Protect the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes at risk

Whether we’re taking a family vacation on the beaches of Lake Michigan, or hiking at Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior, the Great Lakes are a huge part of what we love about Michigan. Yet the Great Lakes’ waters face serious pollution — from sewage overflows, development, unrestricted pollution and more. Environment Michigan is working to rein in the pollution, and restore the Great Lakes to health.

More than 24 billion gallons of sewage pollute the Great Lakes

State officials estimate that more than 24 billion gallons of untreated sewage flow into the Great Lakes each year. The consequences are clear.

Sewage dumped into the Great Lakes poses a significant health risk to people and wildlife. Too often, we’ve seen our beaches closed due to high pollution levels, with more than 3,000 closings in 2009 alone.

Clean Water Act loopholes leave half of our streams unprotected

Over the past decade, polluters and irresponsible developers have used the courts to strip Clean Water Act protections from small streams and wetlands.

More than half of Michigan’s streams and hundreds of acres of wetlands are vulnerable to pollution and development as a result. Polluters can dump garbage into streams, developers can pave over wetlands to build strip malls, and the cops on the environmental beat can’t do a thing about it. And it’s not just small streams and wetlands that will suffer — these waterways are the same ones that feed the Great Lakes and help to keep them clean.

The EPA can protect the Great Lakes — but Congress threatens to stand in the way

The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to update clean water standards to reduce pollution in the Great Lakes, but polluters and their allies in Congress are trying to block them. We need to show overwhelming public support for tough clean water standards to protect the Great Lakes and all of our waterways.

This spring, along with our allies across the country, we submitted more than 170,000 petitions to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, urging her to restore protections to all of our waters and to cut sewage pollution. In April, she announced a plan to do just that.

But polluters’ allies in Congress won’t give up — and now they’re threatening to stop the EPA from doing its job. At the same time, powerful corporate interests are preparing for battle: ExxonMobil threatened “legal warfare” if the EPA moves forward with its plan to restore Clean Water Act protections.

Our plan to defend the Great Lakes

We refuse to let polluters and their allies in Congress open our precious waterways to more dumping and development. We’re bringing together Michigan residents from all walks of life to protect the Great Lakes. From anglers to sailing enthusiasts, clergy to scientists, local officials to ordinary families, we all have a stake in keeping our water clean.

Our citizen outreach staff has been knocking on doors across the state, educating Michigan residents about what’s at stake. But if we’re going to push past ExxonMobil and other powerful polluters, we’re going to need everyone who cares about the Great Lakes to get involved. Join our campaign by sending the EPA a message today.