DETROIT (AP) — Mariners’ Church of Detroit will observe the 45th anniversary Sunday of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald during its yearly memorial service for those who have died in Great Lakes shipwrecks.
The event will be live-streamed on Facebook for the first time, said the Rev.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/ap-church-anniversary-fitzgerald-shipwreck/
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — Trump administration officials on Thursday stripped Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in most of the U.S., ending longstanding federal safeguards and putting states and tribes in charge of overseeing the predators.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-trump-officials-end-gray-wolf-protections-across-us/
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan city has been selected to receive a $5.1 million federal water infrastructure improvement grant to help pay for lead service line replacement.
The funding also will support public engagement in Grand Rapids on the risks of lead in drinking water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-grand-rapids-lead-pipe-replacement-grant/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Theresa Landrum lives in southwest Detroit, where residents complain frequently about dirty air. Tree-shaded neighborhoods with schools, churches and parks lie on either side of an interstate highway and in the shadow of a sprawling oil refinery that belches soot and fumes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-minority-communities-question-election-year-push-epa/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Public Service Commission has some authority over Enbridge’s plans to build an oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel that connects two of the Great Lakes, a state administrative law judge ruled Friday.
The agency can evaluate the need for the project and whether it would be designed, constructed and operated safely, Judge Dennis W.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-judge-michigan-line-5-tunnel-plan/
NEW YORK (AP) — Andrew Orkin was taking a break from his evening jog to sit by Prospect Park Lake when he turned around and was startled to see a tangle of wriggling snakes.
“And quite a big pile — fully alive,” said Orkin, a music composer who lives near the Brooklyn park.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-eels-dumped-nyc-park/
BEULAH, Mich. (AP) — Small town, big mess.
Baby wipes clogged the wastewater system in Beulah in northern Michigan, causing a backup of 10,000 gallons of human waste from a manhole, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
The spill was on the grounds of the village’s wastewater treatment plant.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-wipes-flushed-big-waste-spill-michigan-small-town/
MACKINAW CITY, Mich. (AP) — Images from an underwater vehicle seem to reveal stone patterns on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan, possible evidence of Native American artifacts from thousands of years ago, a newspaper reported.
A group of amateur explorers raised money to look at Enbridge Inc.’s oil pipeline on the lake bottom.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-ancient-stone-patterns-straits-mackinac-line-5-pipeline/
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered Flint to check for lead or galvanized steel water lines in neighborhoods built since the 1990s, despite the city’s belief that the homes have copper pipes.
Flint is in the homestretch of digging down to water lines at more than 20,000 properties and replacing them if necessary, the result of a deal that settled a lawsuit by residents and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-judge-flint-water-lines-newer-neighborhoods/
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Lawyers for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine and state regulators urged the Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday to defer to the judgment of the state Department of Natural Resources and reinstate three critical permits for the project.
Attorneys for the DNR and PolyMet argued that the agency acted within its authority when it decided, after years of public environmental review and permitting proceedings, that there was no need to hold an additional trial-like proceeding known as a contested case hearing.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-minnesota-supreme-court-polymet-mine-permits/
CHESTERTON, Ind. (AP) — Three new all-terrain wheelchairs have been added for guest use at Indiana Dunes State Park.
The park in Northwest Indiana says the chairs were purchased by the Friends of Indiana Dunes. Two of the chairs are designed for use on trails, and one chair is designed for use on the Lake Michigan beach.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-all-terrain-wheelchairs-indiana-dunes-state-park/
BELMONT, Mich. (AP) — A woman who was honored by the federal government for her environmental activism in western Michigan has been diagnosed with cancer.
Sandy Wynn-Stelt told WOOD-TV that her thyroid and lymph nodes were removed last week. She has lived for more than 30 years across from a Kent County site where Wolverine Worldwide dumped PFAS-tainted sludge.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-michigan-pfas-activist-cancer/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration is seeking to fast-track mining projects and could offer grants and loans to help companies pay for equipment, administration officials said Thursday, as they offered details on a plan that critics said could spoil rivers and lakes in Minnesota, Idaho and elsewhere with mining pollution.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-trump-mining-minnesota/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a $500 million plan Thursday to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in Michigan that includes actions such as replacing lead service lines and removing chemical pollutants.
The initiative, dubbed MI Clean Water, calls for creating a pot of money from which local governments could apply for grants or loans to improve their water treatment systems.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-whitmer-michigan-500-million-water-infrastructure-plan/
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Drownings in Lake Michigan have reached record levels with at least 53 people dead so far this year, according to a water safety advocacy group.
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a nonprofit that tracks Great Lakes drownings, said that compares with 48 drownings in 2019 and 42 in 2018.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-lake-michigan-drownings-new-high-2020/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Legislature on Tuesday finalized a bill that would lengthen the financing period of lake projects in the wake of flooding that damaged dams and drained lakes in the Midland area.
The legislation would extend, from 10 years to 40 years, the maximum maturity date of bonds issued to pay for inland lake-level control projects across the state.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-bill-lengthen-bonds-dam-repairs/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge’s plans for drilling an oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes do not meet industry standards and pose significant hazards to workers and the environment, experts who reviewed project documents on behalf of opposition groups told The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-opposition-criticizes-enbridge-plans-line-5-tunnel/
YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Eastern Michigan University will test campus wastewater for the COVID-19 virus and other signs of infectious diseases.
The testing, part of the school’s return-to-campus plan, is intended to track the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater flowing from residence halls and apartment complexes.
The monitoring might provide early detection of asymptomatic cases of the virus, according to the school.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-emu-campus-wastewater-covid-19/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gray wolves that were taken to Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park to rebuild its nearly extinct population are forming social groups, staking out territory and apparently mating — promising signs despite heavy losses from natural causes and deadly fights, scientists said Monday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/isle-royale-wolves-moose-herd/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State environmental and health officials warned people Tuesday to avoid eating the livers of deer harvested around the Marinette area to avoid exposure to PFAS chemicals.
PFAS are man-made chemicals that research suggests can cause a range of health problems in humans. The chemicals have been used for decades in a range of products, including nonstick cookware, fast-food wrappers and firefighting foam.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-dnr-pfas-deer-livers-wisconsin-marinette/
EDENVILLE, Mich. (AP) — Residents who lost their lakes when dams collapsed in mid-Michigan could be getting expensive long-term bills to restore them.
People near Wixom and Sanford lakes in Midland and Gladwin counties could pay thousands of dollars per year for 40 years, if that duration is allowed by the state, the Four Lakes Task Force said Thursday during an online meeting.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-residents-midland-dams-paying-for-years/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge said Wednesday it will fully resume operation of a Michigan Great Lakes oil pipeline after a partial shutdown this summer because of damage to a support structure.
Circuit Judge James Jamo signed an order allowing the Canadian company to restore the flow through one of its Line 5 pipes beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-judge-line-5-great-lakes-pipeline/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — An invasive aquatic plant — first detected in southeastern Michigan in 1996 — has been found in four inland lakes in Washtenaw and Jackson counties.
The presence of European frogbit has been confirmed within the Waterloo Recreation Area, according to Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-frogbit-invasive-aquatic-plant-michigan-inland-lakes/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan lawmakers on Tuesday began approving a budget bill that would authorize the federal government’s supplemental $300-a-week unemployment benefit during the coronavirus pandemic and provide $6 million in state funding for costs related to devastating flooding in the Midland area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-michigan-house-jobless-benefits-flood-costs/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday finalized its weakening of an Obama-era rule aimed at reducing polluted wastewater from coal-burning power plants that has contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers
The change will allow utilities to use cheaper technologies and take longer to comply with pollution reduction guidelines that are less stringent than what the agency originally adopted in 2015.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-trump-administration-coal-plant-pollution-rollback/
Thousands of oil and gas operations, government facilities and other sites won permission to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions or otherwise bypass rules intended to protect health and the environment because of the coronavirus outbreak, The Associated Press has found.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-thousands-allowed-bypass-environmental-rules-pandemic/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Keeping a 64-year-old oil pipeline in operation by running one portion through a proposed Great Lakes tunnel would safeguard the economy and energy supplies, supporters said Monday, while opponents described the project as an unnecessary risk that would contribute to global warming.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-pipeline-tunnel-supporters-foes-clash-michigan-panel/
HARTVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Dishwashing detergent created foam that killed hundreds of fish a couple weeks ago in a northeastern Ohio waterway, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The fish were found last Monday in the Tuscarawas River in northern Stark and southern Summit counties.
An investigation determined that someone dumped the detergent on the ground near a storm drain in Hartville, an EPA spokesperson said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-dishwashing-detergent-killed-hundreds-fish-ohio-river/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A $600 million deal between the state of Michigan and Flint residents who were harmed by lead-tainted water is a step toward making amends for a disaster that upended life in the poor, majority-Black city, Gov.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-whitmer-flint-water-deal-600-million/
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz’s administration said Tuesday it will appeal the latest approvals by state utility regulators for Enbridge Energy’s plan to replace its old and corroding Line 3 crude oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.
The state Commerce Department faced a Wednesday deadline to ask the Minnesota Court of Appeals to take another look at the project.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-walz-administration-minnesota-line-3/
Michigan will pay $600 million to compensate Flint residents whose health was damaged by lead-tainted drinking water after the city heeded state regulators’ advice not to treat it properly, an attorney involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Details will be released later this week, according to the attorney, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about it ahead of an official announcement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-michigan-deal-flint-water-crisis/
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan regulators have rejected a suburban Detroit county’s plan to convert state waters into an open-air sewage treatment lagoon.
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said Friday it had denied Macomb County’s application to place the structure at the end of the Chapaton Retention Treatment Basin.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-michigan-macomb-county-sewage-treatment-lagoon-plan/
ESCANABA, Mich. (AP) — A bald eagle launched an aerial assault on a drone operated by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy — known as EGLE — ripping off a propeller and sending the aircraft into Lake Michigan.
The attack happened July 21, when the drone was mapping shoreline erosion near Escanaba in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to document and help communities cope with high water levels, the department said in a statement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-bald-eagle-drone-lake-michigan/
ESCANABA, Mich. (AP) — Michigan officials are investigating a fish kill that affected a dozen species on the middle branch of the Escanaba River in the Upper Peninsula.
The die-off was reported Aug. 9 on the 52-mile-long river, which is popular with anglers, officials said Wednesday.
It happened near Gladstone, downstream of Verso Corp.’s Escanaba Paper Mill, which the previous week had reported the rupture of a pipe at its wastewater treatment plant.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-michigan-fish-kill-escanaba-river/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Nature is returning to craters left from lakes drained by two dams that failed in May during torrential rain in mid-Michigan.
But not always in a good way.
“Shortly after the water receded, you could look out over the exposed bottom lands of the lake and it was like looking at the Sahara Desert,” said Dave Rothman, a board member with the Four Lakes Task Force, which is looking to obtain the four dams as well as the two lakes that were not drained.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-plants-midland-michigan-lakes-dams-failure/
CHICAGO (AP) — The variety of fish swimming in Chicago’s rivers have increased in recent decades, which authorities attribute to a decline in pollution, according to a sampling study released Monday by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
The report claims there are nearly 60 different types of fish swimming in the Chicago and Calumet rivers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-fish-types-chicago-waters-increases/
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Clean water activists hope that water suppliers will remove an industrial pollutant under new water standards adopted Thursday in New York.
The state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council adopted standards that set a maximum level for how much of the hard-to-remove chemical 1,4-Dioxane can be in drinking water: 1 part per billion.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ny-activists-rules-pollutants-drinking-water/
DETROIT (AP) — Flint residents whose health and homes were harmed by lead-contaminated water scored a legal milestone Wednesday when the Michigan Supreme Court said they could proceed with a lawsuit against public officials for the disastrous decisions that caused the scandal.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-court-flint-class-action-lead-water/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Recent damage that prompted the temporary shutdown of an Enbridge oil pipeline in a channel linking two of the Great Lakes may have been done by vessels working for the company, according to an in-house report provided Thursday to The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-enbridge-contractor-vessels-line-5-pipeline-support/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer criticized Enbridge Inc. on Wednesday for what she described as the company’s refusal to make an airtight pledge to pay for damages caused by a potential oil spill from its pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-whitmer-enbridge-dodging-responsibility-line-5-oil-spill/
Rich Americans produce nearly 25% more heat-trapping gases than poorer people at home, according to a comprehensive study of U.S. residential carbon footprints.
Scientists studied 93 million housing units in the nation to analyze how much greenhouse gases are being spewed in different locations and by income, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-rich-american-more-carbon-pollution-poor/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan sought a written pledge Friday from Enbridge Inc. to cover costs that would arise if oil were to leak from its dual pipelines that extend across a channel linking two of the Great Lakes, although the Canadian pipeline company said it had already made such a promise.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-michigan-enbridge-line-5-pledge-funds-oil-spill/
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — At least two more Indiana counties on Friday joined the growing list of local governments in the state mandating the wearing of face masks while in public as the state has seen recent growth in the number of coronavirus hospitalizations.
The new requirements were adopted by officials in Monroe County, home to Bloomington and Indiana University’s main campus, and northern Indiana’s LaPorte County.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-indiana-counties-covid-19-mandating-face-masks/
Environmentalists contend the state Department of Natural Resources held a public hearing on Enbridge Inc.’s plans to reroute a northern Wisconsin pipeline prematurely.
Line 5 runs from Superior to Ontario, crossing about 12 miles of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation in Ashland County. The tribe sued the company in 2019 to force it to remove the section of line on the reservation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-environmental-groups-question-enbridge-pipeline-hearing/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Lake Michigan is having a warm summer.
The average surface water temperature was 75.3 degrees on July 9, setting a record for the month based on 26 years of record keeping, government scientists said.
The summer high is 75.6 degrees recorded in August 2016, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-hot-summer-lake-michigan/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Lake Erie’s annual blob of pea-green algae is expected to be smaller this summer than a year ago following a relatively dry spring, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect significant improvement toward reducing the nutrient pollution that causes it, scientists said Thursday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-2020-lake-erie-algal-bloom-forecast/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Protections to prevent water shutoffs during the coronavirus pandemic are being extended to the end of the year under an order signed Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Since March, 2,477 Michiganders have had their water restored through a grant to help utilities reconnect consumers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-water-shutoff-extended-michigan-governor/
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tromped through a strawberry festival in central Florida, detailing the government’s new trade pact. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked about foreign policy at a roundtable in south Florida.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-trump-cabinet-members-michigan-wisconsin-voters/
The U.S. headed into the Fourth of July weekend with many parades and fireworks displays canceled, beaches and bars closed, and health authorities warning that this will be a crucial test of Americans’ self-control that could determine the trajectory of the surging coronavirus outbreak.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-july-fourth-weekend-covid-19/
By John Flesher, AP Environmental Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge Wednesday allowed Enbridge to resume pumping oil through a Midwestern pipeline, nearly a week after shutting it down because of damage to a structure that anchors a section of the line running through a Great Lakes channel.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-michigan-judge-restart-line-5-oil-pipeline/
