Echo

Federal agency proposes to study urine and blood of residents to evaluate effectiveness of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

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By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 26, 2009

Editor’s note: This story is part of an occasional series on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
With more than 100 projects vying for a piece of the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, taxpayers may wonder:  Are they worth it? At least one agency is poised to find out if restoration projects will lower pollutants in people. Eighteen of the proposals in the initiative to clean or protect the Great Lakes address contaminants.  The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry intends to monitor some of those projects by checking for contaminants in Great Lakes residents’ blood and urine.  The goal is to analyze them before cleanup and then several years later, said Steve Dearwent, the chief of health investigations in the agency’s division of health studies.

Echo

Sanctuary’s new plan unveiled

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(MI) The Alpena News – Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council members were among the first to get a look at the sanctuary’s final management plan during its official release on Tuesday. Copies of the document were distributed during the council’s Tuesday evening meeting. The printed version is 42 pages and represents a culmination of nearly three years of work. More

Echo

Going up and diving down: Exploring the Great Lakes with blimps and subs

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By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 21, 2009

A marshmallow blimp and a yellow submarine are gearing up to explore the Great Lakes from above and below. The SkySentry Aerostat — an unmanned blimp designed for military use — wouldn’t be out of place advertising a used car clearance sale, Michael Scott writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Instead, officials are testing the big white blimp’s ability to collect imagery of Lake Erie algae blooms that turn the lake’s shallow western waters green and suffocate fish. Check the Plain Dealer’s story for video and a slide show.

Echo

New federal funding proposal could help kill exotic organisms in the ballast of Great Lakes ships

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Editors note: This story is part of an occasional series of Echo reports on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 20, 2009

Preventing shipborne organisms from damaging the Great Lakes ecosystem is one target of the Obama Administration’s $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Ships carry ballast water to make them more stable as their cargo is offloaded. When they take on more cargo, they flush the ballast back into the lake or ocean.  That water can carry from foreign ports plants and animals that compete with native organisms for habitat and food.

Land

Great Lakes cities not so walkable; rate your own community with this widget

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Find out your home’s Walk Score:

By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
August 19, 2009
Great Lakes Echo

Despite rising gas prices and growing concern over greenhouse gases, many Great Lakes residents find it difficult to leave their cars at home. The Web site www.walkscore.com ranked the walkability of 40 large cities across the United States. Of the five Great Lakes cities that were examined, only Chicago made the top ten. So what makes a city walkable? Dan Burden says a walkable community is “built around the human foot.”  He founded Walkable Communities Inc. and has worked with cities nationwide to identify trouble and encourage pedestrian-oriented development.  Burden is also on the board of advisers for Walkscore.com.

Echo

Great Lakes watchers anxious to fill EPA post that’s key to restoration initiative

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 14, 2009

Great Lakes officials are anxious for the Obama Administration to appoint the region’s top Environmental Protection Agency administrator. “The appointment is always important, but for (the Great Lakes states), right now it’s absolutely critical,” said Andy Buchsbaum, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes region. “For the first time in history, we could get millions and millions of dollars from Congress, and the administrator is important to making sure the money is spent well.”

The Chicago-based Region 5 administrator is responsible for the Great Lakes program under the Clean Water Act. Region 5 includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Echo

Phytofilters: Turning brownfields green

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By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 13, 2009

Some Great Lakes brownfields will turn green if Congress passes a $475 million restoration package. Literally. The U.S. Forest Service seeks $2 million of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to transform  unusable industrial lots into parks and trailways – and clean up some contaminants in the process. While the forest service has  long restored natural vegetation and has an urban forestry division, this will be its first foray into phytoremediation, said Steven Davis, a watershed specialist with the forest service’s Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry division.