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Michigan waterways enriched with 600,000 pounds of toxic chemicals

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(MI) The Bay City Times – This just in: A report from Environment Michigan says industrial facilities dumped 575,930 pounds of toxic chemicals into Michigan’s waterways in 2007. The “Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act,” also details chemical discharges across the United States. “While nearly half of the rivers and lakes in the U.S. are considered too polluted for safe fishing or swimming, our report shows that polluters continue to use our waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic chemicals,” Shelley Vinyard, environmental associate with Environment Michigan, said a statement.  More

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Stimulus money locks Grafton in a dam debate

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Village officials must make a choice by the end of the month: Replace the Bridge St. dam on the Milwaukee River within 10 years for up to $4 million, or remove the structure within the next year using federal grant funds. Think it’s an easy call? Hundreds of residents are expected to jam a hearing Thursday at John Long Middle School, just as they have packed past meetings. Many have signed petitions to save the dam.

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Consumers Energy trying to build new coal plant on coastal wetlands

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(MI) Bay City Times – Consumers Energy Co. is trying to strike a deal with state and federal regulators to build a new power plant on up to 170 acres of coastal wetlands in Bay County, environmental groups contend. The Lone Tree Council, a Bay City-area environmental group, obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act showing negotiations have been going on for a number of months between the company and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers. More

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Finally a Dam Decision on Argo?

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(MI) Ann Arbor Chronicle – At its Sunday night caucus, Ann Arbor city council members heard from only a couple of residents who actually spoke in favor of keeping Argo Dam in place. But those speakers were supported by the presence of almost two dozen others who attended the regular Sunday evening affair, to make clear that they also supported a resolution on the dam — which was added to Monday’s Oct. 19 agenda on Friday, Oct. 16. More

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Three lakes are targeted for cleanup to reduce pollution

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Storm water carries so much phosphorus into a chain of lakes in Maple Grove and Plymouth that it may take 20 years to get the three lakes off the state’s impaired waters list. That’s the finding of a new report to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency which describes the extent of the pollution in each lake and what can be done to reverse it. The report begins the process of cleaning up the lakes as required by the federal Clean Water Act. More

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Group wants to tap aquifer to raise level of Penn Lake

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Bloomington city officials and residents who live around Lower Penn Lake are again tussling over how to improve the water quality and appearance of the 32-acre lake. The city’s new draft management plan for the lake left many residents cold when it was presented this week at a neighborhood meeting. In their view, lake levels have dropped to unacceptably low levels since state law limited the use of a well that taps an aquifer to raise the lake’s level. More

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Samples taken from sediment behind Gorge dam

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(OH) Akron Beacon Journal – If the Gorge dam on the Cuyahoga River is to be demolished, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to know first what’s sitting at the bottom of the lake behind it. Is it just mud, or are there dangerous contaminants? More

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Report on St. Clair River erosion delayed

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(MI) The Associated Press – A team studying upper Great Lakes levels has postponed a report on whether they have lost excessive amounts of water through an enlarged river channel so the group can have more time for research, officials said Wednesday. The International Upper Great Lakes Study said the document would be released Dec. 1, instead of Oct. 1 as previously scheduled. The delay will give the group more time to evaluate its research and await peer reviews of a preliminary report issued in May, spokesman John Nevin said.

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USDA to fund conservation effort in 12 states

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – The troubled basin of the Mississippi River is set to receive a $320 million boost from the Agriculture Department. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was announcing Thursday that he is creating the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative, which will fund efforts in 12 states along the 2,350-mile long Mississippi River, Agriculture Department officials told The Associated Press. They would speak only on condition of anonymity ahead of Vilsack’s announcement. More

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Editorial: Wetland protection failed

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(MI) Traverse City Record Eagle-  There are a dozen variations — “shoot first and ask questions later,” “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission,” etc. We’ve heard them all. In some building and developer circles the intent is the same even if the wording is a little different; it could be “bulldoze now, get a permit if you have to.”That’s pretty much what happened in Elk Rapids about a decade ago. Developer Bill Clous started carving up a wetlands area to build a subdivision. He had permits from Antrim County and local officials but after environmentalists raised the roof, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grudgingly agreed that the wetland in question was tied to nearby Lake Michigan, which meant Clous needed a federal permit.