Echo

Organic Dairies Watch the Good Times Turn Bad

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(NY) New York Times – When Ken Preston went organic on his dairy farm here in 2005, he figured that doing so would guarantee him what had long been elusive: a stable, high price for the milk from his cows. Sure enough, his income soared 20 percent, and he could finally afford a Chevy Silverado pickup to help out. The dairy conglomerate that distributed his milk wanted everything Mr. Preston could supply. Supermarket orders were skyrocketing. More

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Genesee County wants to tap into Lake Huron

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(MI) The Detroit News – A request from Genesee County to tap into Lake Huron for future water needs could provide a litmus test for the Great Lakes Compact and its protections for the region’s greatest natural resource. Officials with the Genesee County Drain Commission have filed a request for permission to withdraw 85 million gallons of water a day from Lake Huron. Factoring in the amount of water returned to the lake through runoff into local tributaries and via treatment plants, that’s a net withdrawal of roughly 8.5 million gallons each day. Genesee County purchases its water from the city of Flint and sells that water to other municipalities. Flint gets its supply from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Echo

Great Lakes water experts want to hear from Bay City

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(MI) Bay City Times – Bay City will be part of an international meeting on Great Lakes water levels on June 11.  The public meeting is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. at the Delta College Planetarium and Learning Center, 100 Center Ave. in downtown Bay City. The International Upper Great Lakes Study meeting will be linked via a live video feed to other meetings in Traverse City; Superior, Wis.; and Midland, Ontario. More

Echo

Waukesha need for lake water falls 23%

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel – The volume of Lake Michigan water the city likely will pursue to replace its ailing deep wells will be nearly 23% less than originally planned, a reduction credited to local water conservation initiatives, Mayor Larry Nelson confirmed Tuesday. Last year, when Water Utility officials decided that diverting water from Lake Michigan was the best source of new drinking water, a supporting study found the city should seek a maximum allotment of 24 million gallons a day. Nelson said the pending maximum allotment request has dropped to 18.5 million gallons a day. More

Echo

Lake sturgeon larvae ‘Holy Grail’ to area

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(ON) The Windsor Star – For the first time in 30 years, lake sturgeon are spawning on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. “It is truly a breakthrough,” Matthew Child, director of watershed restoration with the Essex Region Conservation Authority, said Tuesday. Child said the four different kinds of rock bottoms built as spawning beds between Fighting Island and LaSalle were only completed last fall and scientists were prepared to wait to see if they’d be used. More

Echo

Sea’s Rise May Prove the Greater in Northeast

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(NY) The New York Times – If the melting of Greenland’s ice sheets continues to accelerate, sea levels will rise even more in the northeastern United States and Maritime Canada than in other areas around the world. The researchers, Aixue Hu and Gerald A. Meehl, based their predictions on runoff data from Greenland and an analysis of ocean circulation patterns. More

Echo

With CAFOs, farms have many animals — even more waste

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(MI) The Detroit News – Most of them, if not all, smell and smell bad. Some pollute Michigan’s air and water and increase human health risks. One of their main byproducts is, to put it politely, excrement — and lots of it. And for better or worse, they might be a big part of Michigan’s farming future. The practice of crowding more livestock onto fewer acres, known as concentrated animal feeding operations, has helped many Michigan farms survive and even thrive in an era when many midsize farms are being squeezed out of business.

Nearshore

City looks to Racine, Wis., for help on reducing E. coli

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(IN) The News Dispatch – How can we reduce the amount of E. coli bacteria along the beach in Washington Park? That’s a question we asked Dr. Julie Kinzelman, research scientist and laboratory director for the city of Racine, Wis. While snowflakes were flying during a winter storm in February, Kinzelman came to Michigan City to share her expertise with several different local groups desiring to reduce the levels of E. coli in our local beaches. More

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Granholm, Pickens will talk green at Mackinac

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(MI) The Detroit News –  Gov. Jennifer Granholm will join forces with energy industry guru T. Boone Pickens today to talk about the future of Michigan’s burgeoning alternative energy sector. The duo will open today’s events at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference with a discussion of state efforts to increase alternative energy use, as well as the retooling of some former auto concerns to help meet the industry’s needs. Pickens made a splash during last year’s election season by touting his “Pickens Plan” for energy, which advocates a reduction in the nation’s dependence on foreign oil by increasing use of natural gas for transportation and heavy investment in wind energy, especially throughout the middle of the United States. More

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Lighten up on carbon reduction

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(IN) The Indianapolis Star – Gov. Mitch Daniels and U.S. Reps. Mike Pence and Steve Buyer have some significant non-allies in their vehement opposition to the carbon reduction legislation now moving through Congress. Among them are most of the Midwest’s governors, who already have signed a regional cap-and-trade agreement; and Indiana’s largest electric utility, whose boss accepts the need for congressional action and insists it will benefit rather than punish this coal-dependent region — if the region’s leadership pulls up to the table. More