As coal plants close nationwide, they leave behind nearly a billion tons of toxic coal ash. The Medill School of Journalism spent months investigating the coal ash threat and how regulators, companies and environmental groups are handling it.
Here are the basics that will help you understand this looming threat:
What is Coal Ash?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/coal-ash-101/
Broadcasting in our monthly PBS television program, The Catch is a Great Lakes Now series that brings you more news about the lakes you love. Go beyond the headlines with reporters from around the region who cover the lakes and drinking water issues. Find all the work HERE.
This month, The Catch features stories from “Poisonous Ponds: Tackling Toxic Coal Ash,” a collaborative project featuring the reporting work of students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications on Great Lakes Now and Energy News Network programs and websites.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/the-catch-coal-ash-regulation/
Queen Elizabeth II left her mark in the Great Lakes region, from joining President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to sailing on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Following the Thursday news of the longest-reigning British monarch’s passing, PBS stations across the nation broadcasted programs commemorating her life and local news organizations reported on the late queen’s special connection to the region, highlighting the 45-day tour of Canada and the Great Lakes she took in 1959.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/look-back-on-queen-elizabeths-great-lakes-tour/
Joliet, Illinois, a city of about 150,000 people southwest of Chicago, has long depended on a deep sandstone aquifer for drinking water – an increasingly strained resource that city officials hope to supplement with a billion-dollar pipeline from Lake Michigan.
But while this highly publicized search for a new source of municipal water unfolds, some residents who rely on private well water face a different threat.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/08/coal-ash-contaminating-groundwater-near-joliet-to-stay/
Just upstream of Alabama’s Mobile Bay sits a vast region of wetlands known as the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, home to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the United States. As well as 21 million cubic yards of wet coal ash.
The J.M. Barry Power Plant has been a flashpoint between environmental advocates and the state utility, Alabama Power, for years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/08/climate-change-puts-coal-ash-impoundments-at-risk/
At almost 300 sites on the Great Lakes and coast to coast, unregulated buried and landfilled coal ash is putting water supplies at risk, alleges a federal lawsuit filed August 25.
This threat is in addition to contamination from up to 700 coal ash repositories that are covered by 2015 federal coal ash rules.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/08/unregulated-coal-ash-poses-brewing-threat-to-lake-michigan/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — You’re in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp. Ugh, you might say. But how about broiled copi, fresh from the Mississippi River?
Here’s the catch: They’re the same thing.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/ap-unpopular-fish-getting-makeover/
When Monty and Rose – Chicago’s beloved piping plover pair – first successfully nested at Montrose Beach, a popular place on the city’s north side, people celebrated the potential return of a dying bird species and were charmed by the adorable tiny birds.
The Great Lakes piping plover population has been a U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/monty-passes-rose-location-question/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/drinking-water-news-roundup-first-nation-settlement-wisconsin-towns-chicago-water/
In less than a decade, Joliet, Illinois, could run out of water.
The city of 150,000 people, roughly 45 minutes southwest of Chicago, is facing a looming water crisis as the patchwork of underground wells and aquifers it currently uses for municipal water is drying up.
Joliet currently relies on the Cambrian-Ordovician sandstone aquifer system for its water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/build-new-pipeline-illinois-lake-michigan-water/
By Audrey Henderson, Energy News Network
This story was first published on the Energy News Network and was republished here with permission.
For many city kids, flowers have cut stems and vegetables are packed in styrofoam and plastic on shelves in the grocery store.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/chicago-educator-empowers-students-climate-connections-communities/
When it comes to dealing with Michigan’s regulators on environmental justice issues, Detroit environmental law attorney Nick Leonard wants to change the narrative.
Too often when confronted with decisions that impact environmental justice communities, regulators focus on limitations and what they can’t do, Leonard recently told Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/substantive-change-federal-state-local-agencies/
CHICAGO (AP) —
The Adler Planetarium in Chicago will open this week for the first time since it closed its doors nearly two years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The famed planetarium on the shores of Lake Michigan will on March 4 reopen, joining the ranks of museums and other institutions that have opened their doors once again in recent days months after the pandemic forced them to close.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/ap-chicago-adler-planetarium-reopening/
María Hernández, a University of Chicago graduate student studying microbial ecology, was both nervous and eager to traverse a frozen Green Bay. Being sure to walk slowly and carefully, she assisted fellow researchers in extracting samples of ice-cold freshwater.
“We’re out here because we usually sample in the spring and summer,” said Hernández, “So this is the first time we’re going to be sampling in the winter, and it just gives us another view into what the microbes are doing at different times of the year.”
Hernandez and her University of Chicago colleagues were joined by University of Minnesota Duluth researchers on Monday for the recently launched “Winter Grab,” a first of its kind, week-long collection event for regional researchers studying Great Lakes’ winter conditions.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/scratching-surface-regional-research-winter-conditions/
Urban areas around the Midwest struggle with food deserts and dense populations, a problem exacerbated by climate change impacts and the conversion of farmlands to residential developments. However, a potential solution can be found in hydroponics facilities being established in cities around the Great Lakes region like Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Chicago.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/hydroponic-greenhouses-urban-food-deserts/
By Kari Lydersen
This story was first published on the Energy News Network and was republished here with permission.
A two-year-old economic development partnership is helping to draw attention — and investment dollars — to sustainability projects in the Great Lakes region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/great-lakes-platform-green-projects/
If you’re new to Great Lakes Now, find our latest episode below and ALL our monthly shows here.
If you’re a regular viewer of our monthly program on your local PBS station or our YouTube channel, thanks!
If you were looking for our show on Detroit Public Television on Wednesday, Jan.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/our-latest-episode/
Everyone loves Monty and Rose – and Great Lakes Now featured the charming piping plover pair earlier this year.
Now Monty and Rose have chicks and even grand-chicks, many of whom are thriving as they fly south for the winter.
Chicago-based filmmaker Bob Dolgan has documented the progress of Monty and Rose and their offspring over the years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/monty-rose-chicago-plovers/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Contradicting the historical conservation planning tenet that gave preference to protecting larger, more intact areas, a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has shown that small, isolated patches of habitat are inordinately important for biodiversity conservation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/small-habitat-patches-ecological-impact/
Conservation action for Debra Shore started with the driveway at her suburban Chicago home.
It was asphalt, and she wanted to replace it with gravel to absorb the rain and keep pollutants out of the stormwater drains. But her town administration said no to the permit, though it eventually yielded.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/epa-great-lakes-administrator-benton-harbor-infrastructure-cleanup/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and
towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to
everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/10/drinking-water-indiana-iron-michigan-lead-nuclear-ontario/
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Park District said it plans to put life rings along the Lake Michigan waterfront but only in areas that are considered safe to swim, upsetting the mother of a college student who drowned off a pier.
“I’m infuriated,“ said Maria Diaz, whose son, Miguel Cisneros, drowned last month in the Rogers Park neighborhood.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/09/ap-chicago-life-rings-risky-lake-piers/
CHICAGO (AP) — Rowers, kayakers and other users of the Chicago River are getting a real-time look at one measure of water quality in the system that weaves through downtown and several neighborhoods.
Chicago nonprofit Current in 2019 installed three sensors in the river’s three main branches to continuously estimate the amount of bacteria from human and other warm-blooded animals’ waste.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/09/ap-sensors-chicago-river-quality/
ALDEN, Mich. (AP) — A medical student from Illinois has swum across one of Michigan’s largest inland lakes — twice — to raise money and awareness about diabetes.
Marian Cardwell accomplished the 35-mile feat at Torch Lake in Antrim County after dropping a plan to swim across Lake Michigan from Chicago to Grand Haven, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/08/ap-illinois-woman-swims-michigan-torch-lake-twice/
The Great Lakes are great for many reasons – their economic power, the lifestyle they provide millions of residents, as a getaway for tens of millions visitors and the livelihood it offers hundreds of thousands in lakes-related industries.
And then there’s the water. Summer sees the lakes filled with people soaking, swimming, skiing – and boating.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/boating-budget-great-lakes-recreation/
What do you get when you mix mayonnaise, a vaudeville star, two swanky hotels and a fisherman’s wife?
If you guessed Thousand Island dressing and an age-old mystery, you’d be correct.
Today, Thousand Island dressing is bottled and sold in grocery stores nationwide. You may even find a simplified version of the dressing (mayonnaise, ketchup or tomato puree, and pickle relish) at your favorite burger spot, masquerading as their “special” or “secret” sauce.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/thousand-island-dressing-uncertain-origins/
As an avid angler, Great Lakes Now Host Ward Detwiler has encountered suckers, a bottom-feeding family of fish that are present in all five Great Lakes and spawn in the rivers of the watershed.
But he’s never been terribly mindful of them.
“It’s never something you’re really out looking for,” Detwiler said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/suckers-scientist-best-supporting-fishes-great-lakes-food-web/
By Laura Gersony, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/chicago-wary-lead-pipe-replacement/
When the Milwaukee River Lake Sturgeon Reintroduction Project began 16 years ago, success wasn’t immediately apparent.
Having a solid scientific foundation for the project wasn’t the problem: sturgeon were raised in the Milwaukee River so they would return there to spawn when the time came. The problem was that lake sturgeon don’t return to a river to spawn for around 15 years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/ways-see-touch-appreciate-sturgeon-great-lakes-region/
A pair of piping plovers appeared on a busy Chicago beach two years ago, and filmmaker Bob Dolgan recorded the human effort to protect the birds’ nest.
The result: a documentary film. Dolgan shared some of his footage with Great Lakes Now, which can be seen in this segment:
GLN’s Nick Austin spoke with Dolgan about his work chronicling “Monty and Rose,” the plover pair that’s inspired so much conservation of habitat in Chicago.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/birds-film-bob-dolgan-chicago-piping-plovers/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
SPRINGFIELD, Ill., (WICS) — High levels of Manganese in the city of Carlinville’s water is causing the water to turn brown, stain clothes, and more.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/drinking-water-biden-rural-infrastructure-lead-pipe/
By Laura Gersony, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/chicago-flooding-infrastructure-communities-color/
CHICAGO (AP) — While most of Chicago’s cultural institutions have reopened their doors, the Adler Planetarium won’t do so fully until next year.
The planetarium along Lake Michigan closed in March 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Planetarium officials said in a letter posted on the website earlier this month that they’ll start offering some events in July including weekend screenings of sky shows, but due to financial difficulties the full reopening will be in March 2022.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-chicago-adler-planetarium-reopen-2022/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
MOLINE, Ill.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/lead-pipes-illinois-minnesota-grand-jury-flint-water-line-3/
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago bus driver looking for a way to relieve stress during the coronavirus pandemic jumped into Lake Michigan for a 365th straight day on Saturday.
Dan O’Conor said he started jumping into the lake at Montrose Harbor on the city’s North Side last year to relieve stress.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-chicago-man-jumps-into-lake-michigan-for-365th-straight-day/
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago bus driver looking for a way to relieve stress during the coronavirus pandemic jumped into Lake Michigan for a 365th straight day on Saturday.
Dan O’Conor said he started jumping into the lake at Montrose Harbor on the city’s North Side last year to relieve stress.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-chicago-man-jumps-into-lake-michigan-for-365th-straight-day/
A decades-long monitoring project in the Great Lakes basin has started checking for PFAS in rain. It’s finding the forever chemicals across the basin in large amounts.
Those numbers aren’t published yet, but PFAS are showing up in concentrations higher than legacy contaminants like mercury, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and pesticides.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/raining-pfas-outpacing-legacy-contaminants/
CHICAGO (AP) — Beaches in Chicago were washed out by high waves Friday on the first day the city was to reopen Lake Michigan to swimming since summer 2019.
Waves reached up to 11 feet (3.35 meters) high, closing many of the beaches that had been set to open for the first time since Sept.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-high-waves-chicago-beaches-lake-michigan/
Jeff Whitelow has been known for his profound ability to walk in the shoes of those in the most vulnerable communities and help bring vital information to those who need it most, in language they best understand. Taking a vow of poverty to personally assess the life of those most vulnerable in Chicago, enabled him to identify that water shutoffs from unaffordable rates and lead exposure are serious problems.
Through the Chicago Water Council, Jeff has championed the search for residents eligible for the new drinking water Utility Billing Relief (UBR) program in Southside Chicago neighborhoods and assisting them in enrolling into the program that forgives 100% of residents debts after one year of consistent payment.
The Chicago Water Council has been working diligently to promote the awareness of the UBR program, boots are on the ground identifying residents, qualifying them according to the UBR criteria, and lastly, assisting them in becoming a UBR member of the program. To date the Chicago Water Council has identified over 50 residents eligible for the program and helped enroll 20 residents while establishing partnerships with food pantries to meet our targeted members in generous volumes. Work is underway to reach out to other nearby neighborhoods, in the Southside of Chicago to further aid those in need and ensure public health for all Chicagoans.
Freshwater Future honored Jeff Whitelow for his commitment with a Freshwater Hero Award, read more here or listen to Jeff accept his award.
Author: Brandon Tyus, Community Programming & Policy Associate
Blog – Freshwater Future
https://freshwaterfuture.org/uncategorized/debt-relief-helps-keep-water-flowing/
As moratoria expire across the Great Lakes region, advocates say ongoing affordability and debt relief are key.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/04/water-shutoffs-debt-infrastructure/
CHICAGO (AP) — In the modest bungalows and two-flats of Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, there’s never a shortage of needed home repairs staring residents in the face. And then there is the less obvious but more ominous problem lurking in their pipes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/04/the-problem-within-biden-targets-lead-pipes-pushes-equity/
While President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, officially the American Jobs Plan, emanates from the White House, a veteran Chicago policy executive says we should consider its genesis as broader than top down.
“It is something that cities and regions have requested – full partnership with the federal government – for quite some time,” said MarySue Barrett, president of the non-profit Metropolitan Planning Council.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/04/infrastructure-biden-administration-policy-qna/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
More than 8 of every 10 Illinoisans live in a community where brain-damaging lead was found in the tap water of at least one home during the past six years, a new Chicago Tribune analysis found.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/drinking-water-news-new-york-microplastics-pennsylvania/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
More than 8 of every 10 Illinoisans live in a community where brain-damaging lead was found in the tap water of at least one home during the past six years, a new Chicago Tribune analysis found.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/drinking-water-news-new-york-microplastics-pennsylvania/
Chicago’s Joel Brammeier came of age advocating for the Great Lakes in an era when federal programs that are widely accepted today like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative were barely on the drawing board.
Brammeier started his advocacy work in 2001 when he managed habitat programs for the Lake Michigan Federation, which later became the Alliance for the Great Lakes as its mission expanded.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/great-lakes-environmental-justice-priority/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
More Illinois Residents Are Turning to Lake Michigan for Their Drinking Water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/drinking-water-climate-change-withdrawals-michigan-quebec-first-nations/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
The city council in Joliet, Illinois has chosen Chicago to be its next water source, despite efforts by Hammond officials to persuade them otherwise.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/chicago-lake-michigan-minnesota-road-salt/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan, Illinois and a federal agency have agreed on funding the next phase of an initiative to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes by strengthening defenses on a Chicago-area waterway, officials said Thursday.
The two states and the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ap-deal-reached-brandon-road-project-asian-carp/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
The aquifer that supplies Chicago suburb Joliet’s drinking water is expected to dry up by 2030.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/water-withdrawal-contaminated-farmers-water-quality/
Want to give your loved ones a holiday gift that connects to that summer trip up north or the fall color tour you took together?
Or maybe you have a trip planned for after the COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed and want to give them something to remind them they have something to look forward to.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/great-lakes-gift-guide-2020-list/
