On the cool morning of April 25, doctoral student Eric Ste Marie from the University of Windsor’s department of integrative biology went out for a walk with his partner along the Detroit River prior to an anticipated long day in his lab. Much to his surprise, he saw an animal pop its head out of the water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/river-otters-detroit-river/
The issue of invasive species has haunted the Great Lakes region for decades, but a recent study shows that regulatory intervention can actually help stem the problem.
The study, released by McGill University and the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, looked at the bi-national regulation of ballast water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/regulation-invasive-species-great-lakes/
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Coal-related interests sued on April 28 to block the centerpiece of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change, a carbon-pricing policy that will impose a cost for emitting planet-warming carbon dioxide from fossil fuel-fired power plants.
The lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court by owners of coal-fired power plants, owners of coal mines and labor unions that mine coal and maintain the power plants say the regulation written by Wolf’s administration is “patently unlawful.”
The regulation took effect Saturday after a long regulatory vetting process and fights with a hostile Legislature controlled by Republicans who are historically protective of Pennsylvania’s coal and natural gas industries.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/coal-interests-carbon-policy/
By Matthew Brown, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to craft a new habitat plan for the snow-loving Canada lynx that could include more land in Colorado and other western states where the rare animals would be protected, according to a legal agreement made public Tuesday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-canada-lynx-protections-deal/
By Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal
This story first ran on The Narwhal, a non-profit news organization that publishes in-depth stories about Canada’s natural world.
When the Doug Ford government first announced plans to expand Ontario’s Greenbelt, it called the move a “once in a generation opportunity.”
The initial concept, presented by Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark in February 2021, involved ambitious plans to include waterways under the Greenbelt’s protection and stretch its boundaries to encompass a large swath of land west of Toronto.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/doug-fords-expansion-ontario-greenbelt/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers on Friday signed an executive order creating a new office of environmental justice, announcing the move on Earth Day.
Republicans last year removed the office from Evers’ proposed budget. But the Democrat up for reelection this November got around them by creating it through an executive order.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-evers-office-environmental-justice/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — As climate change bakes the planet, dozens of nations and many local governments are putting a price tag on greenhouse gas emissions that are increasing flooding, droughts and other costly catastrophes.
Pennsylvania on Saturday becomes the first major fossil fuel-producing state in the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/climate-change-pricing-carbon/
By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer
With climate change, plastic pollution and a potential sixth mass extinction, humanity has made some incredible messes in the world.
But when people, political factions and nations have pulled together, they have also cleaned up some of those human-caused environmental problems, including healing the ozone hole, clearing perpetually smoggy air and saving many species from the brink of extinction.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-healing-ozone-hole-smog-eagles/
Fresh is a biweekly newsletter from Circle of Blue that unpacks the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region today. Sign up for Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing, straight to your inbox, every other Tuesday.
— Laura Gersony, Fresh Editor
This Week’s Watersheds
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/wisconsin-judge-forever-chemicals-cleanup/
By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a challenge by environmentalists over portions of a lower court ruling involving a key permit for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals in January reversed a 2018 decision by state regulators to issue PolyMet Mining Corp.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-minnesota-supreme-court-polymet-case/
An area like the Great Lakes that has rain and higher temperatures in the summer, followed by a cold, snowy winter, is best suited for maple production.
But the Great Lakes maple season is evolving as climate change increasingly impacts maple syrup production with shorter harvest seasons, less sugar production and unreliable sap flow.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/great-lakes-sugaring-season/
Michigan has reached a 19.3% recycling rate, an increase of 35.4% from prior to 2019, according to an analysis the state of Michigan released Monday ahead of Earth Day on Friday.
Before 2019, the state estimated Michigan’s recycling rate, the rate at which recyclable materials are recycled from waste, was 14.25%.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-michigan-increases-recycling/
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/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Department of Natural Resources has restarted efforts to set standards for bacteria in groundwater after conservatives on the agency’s policy board killed the attempt in February.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported that the board on Wednesday authorized a public hearing and comment period on a new rule-making process to set groundwater standards for E.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-dnr-effort-bacteria-standards-groundwater/
The Biden administration made secret plans to weaken protection for whooping cranes, and documents obtained through an open records request show officials “seem to have been deliberately misleading the public,” an environmental group says.
The documents show that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to propose changing the only natural flock’s status from endangered to threatened, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release linking to some of the papers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-weaken-whooping-crane-protection/
By Enrique Saenz, Indiana Environmental Reporter
Researchers have found that a common wetland plant native to Australia can remove toxic “forever chemicals” from the surrounding environment.
In a 190-day greenhouse experiment, a team of Chinese and Australian researchers found that Juncus sarophorus, a wetland plant also known as the broom rush, could tolerate and accumulate PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS, three of the most commonly studied PFAS chemicals.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/researchers-wetland-plant-pfas-chemicals/
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has asked the state’s highest court to let the centerpiece of his plan to fight climate change take effect and make Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy.
The filing late Thursday in the state Supreme Court appealed a two-day old decision by the lower Commonwealth Court which, in a one-line unsigned order, barred the official publication of the Democratic governor’s regulation “pending further order.”
The regulation had been scheduled to be published on Saturday, making it official.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-governor-appeals-court-order-carbon-emissions/
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — State regulation of streams that flow temporarily after rainfall would be restricted under proposed Ohio legislation months in the works.
Construction companies, the mining industry and other business groups say removing so-called ephemeral streams from regulation would make Ohio’s practice consistent with federal law.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ohio-legislation-state-regulation-streams/
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 Great Lakes represent one-fifth the standing freshwater on the Earth’s surface, provide ecosystem services or benefits to approximately 34 million people living in the basin, and serve as the foundation for the $5 trillion regional economy that would be one of the largest in the world if it stood alone as a country.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/great-lakes-moment-historic-great-lakes-agreement-anniversary/
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/2022/03/climate-change-threatens-michigan-chemical-sites/
By Tara Lohan, The Revelator
This story originally appeared in The Revelator and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
In September the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing 23 species from the federal list of endangered species — not because they’d rebounded, sadly, but because they are believed to be extinct.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/reasons-to-love-freshwater-mussels/
By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos
This story originally appeared in Eos and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
Residents of New Orleans are no strangers to floods and the losses that follow.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/black-neighborhoods-future-flood-burden/
By Suman Naishadham, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In southwestern Pennsylvania, eight locks and dams that for decades helped barges move goods along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers will in a few years also generate enough power for 75,000 homes.
Rye Development, a Boston-based hydropower company, is retrofitting the dams with turbines to generate electricity and says the upgraded structures will limit damage to the rivers’ water quality and fish.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/ap-hydropower-bigger-energy-role-less-environmental-harm/
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/2022/03/invasive-carp-money-great-lakes/
By Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office indicated it might seek removal of a judge expected to preside over a criminal case in which he has ties to the defendant — the state’s biggest gas driller, which is charged with polluting residential water supplies in a community where residents famously were able to light their tap water on fire.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/ap-judges-driller-pollution-case/
By Lester Graham, 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/2022/03/legislation-bottled-water-protections-groundwater/
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.
It was a mid-winter day, and I was driving to my Downriver home from a meeting in Detroit.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/great-lakes-moment-bald-eagles-detroit/
Just like the atmosphere and the ocean, lakes can be subject to extreme spikes in temperature, and new research shows that the vast majority of these heatwaves over the past 25 years are the result of human-caused climate change.
Iestyn Woolway – a climate scientist at Bangor University in Wales – and his colleagues analysed satellite data of surface temperatures in lakes around the world, including the Great Lakes, to identify when and where heatwaves occurred since the satellites came online in 1995.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/lake-heatwaves-human-climate-change/
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/2022/03/michigan-global-report-climate/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
ALLENDALE, Mich. (AP) — Dale Buist knew running a commercial greenhouse would pose challenges. He just never expected a water shortage to be among them. Not in Michigan, with its vast aquatic riches.
Yet a couple of irrigation wells yielded only a trickle.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ap-water-rich-michigan-no-guarantee/
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/2022/02/drinking-water-pathogen-effect-black-americans/
By Jolene Banning, The Narwhal
This story first ran on The Narwhal, a non-profit news organization that publishes in-depth stories about Canada’s natural world.
Sometime in the early 1990s, the ice was so unusually thick and smooth on Gitchigumi that Anishinaabe fisherman Phillip Solomon drove his car, a 1984 Monte Carlo, across the lake from Fort William First Nation to Pie Island with a friend.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ice-loss-anishinaabe-fishermen-lake-superior/
By Lester Graham, 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/2022/02/line-5-impact-climate-change-reviewed/
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/2022/02/pfas-news-roundup-annual-blood-tests-pennsylvania-deer/
By Zahra Ahmad, 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/2022/02/new-report-enbridge-line-5-closure-michigan/
A recent burst of cold weather has boosted Great Lakes ice coverage from initial projections that were well below historical average back to the typical range.
But the current levels still expose a long-term trend of overall declining coverage, scientists say.
“In terms of Great Lakes ice cover, we do see decline and reduced ice cover in recent decades,” Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, assistant research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, said in an interview with Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/great-lakes-ice-forms/
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/2022/02/grand-rapids-lake-road-salt/
HANCOCK, Mich. (AP) — More than $1.1 million in grants have been awarded to 17 coastal management projects and programs in Michigan.
Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy says the funding will help protect, preserve, enhance and wisely develop the state’s coastal resources.
Recipients are located across Michigan and include $45,000 for Hancock to do a feasibility analysis for nature-based shore protection and restoration.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ap-michigan-coastal-management/
By Matthew Brown and John Flesher, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont (AP) — A judge restored federal protections for gray wolves across much of the U.S. on Thursday, after their removal in the waning days of the Trump administration exposed the predators to hunting that critics said would undermine their rebound from widespread extermination early last century.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ap-judge-protections-gray-wolves/
By Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal
This story first ran on The Narwhal, a non-profit news organization that publishes in-depth stories about Canada’s natural world.
The final resting place of Canada’s most radioactive nuclear waste could be a cave about as deep below the surface as the CN Tower is tall.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/canada-old-pileup-nuclear-waste/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
Beef produced at a small Michigan farm was found to contain toxic “forever chemicals” after the cattle were fed crops grown with fertilizer made from contaminated wastewater biosolids, state officials said Friday.
A consumption advisory issued by state agencies stopped short of a recall, noting there are no government standards for the substances in beef.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ap-forever-chemicals-michigan-beef/
By Frank Jossi
This story was first published on the Energy News Network and was republished here with permission
St. Paul last week joined a growing list of Minnesota cities passing climate resolutions aimed at adding urgency to state and local climate actions.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/minnesota-cities-climate-resolutions/
By Anna Liz Nichols, Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan will build clean energy infrastructure and invest in green programs over the next 30 years with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 to confront climate change, a draft of a state plan says.
Gov.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/ap-plan-draft-carbon-neutrality/
By 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/2022/01/low-ice-coverage/
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 increasingly warm air and heavy rain showers have caused a rise in toxic algae blooms, which has led to fish sickness, beach closures, and drinking water pollution.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/drinking-water-news-roundup-toxic-algae-blooms/
By Matthew Daly, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants, ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/ap-epa-dangerous-coal-ash/
By Lester Graham, 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/2022/01/red-bellied-snake-endangered/
ESCANABA, Mich. (AP) — A paper mill in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has agreed to pay nearly $250,000 to settle an investigation of a fish kill in the Escanaba River, state regulators said.
A “catastrophic pipe failure” at the Verso Corp. site in Escanaba resulted in a discharge of partially treated wastewater in August 2020, regulators said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/ap-ohio-company-pay-250k/
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/2022/01/road-salt-michigan-lakes/
By Lester Graham, 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/2021/12/environmental-groups-algal-blooms/
