Common Groundwater
Michigan is defined by the Great Lakes that surround it. But there's a so-called sixth lake that’s critical to our state, too: our groundwater. It flows deeply through every community and to every corner of our peninsulas. Yet, we have so much more to learn about this natural feature.
Like groundwater, this podcast shows environmental issues felt deeply, widely and personally across the state. It tells stories around those issues and the solutions to them. It goes beyond the headlines to bring listeners and viewers something grand yet personal to us all.
Common Groundwater
Permission to Pollute - The Polluter Rulebook
UPDATE: The bills discussed in this episode did not pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest updates, click here.
The environmental arm of our state was created to protect our land, water, wildlife and us residents from pollution—it's enshrined in Michigan's constitution. And yet, over the course of 30 years, the department and its thousands of employees have been stripped of its powers time and again, rendering it far more toothless than we might expect.
In Episode 1 of "The Polluter Rulebook" miniseries, we learned how one sentence froze Michigan's pollution laws back in time. In Episode 2, Christy McGillivray of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter puts that sentence into context. She tells us how one governor began a domino effect of gutted environmental protections that we're now building back with force.
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To learn more about the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, click here.
To read Christy's breakdown of our state environmental department's stripped powers, click here.
Learn about water protections and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.
Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.
Our series is sponsored by Kalsec, a global ingredient company headquartered in Kalamazoo that meets the highest recognized social and environmental standards through its B Corps certification.
