Echo
MONDAY MASHUP: State tracking beach, water pollution problems
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State agencies are striving to prepare Michigan’s recreational areas for the upcoming summer.
Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/page/3/?s=beach+monitoring&x=0&y=0)
State agencies are striving to prepare Michigan’s recreational areas for the upcoming summer.
Great Lakes states placed in the bottom two-thirds of 30 states ranked recently by their 2009 beach water quality by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
By Anna Barnes
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is banking on public oversight of the largest Great Lake to help gauge the threat of increasingly common algal blooms.
Blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, can produce toxins that pose a danger to public health, said Kait Reinl, research coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Lake Superior National Estuarine Reserve in Superior, Wisconsin. Symptoms from exposure include stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, muscle weakness, fever and difficulty breathing, according to the Wisconsin DNR. Pets and children are particularly at risk. “The reason we specifically call out children and pets is because they’re pretty indiscriminate about the water that they’re inhaling or swallowing, and that’s really where the biggest risk lies,” Reinl said. As of Sept.
Increasing competition for sales means that fewer drivers are buying the license plates that support environmental causes.
Great Lakes environmental issues are on tap Oct. 11-14 in Detroit. The stories below cover some of the issues that will be discussed during Great Lakes Week 2011 by four international organizations.
Oct. 14:
Making blue investments that yield green dividends
Blue investments in a green economy will be discussed Oct. 11-14 in Detroit at the 2011 Great Lakes Week.
More than 1,000 proposals requesting $946 million were trimmed to 270 finalists.
By Joshua Kim
Despite decades-long efforts to clean up toxic hot spots along Michigan’s Great Lakes shores, a recent study shows that the health of water birds in some areas continues to suffer.
Researchers examined ten years of data on fish-eating birds living near Saginaw Bay, the River Raisin, and Grand Traverse Bay.
State park beaches across Michigan remain devoid of lifeguards to correct the flag system.
A Michigan State University study estimates that up to $5.9 million annually in economic activity is lost in Michigan’s small portion of Lake Erie due to harmful algal blooms.
For the first time, a genome sequence has been developed for an unfamiliar species of harmful algae that’s been blooming in the Great Lakes.