Water
Local governments search for funds to fix failing septic systems
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Legislation has passed and enforcement tightened. Yet leaking septic tanks continue to threaten human and environmental health.
The lack of funds to fix them remain a hurdle.
Echo
Environmental group: States drop ball on Great Lakes water use deadlines
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Great Lakes states have blown deadlines two and a half years after negotiating an historic water protection agreement, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council report.
Echo
Crooks and cooking grease: Some dump it, others steal it
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It’s a crime in Great Lakes states to dump cooking grease.
It’s also foolish considering the value of leftover fat in the biofuels business.
Echo
Give DTE Energy props, but Great Lakes pollution control is agonizingly slow
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The utility deserves credit for modernizing a mammoth coal-fired power plant, one of the nation’s largest. But the project is a reminder that pollution control upgrades are expensive and slow.
Recreation
Minnesota trail best for donating blood; what about others?
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Outside Magazine just named 32 best trails, each with a different claim to fame — “Best Trail that Doesn’t Exist,” “Best Trail for Getting High,” etc. Four titles are awarded to trails in our Great Lakes states:
Best Prehistoric Trail: Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Wisconsin
Best Trail for Donating Blood: Superior Hiking Trail, Minnesota
Best Canoe Trail: Northern Forest Canoe Trail, partly in New York
Best Burrow: Freedom Tunnel, New York
The only one of these along a Great Lake, however, is Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail. This can’t be the only Great Lakes trail worthy of a spot on their list! So help us out. Name your favorite Great Lakes trail and its claim to fame in the comments below!
Echo
Farmers, filming and Flint: Making a bid for free fruit trees
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The Youth Karate-Ka Association in Beecher near Flint, is one of hundreds of farms nationwide vying for free fruit trees from Edy’s Fruit Bars.
With video
Echo
High school chemistry goes green
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The EPA has awarded $90,000 to make high school chemistry in New York more sustainable.
Proponents say it is an investment in the next generation that also makes schools more safe.
Echo
Failing septic systems an increasing health concern
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In a growing number of areas, homeowners cannot sell their homes without a clean bill of health for the septic tanks that drain and dispose their human waste.
Nearshore
Whose (shore)line is it anyway?
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Can you walk along the shore of Lake Erie in Ohio without owning a piece of it?
Not if the Ohio Supreme Court rules in favor of the property owners who sued the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in 2004.