Water

Dam removal ready — on paper

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(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – Local officials approved plans to remove three former hydroelectric dams on the river — Brown Bridge Dam owned by Traverse City, and Sabin and Boardman dams owned by Grand Traverse County. The decisions came early this year after a multi-year public study by the Boardman River Dams Committee wrapped at the end of 2008. The committee offered two primary and opposing recommendations that paralleled community opinions: Some wanted the dams removed and touted a free-flowing river with improved fishery and recreational opportunities, while others wanted the structures left intact to preserve water impoundments and perhaps return the dams to use as power generators. More

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Paper companies’ case to pay for Fox River PCB cleanup thrown out

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(WI) Green Bay Press Gazette – A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit filed by papermakers Appleton Papers Inc. and NCR Corp. to diffuse the $1 billion to $1.5 billion cost of cleaning up PCB contamination in the Fox River. The sweeping action by U.S. District Judge William Griesbach canceled a Jan. 4 trial on the issue and raised questions about whether the two companies will bear the entire burden of the massive cleanup. More

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Blueprint for maintaining a healthy Huron River accepted

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(MI) AnnArbor.com – The Ann Arbor City Council unanimously agreed tonight to accept the Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan, a new blueprint for taking care of the Huron River – the primary source of drinking water for city residents. By its action, the City Council formally accepted 30 consensus recommendations from the HRIMP report that were endorsed by both the Environmental Commission and Parks Advisory Commission. More

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Ottawa River cleanup nears

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(OH) Toledo Blade – Crews are days away from mobilizing for the Ottawa River’s historic $43 million restoration effort. First up will be dredging of Sibley Creek, an Ottawa River tributary.  

That will take about a month and will involve removal of 15,000 cubic yards of sediment, according to Scott Cieniawski, an environmental engineer in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Midwest regional office in Chicago. More

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Dingell, Ficano to celebrate wetlands restoration project

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(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

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Groundwater proposals to heat up

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(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.

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Bending the waters of Nine Mile Creek

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(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

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$20 million set for river cleanup

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(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

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Effort to restore creek flows to halfway point

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(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

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Ottawa River dredging delayed again

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(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