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/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Public Service Commission has some authority over Enbridge’s plans to build an oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel that connects two of the Great Lakes, a state administrative law judge ruled Friday.
The agency can evaluate the need for the project and whether it would be designed, constructed and operated safely, Judge Dennis W.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-judge-michigan-line-5-tunnel-plan/
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 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/
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/
BEULAH, Mich. (AP) — Small town, big mess.
Baby wipes clogged the wastewater system in Beulah in northern Michigan, causing a backup of 10,000 gallons of human waste from a manhole, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
The spill was on the grounds of the village’s wastewater treatment plant.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-wipes-flushed-big-waste-spill-michigan-small-town/
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/
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/
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/
After nearly a century of generating hydroelectric power on the St. Regis River in upstate New York, the Hogansburg Dam came down in December 2016. Fish who could now swim freely along the river weren’t the only ones celebrating. The end of the dam also marked the first time a tribal nation led the decommissioning process for a federal dam.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/dams-great-lakes-aging-infrastructure/
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-news-landfills-wisconsin-action-plan-congress/
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/house-democrats-cdc-halt-water-shutoffs-pandemic/
BELMONT, Mich. (AP) — A woman who was honored by the federal government for her environmental activism in western Michigan has been diagnosed with cancer.
Sandy Wynn-Stelt told WOOD-TV that her thyroid and lymph nodes were removed last week. She has lived for more than 30 years across from a Kent County site where Wolverine Worldwide dumped PFAS-tainted sludge.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-michigan-pfas-activist-cancer/
All that remained of the schooner was a bit of its hull – a tightly-packed row of wooden planks stretching 40 feet across the bottom of Lake Huron. Sunbeams easily penetrated the 20 feet of clear lake water above the wreck.
The site appeared lifeless.
There were no schools of emerald shiners, black-striped minnows or yellow perch in sight.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/shipwreck-ecosystem-fish-great-lakes-species/
In June 2017, when President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords, three states had an immediate reaction and plan.
New York, California and Washington announced formation of the United States Climate Alliance calling it a “coalition that will convene U.S. states committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement and taking aggressive action on climate change.”
With that action, New York led Great Lakes states in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, establish clean energy plans and fund initiatives to meet carbon reduction goals.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/great-lakes-states-climate-change-carbon/
Lake Erie’s Western Basin didn’t do well on its first big test: a report card produced by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
The report card gave it a mediocre score, an overall C+, based on a various factors regarding the lake’s condition. The watershed surrounding western Lake Erie scored a C.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/western-lake-erie-mediocre-score-report-card/
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/explainer-regulates-drinking-water/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
If the Detroit River and western Lake Erie were patients undergoing their annual exam, a doctor would probably say, “I have good news and bad news about their health.”
The good news is that there are signs of improving ecosystem health including the return of creatures like bald eagles, peregrine falcons, osprey, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish and beaver.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/state-of-the-strait-2020-detroit-river-western-lake-erie/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Power company plans to shutter coal plants in Illinois and Ohio; upgrading of East Lansing water treatment plan will save on energy costs; and Wisconsin receives poor grades for both energy and water infrastructure.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/great-lakes-energy-illinois-coal-michigan-upgrade-wisconsin-infrastructure/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a $500 million plan Thursday to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in Michigan that includes actions such as replacing lead service lines and removing chemical pollutants.
The initiative, dubbed MI Clean Water, calls for creating a pot of money from which local governments could apply for grants or loans to improve their water treatment systems.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-whitmer-michigan-500-million-water-infrastructure-plan/
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Drownings in Lake Michigan have reached record levels with at least 53 people dead so far this year, according to a water safety advocacy group.
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a nonprofit that tracks Great Lakes drownings, said that compares with 48 drownings in 2019 and 42 in 2018.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-lake-michigan-drownings-new-high-2020/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Legislature on Tuesday finalized a bill that would lengthen the financing period of lake projects in the wake of flooding that damaged dams and drained lakes in the Midland area.
The legislation would extend, from 10 years to 40 years, the maximum maturity date of bonds issued to pay for inland lake-level control projects across the state.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-bill-lengthen-bonds-dam-repairs/
The Flint water crisis that made national and international headlines was a failure on many levels, according to University of Chicago Professor Sabina Shaikh.
Particularly, it was a public policy failure, Shaikh told Great Lakes Now in an interview, and the failure in Flint put a spotlight on environmental injustices.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/policy-expert-advocating-elected-officials-safe-drinking-water/
An array of more than 80 marine-debris-turned-art works will be making another Great Lakes stop, adding a lake sturgeon sculpture when it’s installed at a Wisconsin site next year.
Made entirely of plastic trash, these larger-than-life figures have realistic designs. They come as part of the traveling exhibit, Washed Ashore, which aims to educate people about plastic pollution.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/trash-fish-marine-debris-sculptures-great-lakes-aquariums-museums/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge’s plans for drilling an oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes do not meet industry standards and pose significant hazards to workers and the environment, experts who reviewed project documents on behalf of opposition groups told The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-opposition-criticizes-enbridge-plans-line-5-tunnel/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio
The Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Energy has been eager to show news media its new Enbridge Straits Maritime Operations Center in Mackinaw City. Its purpose is to try to prevent another anchor strike or other damage to Line 5, the dual pipelines carrying oil and natural gas liquids.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/enbridge-inspects-freighters-anchor-strike-line-5/
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/09/28/cutting-edge-heating-and-cooling-technology-21st-century-style-returns-to-state-capitol/
Sandy Wynn-Stelt, a resident of Belmont, Michigan, known for her fight against Wolverine World Wide and PFAS, earned the 2020 Citizen Excellence in Community Involvement Award from the U.S. EPA.
Wynn-Stelt is featured in Great Lakes Now’s documentary, “The Forever Chemicals,” which brought audiences the story of her journey as she discovered the extent of the PFAS contamination in her private well and in her community.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/citizen-excellence-sandy-wynn-stelt-receives-epa-award-for-efforts-to-combat-pfas/
By Jane Johnston, Circle of Blue
ALMA — Murray Borrello, wearing khakis and a loose-fitting brown button-up, walked down a backroad during the summer of 2019 listening to the sounds of the woods. Water from the Pine River flowed slowly beneath him as he looked out over a bridge.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/michigan-county-cafos-agriculture-water-pollution/
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/2020/09/pfas-news-roundup-pfas-puts-pregnancies-at-risk-nestle-and-la-croix-among-waters-with-elevated-pfas/
YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Eastern Michigan University will test campus wastewater for the COVID-19 virus and other signs of infectious diseases.
The testing, part of the school’s return-to-campus plan, is intended to track the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater flowing from residence halls and apartment complexes.
The monitoring might provide early detection of asymptomatic cases of the virus, according to the school.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-emu-campus-wastewater-covid-19/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gray wolves that were taken to Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park to rebuild its nearly extinct population are forming social groups, staking out territory and apparently mating — promising signs despite heavy losses from natural causes and deadly fights, scientists said Monday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/isle-royale-wolves-moose-herd/
It’s convenient to think of fixing a problem and it’s done. But that doesn’t apply to the long-neglected legacy polluted sites in the Great Lakes region.
In simple terms we think of a cleanup as removal of something that, left unattended, will become a nuisance or a problem.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/toxic-great-lakes-sites-capping-dredging/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Wisconsin Public Service Commission extends utility shutoff moratorium, ruling that could undo Lake Erie wind farm project stands, and PolyMet copper-nickel mine gets critical legal win in Minnesota.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/great-lakes-energy-mining-utility-line-5-lake-erie/
When Great Lakes Now Host Ward Detwiler isn’t introducing PBS audiences to the joys and troubles of the Great Lakes on our monthly program, he’s busy running a software company that’s revolutionizing MRI technology.
That work recently landed him on DBusiness Magazine‘s 2020 “30 in Their Thirties” list.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/dbusiness-crains-list-ward-detwiler/
By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
This story is the first in a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from the Park Foundation and Water Foundation.
Once a week, Florencia Ramos makes a special trip to the R–N Market in Lindsay, California.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/drinking-unsafe-water-contaminants-solutions/
EDENVILLE, Mich. (AP) — Residents who lost their lakes when dams collapsed in mid-Michigan could be getting expensive long-term bills to restore them.
People near Wixom and Sanford lakes in Midland and Gladwin counties could pay thousands of dollars per year for 40 years, if that duration is allowed by the state, the Four Lakes Task Force said Thursday during an online meeting.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-residents-midland-dams-paying-for-years/
By Elena Bruess, Circle of Blue
At the shoreline, between lake and land, Melissa Wiatrolik reflects on those who were here before Michigan became Michigan. She had been raised in a community that honored the dead, that understood that their ancestors were always present. As a child, she had watched her own family clean the gravestones of those before her.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/michigan-rising-lake-levels-sacred-ground/
Following the Midland dam failures in May, a special task force was set up to evaluate Michigan’s dam safety rules and regulations. The task force had its first meeting virtually on Tuesday.
Learn more about the task force in Michigan Radio’s report here.
Read more about Midland and dams on Great Lakes Now:
Dam Investment: How does Michigan stack up against Great Lakes peers?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/michigan-dam-safety-task-force/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge said Wednesday it will fully resume operation of a Michigan Great Lakes oil pipeline after a partial shutdown this summer because of damage to a support structure.
Circuit Judge James Jamo signed an order allowing the Canadian company to restore the flow through one of its Line 5 pipes beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-judge-line-5-great-lakes-pipeline/
By Kelly House, Bridge, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Enbridge Energy had already won the blessing from Michigan’s Republican Legislature to build a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to keep oil flowing through Line 5, and survived a legal challenge that sought to unravel that plan.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/enbridge-line-5-permit-michigan-critics/
By Enrique Saenz, Indiana Environmental Reporter
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in the Midwest is refuting the findings of an internal investigation that found that a lack of record-keeping controls and standard operating procedures could be preventing it from fulfilling federal record-keeping responsibilities.
The EPA’s Office of Inspector General found that Region 5, which oversees EPA activities in Indiana and five other states, could not verify whether employees were using the agency’s official record-keeping system, preserving records for litigation holds and agency use, or knew how to report and investigate a suspected loss of records.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/epa-region-5-internal-watchdog-report-record-keeping/
