Bringing Conservation to the Cities, Book Cover
Wildlife

Bringing conservation to cities

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A new book explains how what was once considered the ultimate paradox is now setting the precedent for urban development — a wildlife refuge in Detroit. The author will discuss the promise of urban conservation in Dearborn Heights Wednesday.

Echo

Cleaner river = global warming?

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Chicago is the only major U.S. city that doesn’t disinfect its sewage, and the agency that treats its wastewater has a new reason for opposing the idea: It’s bad for the environment. Engineers with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago recently completed an in-house study of its carbon footprint at the request of the elected board of commissioners. Going beyond the assignment, they also decided to look at how the footprint would change if it had to kill bacteria in sewage before pouring it into the Chicago River. More

Water

Lake Erie and Ohio River are designated waterways

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(OH) Cleveland Plain Dealer – The Ohio River and Lake Erie have been designated Marine Highway Corridors to promote the use of waterways to move people and freight and ease congestion on roads and rail lines. “Ohio has 716 navigable miles of waterways, and they are utilized at 30 percent of the capacity,” ODOT spokesman Scott Varner said. “There is so much room for growth. Ohio is really a maritime state despite what people think.” More

Echo

Freighters making progress

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(MI) Port Huron Herald – Freighters are continuing their way down the St. Clair River and into Lake St. Clair, said “Freighter” Frank Frisk, a maritime consultant at the Great Lakes Maritime Center. Nine freighters were at a standstill in Lake Huron until this morning due to an ice jam in the river near Algonac and Harsens Island. More

Echo

Down river pollutants hurt chances for harbor dredging funds

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press – Hopes to get $1 million or more for dredging have been washed away because Kalamazoo Harbor is at the wrong end of the river, a Superfund cleanup site. Mark Bekken, a member of the harbor’s master plan committee, told Saugatuck’s City Council that that a consulting firm has advised that it probably won’t get any funding because the harbor is downstream from pollutants at Kalamazoo. More

Echo

A hole in the St. Clair River

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – The so-called hole in the St. Clair River, which carries water from Lake Huron down into Lake St. Clair, is definitely big enough to merit filling, although the fix would surely be more technologically sophisticated than that. Nonetheless, the recommendation of a study group — that their findings be incorporated into a much larger study of the lakes — is probably sound. The St.