Ohio lawmakers could override veto of Great Lakes water use bill

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The Toledo Blade reports today that Ohio lawmakers could override the governor’s veto of a bill establishing the Great Lakes region’s weakest water protections. Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed the hotly contested bill earlier this month. House Speaker Bill Batchelder told the Blade that nothing’s off the table, and that he wasn’t sure how to move forward in drafting legislation that would comply with the 2008 regional compact to protect the Great Lakes. Two former Ohio governors and environmental groups opposed the bill on grounds that it failed to meet the compact’s scientific requirements and protect Lake Erie from large water withdrawals. It would take 60 votes in the House and 20 in the Senate to override the governor’s veto; there was enough original support for the bill in both chambers for this happen, according to the story.

Echo

New multimedia report shows Chicago-Wyoming coal connection

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Chicago teen Luis Vega organized a march to protest pollution from the Fisk Generation Station.

His story is part of a multi-media report documenting the impact of the nation’s dependency on coal power.

The report also shows how states swap air pollution and the connection between Wyoming’s coal mines and Chicago’s citizens.

Chicago named most walkable city in the Great Lakes region

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Chicago is the most walkable of Great Lakes cities with a population of at least 75,000. This is according to a ranking system by the website Walk Score. The top 10 Great Lakes contenders among cities of that size, with their national rank in parentheses, are:

Chicago, Ill. (11)

Minneapolis, Minn. (24)

Cicero, Ill.

Echo

The Kalamazoo oil spill: One year later

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Today, a year after the oil spill on the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan, it still poses a major cleanup challenge, the Associated Press reports. Enbridge Inc., the owner of the pipeline that caused the 800,000-gallon oil spill, has an Aug. 31 deadline given by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the oil. But the oil footprint is larger than anticipated and many pockets of oil may not have been identified.  Regulators told the Associated Press that this could mean the cleanup may continue for a couple of years.

Limits to ballast rules fail in court; lawmakers debate similar action

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Attempts to limit state authority over ballast water rules fell flat last Friday, but the legal tug-of-war continues this week as lawmakers consider the nation’s environmental spending. Last week’s decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit supported states in regulating water used in balancing shipping vessels more strongly than federal rules. This week the U.S. House of Representatives votes on a spending bill that includes an amendment penalizing states with stronger protections by withholding Environmental Protection Agency funding of any kind. That means states like New York, which have strong ballast water rules, would lose Great Lakes restoration funding, according the Natural Resources Defense Council. Ballast water containing invasive species has had devastating impacts on the Great Lakes and inland waterway systems, said Thom Cmar, an attorney with the council’s Chicago office.