Echo

PSA: Use the bathroom before you swim

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Throughout the summer Great Lakes Echo will feature an occasional series of public service announcements produced by Michigan’s Ottawa County Health Department  to promote clean beaches. This one reminds swimmers not to treat lakes like a bathroom. Though the card features a child with a dirty diaper, children aren’t the only cause of the problem. A recent survey from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that swimmers of all ages contribute to water contamination. Human waste in water can lead to recreational water illnesses, spread by contact with contaminated water in lakes, rivers, oceans and even chlorinated pools or hot tubs, according to the center.

Echo

Michigan’s recycling rate is lowest in Great Lakes region

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Michigan’s recycling rate is lowest in Great Lakes region by Great Lakes Echo

At 20 percent, Michigan’s recycling rate is 10 percent lower than the regional average.  Many people around the state are hoping to change that.  In 2012, Governor Rick Snyder identified increasing Michigan’s recycling rates as a priority for his administration.  Michigan Recycling Coalition executive director Kerrin O’Brien discusses what a comprehensive recycling plan might include. Also this past March, the Keep Michigan Wolves Protected coalition submitted some 255,000 signatures in a bid to overturn the law passed by the Michigan legislature that put wolves on the list of game species. The Senate

soon passed another law that essentially circumvented the petition.  Now, the group is trying again with a second referendum drive.  This time, the president of the Human Society of the United States was in Michigan earlier this week to lend his support.  We spoke with HSUS president Wayne Pacelle about the issue. This environmental segment of Current State is supported by Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.  For more news of the Great Lakes environment, you can check out GreatLakesEcho.org

 

Echo

Data Watch: Minnesota’s top priorities

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Nationwide, there are 1,320 final sites on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority List of waste sites that have released or can release hazardous contaminants. They are either awaiting or undergoing cleanup. Sites can be deleted from the list when “no further response is required to protect human health or the environment,” according to the EPA. Each site is scored through the Hazard Ranking System on a scale from 0-100. The higher the score, the greater threat they represent.

Echo

Lake Erie algae

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Persistent algae blooms are wreaking havoc on the annual $11.5 billion lake tourism industry. But state elected officials and government agencies are making headway with new tools to reduce nutrients from farms and cities that are causing the blooms.

An asset for Detroit’s recovery

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With Detroit’s economic woes in national headlines it is significant that some of the city’s assets are, well…liquid. Today, Great Lakes Echo and our partner, WKAR’s Current State public affairs program, launch a series of stories exploring the Detroit waterfront.  They are remarkable stories of recovery and promise. They include a push to “daylight” the city’s ghost waters and soften its shoreline. They describe some of the best fishing in the world and report on efforts to repair longtime damage to an industrial riverfront. These are important stories for a city struggling to remake itself.

Wildlife

Scientists across Michigan oppose legislation to limit biodiversity

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Scientists across Michigan oppose legislation to limit biodiversity by Great Lakes Echo

This past spring the Michigan Senate passed Bill 78, which prohibits state agencies from setting aside land to maintain biodiversity.  The bill has drawn strong criticism from various environmental groups. Dr. Brad Cardinale, a professor at the University Of Michigan School of Natural Resources, along with 133 other scientists from around the state, wrote a letter to Governor Snyder requesting he veto the legislation.