Echo
Echo
Ahead for the new year: Federal leadership, funding shifts with Great Lakes impacts
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A new EPA Administrator and a new Secretary of State are key positions that will affect the Great Lakes region.
Those appointments may say a lot about the future of climate change policy.
Combine them with post fiscal cliff funding battles and 2013 is shaping up to be yet another crossroads for federal policy regrading the Great Lakes.
Echo
Map shows community projects funded by Ontario Ministry of Environment
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View Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund Projects in a larger map
Ontario’s Ministry of Environment has released an interactive map detailing environmental protection efforts funded through its Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund. This year’s projects range from doing species inventories to improving nature trail systems to creating a tallgrass prairie zone for filtering surface water runoff. The fund was established for environmental associations and community groups that aim to protect and restore the province’s natural habitats.
Echo
Municipal utilities hike rates for electricity
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Municipal electric utilities plan gradual rate increases this winter, and some have already implemented them to comply with federal environmental regulations and to keep local jobs.
Echo
Favorite Photo Fridays from 2012
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Echo readers and contributors submitted over 50 photographs and videos to our Photo Friday section in 2012. Check out the slideshow for some of our favorites:
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Echo
Favorite Echo headlines of 2012
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Here at Echo we often write headlines designed for Search Engine Optimization.
But that’s a bit tedious. And the writers in us can’t resist the occasional word play.
Here are 2012 favorites organized in completely arbitrary categories.
Echo
The most visited Echo stories of 2012
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Echo’s most viewed stories of 2012 covered a lot of ground. And water.
We reported on environmental science, policy and business. We checked out critters as diverse as mute swans, midge flies, cougars, ugly fish and mud puppies.
Here’s a list of the 10 you visited most often.
Echo
A stay at historic Lake Ontario lighthouse to be prize on Price is Right
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An episode of the popular game show The Price is Right will feature the historic Braddock Point Lighthouse bed and breakfast as a prize destination. The Victorian-era Lake Ontario lighthouse caters to visitors from across world and is one of a handful of lighthouses still in use by the U.S. Coast Guard, said Nandy Town, the establishment’s innkeeper. The 110-foot, red brick tower is located in Hilton, N.Y. It is among the 28 historic lighthouses along the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, a recognized national scenic byway. You can view them all here. The expected airdate is on January 15.
Echo
Warnings about eating fish fail to reach people most at risk
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People of color eat a lot of locally-caught fish for economic and cultural reasons. A 2012 survey of more than 1,700 Great Lakes anglers found that 61 percent of whites said they followed fish consumption advisories. Half of non-whites said they did.
Echo
PSA: Mercury – Something in the air
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Vapors from household products containing mercury present a serious threat to human health, according to this public service announcement from the Michigan Department of Community Health. Mercury vapors are actually more harmful than physical exposure to mercury, according to department toxicologist Christina Bush. While mercury in its natural liquid state does not absorb through the skin, exposure to the fumes is dangerous. “It can be difficult to predict at what point exposure to mercury vapors will cause harm,” Bush said, “It depends on the amount in the air and how long people are breathing in the mercury.” The health department recommends that concentrations in a nonresidential setting (like an office or a store), where mercury normally is not handled but where a spill has occurred, not exceed 3 micrograms per cubic meter after the mercury is cleaned up properly.