U.N. Climate Conference: Michigan’s role at the U.N.’s COP26 and in the U.S.’s climate future
“The take home is always, always, always water,” Liesl Clark, director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, said during a preview of the United Nations COP26 event.
Lighthouse to allow visitors again for Fitzgerald memorial
A Lake Superior lighthouse plans to welcome visitors back for an annual memorial honoring the sailors who died when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.
Drinking Water News Roundup: Second US Steel spill, new water purification method, Pennsylvania water treatment plant flood
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.
Biden appoints Debra Shore to lead EPA Midwestern office
President Joe Biden on Tuesday appointed Debra Shore, a wastewater treatment official in Chicago, to direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Midwestern office.
PFAS News Roundup: Michigan works on transparency, 3M could cost the Minnesota public billions, study recruitment in Michigan
Catch the latest updates on what’s happening with PFAS in Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
A record number of mussel-fouled watercraft have been intercepted at state inspection stations this summer
It’s been kind of a half empty, half full aquatic invasive species (AIS) inspection effort this summer in Montana. There has been less watercraft inspected but a record number of mussel-fouled watercraft discovered. That’s not good but the fact that inspectors found them is good.
Will taxpayers bear the cost of cleaning up America’s abandoned oil wells?
Oil and gas companies have a century-old bad habit of drilling wells and ditching them. And while Congress finally has a plan to plug some abandoned wells, new proposals effectively pass the fossil fuel industry’s cleanup costs on to taxpayers and may even enable more drilling.
Indigenous leaders face barriers to UN climate conference
Indigenous leaders are largely being excluded from participation in the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference as the world grapples with escalating problems from floods, fires, heat, drought and other disasters.
‘Something has to be done’: Living along Madison’s Starkweather Creek, one of Wisconsin’s most polluted waterways.
In 2019, Wisconsin’s Starkweather Creek contained higher levels of PFOA and PFOS — two more scrutinized types of PFAS — than any other waters the Department of Natural Resources tested that year. At the creek’s Fair Oaks Avenue crossing, the DNR detected levels of PFOS at 270 parts per trillion and PFOA at 43 ppt.
In Benton Harbor, residents’ complaints of lead-tainted water carry echoes
Dangerously high lead levels have appeared in water tests in this low-income, majority Black community since 2018. Residents and activists say they fear the problem dates back longer, with Flint’s crisis as a backdrop.
Q&A: Doctor who exposed Flint’s lead levels sees similarities in Benton Harbor water crisis
Great Lakes Now talked to Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha about lead, Flint and Benton Harbor.
Missed Acid Delivery at Root of Midwest Plant Iron Discharge: US Steel Correspondence
In a document sent to the state, U.S. Steel Corp. said a chain of events kicked off by a missed acid delivery to its Midwest Plant in Portage led to a large discharge of iron into a nearby waterway in late September.