I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has rejected a Michigan Farm Bureau attempt to limit the Dept. of Environmental Quality’s authority to require pollution discharge permits from concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs.
The Muskegon Chronicle reports that a three judge panel has upheld a 2009 ruling by Newaygo County Circuit Judge Anthony Monton.
The DEQ in 2003 began requiring all CAFOs to obtain discharge permits. The rule was aimed at keeping manure that operations spread on farm fields from draining into surface waters.
Farm groups argued the state could only require discharge permits after a CAFO actually had a discharge of manure that caused water pollution.
Monton sided with the DEQ, the farm groups appealed, and the appeals court affirmed Monton’s decision.
“We conclude that the DEQ was fully authorized to require CAFOs to either (1) seek and obtain an NPDES permit (irrespective of whether they actually discharge pollutants), or (2) satisfactorily demonstrate that they have no potential to discharge,” the judges wrote in a 23-page opinion.
The Farm Bureau has not yet released a response to the ruling.
Run-off from CAFOs is a leading cause of surface water pollution in Michigan.
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