Climate change may spur northward advance of Great Lakes invaders

Amid concern and confusion over Asian carp possibly finding their way into the Great Lakes, many experts involved in the controversy agree that other invasive species are likely to show up too.

Non-native wildlife are common in the Great Lakes, with more than 140 species living in them. Sea lampreys were first found in Lake Ontario in the 1830s.

PA Superfund site map

MONDAY MASHUP: Great Lakes Superfund sites

Hazardous waste sites in Great Lakes states make up a third of the nation’s total, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity. Each state page also has information on proposed, existing and remediated Superfund sites.

A tale of three cities: Winners of the GM cleanup lotto are more like survivors

By Brian Laskowski, Shawntina Phillips and Jeff Gillies
Jan. 21, 2010
Editors note: This is part three of a three-day series on the environmental implications of GM’s bankruptcy. Massena, Flint and Bedford are three towns that rose in the industrial might of the General Motors manufacturing era. Now Motors Liquidation Co., the company that owns GM’s worst assets, is preparing to close the door on the automaker’s legacy in these cities. But before it leaves, Motors Liquidation or GM must account for decades of pollution at former factories and waste sites.

Salvaging Insolvency: Sites GM helped pollute no longer get cleanup dollars from the bankrupt automaker

By Kimberly Hirai and Jeff Gillies
Jan. 20, 2010
Editors note: This is part two of a three-day series on the environmental implications of GM’s bankruptcy. The bankrupt shell of General Motors could dodge environmental cleanup costs for dozens of properties that the automaker polluted but doesn’t own. Motors Liquidation Co. — the bundle of old GM debt and real estate that the automaker abandoned though bankruptcy — will clean up polluted property it inherited from GM with part of a $1.17 billion loan from the U.S. and Canadian governments.

Salvaging Insolvency: GM bankruptcy could shortchange pollution cleanups

By Jeff Gillies, Kimberly Hirai and Shawntina Phillips
Jan. 19, 2010
Editors note: This is part one of a three-day series on the environmental implications of GM’s bankruptcy. The money set aside to clean up pollution at 120 sites a bankrupt General Motors left across the country may be enough to address the sites in only two states, according to court records. And that estimate ignores dozens more sites across the country that GM polluted, but either gave away or never owned — sites even less likely to get any cleanup money through the bankruptcy. GM entered a government — engineered bankruptcy aiming to emerge as a new, leaner company with fewer factories, dealerships and employees.

Special Report: Salvaging Insolvency

When an industrial giant like General Motors goes bankrupt, who pays to clean up its toxic legacy? Jan. 19, 2010
GM bankruptcy could shortchange pollution cleanups: The money set aside to clean up pollution at 120 sites a bankrupt General Motors left across the country may be enough to address the sites in only two states, according to court records. Jan. 20, 2010
Sites GM helped pollute no longer get cleanup dollars from the bankrupt automaker: The bankrupt shell of General Motors could dodge environmental cleanup costs for dozens of properties that the automaker polluted but doesn’t own.

Clicked-on countdown continues

Jan. 9, 2010

Here are the five most clicked-on-by-unique-readers stories reported by Echo journalists in 2009:

5. Study projects steep Great Lakes water level drop if greenhouse gases go unchecked

4.  Alewives: The trouble they cause and the salmon that love them

3. Great Lakes bats threatened by mysterious disease

2. Alewives: Should Great Lakes managers kill ‘em or keep ‘em?

Clicked-on countdown

Jan. 8, 2010

Who knows what accounts for a story’s popularity? Here at Echo we like to think that it has something to do with aggressive reporting and fine writing. But any number of factors contribute to whether one story rockets across the Internet more than another. You can go pretty nuts trying to predict which will go viral.