Restarting an aging reactor and building next-generation modular plants on the shores of the world’s largest freshwater system.

With the election of President Donald Trump, the conflict over glyphosate’s risks and benefits entered a new realm of confrontation that has the potential to alter its stature as the favored chemical tool in agriculture, the largest user of fresh water in the blue economy of Michigan and the Great Lakes.

A court ruling gave Michigan regulators authority to ramp up controls on factory-farm waste that pollutes waterways. Legislators have proposed exemptions for waste produced by ‘biodigesters,’ which capture methane for electricity and transportation fuels.

Michigan State’s Jason Rowntree is out to prove that ranching is an ecological asset.   

Amid a push toward renewable energy in Michigan, taxpayers are subsidizing technology to turn animal feces into fuel.  Opponents say it further subsidizes the growth of an industry responsible for widespread water pollution problems.

Too much waste spread on too little land causes worst of Michigan’s water pollution.

Run-off promotes toxic algae blooms, but farmers and other phosphorus producers are reluctant to alter practices.

Water sampling finds no reduction in bloom-producing nutrients.

Billions spent on strategies to limit nutrient pollution that don’t work.

Michigan farmers irrigate with 187 billion gallons of groundwater a year, double what was used a decade earlier. Is the state prepared for more?