Olson & Howard, P.C., a Traverse City law firm, has built its reputation on environmental litigation that doubles as public health litigation, and the Olson and Howard health lawsuits most often cited are the Michigan PBB livestock-feed contamination case, a successful challenge to aerial pesticide spraying over central Michigan farmland, the long-running fight over Nestlé’s groundwater pumping in Osceola County, and the current Supreme Court challenge to the Line 5 pipeline tunnel through the Straits of Mackinac. Founding attorney James M. Olson is the common thread, and nearly every case turns on the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and the public trust doctrine.
The PBB Livestock Feed Contamination Case
The firm’s most direct health lawsuit grew out of one of the worst chemical exposure incidents in American history. In the 1970s, polybrominated biphenyls, a toxic industrial chemical, were accidentally mixed into Michigan livestock feed. The contamination moved through the food chain into meat and dairy consumed by millions of state residents. By 1978, roughly 3,500 people were being tested to assess the long-term health effects of PBB exposure.
Jim Olson served as an attorney of record in PBB Action Committee v. DNR, which reached the Michigan Supreme Court in 1978 and the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1982. The litigation targeted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the regulatory failures that let the contamination persist after it was identified.
The Gypsy Moth Aerial Spraying Case
Olson represented organic farmers in central Michigan who challenged a state-sponsored program to spray a toxic pesticide across roughly 100,000 acres to combat gypsy moths. The health stakes were chemical drift onto farms, homes, and the people living in the spray zone.
The court barred the spraying, ordered the state to identify and use prudent, feasible biological alternatives, and required the state to pull the chemical from use. Olson’s team treated the ruling as a complete win.
The Nestlé Groundwater Pumping Litigation
The firm’s most widely followed matter concerns drinking water. Olson represented Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in a challenge to Nestlé Waters North America’s groundwater pumping near Evart in Osceola County.
A 2003 trial court ruling limited the volume Nestlé could extract. The decision was affirmed on appeal, and the case reached the Michigan Supreme Court in 2007 as Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v. Nestlé Waters North America Inc., setting precedent on Michigan water rights.
A second phase opened when Nestlé sought a permit to raise pumping at well PW-101 to 400 gallons per minute. The firm filed a contested case for the same clients, arguing that Nestlé and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) had never established the baseline hydrological and environmental data the law required, and that the computer model backing the permit used median values instead of data reflecting dry conditions, when water resources are most vulnerable. More than 80,000 citizens submitted comments opposing the permit, and the petitioners identified potential impacts to over 1,000 wetlands.
In April 2020, an administrative law judge found the permitted withdrawals “reasonable under the current state law” and said the safeguards were adequate. EGLE dismissed the contested case in November 2020 on the ground that the petitioners should have appealed the permit directly to circuit court. EGLE’s director called the Osceola County operations “the most intensively monitored water withdrawals in the state” and said the agency would welcome legislative authority to charge royalties on bottled water extraction and to broaden its regulatory reach.
The Line 5 Pipeline Challenge
In 2011, Olson founded FLOW (For Love of Water), a nonprofit focused on protecting the Great Lakes basin as a public trust. FLOW is the vehicle for the firm’s current highest-profile public health work: the fight over Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, which runs through the Straits of Mackinac.
Since 2013, FLOW has helped lead the “Oil & Water Don’t Mix” campaign on Line 5. A study FLOW commissioned from Michigan State University ecological economist Robert Richardson projected that a major spill could cause more than $5.6 billion in total economic damage, including $697.5 million in natural resource restoration costs, $4.8 billion in tourism losses, and $233 million in impacts to municipal water systems.
FLOW is now challenging the Michigan Public Service Commission’s December 2023 approval of a Line 5 replacement tunnel. The argument before the Michigan Supreme Court is that the MPSC must withhold authorization under MEPA and the public trust doctrine unless the project can be shown not to impair public rights to Great Lakes waters and the lands beneath them. The Michigan Attorney General’s office and the Great Lakes Business Network have filed supporting briefs. Enbridge calls the tunnel a safety upgrade. Oral arguments were scheduled for March 2026.
Shoreline and Public Trust Cases
Two earlier cases show how the firm folds public health into shoreline and water-access fights. In the Cleveland Cliffs matter, Olson represented citizens challenging a proposed coal dock on the Lake Superior shoreline near Marquette. The settlement required Cleveland Cliffs to cover its coal operations to prevent dust and chemical leaching into the lake, return shoreline to the city for public use, and fund removal of old infrastructure. Scott Howard was part of related appellate work, with National Wildlife Federation v. Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. among his reported decisions.
In the Holiday Inn case in Traverse City, Olson represented citizens challenging a hotel addition at the mouth of the Boardman River. The trial court held that MEPA and the public trust doctrine applied, and the developer cut the project’s footprint in half to preserve public waterfront access.
PFAS Contamination: What the Record Shows
PFAS pollution has hit Michigan hard, with sites like the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda showing PFOS levels 51,750 times higher than the EPA’s 2024 threshold of 4 parts per trillion. In February 2020, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced a proposed consent decree requiring Wolverine Worldwide to pay $69.5 million to extend municipal water to more than 1,000 properties in North Kent County affected by PFAS contamination from the company’s tannery operations, with ongoing well sampling, groundwater monitoring, and surface-water investigation under EGLE oversight. FLOW has named PFAS as a key threat to the Great Lakes commons. Direct involvement by Olson & Howard in PFAS litigation does not appear in the available record.
The Lawyers Behind the Cases
The firm operates as Olson & Howard, P.C., at 520 South Union Street in Traverse City, Michigan. It was previously known as Olson, Bzdok & Howard. The named partner, Scott W. Howard, practices in real estate, municipal law, zoning, conservation easements, and natural resource protection. Other attorneys include Ross A. Hammersley and Rebecca Millican, with James M. Olson, Jeffrey L. Jocks, and William Rastetter serving as Of Counsel. Rastetter coordinates a federal practice group that has handled more than fifty federal trial and appellate cases, including Michigan representation of the Sierra Club, the National Parks and Conservation Association, and the Michigan Audubon Society.
Olson, born February 26, 1945, started practicing in 1971, clerked for Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Brennan, and opened a Traverse City practice with Michael Dettmer in 1973. He holds a J.D. from Detroit College of Law (now Michigan State University College of Law) and a Master of Law degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied under Joseph Sax, the scholar who drafted the 1970 Michigan Environmental Protection Act. His legal philosophy inverts the usual burden of proof: those who seek to extract or exploit shared resources should have to show their actions will not damage water, air, and land, rather than requiring citizens to prove harm in advance.
Michigan Lawyers’ Weekly named him Michigan Lawyer of the Year in 1998. He received the State Bar of Michigan Champion of Justice Award in 2010 and holds AV ratings from Martindale-Hubbell. He wrote the first book on Michigan environmental law in 1981. As of 2026, he is Of Counsel at the firm and continues as founder and senior legal advisor of FLOW.