Echo

School Drinking Water Contains Toxins

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(NY) The New York Times – Over the last decade, the drinking water at thousands of schools across the country has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins. An Associated Press investigation found that contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states — in small towns and inner cities alike. But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied. More

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Senate passes $400M Great Lakes bill

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(MI) The Detroit News – The Senate easily passed legislation tonight containing $400 million for Great Lakes restoration by deterring invasive species, cleaning up highly polluted sites and expanding wetlands. The funding level for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative falls short of the $475 million passed by the House in June and supported by President Barack Obama. Michigan Sens. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, voted for the full bill. More

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UM begins mapping to forecast future of Great Lakes

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(MI) WWJ –  A University of Michigan-led research team is creating a comprehensive analysis and mapping of threats to the Great Lakes that will guide decision-making in the United States and Canada for years to come. The mapping and analysis project will produce the first regional synthesis of human impacts on the Great Lakes, thereby helping regional planners and conservation groups to prioritize their activities. The Erb Family Foundation is funding the $500,000, two-year project. More

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Group wants to tap aquifer to raise level of Penn Lake

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Bloomington city officials and residents who live around Lower Penn Lake are again tussling over how to improve the water quality and appearance of the 32-acre lake. The city’s new draft management plan for the lake left many residents cold when it was presented this week at a neighborhood meeting. In their view, lake levels have dropped to unacceptably low levels since state law limited the use of a well that taps an aquifer to raise the lake’s level. More

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Dead deer believed to have epizootic hemorrhagic disease

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(MI) Flint Journal – Homeowners in the area around Hoisington and Bennett lakes have discovered dozens of dead white-tailed deer in their yards and waterways over the past few weeks. Department of Natural Resources officials say it appears the deer are victims of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD – an acute, infectious and often fatal viral disease that is spread by a biting fly or midge. However, no definitive lab tests have been conducted at this point to confirm it. More

Echo

It’s Easy Being Green

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(NY) The New York Times – It’s important to understand that claims of immense economic damage from climate legislation are as bogus, in their own way, as climate-change denial. Saving the planet won’t come free (although the early stages of conservation actually might). But it won’t cost all that much either. How do we know this? First, the evidence suggests that we’re wasting a lot of energy right now.

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Parks smoking ban justified

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(MI) Traverse City Record Eagle –  It’s not Traverse City’s job to enact smoking bans in order to encourage healthy lifestyles or make sure adults don’t set a bad example for impressionable teens. But it is the city’s job to enact smoking bans to ensure public safety and health on public property. And that must include a smoking ban in city parks. More

Recreation

Bid to sink warship treading water

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(ON) The Kingston Whig – The federal government would love to see the decommissioned HMCS Terra Nova sold to a local diving group that wants to turn it into a diving attraction. But plans to sink the 112-metre anti-submarine destroyer escort near Gananoque are facing an opponent more formidable than anything the ship faced on active service: provincial regulations. Michael Ryan is a member of the Eastern Ontario Artificial Reef Association, a group of divers that has been trying to turn the boat into a diving attraction for several years.  More

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Samples taken from sediment behind Gorge dam

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(OH) Akron Beacon Journal – If the Gorge dam on the Cuyahoga River is to be demolished, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to know first what’s sitting at the bottom of the lake behind it. Is it just mud, or are there dangerous contaminants? More

Land

Tree-trimmers subject of gripes

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(IN) The Post-Tribune – Stories of mangled trees, inadequate notice and little communication from NIPSCO peppered testimony on tree-trimming practices at a public field hearing on Wednesday night at Merrillville High School. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is conducting a series of hearings across the state on the tree-trimming practices of electrical utilities. More