Skip to content
  • logo
  • logo
  • Home
  • Solutions
  • Agriculture
  • Water
  • Cities & Suburbs
  • Nearshore
  • Recreation
  • Wildlife
  • Energy
  • Waste
  • About
  • Contact

Great Lakes Echo - Environmental news of the Great Lakes region

Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/green-gavel/page/6/)

  • Home
  • Solutions
  • Agriculture
  • Water
  • Cities & Suburbs
  • Nearshore
  • Recreation
  • Wildlife
  • Energy
  • Waste
  • About
  • Contact
Subscribe

Green Gavel

Green Gavel is an occasional series of stories about court decisions affecting the Great Lakes environment.

Energy

Judge throws out challenge to fracking on public land in Ohio

By Eric Freedman | December 22, 2015

Lawyer for conservation district argues that conservation includes natural resource management and not only preservation.

Waste

Passenger’s butt gets driver’s butt in hot water

By Eric Freedman | December 10, 2015

Wisconsin high court’s littering decision fell on anniversary of littering incident that inspired Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.”

Recreation

Appeals court says Michigan canoeist can’t sue to sample shore

By Eric Freedman | November 5, 2015

The Court of Appeals ruled that a nonprofit organization had the right to deny a canoeist access to the Grand River river shore to test for contamination.

Wildlife

Trophy buck costs Ohio resident almost $28,000 in restitution

By Courtney Bourgoin | October 13, 2015

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Arlie Risner owes the state almost $28,000 in restitution after illegally killing a 20-point white-tailed buck.

Land

Criminal probes of Southwest Michigan farm fraud continue

By Eric Freedman | October 13, 2015

A Southwest Michigan farmer was sentenced to prison after cheating the federal government out of almost $525,000 through fraudulent crop insurance claims and misuse of marketing assistance loans.

Land

Retailers lose suit against Marathon Petroleum

By Eric Freedman | October 5, 2015

When the refinery bought neighboring homes to expand crude oil capacity, residents left and retailers lost them as customers, the suit claimed. They weren’t offered the same buyouts as the residents.

Air

Insurers not liable in Minnesota farm pollution case

By Eric Freedman | August 14, 2015

Health officials had strongly recommended neighbors evacuate their homes due to the extreme odors and emissions from the farm.

Waste

Asbestos probe leads to jail term in Ohio

By Eric Freedman | July 30, 2015

Company president gets 30 days in jail, 240 days community service and must pay restitution.

Air

Judge fines Indiana company for Clean Air Act crimes

By Eric Freedman | July 8, 2015

Prosecutors say company filed false reports after monitoring gauge broke.

Wildlife

Minnesota contractor fined for disturbing protected plants in wildlife refuge

By Eric Freedman | June 29, 2015

The company had released an estimated 24,000 gallons of heated water at two construction sites because of a problem with installation of sewer pipes, according to court documents said. The penalty will support refuge programs.

Load more articles

About Great Lakes Echo

Environmental news of the Great Lakes region from the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

  • Michigan’s water infrastructure sees improvements, work still needs to be done

    By Clara Lincolnhol The U.S. would need to invest nearly $3.4 trillion over the next 20 years to fix and update drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, says researchers from The Value of Water Campaign. Much of that infrastructure was built 40 to 50 years ago and shows its age. Michigan’s is no exception. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state a D+ for its drinking water infrastructure, a D in storm water management and a C for its wastewater infrastructure. Funding is a major problem. Proposed data centers would put more stress on the infrastructure.

  • Mussels in a green net.
    Endangered spectaclecase mussels reintroduced into the Chippewa River

    By Ada Tussing To combat the population loss of spectaclecase mussels, researchers with both the Minnesota and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released over 177 mussels into the Chippewa River in Northwest Wisconsin.

  • Michigan allocates $77 million to clean thousands of contaminated sites

    By Clara Lincolnhol Michigan is pouring $77 million into clean-up of contaminated abandoned real estate such as former factories. The director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says the goal is to make the cleaned-up sites safe for housing, commercial developments and other uses.

  • Winter makes curved roads dangerous; researchers seek solutions

    By Eric Freedman Flashing light on warning signs near curves can slow drivers and reduce the odds of a crash during winter weather conditions, says a new study by Michigan State University engineers.

  • The cover of “Dead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf-Moose Project." The cover is moose antlers on the ground.
    Great Lakes books for your holiday gift list 

    By Eric Freedman   Looking for a holiday gift for a reader who loves the Great Lakes? Here are five prospects to consider – and what our reporters learned from interviewing their authors this year.

  • A side-by-side of the historic Portage Canal and modern Portage Canal from an aerial view.
    Restoration of historical site improves quality of life for Portage, Wisconsin residents

    By Joshua Kim Following the completion of segments 1 and 2 of the Portage Canal, local residents and visitors can use the historic site and its amenities following years of disrepair.

  • What herring gulls tell us about plastic pollution

    By Victoria Witke Christina Petalas, a doctoral student McGill University, studies herring gulls to learn about plastic pollution near the St. Lawrence River. Across two studies, she found plastic additives in every bird sampled, which could have human health consequences.

  • Scientists update geological map of northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula 

    By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva The U.S. Geological Survey has began large-scale low-level airplane flights over Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin to obtain high-resolution data on subsurface mineral structures and bedrock composition. The data will be used to create two- and three-dimensional maps to better understand the geological structure at depths of about 10,000 feet.

  • ‘Refusal is insisting on your own terms’: Indigenous activism in the Midwest

    By Isabella Figueroa Nogueira “Indigenous Activism in the Midwest: Refusal, Resurgence and Resisting Settler Colonialism” explores how Dakota and Anishinaabe communities in Minnesota continue their relationships to the land and challenge dominant settler narratives about ownership, belonging and identity.

  • Cannabis workers are developing job-related asthma and some have died, study says

    By Clara Lincolnhol New research says workers picking, grinding and packaging cannabis are developing workplace-related asthma, and two deaths have occurred so far.

  • Great Lakes Echo

Contact Us

Email: GreatLakesEcho@gmail.com
Phone: 517-432-1415

Search This Site

Browse Archives

© Copyright 2025, Great Lakes Echo

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑