Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/keweir/page/6/)
(MI) Detroit Free Press – A reward is being offered for information about a bald eagle poaching case in the northern Lower Peninsula. Wildlife officials say the bird likely was killed sometime between Dec. 20 and Dec. 22 in Otsego County near Johannesburg, about 60 miles northeast of Traverse City. More
(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Milwaukee economic development officials would use discounted water rates to help recruit companies from Atlanta and other cities with water supply problems, under a plan endorsed Wednesday. The city would offer reduced rates to Milwaukee’s 100 largest water users that create at least 25 jobs by either moving to the city, or expanding current operations, said Carrie Lewis, Water Works superintendent. More
(IL) Journal of Commerce – The escalating fight to prevent Asian carp from getting out of a Chicago barge and ship canal into the Great Lakes now has the Coast Guard ordering a year-long regulated zone while the Army Corps of Engineers heats up an electrical barrier. The Coast Guard, through a Jan. 6 notice in the Federal Register, said it was ordering a series of water-handling and operational restrictions on barge tows and other commercial as well as passenger vessels transiting the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. More
(MI) Up North Live – The community will have new opportunities to learn about the importance of the Great Lakes with the help of a grant. The Grand Traverse Conservation District was awarded $200,000 from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust for a grant under the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. More
(MI) Detroit Free Press – Two men have been given jail time and fined for using illegal gill nets to catch fish on Lake Michigan’s Big Bay de Noc. Daryl John Tatrow of Garden and Kerry Todd Johnson of Cooks were sentenced Monday in Delta County District Court. More
(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Can a lake-loving state with snow-cursed highways go on a low-salt diet? Joe Wiita in Prior Lake thinks so, and he’d like your city to mix up a batch of his anti-icing cocktail and try it on a street near you. Amid rising concern over the effects that road salt has on Minnesota’s lakes, streams and groundwater, Wiita and other public works officials around the state are whipping up new brews to spread on pavement, moistening rock salt so it sticks better, and working to establish a less-is-more culture while striving to keep motorists safe and happy. More
(MI) The Detroit News – Michigan could gain a significant economic boost and thousands of new jobs by reducing emissions of gases that cause climate change, according to an analysis released Monday. The report by the Center for Climate Strategies said a plan devised last year for battling global warming. More
(MN) The Minnesota Independent – Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has added Minnesota’s support to a lawsuit by the state of Michigan against the state of Illinois to force the closure of a canal connecting the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan. Unless the canal is closed, Asian carp will make their way into the Great Lakes and eventually Minnesota inland lakes, rivers and stream. The lawsuit will be heard by the U.S. States Supreme Court on Thursday. “If they invade the Great Lakes, they will have access to the rivers and tributaries that feed into the Great Lakes, thereby threatening inland waters,” Swanson said in a brief to the high court. “This would be extremely destructive to Minnesota’s economy and way of life, where inland fishing is an important recreational and economic pursuit.
(MI) Holland Sentinel – It’s been almost five years since Robert McDonald, a retired engineer, set out to develop a cheap, effective water filtration and disinfection system. The technology had to be simple, require no power, have no moving parts and be made with available local materials by local people all over the world. McDonald, president and co-director of Aqua Clara International, a Holland nonprofit organization, will speak at the first event in the Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute’s 2010 speaker series, Experts Exchange: Opportunities in Bio-Innovation, 4 p.m. Wednesday at the MSU Bioeconomy Institute, 242 Howard Ave. More
(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – There are a lot of fish tales going around. Here is a true one that is about more than just the recently famous Asian carp. Once upon a time, many years ago, Chicago was a cesspool. It was so polluted in the late 1800s, it has been written, that chickens could run across the scum that formed on top of the rivers. I don’t know if I believe this because it has also been written that, instead of fish, the rivers were full of the floating carcasses of dead cats and horses, and I am not sure a chicken would go anywhere near a dead horse.