Echo

Great Lakes drownings reach 23, up one from this time last year

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Fourteen people have drowned in the Great Lakes since May 22, bringing this year’s total to 23, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project. The latest victim was five-year-old Tyon McNeil of Harvey, Ill., who died Sunday night in Lake Michigan. The drowning caused this year’s total so far to pass the total for this time last year. Bob Pratt and Dave Benjamin have launched this summer a campaign to bring awareness to rip currents, which are the primary cause of drownings in the Great Lakes. Their next event is July 17 in Frankfort, Mich.

Water

Unloading Michigan’s Rifle River

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A conservation group is trying to unload Michigan’s Rifle River of excess pollutants with help of a $382,000 grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The river meets most state environmental and recreational standards but is threatened by surplus nutrients and sediment.

Echo

Protecting shorelines: Whose job is it anyway?

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Waterfront property owners are increasingly recognized as having unique opportunities to protect and enhance shorelines.
Now a collaboration of conservation agencies and professionals called the Michigan Natural Shoreline Partnership is giving them help. The group recently released a handbook titled, “Natural Shoreline Landscapes on Michigan’s Inland Lakes: Guidebook for Property Owners.”

Echo

Algae attacks Ohio’s largest inland lake; wet spring and manure blamed

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A popular recreational lake in western Ohio has nearly died, economically and environmentally, because of algae thriving on runoff from farm fields, officials say.

Grand Lake St. Marys is now undergoing a clean up to get rid of toxic algae mostly attributed to manure from nearby fields flowing into the lake during the wet spring.

As a part of the $3.4 million operation, the lake will be treated with nearly 2.6 million gallons of the chemical compound alum.