Echo

Profiles: Chemicals in the water

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By Kate Golden
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Two potential endocrine disruptors found in Minnesota waters. Nonylphenol is a breakdown product of a chemical family used in industrial laundry detergents, in crop spraying, as a stabilizer in plastic food packaging, in cosmetics and many other products. It is “highly toxic” to fish and aquatic organisms. It has been found “in human breast milk, blood and urine and is associated with reproductive and developmental effects in rodents,” according to the EPA, which has concerns about risks to people, especially children, and plans to phase it out. It is toxic to aquatic organisms at milligrams per liter; the U.S. demand was estimated at 380 million pounds in 2010. Nonylphenol was found in most of the wastewater treatment plant effluent Minnesota tested, about half of the downstream samples and a third of the upstream samples.

Echo

Two and a half years later, oil spill clean-up continues on Kalamazoo River

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Two and a half years later, oil spill clean-up continues on Kalamazoo River

It’s been two and a half years since an oil pipeline owned by the Canadian company Enbridge ruptured near Marshall, spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. The incident has been one of the costliest oil spills in U.S. history and the clean-up is still ongoing. Steve Hamilton, an MSU scientist who has been monitoring the clean-up, updates Great Lakes Echo and Current State on the situation.

Echo

Photo Friday: Re-reversing the Chicago River

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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.

Echo

Weighing environmental, economic impacts of dredging

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Dredging by EmanueleB

This year record low water levels have spurred the Michigan government to spend over $20 million on dredging. Many hope dredging will enable recreational and commercial boating to continue, preventing revenue loss. However, the plan could still cost Michiganders. Dredging can stir up contaminated sediments, causing environmental and health issues. Michael Alexander works for the Department of Environmental Quality’s Water Resources Division.

Echo

Comparing the states: Air quality penalties

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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.