Michigan Supreme Court revives appeal of ‘factory farm’ discharge permit in light of Line 5 ruling

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Laconic Granny

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The Michigan Supreme Court's July ruling against state energy regulators' handling of environmental harms in the Line 5 tunnel permit is now being applied to a separate case over factory farm wastewater permits, with the high court instructing the Court of Appeals to reconsider its prior denial of an environmental group's appeal.

Flow Water Advocates had argued that the state's environmental agency, EGLE, must conduct a separate analysis under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act when permitting concentrated animal feeding operations, rather than treating that law as merely supplemental to existing permitting rules.

A 2024 report cited in the piece estimates Michigan's feeding operations generate 62.7 million pounds of waste daily, some of which can reach groundwater and waterways, contributing to E. coli contamination and algal blooms.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Funny how a ruling about an oil pipeline under a lake turns out to have something to say about manure spread on a field miles away. The common thread is an agency that would rather treat environmental review as a box to check than a question to actually answer. Courts keep sending that homework back, and sooner or later the agency is going to have to do the assignment.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Laconic Granny · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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