Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/category/water/)
Includes water quality, quantity and use.
As anyone who lives in Michigan knows, March and April are the wet months. But like so many things that Anyone knows, this is only about half true. The amount of precipitation (the water in rain and snow) doesn’t change much from month to month in Michigan.
How the shape of the Great Lakes now compares with their past is important as negotiators update the consent decree addressing commercial and recreational fishing interests in waters covered by an 1836 treaty. The deadline is at the end of June, the third such decree covering these contentious waters. The most recent one in 2000 was for 20 years, and it’s overdue for an update.
Michigan watersheds are still wracked with pollution from decades ago, along with new runoff. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan would make preserving land and water a statewide priority.
While forests are known to enhance the water quality of nearby watersheds, oftentimes people don’t recognize forests’ role in providing clean drinking water, according to a new study from Michigan State University. The research was conducted at three watersheds in Michigan: the heavily urbanized Detroit River Watershed, the less populated and heavily forested Au Sable River Watershed and the more populated agricultural, forested and urban Lower Grand River Watershed.
“Glenn’s Island” in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh was formed of sludge illegally discharged from the nearby Aspinwall Drinking Water Plant. And some plant employees nicknamed it for retired supervisor Glenn Lijewski, who is awaiting sentencing for conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act.
Michigan Sea Grant recently announced four new research projects with one common goal — protecting the Great Lakes. It committed almost $1 million to the projects, including $225,000 from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. In addition, university research partners contributed over $500,000 in matching funds. Their major topics are water use, walleye, invasive mussel larvae and harmful algae blooms.
As the megadrought in the Western U.S. worsens, calls for freshwater diversions from the Great Lakes to the West have grown increasingly popular. Water diversion from the Great Lakes harms not only the ecosystem, but also the cultural significance of water, according to Michigan environmental policy expert.
The Great Lakes Water Authority plans to increase the ability of its water and wastewater systems to cope with flooding and other severe weather conditions under a capital improvement plan to be carried out over five years. The investment will consist of 182 projects from 2023 to 2027 in the region at a cost of approximately $1.73 billion.
A new book explores the interconnected layers of the Great Lakes, from the leadership of local native tribes to the concerning intensity of resource extraction. The book took several years to write to fully and accurately capture a cohesive picture of the Great Lakes and their histories.
Even as community water systems are praised by the state for maintaining fluoride levels, others are still holding out.
Michigan residents would pay 3 to 6 cents more for a bottle of water under a plan to sustain Great Lakes water improvements.
