Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/matthew-hall/page/2/)
In this series, Echo samples successful and ongoing restoration projects in each Great Lakes state. New York projects include extensive cleanup efforts at Buffalo Creek and the St. Lawrence River.
In this series, Echo samples successful and ongoing restoration projects in each Great Lakes state.
In this series, Echo samples successful and ongoing restoration projects in each Great Lakes state. Indiana projects include lamprey barriers and the restoration of a submerged stream.
In this series, Echo samples successful and ongoing restoration projects in each Great Lakes state.
Check out the benefits that government officials say that restoring Great Lakes toxic hot spots can bring to local economies. This video was produced by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois-Indiana and Wisconsin Sea Grants. The Great Lakes Legacy Act provides federal funding for the remediation of environmental “Areas of Concern,” toxic hotspots contaminated by industrial practices.
The number of Great Lakes drowning deaths are down from last year, possibly because of the colder spring. Twelve people have drowned in the Great Lakes since Jan. 1, eight less than this time last year, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, an educational water safety group based in East Lansing, Mich. and Matteson, Ill. The record drownings in 2012 may have been due to unusually warm weather.
Indiana has the highest percentage of facilities with hazardous waste violations in 2012 among the Great Lakes states, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. New York has the lowest. The figures come from an EPA map that reports state compliance with regulations. The map’s dashboard allows users to choose different measures and different years. Here are the percentages of large facilities with new hazardous waste violations for each state:
Indiana: 15 percent of 567 large facilities.
Google Earth has released a cache of time lapsed images that depict the Earth’s changes over the past 28 years. Users can watch the sprawl over time of Great Lakes cities such as Detroit, Toronto, Chicago, Milwaukee and other places by typing locations in the search field. The release represents “the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public,” according to the website’s official blog. Users can witness the deforestation of the Amazon and glacial retreats in Alaska. The images were collected as part of a joint mission between the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA.
Pennsylvania has the largest amounts of penalties for facilities violating air quality standards in 2012 among the Great Lakes states, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Michigan has the smallest. The figures come from an EPA map that reports state compliance with regulations. The map’s dashboard allows users to choose different measures and different years. Here are the amounts of penalties incurred by major facilities with air quality violations for each state along with the number of major facilities for each state:
Pennsylvania: $3,646,379; to 591 major facilities.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is studying the microscopic anatomy of the paddlefish for possible military applications, like better armor, ship design and sensor arrays. The fish, which is native to many Great Lakes states, has a long nose-like feature called a rostrum that detects the weak electric fields of tiny zooplankton. Its unique skeleton is also made up of star-shaped bones that make it flexible and yet resilient. The study is an example of bio-inspiration, the examination of an organism’s adaptations in nature, such as gecko’s feet or a spider’s web, to create similar applications for human use. Army scientists think that the paddlefish’s delicate sense for electricity could be copied to detect metal objects or electrical signals from explosives.