Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/lakesriverswetlands/page/6/)
(MI) Mlive – A wetlands restoration project at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge has been completed. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano plan to celebrate the project on Wednesday at the gateway to the refuge in the Detroit suburb of Trenton. More
(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Brian A. Wolf boasted about the shimmering water and the trophy bass he used to catch from Long Lake in central Wisconsin. But since 2005, the lake has undergone a remarkable transformation: It’s essentially gone. “It’s as if someone pulled the plug in a bathtub,” said Wolf, a property owner on the lake. “This lake is dead.” Wolf and his neighbors blame irrigation on nearby fields as part of the reason for the disappearance of their lake.
(MN) Minneapolis Star-Tribune – Over the next two years, the eight-mile stretch of Nine Mile Creek running through Hopkins will be transformed from a muddy drainage ditch into a pretty, meandering stream. Starting this month and during winters when the water is low, workers for the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District will relieve the creek of overgrown brush, soften the slope of its banks, line its bed with smooth river stones, and reroute it into a curving channel through Hopkins’ Valley Park. More
(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Federal and state regulators are planning to remove more than 4 million pounds of contaminated sediments from the Milwaukee River and Lincoln Creek at an estimated cost of $20.2 million. The sediments in Lincoln Park on the city’s north side represent the largest single source of pollution from polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the river and Milwaukee’s harbor. The project – set to start next year – is the latest effort in Wisconsin to clean industrial chemicals from waterways flowing into Lake Michigan. More
(IN) The Post-Tribune – Good weather is speeding up work for crews that are nearing the halfway point in the $2 million project to restore the lower reaches of Dunes Creek to a natural state. Doug Stukey, assistant property manager for the Department of Natural Resources, said the removal of an 80-foot-wide strip of concrete on the east side of the main parking lot at the Pavilion has been removed and hauled away. Milling of the asphalt down to the original pavement has been completed. More
(OH) Toledo Blade – Plans to start a $43 million environmental restoration project along the Ottawa River have hit another scheduling snag, though the federal official in charge of the unprecedented two-year project said it could get under way later this month.
Scott Cieniawski, an environmental engineer in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Chicago, said the agency and seven local businesses known as the Ottawa River Group are finalizing details for subcontracts required before construction may begin. More
(MI) The Saginaw News – Lake freighters have lightened loads for years to snake through the Saginaw River to drop off cargo.
Burroughs Materials Corp. Manager William H. Kidder hopes dredging set for this spring will end that era. His company takes in limestone used to make asphalt at the Saginaw docks. More
(NY) The New York Times – The decision by the Chesapeake Energy Corporation not to drill for natural gas in New York City’s watershed is a smart and welcome move on the company’s part, and very good news for the 8.2 million New York City residents who depend on this environmentally sensitive region for their drinking water. The threat has not, however, disappeared. Chesapeake is believed to be the only leaseholder in the watershed, but its decision is voluntary and not binding on other oil and gas companies. New York State needs to adopt regulations that place the watershed permanently off limits, while imposing the strictest possible safeguards on drilling anywhere else where drinking water supplies might be affected. More
(NY) The New York Times – Bowing to intense public pressure, the Chesapeake Energy Corporation says it will not drill for natural gas within the upstate New York watershed, an environmentally sensitive region that supplies unfiltered water to nine million people. The reversal seems to signal a more conciliatory tone from the gas industry, which is facing mounting opposition in New York to its drilling practices. The decision also increases the pressure on state regulators to reverse their decision to allow drilling within the watershed. More
(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – Michigan’s program that shields bogs, marshes, swamps and other wetlands from overdevelopment remains on shaky ground even after surviving the most serious challenge in its 30-year history. Eight months after Gov. Jennifer Granholm called for handing over protection of Michigan’s wetlands to the federal government as a cost-cutting measure, she recently signed a bill that will keep the state program alive at least three more years. Afterward, legislators will decide its fate yet again. More