Echo

Wisconsin joins legal battle to stop spread of giant carp

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Wisconsin has entered the multi-state battle against Illinois and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in support of Michigan’s recent motion to force the state of Illinois and the federal government to shut down a couple of navigational locks that provide an artificial link between Lake Michigan and the adjacent carp-infested waters of the Mississippi River basin. More

Echo

PCBs: No laws were broken

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(WI) Green Bay Post Gazette – The recent decision by U.S. District Judge William Griesbach to throw out a lawsuit by area paper companies is just another travesty in the PCB Fox River saga. To place the cost on the paper mills alone is wrong. When PCBs were discharged in the river as a byproduct of carbonless paper manufacturing, it was a legal thing to do. Years later, after the federal government banned the use of PCBs in 1977, the government steps in and is forcing companies to clean up a problem that was created by what was legal at that time. That does not make any sense.

Echo

Holiday treat musseled out

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(WI) Miwaukee Journal Sentinel – A tasty little fish traditionally smoked and spread on crackers during the holidays has disappeared from Lake Michigan to the point that it’s scarcely available in area fish markets this New Year’s Eve. “It would be very, very disappointing if we couldn’t have chubs anymore,” said Sally Huber, 66, of Cudahy, who nearly gave up on her family’s holiday tradition of shrimp and smoked chubs after calling several stores and finding no chubs. More

Echo

Down river pollutants hurt chances for harbor dredging funds

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press – Hopes to get $1 million or more for dredging have been washed away because Kalamazoo Harbor is at the wrong end of the river, a Superfund cleanup site. Mark Bekken, a member of the harbor’s master plan committee, told Saugatuck’s City Council that that a consulting firm has advised that it probably won’t get any funding because the harbor is downstream from pollutants at Kalamazoo. More

Echo

A hole in the St. Clair River

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – The so-called hole in the St. Clair River, which carries water from Lake Huron down into Lake St. Clair, is definitely big enough to merit filling, although the fix would surely be more technologically sophisticated than that. Nonetheless, the recommendation of a study group — that their findings be incorporated into a much larger study of the lakes — is probably sound. The St.

Echo

4 Wisconsin anglers busted on Upper Red Lake

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – It was, in the end, just a fish story. A pretty big one, though. Four guys from Wisconsin were fishing on Upper Red Lake on Dec. 23 when a state conservation officer stopped by to check on their catch. They had a dozen walleyes in their two fish houses, four under the legal limit.

Waste

Lansing on ‘precipice’ of single-stream recycling

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(MI) Lansing State Journal – Lansing’s curbside recycling dropped in 2009, but the city’s attempt to collect recyclables should become more efficient, convenient and bountiful in 2010, officials say. After introducing plans more than a year ago to start single-stream recycling, which minimizes the need for separating materials, Lansing plans to debut key aspects of its program next summer. More

Echo

Crestwood residents still waiting for report on town’s cancer rates

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Six months after state health officials declared their investigation of cancer rates in south suburban Crestwood was almost complete, they have yet to release the results. The Illinois Department of Public Health, which earlier had failed to notify Crestwood residents their municipal water supply was contaminated with toxic chemicals, declined to answer questions about the cancer study. The agency also has rejected the Tribune’s requests for cancer data filed under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. More

Echo

Wis. man sentenced in UP wolf poaching

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(MI) The Detroit News – A Wisconsin man who poached a wolf in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula must pay more than $25,000 in fines and perform 20 days community service. Judge C. Joseph Schwedler on Monday also sentenced 37-year-old Stephen Popp Jr. of Green Bay to six months’ probation and banned him from hunting for two years. WLUC-TV says Popp’s community service will be performed in Green bay in lieu of serving 10 days in jail. More

Water

Dam removal ready — on paper

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(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – Local officials approved plans to remove three former hydroelectric dams on the river — Brown Bridge Dam owned by Traverse City, and Sabin and Boardman dams owned by Grand Traverse County. The decisions came early this year after a multi-year public study by the Boardman River Dams Committee wrapped at the end of 2008. The committee offered two primary and opposing recommendations that paralleled community opinions: Some wanted the dams removed and touted a free-flowing river with improved fishery and recreational opportunities, while others wanted the structures left intact to preserve water impoundments and perhaps return the dams to use as power generators. More