Echo
Groundwater war pits Wisconsin farms against fish
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Tensions have sprung up in Wisconsin over how to allocate finite water resources to many legitimate uses: municipal water supplies, industries, irrigation, private wells, lakes and streams.
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.
Echo
Saving the ‘endangered’ Little Plover River
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Once home to a prized trout fishery, the Little Plover River has repeatedly dried up and this year had the dubious distinction of being named one of America’s most endangered rivers by American Rivers, a water advocacy group.
Echo
What’s in your drinking water?
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Public water supplies are safer than ever — a lot safer than most bottled water. But new concerns about emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals and fragrances could drive up future costs for water treatment.
Echo
Water for Fracking
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In Ohio, there are virtually no limits on how much water drillers may use from local streams for fracking operations. That has environmental groups concerned about water quality impacts the state claims are negligible.
Land
Bailout or bonus? Friends groups play growing role in life of Wisconsin parks
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State support for Wisconsin’s state parks has slid steadily. General purpose revenue covered 50 percent of their operations in the late 1990s, but only 21 percent today.
Land
‘Crown jewels’ sustain Wisconsin state parks
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Two of Wisconsin’s most popular state parks – Devil’s Lake and Peninsula – are cash cows that help support dozens of money-losing parks and recreation areas, state figures show.
Echo
Farewell to Great Lakes United — what now for bi-national citizen leadership?
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Great Lakes cormorants with deformed beaks like this one were used by members of Great Lakes United in the 1980s to lobby Congress for stricter pollution regulations.
The binational organization claims many longtime respected researchers and activists among its founders. It recently closed.
Jane Elder, a founding member of GLU when she led Great Lakes programs for the Sierra Club, reflects on the vacuum left by the loss of the binational coalition.
Echo
Twenty years after fatal outbreak, Milwaukee leads on water testing
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In 2004, Milwaukee Water Works began monitoring drinking water for estrogen and testosterone, flame retardants, pesticides, explosives and pharmaceuticals.
Echo
Experts avoid sounding alarm on chemicals, but adjust their own habits
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Researchers still don’t know much about the health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals and don’t want to cause alarm.
However, many experts are trying to limit their own and their children’s exposure.