Echo

New Great Lakes quiz

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Echo’s quiz matching you with a Great Lake went so well that we’re developing another. The twist:

It’s about Great Lakes invasive species, a group that few people ascribe characteristics with which they associate themselves. So we’re trying another tack:
Which Great Lakes invasive species is your former significant other? There is some low-hanging fruit – people who continue to cling to their exes like zebra mussels or suck the life out of them like sea lampreys. But you’re more creative than that.

Wildlife

Great Lakes wolf stars in political drama

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By Alice Rossignol
Nov. 3, 2009

As a boy, David Radaich’s father shot wolves that wandered onto the family cattle farm in northeast Minnesota. Now a beef cattle producer himself, Radaich tries to deal with wolves in a legal and ethical way. But it’s not easy. “The challenge seems to be increasing in the last couple of years,” Radaich said.

Echo

Congress OKs $475M for Great Lakes

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(MI) The Detroit News – Congress approved legislation Thursday that includes $475 million to restore the Great Lakes by combating invasive species, cleaning up highly polluted sites and expanding wetlands. The bill also includes $131 million to finance wastewater and drinking water projects in Michigan, $11.2 million for 14 projects in the state, and $1 million for mass marking of hatchery fish in the Great Lakes. “This legislation provides a significant boost to protect and clean up the Great Lakes, improve Michigan’s parks and lands, provide communities with safe drinking water and improved wastewater infrastructure, and preserve key facets of Michigan’s heritage,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit. More

Echo

Oceans panel visits Great Lakes

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(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – A White House panel developing a strategy for managing oceans and their coastlines is including the Great Lakes in its plan, which will propose ways to protect the environment while preventing conflicts among users. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, which President Barack Obama established in June, convenes the last of six regional public meetings Thursday in Cleveland. It will be the only gathering devoted specifically to the Great Lakes. More

Echo

Salties not included in new clause

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(MN) Duluth News Tribune – An exemption from low-sulfur fuel rules for Great Lakes ships would not apply to saltwater vessels. Any salties calling on the Great Lakes still would be required to use low-
sulfur diesel, which has some people in the industry concerned that the added fuel costs could discourage visitors from abroad from calling on the Twin Ports. More

Echo

Thirteen Great Lakes Ships Get Environmental Exemption

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(NY) The Wall Street Journal – Thirteen Great Lakes steamships would be exempted from tougher federal air-quality standards under a provision tacked on to a government spending bill by a leading Democratic lawmaker, a move that has prompted protests from environmentalists. Ship owners who would benefit from the exemption called the provision a common-sense measure that would protect jobs in a region reeling from high unemployment. More

Echo

Deal struck to exempt some ships from pollution regulations

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(MI) The Detroit News – Congressional negotiators reached a deal Tuesday that would effectively exempt 13 shipping companies that haul iron ore, coal and other freight on the Great Lakes from a proposed federal rule meant to reduce air pollution. The Lake Carriers’ Association, which represents the 55 U.S.-flagged vessels that operate on the lakes, had asked for at least a partial exemption from rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that would require large vessels operating within 200 miles of a U.S. coast to use cleaner — and costlier — fuel and improve engine technology. More

Echo

Indiana University awarded $5 million for Great Lakes environment project

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(IN) Indiana University – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Indiana University a $5 million grant to continue a project that measures levels of airborne toxic chemicals being deposited in the Great Lakes. The Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN) project is led at IU by Ronald Hites, Distinguished Professor, and by Ilora Basu, a research scientist in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The project began in 1990 under an agreement between the U.S. EPA and Environment Canada. Indiana University has been in charge of the U.S. portion of the study since 1994. The grant announced today continues the project for five years.

Water

Feds cut cheque for Great Lakes clean-up

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(ON) The Standard – Niagara’s portion of the Great Lakes got just a bit greater Saturday. The federal government gave a $326,000 financial boost for seven ‘areas of concern’ in Niagara as part of Environment Canada’s Great Lakes Sustainability Fund. The money will go towards habitat improvement, cleaner water, and other issues identified by biologists, technicians and trained volunteers. “We can’t forget the Great Lakes,” said Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson during the announcement at Table Rock. “They are a crucial eco system that contains 20 percent of the world’s fresh water supply.” More

Echo

Freshwater species making comeback in Great Lakes region

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(OH) The Toledo Blade – The mighty lake sturgeon – an odd-looking North American fish that has been on Earth no fewer than 150 million years and that coexisted with dinosaurs for at least 85 million years – is making a comeback in the Great Lakes region after nearly going extinct in the early 1900s.  
Lake sturgeon is one of 27 species of sturgeon worldwide but one of only three that spends its entire life in fresh water. Most others live at sea, seeking out fresh water to spawn. More