This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, Great Lakes Echo
Laptops, phones, keys, a drone, a picnic table, a meat slicer, axes, spoons, chairs, a horseshoe, guns and a 90-year-old condom are among the items Michigan’s Magnet Man has fished out of the state’s rivers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/michigans-magnet-man-attracts-river-trash/
Across Detroit the effects of climate change are evident. In the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood on the city’s lower east side, overflowing stormwater drains, contaminated waterways and flooded basements are just a few examples of how the city’s aging infrastructure struggles to keep up with our changing climate.
The city’s combined sewer system is the crux of the problem.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/detroit-neighborhood-faces-uncertain-future-due-to-climate-change/
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 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that February 2023 was Earth’s fourth-warmest on record.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/great-lakes-moment-decreasing-great-lakes-ice-cover-consequences/
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/2023/03/pfas-news-roundup-questions-about-the-epas-nationwide-pfas-rule-answered/
Two recently banned pesticides have all but disappeared from the atmosphere around the Great Lakes, while others phased out decades ago are still hanging around.
Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, and her team looked at air samples taken every 12 days since 1990 by the Environmental Protection Agency around the Great Lakes region, which measure the atmospheric concentration of hundreds of compounds, including pesticides, PCBs, and other persistent chemicals.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/some-banned-pesticides-fade-from-great-lakes-air-while-others-persist/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Daniel Schoenherr, Great Lakes Echo
The ecological success of artificial reefs in Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay could teach people how to restore fish populations across the world.
Ellen Marsden, a fisheries and wildlife expert from the University of Vermont, spearheaded the construction of 29 reefs built with small stones – cobble aggregate – in Thunder Bay in 2010.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/artificial-reefs-bring-wild-lake-trout-to-lake-huron/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/mapping-the-great-lakes-benefits-of-blue-spaces/
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
Cook County, Illinois, contributes more to smog pollution violations in other states than anywhere else in the country, according to federal data.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/energy-news-roundup-power-outages-in-michigan-future-of-nuclear-power-in-illinois/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/i-speak-for-the-fish-playing-follow-the-leader-with-diving-ducks/
Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/nibi-chronicles-celebrating-one-familys-knack-for-finding-ancient-stone-tools/
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/2023/03/pfas-news-roundup-all-fish-tested-from-michigan-rivers-contain-forever-chemicals-study-finds/
It’s a mistake, environmental law attorney Nick Leonard says, for Michigan to invest so heavily in private auto transportation in place of public transit options.
Leonard was referring to the billions of dollars in subsidies Michigan has recently budgeted primarily for electric vehicle (EV) production. Investment in public transit better serves lower income groups who don’t have resources to purchase EV’s and it’s the better option to deal with climate change, according to Leonard.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/environmental-justice-expert-questions-michigans-subsidies-electric-vehicles/
By Michael Phillis and Matthew Daly, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed the first federal limits on harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water, a long-awaited protection the agency said will save thousands of lives and prevent serious illnesses, including cancer.
The plan would limit toxic PFAS chemicals to the lowest level that tests can detect.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/ap-epa-limit-toxic-forever-chemicals-drinking-water/
By Tom Krishner, AP Auto Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — The No. 66 bus is packed on a recent weekday afternoon as it starts and stops its way from Chicago’s near west side to Navy Pier along the Lake Michigan shore.
The seats and windows squeak and rattle just like a regular diesel bus, but no one seems to notice the high-pitched whine of the electric motor that makes it go.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/ap-adapting-electric-buses-winter-challenge/
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.
On that September day in 1998, more than 1,000 rain-soaked and determined people stood up for what they felt was right.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/great-lakes-moment-the-event-that-saved-humbug-marsh/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, Great Lakes Echo
The city of Detroit and a nonprofit agency recently added 1,125 gallons of water per person per month to a program that prevents water shut-offs in low-income households.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/detroiters-can-get-another-1125-gallons-of-water-under-discount-program/
Science Says What? is a monthly column written by Great Lakes now contributor Sharon Oosthoek exploring what science can tell us about what’s happening beneath and above the waves of our beloved Great Lakes and their watershed.
As spring comes to Saginaw Bay, a group of elementary school students are preparing to play an important role in a long-term scientific study.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/science-says-what-how-5th-graders-counting-plants-can-lead-to-positive-change/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Ironton’s fate seems particularly cruel.
The 191-foot (58-meter) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/ap-long-lost-ship-found-in-lake-huron/
In the spirit of rehabbing my relationship with Midwest winters, it was high time I found recreation to keep me outside and moving.
After a summer of hiking, off-roading and even eFoiling I was in dire need of some fresh air adventure, but didn’t know where to start.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/ian-outside-lets-go-ice-climbing/
Science Says What? is a monthly column written by Great Lakes now contributor Sharon Oosthoek exploring what science can tell us about what’s happening beneath and above the waves of our beloved Great Lakes and their watershed.
Microplastic pollution has been building up in the Great Lakes since at least the 1970s.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/science-says-what-how-worried-should-we-be-about-microplastic-pollution/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/i-speak-for-the-fish-courting-sunfish/
In 2014, Detroit and Michigan received international attention on a water issue, but it wasn’t the spotlight either would have wanted.
The United Nations dispatched an official human rights rapporteur to Detroit to document the harm caused by water shutoffs based on the inability to pay. “There was no water for food or toilets or for care of the elderly or kids, people had to go to public parks and put water in cans,” water rights advocate Maude Barlow told Great Lakes Now in a 2022 interview.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/hope-springs-eternal-for-michigan-legislator-who-champions-drinking-water-equity/
Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/nibi-chronicles-standing-strong-with-mushers-on-the-north-shore-of-lake-superior/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
This story is part of a Great Lakes News Collaborative series investigating the region’s water pollution challenges. Called Refresh, the series explores the Clean Water Act’s shortcomings in the Great Lakes, and how the region can more completely address water pollution in the next 50 years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/for-ann-arbor-water-managers-ongoing-battle-to-keep-toxic-chemicals-at-bay/
By Tara Copp, Associated Press
BRUSSELS (AP) — The first U.S. missile fired at an unidentified aerial object over Lake Huron missed the target and “landed harmlessly” in the water before a second one successfully hit, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday.
The acknowledgment of the errant missile by Gen.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/ap-1st-missile-strike-aerial-object-over-lake-huron-missed/
Lake sturgeon, one of the largest and oldest species of fish in the Great Lakes, are in more trouble than we thought.
In December, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature downgraded its status from Least Concern to Endangered based on shrinking populations over the past three generations, which is between 250 and 300 years for this long-lived fish.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/lake-sturgeon-added-to-endangered-list-but-things-are-looking-up/
By Colleen Long, Lolita C. Baldor and Zeke Miller, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday ordered an “unidentified object” shot down with a missile by U.S. fighter jets Sunday over Lake Huron, and it was believed to be the same one tracked over Montana and monitored by the government beginning the night before, U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/ap-unidentified-object-downed-over-lake-huron/
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
Three Chicago-area oil refineries are among U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/energy-news-roundup-minnesota-2040-carbon-free-energy-bill-coal-ash-crackdown/
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.
A good example of community science in metropolitan Detroit is the Rockwood Christmas Bird Count, which is part of the longest-running community science survey in the world.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/great-lakes-moment-community-science-survey/
This is the second story in a series of reports from the Great Lakes News Collaborative that will investigate contemporary water pollution challenges in the Great Lakes region. Called Refresh, the series will explore the shortcomings in the Clean Water Act and how Michigan and other Great Lakes states can more completely address water pollution in the next 50 years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/smart-sewers-systems-wastewater-officials-energy-funds/
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/2023/02/lakes-michigan-huron-pfas-tainted-smelt/
Editor’s Note: Look for coverage of Great Lakes recreation and adventure in this new monthly feature. The author, Ian Solomon, founded Amplify Outside, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access and representation by Black people in the outdoors, starting in the Great Lakes region. Find more about him HERE.
As the age old saying goes, “you never know what you have until it’s gone.” And while winter is technically here, the season we knew as children seems long gone.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/ian-outside-winning-winter/
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/2023/01/michigan-plastics-company-probe-pfas-contamination/
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
ComEd says that’s the cost of bolstering the region’s electric grid in a statewide effort to phase out carbon emissions and to protect the system from severe weather damage that’s becoming more common due to climate change.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/energy-news-roundup-gas-stove-debate-electric-vehicle-expansion/
If you want to peg the date when humans began the trek to modernity facilitated by a relationship to water, start 10,000 years ago, says Giulio Boccaletti, author of Water: A Biography. That’s when nomads became settlers, began farming and their existence started to depend on rivers and streams.
The book continues through the millennia to modern times when America constructed the Hoover Dam and created the Tennessee Valley Authority which Boccaletti says “became a model for the world.”
Boccaletti is a scientist and an honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at University of Oxford.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/book-chronicles-human-water-connection-from-nomadic-to-modern-times/
Science Says What? is a monthly column written by Great Lakes now contributor Sharon Oosthoek exploring what science can tell us about what’s happening beneath and above the waves of our beloved Great Lakes and their watershed.
The Great Lakes contain a whopping 5,500 cubic miles of freshwater, making them one of largest sources of freshwater in the world – large enough in fact to influence the region’s weather which impacts the 40 million people living around the lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/science-says-what-climate-change-deluges-snow-days/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/mapping-great-lakes-snowfall-snowbelt/
Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/nibi-chronicles-trees-of-our-homeland/
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/2023/01/pfas-news-roundup-requirements-2023-protect-consumers-forever-chemicals/
My survey was admittedly small.
I polled one 10-year-old and 30 adults ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-50s. I had a fairly even representation of genders and races. About half were on a college campus, the other half I approached on a public boardwalk.
I limited my poll to one person per social cluster to prevent parroting of the same responses.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/i-speak-for-the-fish-and-the-survey-says/
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
A project that combines energy efficiency, solar power and electrification is part of developer A.J.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/energy-news-roundup-programs-provide-solar-low-income-illinois-ohio/
By Lee Chilcote, The Land
This story is part of a collaborative series, from the Institute for Nonprofit News, The Land and four other news partners, examining climate resilience across the Great Lakes. This reporting was made possible with support from the Joyce Foundation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/circular-economy-programs-reduce-waste-build-jobs/
By Nina Ignaczak, Planet Detroit
This story is part of a collaborative series from the Institute for Nonprofit News, Planet Detroit, Tostada Magazine, Energy News Network, The Land, and Borderless Magazine examining climate resilience across the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/detroit-restaurants-tackling-climate-change-kitchen/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Great Lakes have endured a lot the past century, from supersized algae blobs to invasive mussels and bloodsucking sea lamprey that nearly wiped out fish populations.
Now, another danger: They — and other big lakes around the world — might be getting more acidic, which could make them less hospitable for some fish and plants.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/ap-atmospheric-carbon-lakes-more-acidic/
By John Flesher, AP Environmental Writer
A large plume of toxic chemicals produced by a plant that manufactures firefighting foam has seeped through groundwater to Lake Michigan’s Green Bay, scientists said Tuesday.
The chemicals belong to a family of compounds known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are used widely in consumer products ranging from nonstick cookware and water-repellent sports gear to stain-resistent carpets.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/ap-pfas-chemical-plume-detected-green-bay/
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.
Have you ever gone for a peaceful walk along a creek or lake and been spooked by the sound of what you think is a pterodactyl?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/great-lakes-moment-great-blue-herons-stony-island/
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/2023/01/pfas-news-roundup-3m-stop-forever-chemicals-2025-global-problem-remains/
In “Shrinking Winter,” scientists work to understand the causes and potential effects of less ice cover on the Great Lakes, a documentary photographer and three longtime ice anglers reflect on changes to the winter fishing season, and a competitive speed skater reflects on the joys of “wild ice.”
This episode originally aired in February and was one of the team’s favorites this year, so we brought it back around for the holiday season with updates.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/shrinking-winter-update-ice-coverage-great-lakes-life/
By Michael Phillis, Associated Press
President Joe Biden signed a large defense bill on Friday that includes a water bill that directs the Army Corps of Engineers on major infrastructure projects to improve navigation and protect against storms worsened by climate change.
The biggest project by far this year is a $34 billion Texas coastal barrier featuring massive floodgates and other structures to protect the Houston region with its concentration of oil refineries and chemical plants, at risk during major hurricanes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/ap-bidens-signature-advances-major-projects-water-bill/
Since 2020 when Democrats swept into power by winning the presidency and taking control of both chambers of Congress, Great Lakes programs have had a tailwind of funding support from Washington.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided a $1 billion windfall for the region to accelerate clean up of the multiple toxic sites known as Areas of Concern that remain from the peak industrial period in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/smooth-sailing-or-choppy-waters-for-great-lakes-programs/
