Common Groundwater

Rising to the Sun

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0400

The country roads around the small town of Albion are some of the prettiest you'll see in Michigan. Take it from this podcast host, who would run them with his cross country teammates at Albion College.

Now, there are new neighbors out among the corn and soy and old trees, stunning in their own way but undeniably different: solar panels. Over 4,000 acres of them, generating enough electricity to power 60,000 homes.

Bonnie Lord noticed these panels, too. She's the editor-in-chief of the Albion Pleiad, Albion College's student-run newspaper. She spent hours and hours researching the solar farms, meeting with local government and business leaders, and talking to folks living nearby. Then, she put all she learned into a three-part news comic series.

Bonnie joins Common Groundwater for the start of our miniseries on solar energy development. Michigan will be powered by 100% clean energy by 2040, but local, state and national forces appear bent to keep this from happening.

Bonnie's story—and the area's—is grounded in truth and compassion, and they serve as a bit of a microcosm of the larger state of solar, showing us all the goodness (and worry) this renewable energy can bring to a community.

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Read Bonnie's comic news series on Calhoun County's solar renaissance here.

Check out other stories from the Albion Pleiad here. (And if you like what you see, support local journalism with a donation!)

Learn more about the Environmental Council's latest clean energy efforts here.

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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.

Roots Deep & Wide

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 11:00:00 -0400

Michigan's crops are the second-most diverse of any state. We tried to replicate that point of pride that in this episode. We went to two seemingly disparate places to talk about the critical relationship farms have with pollinators.

First, we took the train to small-town Dowagiac in southwest Michigan to talk to Merry Clark about the history and benefits of organic and regenerative farming. Then, we drove over to Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood to meet Brittney Rooney of Beaverland Farms to get a personal perspective of it all.

What unites both Merry and Brittney is organic farming. Merry's mother founded the movement behind it here in the state and Brittney is living it out 50 years later. Both also serve on the board of the Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance.

So join us as we learn about the economic, health and, of course, environmental benefits of embracing a more natural, holistic way of growing food.

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Learn more about the Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance here.

Read about the woman behind Michigan's organic farming movement by purchasing Merry's book, Dandelion Roots Run Deep, here.

Learn more about Beaverland Farms by visiting its website here or by reading its feature in Planet Detroit.

The New 'Silent Spring'

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0400

In the mid-1900s, governments and industries across the globe were using the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT.

Then came Silent Spring, a book by Rachel Carson that thoroughly documented the harm caused by DDT to waters, to wildlife and to people. It galvanized a movement that ultimately led to the chemical’s large-scale ban.

Now some are saying a new Silent Spring movement must happen, because a pesticide 5,000 to 7,000 times more potent than DDT is here: neonicotinoids, which are used on millions of acres of soybeans, corn and other crops in the United States alone.

To Dan Raichel of NRDC, this is “public enemy number one” to pollinators. Fortunately, just like DDT, we can make systemic change for the benefit of farmers, food and nature alike. Canadian provinces already have. In our next Common Groundwater podcast episode, Dan breaks down the potency, popularity and persistence of ‘neonics’ and the plan to address them.

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To learn more about NRDC's pollinator work, click here.

Are you part of a Michigan-based group or business interested in protecting pollinators and saving farmers money? Email Dan for more information: draichel@nrdc.org.

Of Swallow-Wort & Celandine

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:00:00 -0400

Swallow-wort. A vine with beautiful, star-shaped flowers. It tricks insects into laying eggs on its leaves. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the leaves—and die with a one hundred percent mortality rate.

Lesser celandine. A plant with bright, glossy, yellow flowers. It blooms early in the spring, outcompeting other plants only to offer little nutritional value to insects fresh out of hibernation. It then dies and leaves a bare patch of ground for other harmful plants to inhabit.

Both these plants are invasive species. They not only contribute to the suffering of pollinator insects, they do the same to the native plants those pollinators and other creatures depend on. Entire ecosystems thus suffer.

Enter the world of Dr. Shikha Singh, biologist and coordinator of the Jackson, Lenawee and Washtenaw Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area.

In our latest podcast episode on pollinators, Singh talks about the great relationship between pollinators and ecosystems, the toxic relationships invasive species create, and Tim Horton’s, the best coffee and donut chain.

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Learn more about Singh's organization here. Or find an invasive species group near you here.

This episode is part of a pollinator miniseries produced in partnership with NRDC. Learn about its latest pollinator work in Michigan here.

The Pollinators

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:00:00 -0400

Yes, the pollinators of Michigan are the animals and insects, like bees and hummingbirds, that help plants grow and reproduce by moving flower to flower.

But "The Pollinators" is also the name for Carly and David Cirilli, co-founders of the nonprofit Plymouth Pollinators. Over the past few years, the Cirillis and an ever-growing list of gardeners have created a string of beautiful, functional and even critical gardens just for pollinators in their slice of Metro Detroit.

Carly, David and host Beau Brockett discuss this work and why it and the flora and fauna it benefits are so crucial to the suburbs.

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Learn more about Plymouth Pollinators or to get started on your own native garden here.

This episode is part of a pollinator miniseries produced in partnership with NRDC. Learn about its latest pollinator work in Michigan here.

SMART Service, FAST Routes

Thu, 22 May 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Eli Cooper likes he to say he was "born to ride." He grew up taking buses and subways in The Bronx. Now, as Oakland County's transit manager, he helps the residents, workers and visitors of Michigan's second-most-populous county get to where they want or need to go.

Hired after citizens voted to expand transit in all Oakland communities, he and the system operators—SMART and WOTA and NOTA and more—have made it the easiest it's ever been to travel within and past the county. But they've never strayed away from their, as Eli says, 'bread and butter': fixed-route buses.

Eli and host Beau Brockett have more.

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Learn more about the transit services offered in Oakland County by going to oakgov.com/community/oakland-transit.

Learn about transportation efforts and opportunities through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Transit is a Small-Town Value

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0400

Wexford County in the northwest Lower Peninsula of Michigan has about 33,500 residents across it’s 575 square miles. The WexExpress, the county’s transit system, provided 155,000 rides last year alone... and that number is rising.

Parents use it take toddlers to Head Start programs. Teens take it to class and after-school activities. Adults take it for manufacturing jobs. Seniors take it to get to the doctor’s. All sorts of people take it for appointments and fun trips and rides home from the bar. It's for everyday life.

Carrie Thompson, executive director of WexExpress joined Common Groundwater to discuss the unique needs a rural county like Wexford has, how transit serves them and what challenges still exist. Transit is a small-town value.

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To learn more about the WexExpress and its programs, go to wexexpress.us. To help expand funding for WexExpress and the transit agency that serves you, click here.

The Proof of Youth

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:00:00 -0400

New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens. "The European Mind Cannot Comprehend This." City Beautiful.

These are the (respective) internet communities, memes and influencers that have brought America's rising generations together around transit. As Petra Mihelko of Transportation Riders United puts it, these phenomena "put into words" what the youth want: Beautiful, useful, connective places that can be traveled within and traveled to in all sorts of ways.

Mihalko, a Gen Zer, and Beau Brockett, a questionable Millennial, talk about how and why so many young Michiganders (and older folks, too) want good buses, trains and more.

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To learn more about transit efforts across the state, check out Transportation Riders United and the Michigan Environmental Council.

All credit for this episode's title goes to The Go! Team.

After We Put the World on Wheels

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 20:00:00 -0400

It's Season 2 of Common Groundwater! We'll be taking this podcast on the road across the state to the places where the problems, stories and solutions to the topics we talk about are happening. Plus, we'll be leaning on you, the listener, to ask us questions and shape our discussions. We can't wait!

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Now's the time to expand transit. Well, we at the Environmental Council would argue any time’s a good time. But with a rising cost of living, swelling support and major state funding discussions, Michigan has a unique opportunity to capitalize on the moment and reverse the longstanding trend of disinvestment.

Ross Gavin, the Environmental Council's urban land use and infrastructure policy director, has more.

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Learn about transportation efforts and opportunities through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Where Are We Now? Dunes

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0500

Last year, dozens of folks came to Saugatuck to hear the plans of legislators to restore protections for dunes and their neighboring communities against destructive, risky development.

Michigan's globally unique dunes are nearly universally loved. So was that love met with new laws? Can consensus be found? Our Michigan Environmental Council teammate Emily Smith has more.

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Learn about Great Lakes coasts and other ecosystems through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Where Are We Now? Green Buildings

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Update: Better building codes for all homes and building have been adopted in Michigan! You can read about it here.

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At the confluence of ever-rising housing costs and an ever-changing climate comes a single opportunity: make Michigan's homes, old and new, cleaner, greener and cozier.

In 2024, we spent time on the pod going over what these homes look like and how we create them en masse. Now, Carlee Knott, the Michigan Environmental Council's climate and energy policy specialist, gives a recap and an update on the state of things.

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Learn about climate, energy and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Where Are We Now? A Better Bottle Bill

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0500

Michiganders have used their state's bottle deposit system to keep billions of beverages out of our communities, nature and landfills. Now, as the system nears its 50th birthday, a plan is forming to make the system even better. More recycling. Less hassle.

A proud history. A bright future. But where does the bottle deposit system stand in the present? Trent Wolf, the Michigan Environmental Council's strategic campaigns director, gives us a sense in our latest podcast episode. He talks dropping recycling rates, public polling and the secret way we can improve our bottle return experience and clean up contaminated places.

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Learn about waste reduction and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Where Are We Now? Water Protections

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 13:00:00 -0500

Last year, we brough you a miniseries on the ways in which politicking has frozen and muddied longstanding water protections Michiganders expect their Great Lakes State to have.

Reese Dillard, Environmental Council water policy specialist, joins us for an update on where water laws stand in the wake of a changed state and federal government and why she has hope for the future, near and far.

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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.

We Can't Be Lame Ducks - Special Feature

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 16:00:00 -0500

It's a special, standalone episode of the Common Groundwater podcast, and it's packed with urgency, policy and opportunities for action.

In 2025, Michigan and the nation will undergo power shifts, and if we take our new leaders at their word, we can expect roadblocks and rollbacks to environmental progress.

This month is a prime moment for legislators to pass a good environmental policy into law before a regime change—a time we call “lame duck.”

But despite great legislation in the works, lawmakers are seemingly willing to forgo bold action out of personal slights and corporate interests.

The Michigan Environmental Council’s own Megan Tinsley, Ross Gavin and Samantha Pickering talk about the three big issues at stake: water, transit and plastic pollution.

Sights for Sore Eye

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 15:00:00 -0500

Our dunes miniseries has focused on, well, dunes thus far, but the conversation we're really having is on the relationship between development and nature. Jake Parcell, executive director of Scenic Michigan, joins us to provide other perspectives of this relationship: aesthetics and sight pollution.

In our fourth episode, we'll talk about scenic byways, dark sky parks, nature nearby and the mundane polluters of sight we may come to accept (but certainly shouldn't).

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You can also check out Scenic Michigan's site for ordinances and viewing events.

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.

How You Dune?

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0500

UPDATE: The legislation discussed failed to pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest updates on our efforts, click here.

In Saugatuck, it's symbiotic. Hundreds of acres of preserved, rare, freshwater dunes can be found along the area's coast. That, in turn, has created delightful small towns with big tourist economies. But all this goodness did not come from nothing, and there's still goodness still to protect.

Saugatuck's dunes and economy have come about through years of yeoman's work building relationships, working through the courts and organizing. David Swan, its president, joins us in the third episode of our Gears in the Sand podcast series to talk about Saugatuck's story and how proposed legislation can help other towns find similar success without as much slog.

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Learn more about the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance here.

Learn about dunes and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Lines in the Sand

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 11:00:00 -0400

UPDATE: The bills discussed in this podcast episode did not pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest update, click here.

Last episode, Tanya Cabala took us through the geologic, social and political histories of Michigan's globally special freshwater dunes. That last bit of history, the political, has recently not been too pretty.

Emily Smith of the Michigan Environmental Council joins us in this episode to expound upon that. She'll go over how recent changes have put both dunes and nearby communities at risk and how new legislation can make both nature and society thrive together.

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To learn more about dunes, head over to the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Cold One Cracked Open

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 18:00:00 -0400

Buy a pop. Pay a little extra. Drink it. Rinse it. Return it, and then get that little extra back. Michigan’s bottle deposit system sounds simple, and yet it’s internationally known for keeping bottles and cans out of our landfills and landscapes.

Now, as its 50th anniversary nears, it’s time to bring this beloved and successful system from the 70s into the present. The Michigan Environmental Council and groups across the state have a vison: (Almost) any beverage returned at almost any place with more environmental protections to boot.

Join Environmental Council President & CEO Conan Smith in our latest podcast episode as he cracks this effective yet aged system open.

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We want your Bottle Bill thoughts and stories! To share, fill out our form here.

To get exclusive updates about our better Bottle Bill effort, fill out our email form here.

Learn more about waste reduction at the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Turn of the Hourglass

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0400

Michigan is home to the world's largest assemblage of freshwater dunes. They run up and down the west coast of the Lower Peninsula and dotted along the Upper Peninsula. They're beloved by just about anyone who visits (and many do), and they help power both multimillion-dollar local economies and some of the most diverse wildlife in the state.

Tanya Cabala of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, a self-proclaimed "dunista," takes us through the environmental, social and political histories of dunes and where they intersect.

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To learn more about the geographic, social and economic power of dunes, check out the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Lightning in a Bottle

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Michigan’s bottle deposit system: Buy a beverage, pay a bit of upcharge, drink it, return it, get that upcharge back.

It’s as routine an experience for us Michiganders as talking about the weather. Yet, it’s extremely powerful. It's a way for us, as individuals, to come together to make collective change. That’s also how the law came to be: through a ballot campaign that 63% of people voted in favor of back in 1976. Now, people love it even more. Over 9 in 10 bottles have been returned through the system over 48 years.

Bill Rustem was the man behind that ballot drive. He joins us to talk about the behind-the-scenes stories of it all, the bottle deposit's success and what he thinks its future should look like.

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To learn more about Michigan's bottle deposit system, head over to the website of the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

To learn more about Bill Rustem and Gov. Bill Milliken, click here.

From in the Red To in the Black

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Ink from recycled paper, of all things, was what polluted the Kalamazoo River Watershed so much, it was placed in two federal cleanup programs.

Paper mills, oil spills, dams, manure—the "Kazoo" has seen it all. And yet, this watershed and its inhabitants have persevered. With contamination comes a fierce pride, and with pride comes action.

The Kalamazoo River Watershed Council was created to bring its namesake river out of the red and into the black. It's been doing a just that, all while bringing folks of diverse geographies and histories together to protect the waters that connect them all.

In the third episode of our water pollution miniseries, Doug McLaughlin joins us to put our contamination conversation into a local context.

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To learn more about the Kazoo and its Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, go to kalamazooriver.org.

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.

The Polluter Rulebook

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0400

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 our last episode of our water pollution miniseries, we learned how one sentence froze Michigan's pollution laws back in time. Now, 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.

The Sentence

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 13:00:00 -0400

UPDATE: The bills discussed in this episode did not pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest update on our efforts, click here.

Michigan’s environmental duties are defined by an act that is hundreds of thousands of words long. Included is 22,000 words that give our state its rules to fight pollution in our lakes and streams.

These words stayed strong for years until, in the early 2000s, a single sentence was added. It changed everything.

As Megan Tinsley, the Environmental Council’s water policy director, notes, this sentence has kept Michigan back in time. In many ways, it can’t use new science and tech to better protect our waters (and us) from dangerous chemicals.

Megan joins us in our new water pollution miniseries to explain the myriad ways our state government is stymied on issues like PFAS and bacterial outbreaks.

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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.

The Stove War

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:00:00 -0400

"God. Guns. Gas Stoves." That's what a prominent legislator posted on social media early in 2023. Welcome to the Stove War, a cultural flashpoint that pitted gas stoves against their electric counterparts. As with most viral debates, misinformation spouted. Chef Chris Galarza joins us to break stoves down from environmental, health and cooking perspectives in our final episode of our green housing miniseries.

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To learn more about Chef Galarza's induction cooking advocacy group, click here.

To check out Chef Galarza's book on the green industrial revolution, click here.

To see if you're eligible for a induction cooking and other energy efficient appliances, click here.

To learn more about green housing in Michigan, click here.

Homes of the Future

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:00:00 -0400

Eric Schertzing considers land banks like a Veg-O-Matic. These entities offer a plethora of innovative ways to hold and redevelop properties in our communities. Eric joins us in the third episode of our green housing miniseries to discuss how the Michigan Association of Land Banks and its members can help set the standard for our homes of the future.

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To learn more about the Michigan Association of Land Banks and get in contact with your local land bank, click here.

To get other stories, information and opportunities around green housing, click here.

Up to Code

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 11:00:00 -0400

Update: Better building codes for all homes and building have been adopted in Michigan! You can read about it here.

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Michigan homes have high pollution levels and high prices. How can we possibly change that for all 4.5 million of them and counting? For climate expert Carlee Knott, the answer is by cracking the code (literally) of home development and repair. In this second episode of our green housing miniseries, we talk about housing as a solution to our cost of living and climate change crises.

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To get other stories, information and opportunities around green housing, click here.

Have a Haven?

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 13:00:00 -0400

Michigan's in a bit of an odd place. It's considered a climate haven, a place that can protect people from the worst of climate change. But its literal havens—our homes—are causing problems. They're old, expensive, elusive and, in fact, causing climate change. In the first episode of our green housing miniseries, Crain's Detroit Business reporter (and Detroiter) Nick Manes joins us to talk about the state of housing and how it serves as both a problem and a solution to our state.

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To follow Nick's real estate reporting, go to crainsdetroit.com.

To get more episodes, stories and opportunities for action around green, affordable housing, click here.

This is Common Groundwater

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 14:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Common Groundwater, a podcast by the Michigan Environmental Council and hosted by pleasant peninsula diehard Beau Brockett Jr.

Like Michigan's mysterious yet necessary groundwater—our so-called sixth Great Lake—Common Groundwater tells tales of environmental issues by going to all corners of the state, by going deep into the nuance, and by bringing out a story arc that's grand in scale yet personal to all of us.

Common Groundwater will be split into four-episode miniseries. Each miniseries will have its own topic of focus with additional opportunities to learn more, get excited, and take part.