Great Lakes Law

Michigan Supreme Court will determine whether citizens can sue over state permitting decisions and the extent of riparian rights for water diversions and discharges

Next week, the Michigan Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in the case Anglers of the AuSable v. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Merit Energy Company. The case has received little attention (update: a notable exception is the great coverage of the case by Sandra Svoboda of Metro Times), but will likely have significant implications for environmental and water law in Michigan. The case involves a dispute over a deal Merit Energy reached with... Read more →

Colorado bottled water dispute raises questions about western water deals and renews calls for federal regulatory reform

Another bottled water fight is heating up, this time in Colorado, where Nestle is moving forward with plans to bottle spring water that feeds the Arkansas River. Scot Kersgaard of the Colorado Independent has superb reporting of the dispute, which follows the typical storyline of bottled water fights in rural communities (with an interesting twist of some local officials from Chaffee County making cash on the deal). From a legal perspective, the Colorado controversy raises... Read more →