby then Governor James Blanchard to produce a strong charter and sign it along with the other governors and premiers.

As the importance of protecting the Great Lakes grew in the public perception, additional agreements strengthening the initial charter were adopted. Issues around the bottling of water from sources within Michigan for shipment outside of the basin galvanized efforts to further lock down the provisions for any diversion. In 2005 the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement among the states and provinces was completed, with a binding implementation document for the states titled the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact enacted by Congress and effective in 2008.  The Compact established a variety of requirements for each state to meet in order to protect the Great Lakes from diversion. Among provisions were requirements for states to develop protocols for monitoring and regulating the consumption of both surface waters within the Great Lakes basin and those ground waters hydrologically connect to the basin.  Sierra Club was joined by Clean Water Action and other organizations to urge the state to adopt strong requirements for water quantity controls, but the legislation adopted contains several loopholes including for the use of water in fracking operations that Great Lakes advocates continue to seek to plug. 

In 2016, the provision of the Compact requiring that any diversion outside of the basin be unanimously approved by all eight governors of the states was tested for the first time. Despite strong evidence of a lack of need, a request to divert water to the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, approved by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder highlighted the weakness of the Compact provisions.  In a sign that companies are looking to take advantage of a Michigan governor who seems unconcerned about diversion, a proposal to drastically increase the permitted size of a water bottling plant owned by Nestle in Evart was only brought to public attention days before the permit comment period was to close. An enormous outpouring of public concern has led to an extension of the comment period and agreement to hold a hearing. Sierra Club members are engaging in the effort to block this unwarranted expansion.

Drilling for Oil and Gas under Great Lakes Banned

As awareness of the vulnerability of the Great Lakes to pollution grew, attention was drawn to a potential threat of oil and gas drilling on or under the Great Lakes. In fact, Michigan had several oil and gas wells which had been drilled directionally under the bottomlands of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron starting in 1979. Oil and gas rights under the bottomlands of Michigan’s portion of the Great Lakes belong to the state, and in 1997 a lease of 200 acres of oil and gas rights by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to a Canadian oil development company sparked outrage throughout the state. 

Sierra Club volunteers and staff joined with many partners around the state in the late 1990s/early 2000’s to raise an alarm about the potential for harm in the freshwater ecosystem from this practice. Concerns about the drilling focused on the potential for pockmarking Michigan’s precious coastlines with well-heads and dangers of spills, blowouts or other concerns around these drilling sites. As debate over measures in Michigan’s legislature got underway in earnest, the US Congress placed a moratorium on drilling activities until 2003, sending a strong signal about how unpopular this activity was. In a sign of bipartisanship, the Michigan Legislature passed a legislative ban on leasing any oil and gas under the bottomlands and connecting waterways in 2002, but Governor John Engler declined to sign the bill, and it went into effect without his signature. The ban still stands today.

The Great Lakes and Environmental Justice

Sierra Club’s commitment to protection and restoration of the Great Lakes and addressing environmental injustices has come together in southeastern Michigan over the past decade. Former Great Lakes Program staffer Melissa Damaschke drew a strong connection among a number of important water and pollution issues in Detroit and surrounding communities, and with a cadre of volunteers, developed both advocates and people contributing to solutions. The issues have included: pollution from the Detroit Water and Sewerage District  (now the Great Lakes Water Authority), the largest waste water treatment facility in the United States; access to affordable drinking water; advocating for green infrastructure; and hands-on help for people to address storm water runoff issues at their own homes. Tackling this suite of issues has empowered community members to become powerful advocates for public health and the environment. Michigan Chapter staffers Erma Leaphart and Dorthea Thomas are continuing this work under the Great Lakes Program.

Protecting Against Oil Spills

In July 2010, the largest inland oil spill in United States history occurred near Marshall, MI, as Enbridge Line 6B burst open and dumped approximately one million gallons of heavy, tar sands crude oil into Talmadge Creek, where it flowed into the Kalamazoo River.  Sierra Club was among the first to provide documentation of the severity of the disaster, arranging with a volunteer pilot from Lighthawk and a photographer to obtain the first aerial photographs of the spill. Within a day after the spill was publicly announced, the Michigan Chapter website became a critical source of information about the extent of the spill and the developing plans of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which were heading up efforts to contain and clean up. Sierra Club members, particularly in the area of the disaster, have continued to participate in and work with both the agencies and the communities as recovery continues to this day.

This experience motivated Sierra Club and many allied organizations to rally to prevent future disasters in Michigan and elsewhere. Environmental groups learned about existing oil pipelines throughout the region, including the Enbridge Line 5 which crosses the Straits of Mackinac in two pipelines that sit on braces at the bottom of the straits. Chapter Forest Ecologist Marvin Roberson in 2012 noticed that the Huron Manistee National Forest was considering approval of re-issuance of an expired special use permit for Enbridge Line 5 across the forest, with no additional environmental review of consideration. Marvin’s discovery and input led to the Forest Service deciding to conduct a more complete environmental review as part of consideration of the permit. Sierra Club contends that the Forest Service failed to fully assess the environmental impacts, including the impact of the full extent of the line on the environment, but was unable to prevail in court.

In 2012, the National Wildlife Federation released its report, “Sunken Hazard” (http://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/sunken_hazard) which examined the threats posed by Line 5 where it crosses the Straits. Following that report, a new coalition called Oil and Water Don’t Mix (http://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/#menu ) was created specifically focused on the huge threat posed to the Great Lakes ecosystem by the more than 60-year-old pipeline as it crosses the Straits. Chapter Chair David Holtz has been central to the OWDM campaign throughout, and plays a critical role on strategy and communications. Additional reports by NWF and For Love of Water (FLOW) have continued to detail the dangers posed by the aging pipelines. Working within OWDM, Sierra Club has joined in working to pressure Michigan’s Governor Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette to take action available to them to enforce easement provisions to shut down the flow of oil through the pipeline.

Chapter 11: Sierra Club's Fight to Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground

By Anne Woiwode, Chapter Conservation Chair

In the early 2000’s, the George W. Bush administration began to aggressively encourage the development of new coal-burning power plants. Many of the electric generating plants around the country were coming to the end of their expected lives, and the Bush administration put a large bet on coal, an abundant resource in the United States, as the fuel of the future. At the same time, this policy initiative was in direct conflict with the growing confirmation of the massive contribution of carbon dioxide emissions to climate change. Scientific evidence of the threat of greenhouse gas emissions to the planet had been accumulating for more than half a century, however President Bush’s reckless energy policy moved the discussion from the academic arena to the legislative and regulatory realm.

Sierra Club leaders in the Midwest, heeding the urgent warnings of James Hansen the top scientist with NASA, recognized that a dangerous coal rush was underway. Volunteer Verena Owen and attorney Bruce Nilles in Illinois led the effort as Sierra Club embarked on an ambitious strategy of fighting every proposed coal-burning power plant proposal around the nation, the Beyond Coal Campaign. The first of its kind strategy tied together litigation, regulatory efforts, legislation and on the ground organizing, working to block electric utilities and independent power companies from building new coal plants. 

In Michigan, the fight started later than in other states, and was a bigger fight than in many other states. The Michigan Chapter leadership recognized in 2007 that energy issues were critical ones for our staff and volunteers to engage on. Legislative efforts, driven in part by Governor Jennifer Granholm, were being pursued to require increased renewable energy generation in the electric sector, and increased energy efficiency in both natural gas and electric industries. As Sierra Club volunteers, particularly led by Legislative Chair Lydia Fischer and Anna Holden of the Southeast Michigan Group, engaged in the legislative fight in early 2007, they urged the Michigan Chapter to increase our legislative engagement on energy issues. Then Legislative Director Gayle Miller became a critical force in the legislative fight that culminated in the passage of Michigan’s renewable energy and energy efficiency law in 2008.

As the Michigan Chapter delved into the emerging energy fights in 2007, State Director Anne Woiwode learned that there were at least five proposed new coal-burning power plants beginning to move into the permitting process or being actively discussed. Ultimately, eight plants were proposed around the state, with five seeking air pollution control permits from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. The plants which sought permits included a 10 MW coal-burning power plant proposed by Northern Michigan University in Marquette, a 600 MW coal and wood burning power plant in Rogers City proposed by Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, a 930 MW plant in Essexville proposed by CMS/Consumers Energy as an expansion of their Karn Weadock power plant complex.  The Lansing Board of Water and Light and Holland Board of Public Works, both municipal utilities, proposed to build coal plants for their own use, and possibly to sell to other munis, and other plant proposals included “merchant plants” in Midland, near Alma and in Manistee that were proposed to be built to sell into the grid, but with no specific commitments from customers.

In the end, not a single new coal-burning power plant was built in Michigan, as Sierra Club led a broad and diverse coalition of local, state and national organizations in the fight to stop the Michigan coal rush. Sierra Club organizers Lee Sprague, Jan O’Connell and Tiffany Hartung were particularly important in training, providing support and information to grassroots activists throughout the state, educating and engaging community groups about issues from health impacts to costs. Engaged citizens in Midland, Holland, Lansing, Rogers City, Manistee, in the Saginaw/Bay City area were joined by energy and climate activists from Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and other communities as increasing numbers of Michiganders recognized these plants did not simply present local problems.  Organizers, both volunteer and staff, with Progress Michigan, Clean Water Action, the Ecology Center and others helped to engage the grassroots, as the coalition members collaborated on plans to take the greatest advantage of the skills and capacity of each organization.

Michigan tribes provided leadership in the coalition, particularly in the fights against the plants in Rogers City and Essexville. As consumers of electricity from the utilities proposing the plants, and as advocates for tribal members health, in particular reducing mercury from coal pollution that concentrated in the fish the tribal members depended upon, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Band and the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians were among the key proponents from dropping planned coal plants. However, their engagement was not without harassment, including disturbing taunts aimed at the tribal members at a massive hearing on the Essexville plant held by the DEQ^[1].

State-wide and national environmental organizations joined with Sierra Club in providing technical and legal assistance in each of the fights. Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign played a primary role in strategizing and coordinating these efforts, with key roles played by  Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, and Michigan Environmental Council among others. The five proposed air pollution permits required analysis, expert review, drafting and submission of technical comments and, where necessary, litigation to block the permit. The campaign members also understood that with the growing environmental, health and financial costs of new coal plants, and the decreasing costs of clean energy alternatives, in particular efficiency and wind power, delays in the start of construction of these proposed plants would lead to more and more pressure to drop the plants.

The Sierra Club and other campaign members also led tailored advocacy efforts aimed at each business or utility proposing coal plants. As an investor owned utility, Consumer Energy shareholder advocates also worked with the campaign to bring pressure on the utility to consider the health and climate impacts of investing in a new coal plant instead of moving towards clean energy.  In Holland and Lansing local citizens and campaign members advocated with the decision making boards that oversaw the municipal utilities, as well as with the elected leaders of each city to press for an environmentally sound choice.  In the Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative case, cooperative members and environmental advocates reached out to the boards of each of the member electric cooperatives that were part of the Wolverine, which provides electricity to each member cooperative. The citizens also tried to recruit and elect board members who agreed that a new coal plant was not a good choice.

The campaign also brought information and citizen lobbying pressure to the Michigan legislature and the Granholm administration to take action to stop the coal rush.  Governor Granholm became a strong advocate for clean energy in her second term, appointing Stanley “Skip” Pruss as her adviser and later as the head of the new Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth. Granholm and Pruss invested a lot of work in securing a strong clean energy law, however the new law adopted in 2008 were not designed to block the proposed coal plants, although they encouraged alternative sources of electric generation and efficiency.  One of the key public interest attorneys working with the campaign, Shannon Fisk, then with NRDC, working with GLELC attorneys, developed a strategy within Michigan law that could lead to a requirement that the state agencies considered whether or not there was a need for power proposed to be generated by these plants, and whether alternatives to achieve that goal were available. The campaign advocated for this approach directly with the administration, providing legal arguments and pointing to the importance of Michigan taking a stand to protect the future by not approving new coal plants.

In her State of State address in February 2009, Governor Granholm announced that the DEQ and Michigan Public Service Commission would be tasked with analyzing the need for the power from proposed coal fired power plants, and whether alternatives existed.  The analyses, developed with public input, were conducted on the plants which continued to pursue their permits.  While the DEQ ultimately decided to issue a permit in early 2010 for the Consumers Energy proposal for the Karn Weadock plant expansion, despite a finding that there was no need for the plant. However, as a result of the pressure from many corners, the company put the plant on hold a few months later.  Consumers dropped the proposed plant entirely in December 2011.

Granholm’s Executive Directive regarding coal fired power plants delayed action, but was reversed within weeks by Governor Rick Snyder after he took office in 2011. However, the combination of litigation, citizen advocacy, concerns about finances and environmental concerns all brought by the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, Beyond Coal Campaign and our many partners led to the remaining coal plants all dropping their plans to proceed within a couple of years. Sierra Club’s laid the groundwork for a swell of citizen engagement in energy planning that has become a template for other communities to follow.

The Michigan Chapter is engaged in legislative efforts to defend and expand our clean energy goals, as well as many other environmental efforts.  Contact Legislative Director Mike Berkowitz at mike.berkowitz@sierraclub.org to find out more. The Beyond Coal Campaign has continued in Michigan to work for the shut down of existing coal plants with the goal of moving our electric generation sector entirely to truly clean sources of energy by 2030. Announcements in the past few years by Consumers Energy and DTE Energy of plans to shut down more than ten coal plants have been a part of the overall campaign. Learn more about this effort by contacting Beyond Coal Campaign Michigan Representative Regina Strong at regina.strong@sierraclub.org. Today, Sierra Club members and community members throughout the state have begun working through the Ready for 100 Campaign to encourage local governments to commit to moving to 100% clean energy by 2050.  Find out how you can become part of this campaign by contacting Beyond Coal Organizer Andrew Sarpolis at andrew.sarpolis@sierraclub.org.

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^[1] Governor Granholm combined the DEQ and DNR into the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. For purposes of this article, we use DEQ to stand in for DNRE as well.