Recreation

Leaves, leaks and lots of signs

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – What does it take to get Michigan’s state parks up and running for summer visitors each year? Although the parks generally stay open all year, many buildings are closed and staff is reduced over the winter. Here’s a look behind the scenes at some of the springtime work.We not only have the usual campground/day use area building openings, hiring or rehiring of about 40 employees, train/update staff on recent policy/law changes, and the numerous grounds maintenance tasks left from the residue of winter, but there also are a couple unique areas as well. More

Echo

Michigan-made windspires designed for homeowners

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By Gabriel Goodwin
Capital News Service

MasTech Manufacturing L.L.C. and Mariah Power have come together, in Manistee, to produce windspires allowing Michigan to move closer to Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s renewable energy goals. Mariah Power is spending $2 million to buy steel for the windspire production and hire 140 workers over the next three years, while MasTech is investing $1.5 million into the manufacturing site to update and retrofit equipment. Granholm said, “If you can make a part for a car, if you can bend steel for a car, you can bend steel for a wind turbine or you can make a solar panel. “Demand for wind-energy products will continue to grow as federal initiatives to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil advance.”

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation supported the project with a $400,000 grant. MEDC President Greg Main said, “The partnership between MasTech and Mariah Power demonstrates how we can put Michigan’s strong manufacturing infrastructure to new use making renewable energy products that are in high demand.”

MasTech chose Michigan over other states and foreign sites because of its experienced manufacturers who can apply advanced technology skills, Main said.

Water

Landmark Wisconsin diversion of Great Lakes water is both praised and blasted

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By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
May 22, 2009
A Great Lakes water diversion to replace a Wisconsin city’s radium-contaminated wells has been both hailed as a responsible application of new water use regulations and blasted as unwarranted and precipitous. New Berlin is the first city with residents outside of the Great Lakes basin to receive water under the latest version of the Great Lakes Compact, a federal agreement approved by bordering states and ratified by Congress in 2008. The diversion was approved Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Because New Berlin is both inside and outside of the basin — the land that drains to the Great Lakes – Wisconsin had sole discretion in approving the city’s application.  Cities completely outside the basin must receive approval from all the Great Lakes states. Under Wisconsin’s conservation standards, New Berlin will return all the water it withdraws from Lake Michigan and also contribute local water to the lake.  That net gain for Lake Michigan represents a successful application of the Great Lakes Compact, Andy Buchsbaum, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes region, said Friday.

Echo

Pall Life Sciences water cleanup proposals criticized

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(MI) Ann Arbor News – Critics charge that modifications to Pall Life Sciences’ long-running groundwater cleanup plan could endanger Ann Arbor’s drinking water. About 35 people turned out for a meeting Wednesday night of the Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane, when proposed modifications to the Scio Township company’s plan were discussed. Critics say changes to the plan will dramatically increase the amount of a possible carcinogen allowed to remain in area aquifers. More

Echo

Climate Bill Clears Hurdle, but Others Remain

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(NY) The New York Times – The House Energy and Commerce Committee, splitting largely along party lines, approved on Thursday the most ambitious energy and global warming legislation ever debated in Congress. The bill’s passage, on a 33-to-25 vote, served as a bookend to a week that began with President Obama’s announcing a deal with auto manufacturers to impose tough new mileage and emissions standards for all cars and trucks sold in the United States starting in 2012. More

Echo

Cleveland wants to use dry river muck to create an industrial park

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(OH) The Plain Dealer – Mounds of dried river muck would be dumped and leveled to help create a large industrial park in the Cuyahoga River valley, under a unique plan crafted by Cleveland officials. The city is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on an effort to scoop 500,000 cubic yards of dredged muck from dikes north of Burke Lakefront Airport. The dirt — enough to fill 154 Olympic-sized pools — could be taken to a valley west and south of Pershing Avenue and Interstate 77, officials say. More

Echo

Detroit light rail moves forward

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(MI) The Detroit News – Leaders of a $125 million light rail project said Thursday they have reached an agreement to collaborate with the city on a three-mile plan to link city riders in a local transit system. The privately funded M-1 Rail, an approximately 3.4 mile, 12-stop route from Hart Plaza to Grand Boulevard, would be the “first phase” of a Detroit Department of Transportation’s proposed $371 million project. That plan, the Detroit Transit Options for Growth, calls for a light rail to extend from Grand to Eight Mile, said Matthew Cullen, M-1 project president and CEO. More

Echo

Saving the Amsterdam Dunes

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(WI) Sheboygan Press – In the southeast corner of Sheboygan County sits 323 acres of rolling sand dunes, forest and wetlands representing one of the last major expanses of undeveloped – and unprotected – wilderness on the western shores of Lake Michigan. For years, developers have been eyeing the privately-owned site – known as Amsterdam Dunes – for homes, a convention center, marina and even a casino. But if county planners have their way, all but a fraction of the property will remain untouched. More

Land

Urban villages in Detroit’s future?

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – In a new vision of Detroit’s future, a team of visiting urban planners suggests the city might one day resemble the English countryside, with distinct urban villages surrounded by farms, fields and meadows. The idea may sound improbable, but Alan Mallach, a New Jersey-based planner who led the visiting team, said Detroit is evolving in that direction anyway, with large chunks of the city now largely abandoned. More

Energy

Mileage rules fuel drivers’ wants

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(MI) The Detroit News – The new fuel-efficiency and emission standards may lead to smaller cars with lighter engines. This is not what consumers prefer, auto analysts tell us. They may be right that Americans want big, cheap cars. They also want free gasoline, clean air and complementary cocktails in coach. Meanwhile, they don’t want to send their money to petro-financed terrorists.