Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/tag/wastewater/)
EPA officials are holding the third annual SepticSmart Week. But water quality problems posed by septic systems are a year round challenge, especially in Michigan which lacks statewide oversight.
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(Photos by Lloyd DeGrane, Alliance for the Great Lakes)
The course of the Chicago River, reversed over a century ago by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to prevent the flow of waste water into Lake Michigan, was re-reversed April 18 to alleviate flooding in the city in the wake of serious storm conditions, according to an Associated Press report. These photos show dark stormwater and untreated waste water flowing into the lighter waters of Lake Michigan, according to the Chicagoist, a popular news blog for the Chicago area. Echo has previously reported on the increasing frequency of urban flooding problems in Chicago and the Midwest.
Little Black Creek in Muskegon, Mich., has a long history of abuse. And one of the stream’s biggest threats rushes in every time it rains. Rain is shunted into storm drains that lead straight to the stream.
(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Pumping Waukesha’s treated wastewater to Underwood Creek in Wauwatosa would not degrade the stream or spur algae growth, according to a study released Wednesday. With the finding, Waukesha officials say, the city clears a hurdle in its long-running quest to tap Lake Michigan water to replace the city’s radium-tainted groundwater. Using Underwood Creek would allow the city to satisfy a requirement in a Great Lakes protection compact that the city return nearly all diverted water back to the lake. More
(IN) The Post Tribune – The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has issued the wastewater permit for U.S. Steel Gary Works, the agency announced Friday. The issuance marks the end of a nearly seven-year process, during which IDEM has released three drafts. More
(IN) The Post-Tribune – U.S. Steel Gary Works will host an informational open house about its 2009 draft wastewater permit tonight at Indiana University Northwest. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. in the IUN Library Conference Center, Room 105, located at 3400 Broadway in Gary. More
(IN) The Post-Tribune – U.S. Steel representatives are holding an invitation-only meeting with environmental groups today to discuss its newly re-released wastewater permit. A company representative said the purpose of the meeting was to “have a conversation” and be transparent about the permit. More
The Detroit Free Press has an extensive, two-part series on contaminated ground water in west Michigan. Food processing plants spray wastewater onto local crops, kicking off a process that primes groundwater to pick up extra iron and other heavy metals. The food processing industry and a state environmental agency have known about the problem for years, but residents say they have been slow to clean up the problem or notify them. Part one: “Companies denied responsibility, failed to meet cleanup deadlines and violated state law with leaks, spills and illegal dumping of fruit waste, records show.” Part two: “What unfolded next was a saga of illegal blueberry waste dumping, which contaminated the groundwater that fed the stream, killing fish and other aquatic life in it.”