LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of residents of Flint, Michigan, who were harmed by lead-tainted water now totals about $641 million, officials revealed Tuesday.
The lawsuit was the result of workers following state environmental officials’ advice not to use anti-corrosive additives.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/ap-flint-water-lawsuit-settlement/
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/2020/11/great-lakes-pummel-michigan-beach-towns-development-rules/
Scientists at dozens of colleges and universities around the country are hoping early detection of COVID-19 infections can come from a not-so-glamorous sampling process.
With collection devices set up in campus sewer systems, researchers are sampling waste from residence halls and other buildings for evidence of the virus.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/campus-covid-19-sewage-testing-early-infections/
For President-elect Joe Biden, the environment and climate change as campaign issues weren’t tucked away in an obscure position paper. Neither was his intent to focus on environmental justice if elected.
Biden also put a spotlight on President Trump’s rollback via executive order of nearly 100 environmental protections in his four years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/rollbacks-climate-justice-environmental-attorney-president-elect-biden/
By Paula Gardner, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Doubling the size of a factory during a global pandemic may not fit a traditional business plan.
But Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis is based in Northern Michigan, where it’s making a product that helps to define the winter economy for the ski-maker’s home in Boyne City and across the region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/covid-19-outdoor-recreation-michigan-ski-industry/
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-shut-down-enbridge-line-5-means/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took legal action Friday to shut down a pipeline that carries oil beneath a channel that links two of the Great Lakes.
Whitmer’s office notified the Canadian company that it was revoking an easement granted in 1953 to extend a roughly 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of the pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/ap-michigan-governor-seeks-shutdown-line-5-great-lakes-oil-pipeline/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Environmentalists in Wisconsin sue EPA over regulation rollback favoring coal plants, bankruptcy plan for Ohio nuclear power company upheld by appeals court, Prairie Island tribe prepares for massive investment in renewable energy, and Ford Motors to invest millions for electric vehicle construction in southeast Michigan
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Michigan:
Ford Motor Company will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in southeast Michigan and Missouri to expand its electric vehicle assembly process and develop EV parts, which is projected to add or retain several hundred jobs in both states.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/great-lakes-energy-news-wisconsin-coal-ohio-nuclear/
How do you protect water quality, public health and the environment when much of society comes to a near full stop with no notice?
That was the dilemma for regulatory agencies in March when the realities of the COVID-19 virus caused businesses and schools to close, factories to cease or drastically modify operations, travel to be restricted and office workers to scramble to set up makeshift workspaces in their homes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/covid-19-compliance-agencies-environmental-protection/
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/great-lakes-stressed-climate-change-worse/
An estimated 9,887 metric tonnes (22 million pounds) of plastics make their way into the Great Lakes every year. Now a new project aims not only to suck out some of that plastic but stop it from getting into the lakes in the first place.
It began last summer with Toronto Harbour’s installation of three Seabins – devices that look like trash cans in the water but behave like vacuum cleaners, said Christopher Hilkene, CEO of Pollution Probe.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/seabins-trap-plastics-great-lakes-canada/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Great Lakes Echo
Only a minority of Great Lakes region congressional candidates endorsed by national environmental advocacy groups were victorious on Election Day.
The winners had a couple of things in common.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/green-group-endorsements-congress-great-lakes/
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/2020/11/pfas-news-fish-wisconsin-canada/
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:
Residents of Sycamore, Illinois, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of Sycamore, alleging that it knowingly failed to maintain its water supply and ignored problems with its corrosion control treatment.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/drinking-water-news-lead-illinois-michigan-first-nations/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Audrey Porter, Great Lakes Echo
The Great Lakes produced a new high record in its number of 232 waterspouts from Sept. 28 through Oct. 4.
It tops the previous highest waterspout outbreak of 88 waterspouts in the month of August.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/great-lakes-record-waterspouts/
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/2020/11/plumbing-poverty-urban-residents-study/
Even casual observers of Great Lakes issues are aware of the problems associated with algal blooms.
Perhaps they remember the headlines from August 2014 when Toledo went without drinking water for three days due to the threat of toxic blooms contaminating the city’s water supply. Or a day their favorite beach posted “No Swimming” signs because of toxic algal bloom threats.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/small-streams-impact-great-lakes-water-quality/
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/2020/11/trump-administration-water-policy/
Long-lived chemicals that were banned years or even decades ago in the U.S. and Canada are still turning up in the bodies of fish and migrating terns in the Great Lakes, and they continue to affect the health of those threatened birds.
Scientists found all three chemicals they checked for in the brains and livers of more than two dozen common terns, at all life stages – chicks, juveniles and adults.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/legacy-pollutants-great-lakes-terns-emerald-shiners/
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/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Michigan environmental justice advocates claim state can’t wait to 2050 for clean energy, Minnesota nuclear power plant to construct pilot facility to produce hydrogen energy, and Ohio nuclear energy company faces dangerous court motion from environmental groups.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/great-lakes-energy-illinois-minnesota-natural-gas/
Anglers as a group are generally nice people – polite, kind, generous and peaceful. But throw out a couple high-end, super-sweet fishing machines and stacks of cash, and they’ll brawl hard. For six weeks.
The 10th Annual B’Laster Fall Brawl began at 12:01 a.m Oct. 16 and runs through 8:00 a.m.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/fall-brawl-sheffield-lake-fishing-derby/
Dave Spangler, a ceaseless advocate for Lake Erie, died Oct. 21, at 74. He spent the last few decades working to make Lake Erie the best body of water he could.
Spangler appeared in Great Lakes Now’s “Unlocking the Lakes” episode to share about how COVID-19 has been affecting tourism and the recreational fishing industry.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/dave-spangler-lake-erie-advocate/
While the roller coaster case garnered national attention with its on-again, off-again Rights of Nature legal battle, Toledo residents are stuck paying legal fees for Drewes Farms Partnerships in its fight against the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, popularly referred to as LEBOR.
Owners of the Wood County crop farm filed a challenge to LEBOR the morning after its landslide February 2019 passage by Toledo voters.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/legal-fees-toledo-residents-lebor-drewes-farms/
In the first two episodes of “The Age of Nature,” the successes and fragility of environmental restoration took viewers around the world.
The final episode continues that thematic exploration as it takes viewers to some of the furthest and oldest reaches of the planet.
HERE is a map of all the locations with descriptions of the segments.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/age-of-nature-great-lakes-now-hope/
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/
Great Lakes parks have always been popular among outdoor enthusiasts. This summer, however, pandemic-weary residents on both sides of the border flocked to them – many for the first time – just as services such as campsites, visitors’ centers, washrooms and interpretive programs were closed to help contain COVID-19.
The spike in summertime numbers was doubly challenging this year as the lakes’ record-high water levels have washed away some beaches and trails.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/summertime-spike-great-lakes-parks-covid-19/
Each year, the Great Lakes Protection Fund chooses a theme and looks for innovation and excellence in work around that theme related to the Great Lakes. Then the best individuals and organizations receive the Fund’s Great Lakes Leadership Award.
This year’s theme is communication, and Great Lakes Now is one of the 2020 award winners!
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/great-lakes-now-communication-excellence-great-lakes-protection-fund/
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/2020/10/pfas-huron-river-michigan-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:
In March, the Illinois Commerce Commission announced an emergency moratorium on utility shut-offs to protect customers during the COVID-19 health crisis, but most major Illinois providers resumed service disconnections by late summer.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/drinking-water-illinois-covid-19-coronavirus-ontario/
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 Frank Jossi, Energy News Network, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
State Sen. Jason Rarick co-sponsored a rare bipartisan energy bill this spring that sought to expand and improve Minnesota’s state energy conservation program.
The proposal earned support from unions, utilities, industry and environmental groups for its potential to save money and cut carbon emissions, but you won’t hear the Republican incumbent talking it up as part of his reelection campaign.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/policing-pandemic-election-climate-minnesota/
By Tom Perkins, Energy News Network, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Michigan environmental groups are at odds over a ballot measure that aims to boost spending on state park improvements using funding from fossil fuel extraction.
The state already relies on mining, oil and gas royalties to fund its park system.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/michigan-fossil-fuel-money-environmentalists/
Whether they’re in oceans or the Great Lakes, shipwrecks create unique ecosystems for a variety of aquatic life. They also have historical significance and provide recreational opportunities for divers, snorkelers and boaters.
Scenes of them open the PBS documentary series “The Age of Nature,” which broadcasts on PBS stations across the country in October 2020.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/shipwrecks-ecosystems-watch-party-great-lakes-now-age-of-nature/
Across the country dams are being removed, and that means big changes for those rivers and some of the communities along them. Learn more about what happens when these dams are built and what happens when they come down in this Great Lakes Now watch party.
The event was held in conjunction with the PBS documentary series “The Age of Nature,” which broadcasts on PBS stations across the country in October 2020.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/watch-party-great-lakes-now-age-of-nature/
It’s been 140 years since a group of U.S. steamship companies formed an alliance called the Cleveland Vessel Owners Association, whose primary purpose was to promote safe navigation by the ships that plied the Great Lakes.
That original alliance has since become the Lake Carriers’ Association, which is still based in Cleveland and represents the interests of companies that have a combined 46 vessels on the lakes and move 90 million tons of cargo annually.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/great-lakes-freighters-lake-carriers-association/
Early in October, scientists who pioneered a powerful gene-editing technology won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. That same technology is now being used to explore new ways to control invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes.
When researchers suggested earlier this year that it might be possible to eradicate sea lamprey from the Great Lakes, it was with developing gene-editing technology in mind.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/genetic-engineering-research-controlling-sea-lamprey/
By Will Callan, 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/house-bills-anchor-strikes-straits-of-mackinac-felony/
By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Before her 73-year-old mom contracted Legionnaires’ disease at a nursing home earlier this year, Monique Barlow knew little about the deadly pneumonia and the waterborne pathogen that causes it.
“Until then, I didn’t give it much thought,” says Barlow.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/legionella-dangerous-pathogens-drinking-water/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Michigan environmental justice advocates claim state can’t wait to 2050 for clean energy, Minnesota nuclear power plant to construct pilot facility to produce hydrogen energy, and Ohio nuclear energy company faces dangerous court motion from environmental groups.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/great-lakes-energy-clean-energy-michigan-ohio-nuclear/
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/
Since their introduction years ago, invasive Asian carp have infested rivers and lakes around the United States.
But they’ve been kept out of the Great Lakes — so far.
Some steps have been taken to protect the lakes system, but many believe that more effective policies — and more substantial barriers — are needed to keep the fish from spreading and to reduce the numbers where they’re already established.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/carp-impacts-invasive-fish-midwest/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Eric Freedman, Capital News Service
To keep healthy this fall, deer hunters have more to worry about than just COVID-19 and the flu.
On the beware list: a group of chemicals known as PFAS and lead from ammunition.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/hunters-contaminated-game-pfas-lead/
This article is published in conjunction with PBS’s “The Age of Nature” series which begins airing on Oct. 14.
Join Great Lakes Now‘s “Watch Party: Damming Decisions – A discussion about dam removals and what they mean for the environment” on Facebook on Monday, Oct.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/when-a-dam-comes-down-removal-of-dams-allows-fish-passage-and-habitat-restoration/
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/
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/
Canada took the next step in its effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030 last week when it announced a ban on certain single-use plastic items that its environmental protection and policy agency says are not often recycled.
The ban includes check-out bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery and foodware items, according to a press release from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/canada-zero-plastic-waste-toxic-ban/
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/
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:
Indiana:
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to install six groundwater monitoring wells to investigate the contaminated water plume beneath much of Kokomo.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/drinking-water-wisconsin-wells-septic-first-nations-lead-pipes/
