Echo

Great Lakes watchers anxious to fill EPA post that’s key to restoration initiative

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 14, 2009

Great Lakes officials are anxious for the Obama Administration to appoint the region’s top Environmental Protection Agency administrator. “The appointment is always important, but for (the Great Lakes states), right now it’s absolutely critical,” said Andy Buchsbaum, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes region. “For the first time in history, we could get millions and millions of dollars from Congress, and the administrator is important to making sure the money is spent well.”

The Chicago-based Region 5 administrator is responsible for the Great Lakes program under the Clean Water Act. Region 5 includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Echo

Great Lakes toxic hot spots could get restoration boost from GLRI

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Editors note: Congress is considering a $475 million appropriation for Great Lakes cleanup. This story is part of an occasional look at proposals for spending it. Weigh in on this and other ideas on Echo’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative forum. Other stories. By Andrew McGlashen
amcglashen@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
July 31, 2009
A plan to spend $147 million to restore Great Lakes toxic hotspots is inspiring cautious optimism among those involved in a long and often frustrating cleanup process.

Echo

Environmental group release beachwater report

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – An environmental group says data from the Environmental Protection Agency show water at many beaches in the United States is polluted, causing beach closings and advisory days. The Chicago-based Natural Resources Defense Council issued its annual beach water quality report on Wednesday. The report found that ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches nationwide can have contaminated water. The group says conditions are worse along the Great Lakes. More

Echo

Environment agencies in Great Lakes states reorganize, downsize

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 3, 2009

Some cash-strapped state agencies charged with protecting the Great Lakes environment are merging and reorganizing to do more with less. Michigan’s Senate could vote next week to combine that state’s Department of Environmental Quality with the Department of Natural Resources. The House of Representatives approved a similar measure recently. Other states are considering similar moves. Ironically, the functions of both of Michigan’s agencies had once been combined.

Echo

St. Lawrence Seaway at 50: A bypass for Buffalo’s port

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(NY) The Buffalo News – In the shadow of Bethlehem Steel’s empty coke ovens and the new towering windmills generating electricity, the crew of the Port of Buffalo was busy loading limestone onto a ship last week. The freighter was one of the 25 to 30 vessels that dock each year at the privately owned port, which handles about 600,000 tons of bulk material a year. More

Echo

Book excerpt: Death of a Great Lakes icon

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It was the beauty and symbolism of these birds that made it so disturbing to see them washed up, dead, on Great Lakes beaches. In November 2007, I went looking for birds I did not want to see. Dead loons were washing up on the eastern shores of Lake Ontario. More

Echo

Quagga mussels overtaking zebra mussels in Great Lakes

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(WI) The Capital Times – Zebra mussels are being muscled out of the Great Lakes by cousin quagga. Research done by a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate showed the quagga mussel to have become the dominant of the two species in the calm waters of the Great Lakes while the zebra mussel covers the bottoms of faster-moving waters in rivers and streams, UW-Madison announced in a news release. The reason? Grip. More

Echo

Genesee may face fight in bid to tap Lake Huron

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(MI) The Detroit News – Genesee County’s proposal to draw 85 million gallons of water per day from Lake Huron is likely to face a legal challenge from at least one other Michigan county. Genesee buys its water from the city of Flint, which buys it from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. County officials say they are looking for other options in the hope of securing better prices and reliability for its customers, and they are negotiating with Detroit Water and Sewerage for a possible long-term deal. Last month, the county’s drain commission applied to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for permission to build a pipe system and withdraw water from Lake Huron. More

Echo

Environmental group’s leader named Great Lakes czar

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Cameron Davis, leader of a Chicago-based environmentalist group, has been appointed to oversee President Barack Obama’s initiative to clean up the Great Lakes. Davis is president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, one of many organizations that have pushed for a restoration program expected to cost more than $20 billion. He was appointed by Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. More