Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/lakesriverswetlands/page/7/)
(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
(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
(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.
(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
(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
(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
(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