On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in Michigan Farm Bureau v. Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) that the Michigan Court of Appeals got it wrong when it eliminated EGLE’s ability to protect Michigan waters through strong water pollution permits at large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), also called factory farms. Instead the Court held that EGLE has the ability to rein in factory farm pollution as necessary to protect water quality in Michigan.

The decision is a win for coalition efforts to push for stronger water pollution permits at factory farms. According to the Environmental Law & Policy Center, Michigan’s 290 permitted large CAFOs produce 17 million pounds more waste per day than the state’s population of 10 million people. This untreated waste contaminated with E. coli, phosphorus, nitrates, and more, threatens drinking water supplies and drives toxic algal blooms. Going forward, EGLE will have the discretion to implement stronger and better protections in the state’s water pollution permits for factory farms when the agency determines those protections are necessary to protect Michigan waters. 

Tyler Lobdell, Staff Attorney with Food & Water Watch, one of eleven environmental groups to submit an amicus brief last year in support of Michigan EGLE, issued the following statement:

“This decision is a victory for clean water in Michigan and sensible regulation of a dangerous industry. The Farm Bureau was pushing extreme arguments through the courts to protect the profits of industrial-scale factory farms — and now, Michigan’s highest court made clear that they aren’t buying it. Michigan’s pollution permitting regime has been dangerously out-of-step with the reality of the state’s factory farm industry. This decision upholds the state’s authority to issue strong factory farm permits that protect clean water and public health over industry profits.”