If you’re a Great Lakes lover and podcast listener, you probably already know about the “Teach Me About the Great Lakes” podcast produced by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.
But if not, maybe we have one more reason for you to tune in: Great Lakes Now news is now part of the program.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/join-great-lakes-now-on-the-illinois-indiana-sea-grant-podcast/
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:
Water at Illinois state prisons is contaminated with toxic metals and other potentially harmful contaminants, including the bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease, a coalition of activists said Thursday, urging Gov.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/drinking-water-news-roundup-safe-drinking-water-business-leaders-raise-awareness/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
Chicago has signed a $422.2 million agreement with Constellation New Energy, LLC to provide renewable power to government buildings, street lights and all other city assets — and a carbon-free footprint — by 2025.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/08/energy-news-roundup-michigan-solar-power-inflation-reduction-act/
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/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
Solar, storage projects set to bring jobs, tax revenue to Illinois coal communities — Energy News Network
Six retired coal plants in downstate Illinois will soon receive solar panels and become renewable energy storage sites.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/07/energy-news-roundup/
By Kari Lydersen, Energy News Network
This story was first published on the Energy News Network and was republished here with permission.
A recent state procurement formalizes plans to put solar and storage on the site of several retired coal plants. The owners will receive grants and higher-value renewable energy credits to finance the projects.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/07/solar-storage-projects-set-to-bring-jobs-tax-revenue-to-illinois-coal-communities/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
Officials in Normal, Illinois, see Rivian’s growth and corporate culture as a key part of the city’s long-term sustainability plan.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/07/energy-news-roundup-prices-hikes-solar-struggle/
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/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/pfas-news-roundup-epa-standards-firefighting-foam/
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:
Illinois American Water is encouraging customers to view the company’s 2021 water quality reports to learn more about the source and quality of their drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/drinking-water-news-roundup-flooding-risk-epa-grants-ohio/
By Michael Phillis and John Flesher, Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) — After a record-setting Midwestern rainstorm that damaged thousands of homes and businesses, Stefanie Johnson’s farmhouse in Blandinsville, Illinois, didn’t have safe drinking water for nearly two months.
Flood water poured into her well, turning the water a muddy brown and forcing Johnson, her husband and their two young children to use store-bought supplies.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/ap-climate-driven-flooding-contamination-risks/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
In September, Illinois lawmakers passed a watershed clean energy law which established the state as a leader for its efforts to decarbonize.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/energy-news-roundup-impending-energy-crisis/
By Enrique Saenz, Indiana Environmental Reporter
Final results of the first phase of statewide community water system testing confirmed the presence of PFAS chemicals in the treated drinking water of nearly a dozen Indiana communities.
The presence of PFAS chemicals in drinking water could be exposing thousands of Hoosiers to a series of adverse health conditions ranging from increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers to high cholesterol levels.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/testing-confirms-forever-chemicals-water-systems/
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:
Illinois American Water is investing over $3 million to replace over 8,600 feet or 1.6 miles of water main throughout the Sterling Water System.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/drinking-water-news-roundup-illinois-water-system-coal-ash-indiana/
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/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
Electricity costs will soar beginning in June in central and southern Illinois, due to inadequate power supplies following coal-fired plant closures.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/energy-news-roundup-numerous-great-lakes-outages-rising-rates/
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/
By David Sharp, Associated Press
California and 15 states that want the U.S. Postal Service to electrify its mail delivery vehicles are suing to halt purchases of thousands of gas-powered trucks as the agency modernizes its delivery fleet.
Three separate lawsuits, filed Thursday by the states and environmental groups in New York and California, ask judges to order a more thorough environmental review before the Postal Service moves forward with the next-generation delivery vehicle program.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/ap-states-electrify-usps-lawsuits/
This story is part of “Water’s True Cost,” a series by the Great Lakes News Collaborative focused on the rising cost of water in Michigan and the various causes leading to the state of water systems today. Find the rest of the stories in the series here.
In 2014, the legacy problem of lead pipes throughout the nation came to a head in Flint, Michigan, when the city emergency manager’s decision to switch the water source and not treat it to prevent corrosion led to lead leaching from the pipes into the city’s drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/michigans-water-systems-city-populations/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
On April 15, 2022, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA, IEPA, or Agency) approved a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for Williamson Energy, LLC Pond Creek Mine No.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/energy-news-roundup-ontario-natural-gas-energy-department-cybersecurity/
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/
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:
On March 11, IDOC and the Illinois Department of Public Health released a joint press release announcing that Legionella bacteria had been detected in two prisons—Stateville Correctional Center and Joliet Treatment Center.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/drinking-water-news-roundup-epa-rocket-fuel-prison-water-contaminated/
In-person events are back as people slowly reintroduce themselves to dining in, large gatherings and a return to the office.
But even as indoors becomes less taboo, let’s not forget the great outdoors, which served us well over the past two years. And what better time to show your gratitude to the parks than Earth Day.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/earth-day-2022/
By Kari Lydersen, Energy News Network
This story was first published on the Energy News Network and was republished here with permission.
Illinois activists who led fights to close coal plants and ban petroleum coke storage are now leading the charge for a bill that would provide new powers and funding to environmental justice communities.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/illinois-environmental-justice-bill-prevent-pollution/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
The lawsuit filed against Marathon Pipe Line in Madison County Court alleges multiple violations of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/weatherization-money-low-income-homes-misinformation-energy-projects/
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 Village of Gladstone is warning residents with infants younger than 6 months of high levels of nitrate in the town’s drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/drinking-water-news-roundup-best-tasting-water-ohio-worst-waterways-indiana/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/pfas-news-roundup-indiana-new-ohio-pfas-regulation-bill/
The largest known muskie is 67 pounds 8 ounces. Or it’s 69 pounds 11 ounces. Or it’s 70 pounds 10 ounces. Depending on the type of record, whom you ask or what organization you trust, it could be any of those answers.
After Great Lakes Now published a column on muskies that referenced record sizes, it kicked off a dispute among readers on what record was the most accurate, so Great Lakes Now decided to do a deeper dive.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/who-caught-worlds-largest-muskie/
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:
Three of the loan recipients qualified for a total of more than $3 million in principal forgiveness.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/drinking-water-news-roundup-illinois-new-york/
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:
Illinois American water plans to donate over $16 million to help maintain and transform the municipal water system for the city of Jerseyville.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/drinking-water-news-roundup-water-contaminants-oil-spill/
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 John Raby, Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Nearly $725 million in federal funding is available this fiscal year to 22 states and the Navajo Nation for the reclamation of abandoned coal mines and cleanup of acid mine drainage, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Monday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ap-biden-abandoned-coal-mines/
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:
Legislators in Illinois are looking favorably upon a bill that may improve water quality for a large portion of the nation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/water-quality-bill-mine-wetland/
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/
The project to construct a new Soo Lock has been fully funded as of Wednesday, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its Fiscal Year 2022 budget, which included $479 million directed to the new lock.
“In Michigan, we know how vital the Locks are to our economy and our national defense,” Sen.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/army-corps-millions-great-lakes-coastal-resiliency-soo-locks-invasive-carp/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/pfas-news-lake-superior-fish-michigan-superfund-list/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Hannah Brock, Great Lakes Echo
Researchers are studying a long-vanished village near southern Lake Michigan that a World War II arsenal helped preserve.
A recent study by archaeologists sought to learn about those who lived at what is now the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/wwii-armory-preserves-indigenous/
By Kari Lydersen
This story was republished with permission from Energy News Network.
Coal ash will remain in the ground at the site of a closing coal plant on the shores of Lake Michigan in Waukegan, Illinois.
Owner NRG explained its plans on Dec.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/historic-coal-ash-concerns/
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:
Illinois is expected to receive roughly $1.7 billion from the federal infrastructure bill to help address the issue of lead pipes in the state.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/drinking-water-roundup-infrastructure-funding/
Approximately 85,000 homeowners in the Great Lakes region will see rate reductions for the first time because of the National Flood Insurance Program’s new risk rating system, experts say.
The flood insurance program is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It provides coverage to property owners, renters and businesses to help them recover from floods faster.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/flood-risk-assessment-reduce-insurance-rates/
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/
The Great Lakes region wasn’t always the freshwater realm we know today: rewind to a couple centuries ago and it was actually covered in tropical seawater. That’s why many of the fossils found in the area today are portions of coral reefs and ancient sea creatures.
“When you think of Michigan or Illinois, you imagine cold and snow, but it wasn’t always that way.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/fossil-great-lakes-coral-remnants/
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 state of Illinois’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to invest over $29 million in wastewater and drinking water projects for the first quarter of the 2022 fiscal year.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/drinking-water-news-roundup-algae-blooms-dnr/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/pfas-news-covid-vaccine-minnesota-businesses-new-york-standards/
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/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Gabrielle Ahlborn, Great Lakes Echo
Environmental groups say they hope that a new Environmental Protection Agency administrator for the Great Lakes region works to restore infrastructure while revitalizing an agency they say is depleted and demoralized.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/epa-regional-administrator-infrastructure/
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will travel to the United Kingdom next week to discuss the state’s efforts to neutralize climate change while bolstering economic development, his office said Wednesday.
The Democrat and top staff members will travel to Britain and Scotland from Nov. 2-9 and attend the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/10/ap-pritzker-uk-climate-change/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
CenterPoint Energy recently proposed to construct two natural gas combustion turbines in place of its former coal-based plant.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/10/energy-illinois-clean-energy-bill-michigan-heating/
