Rain gardens, bioretention features, adaptable parks and more are popping up all around the region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/05/green-infrastructure-great-lakes-climate-future/
By Jane Johnston, 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/2021/04/flooding-climate-income-inequality/
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/
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.
The Eastern Seaboard has the Appalachian Trail, the Western Seaboard has the Pacific Rim Trail, and the Rocky Mountains has the Continental Divide Trail.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/04/great-lakes-way-southern-lake-huron-western-lake-erie/
Hundreds of artistic entries from 4th and 5th grade students came in for this year’s Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Kids Clean Water Calendar Contest, and Great Lakes Now Host Ward Detwiler had to decide which drawings would be printed for each month.
“Fortunately, because I’d done this last year, I knew how hard it was going to be,” Detwiler said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/kids-calendar-art-contest-healthy-water-management/
If you have the good fortune to gaze at a Great Lake – any Great Lake – sometime in this strange year, you’re not likely to spot a glaring example of President Joseph R. Biden’s new emphasis on protecting the environment.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t coming.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/air-wind-solar-great-lakes-energy-president-biden/
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.
Detroit is well known as the automobile capital of the United States, the Arsenal of Democracy, the home of Motown and techno music, world-class architecture and building the middle class.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/marine-pollution-control-rouge-river-to-persian-gulf-oil-spill-cleanups-detroit-company/
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Some residents in southwestern Michigan and the Detroit area will get plumbing repairs in their homes as part of a new initiative to reduce water waste.
Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said the “Water Leak Pilot” program is expected to highlight the benefits of reducing water waste for consumers, water suppliers and the overall community.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/ap-pilot-michigan-program-reduce-water-waste-homes/
By Brett Walton, 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/2021/02/water-biden-administration-deliver-environmental-justice-pledges/
Are you a Detroit high school student interested in the environment, TV production and planning community events?
(Or maybe you know one and could share this with them?)
With funding from PBS Education, Great Lakes Now and the Belle Isle Conservancy are offering a paid internship for a high school student to help plan the April 24 Spring Clean Up on Belle Isle event AND produce a video about it to help other students and organizations have similar events to raise environmental awareness.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/pbs-great-lakes-now-belle-isle-conservancy-high-school-intern/
By Steve Carmody, Michigan Radio
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/2021/02/glwa-dwsd-oakland-county-overflows-rouge-river/
Detroit’s Michelle Martinez is acutely aware of the patience needed when your profession is advocating for environmental justice, the fair and meaningful involvement of all people related to environmental laws and policies.
Martinez is acting executive director and statewide coordinator for the grassroots Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition.
It was 1994, almost three decades ago, that President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 putting the federal spotlight on environmental justice.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/detroit-advocate-hopeful-environmental-justice-progress-decades-inertia/
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.
As recently as the 1980s, a small backwater on the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River in Trenton, Michigan, was so polluted and toxic that scientists named it the Black Lagoon.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/beavers-detroit-river-black-lagoon-restoration/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
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/2021/01/michigan-cities-lead-pipes-funding/
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.
If you gaze off to the east from Detroit, Grosse Pointe or Downriver, chances are you will see bright lights adrift in the night sky.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/great-lakes-moment-leamington-greenhouses-lights/
This is part of a series in which the Great Lakes Now staff looks back on 2020.
At this time last year, this humble news director made big claims regarding making a visit to Lake Ontario to complete the full list of “Great Lakes I’ve visited.”
Unfortunately, Lake Ontario remains an achievement I have yet to collect.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/lake-ontario-big-catch-escapes-again/
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/
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.
For over two decades, when you drove by the former McLouth Steel Plant in Trenton, you could not help but slow down and stare.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/new-vision-waterfront-former-mclouth-steel-site-trenton/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan officials have selected 14 community and state parks, trails and sports facilities to share $5.4 million in federal grants.
The state Department of Natural Resources said the money will come from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is supported by revenues from gas and oil development from the Gulf of Mexico.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/ap-michigan-agency-recreation-projects/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
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/2020/11/michigan-politicians-water-problems-activists-fixes/
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/
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.
Metropolitan Detroit sits on the traditional territory of the Wyandot of Anderdon Nation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/great-lakes-moment-wyandot-anderdon-nation-six-points/
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/
By Robin Erb, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
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/2020/10/covid-testing-lead-poisoning-michigan/
By Brett Walton, 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/2020/10/michigan-20-million-customer-water-debts/
By Sarah Cwiek, Michigan Radio
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/2020/10/egle-fines-2019-detroit-dock-collapse/
By Brett Walton, 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/2020/10/utility-data-customer-water-debt-problems/
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/
An array of more than 80 marine-debris-turned-art works will be making another Great Lakes stop, adding a lake sturgeon sculpture when it’s installed at a Wisconsin site next year.
Made entirely of plastic trash, these larger-than-life figures have realistic designs. They come as part of the traveling exhibit, Washed Ashore, which aims to educate people about plastic pollution.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/trash-fish-marine-debris-sculptures-great-lakes-aquariums-museums/
It’s convenient to think of fixing a problem and it’s done. But that doesn’t apply to the long-neglected legacy polluted sites in the Great Lakes region.
In simple terms we think of a cleanup as removal of something that, left unattended, will become a nuisance or a problem.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/toxic-great-lakes-sites-capping-dredging/
When Great Lakes Now Host Ward Detwiler isn’t introducing PBS audiences to the joys and troubles of the Great Lakes on our monthly program, he’s busy running a software company that’s revolutionizing MRI technology.
That work recently landed him on DBusiness Magazine‘s 2020 “30 in Their Thirties” list.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/dbusiness-crains-list-ward-detwiler/
Detroit water rights advocate Monica Lewis-Patrick has a few questions for presidential candidates incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
“What’s your water policy? What will you do to protect our drinking water,” Lewis-Patrick asked in a July Healing Our Waters Coalition press release that asked the candidates to support a Great Lakes water platform.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/2020-candidates-water-quality-great-lakes-states/
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.
Forty years after Uniroyal shut down in Detroit, contaminated sediment cleanup is starting in the Detroit River off this former industrial site.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/great-lakes-moment-uniroyal-contaminated-sediment-cleanup/
Alongside the illnesses, deaths and closures caused by COVID-19, the threat of climate change still hangs over communities across the Great Lakes region and around the world. And the people and organizations fighting against climate change and for environmental justice have found themselves caught between these two threats to public health.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/intersecting-crises-climate-change-justice-covid-19/
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/
Calling their communities sacrifice zones for being home to hazardous waste storage sites, residents in a Detroit neighborhood are taking a stand.
Last week, residents with support from the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center filed a formal complaint with Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy over the agency’s January decision to allow a storage site to increase capacity by nine fold.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/detroit-activists-environmental-justice-hazardous-waste-sites/
Mass water shutoffs in Detroit following the city’s bankruptcy proceedings brought the issue of water affordability and water shutoffs into public notoriety in the U.S. in 2014.
The threat of COVID-19 brought the issue back to the forefront as the CDC urged people to wash their hands frequently.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/water-debt-environmental-justice/
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.
Guy O. Williams knew very little about the Great Lakes growing up in Lanham, Maryland, about 10 miles northeast of Washington, D.C.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/great-lakes-moment-guy-williams-environmental-justice/
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/
Fatbergs — massive buildups of wipes and hygiene products congealed with greases and oils — make for a cringe-worthy topic. And the damage they cause to sewer systems can be a huge amount of trouble for the people in charge of those sewer systems.
That includes Candice Miller, the Public Works Commissioner in southeast Michigan’s Macomb County.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/legislation-flushable-wipes-court-law-fatberg/
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.
Scientists have predicted that warmer, wetter and wilder weather is coming and that this will be one of the greatest environmental challenges of the 21st Century.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/water-levels-climate-change-warmer-wetter-wilder/
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are on a roller coaster ascending the first and highest hill on the ride. You hear the click, click, click as the car slowly climbs to the top and you start getting excited, even nervous, the closer you get to the peak.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/michigan-history-environmental-contamination/
The animals at various aquariums are dealing with their own COVID-19 lockdown struggles as they adjust to new routines, new procedures and a distinct lack of the public, and each animal handles it a little differently.
Thanks to Great Lakes aquariums like Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the Aquatarium at Tall Ships Landing in Brockville, Ontario, and Belle Isle Conservancy in Detroit, the public can get a peek at the various things staff are doing to keep the animals happy and entertained.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/animal-quiz-great-lakes-aquarium-animal-covid-19-quarantine/
There are cockroaches roaming the aquarium at the Belle Isle Conservancy.
But don’t worry, they’re supposed to be there.
Unlike the smaller, more common roaches you might find in a dirty or old building, these cockroaches are Madagascar hissing cockroaches, who have their own exhibit at the conservancy and were given a chance to say hello to some fish while the aquarium is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/covid-19-belle-isle-fish-and-insects-visitors/
The virus can be detected in infected people’s feces – sometimes even before they begin exhibiting symptoms.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/sewage-check-researchers-look-to-wastewater-for-data-on-covid-19/
When you ask well-intentioned government officials about environmental justice issues and why they are so difficult to remedy, the response usually goes like this:
“Some of the challenges we see as environmental problems are really rooted in decades of disinvestment in parts of our urban communities,” Liesl Clark, director of Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy told Great Lakes Now in a 2019 interview.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/environmental-justice-during-covid-19-coronavirus/
Great Lakes Now is sharing work from our partners in a project on what climate change means for Great Lakes cities. Here is the initial piece in the series.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/rust-resilience-climate-change-great-lakes-cities/
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has signed a $2.9 million agreement to remediate contaminated sediment along Detroit’s east riverfront.
The cleanup will allow for further expansion of the popular Detroit Riverwalk.
Work will be funded through a Great Lakes Legacy Act cost-sharing partnership with the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/ap-project-cap-contaminated-sediment-detroit-river/
Wayne Brusate started a commercial diving company in the two-car garage of his home in Marysville, Michigan.
Ten years later, his business was contracted to maintain all the water intake systems at Detroit Edison’s power generating facilities in southeastern Michigan. Power generating plants require a massive volume of water to operate, Brusate said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/blasting-zebra-mussels-invasive-species/
DETROIT (AP) — The advice is simple and universal: Washing your hands with soap and water is one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But for millions of people across the country, that’s not simple at all: They lack running water in their houses due to service shutoffs prompted by overdue bills.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/03/ap-michigan-water-shutoffs-coronavirus-outbreak/
