Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/category/water/page/51/)
Includes water quality, quantity and use.
Echo showcased the photography of Mark Schacter in our Flash Point feature last August. Next month, Schacter’s book “Sweet Seas. Portraits of the Great Lakes” hits bookstore shelves with its collection of 160 Great Lakes photographs. Check out the preview below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkw-NZzExf4
Schacter, a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, specializes in landscape and industrial photography.
A recent study has discovered dense pockets of micro-plastics in the Great Lakes. Such tiny plastics may enter the food chain. The health implications are unclear and debated.
Have the Great Lakes seemed a little less chilly in the past few years? It’s probably because the Great Lakes, like 95 percent of the world’s lakes, are warming. According to National Geographic, researchers from all over are trying to understand the repercussions of increasing lake temperatures. The Global Lake Temperature Collaboration is a network of researchers, including Great Lakes scientists, collecting data about lakes worldwide. The groups first meeting this summer allowed participants to share, analyze and compile findings.
Drug take-back programs may be technically illegal in Michigan.
Proposed legislation establishes guidelines that would help dispose of drugs that can contaminate water, threaten wildlife and are difficult to treat.
Earthworms help soil retain moisture.
And their tunnels helps the roots of cover crops penetrate more deeply into soil.
That kind of action reduces the amount of water running off the land and carrying the nutrients that can nourish explosive algae growth in the Great Lakes.
Lake Superior has long entranced us — with its fickle, dramatic beauty and threats, with its historic legacies and legends, with its immensity and with the people who live along its shores.
Now two new books highlight some of the reasons for our fascination and our awe.
Growing populations, droughts, climate change and water scarcity all threaten global water needs.
But we have plenty of water, according to Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst. We just need to rethink our relationship to it.
Last week we asked you to nominate the best beer made from the waters of the Great Lakes watershed. And what a great job you did. The Echo staff is inspired to turn that list into a shopping list. One disappointment: The nominees didn’t reflect the binational nature of the watershed. They don’t make beer in Canada?
Here’s a milestone for the Chicago River: It’s no longer on a list of the most endangered rivers in the nation. American Rivers each year reports on what the river advocacy group believes are the most endangered. It’s a call for action to save rivers facing critical tipping point. The Chicago River was on the list for almost two decades, mostly because the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District spewed bacteria-filled sewage without disinfecting it. For years the EPA and local environmental groups pushed city authorities to apply clean up technology since the water is widely used.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s proposal on Great Lakes water withdrawal comes after his veto last year of a plan with controversial withdrawal rates. The new debate may focus on what water falls under the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin Water Compact.