Forces of nature as mighty as a polar vortex and as miniscule as endangered mussels haven't waylaid work on Michigan's $274-million Karegnondi Pipeline, a new raw-water conduit that will snake east from the banks of Lake Huron to treatment facilities in Genesee, Lapeer and Sanilec counties along its 67-mile trajectory. Once complete, Karegnondi will supply drinking water to more than 2,400 sq miles along Michigan's Interstate 69 corridor, drawing from Lake Huron at a rate of up to 85 million gallons per day. As they have already learned, project team members need to respond nimbly to whatever nature tosses in their tracks in order to complete the project by spring 2016.

In April, as Flint-based Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) prepared to bid landside portions of the pipeline, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency challenged a wetlands permit it contended threatened federally protected Northern Riffleshell mussels, a species residing in the bed of Sanilac County's Black River.