Water

Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement: Climate change

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To contribute to the discussion about the climate change section of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, post your thoughts below. If you want the U.S. and Canadian governments to consider your input, send it to the official website. Currently, the GLWQA does not address the impacts of climate change. During the GLWQA Review period, there was general agreement that the GLWQA should be revised to specifically address pressing threats to the Great Lakes, including the impacts of climate change. Recommendations included the need to understand and predict future climate changes in the Great Lakes system, including an assessment of potential impacts and vulnerabilities.

Water

Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement: Nutrients

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To contribute to the discussion about the nutrients section of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, post your thoughts below. If you want the U.S. and Canadian governments to consider your input, send it to the official website. In Lake Erie, the re-occurrence of wide spread algae blooms has been observed in recent years. In Lakes Michigan, Huron and Ontario the algae problem is limited to the nearshore zones. Algae are not generally a problem in Lake Superior.

Water

Five Great Lakes Policy Players You Don’t Know

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Great Lakes environmental junkies know the big names credited with major policy decisions that affect the basin. But who are the people behind the names that keep the Great Lakes gears grinding?

We enlisted the help of some of our sources to highlight “Five Great Lakes Policy Players You Don’t Know.”

Water

Waukesha wastewater would not degrade Underwood Creek

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Pumping Waukesha’s treated wastewater to Underwood Creek in Wauwatosa would not degrade the stream or spur algae growth, according to a study released Wednesday. With the finding, Waukesha officials say, the city clears a hurdle in its long-running quest to tap Lake Michigan water to replace the city’s radium-tainted groundwater. Using Underwood Creek would allow the city to satisfy a requirement in a Great Lakes protection compact that the city return nearly all diverted water back to the lake. More

Water

New laboratory will study effects of consumer chemicals on aquatic life

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(ON) The Hamilton Spectator –  A new $4.6-million, state-of-the-art research facility at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters will be used to try to better understand the environmental consequences of everyday chemicals and contaminants. Scientists at the Aquatic Life Research Facility, which opened yesterday, will look at the downstream implications of consumer products such as dyes and cosmetics on fish and aquatic life. More

Water

Ont. must update rules to stop pollution of Great Lakes

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(ON) Winnepeg Free Press – Environmentalists are calling on the Ontario government to update its regulations in order to stop the pollution of the Great Lakes. Ecojustice, Great Lakes United and Environmental Defence are asking the Environment Ministry to review and amend nine regulations that they claim have become stagnant and ineffective. The groups say some 140 major industries that were supposed to be regulated are still dumping wastewater into municipal sewers, and allowing toxic pollution to enter Ontario’s sewage treatment facilities. More

Waste

Joliet seeks hike in EPA radium limits

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Joliet is pushing the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to more than double the concentration of cancer-causing radium it’s allowed to dump onto farmland in the south suburbs, expanding the potential for deadly radon gas in these increasingly urban communities. Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive element abundant in deep-water wells in northern Illinois and throughout the Midwest. Cities such as Joliet that rely on these deep wells spend millions of dollars each year to remove radium from their drinking water. Some communities pay to dump radium in a landfill, but Joliet and others use a cheaper alternative, mixing it with waste material that is sold to farmers as fertilizer. More

Water

Aging sewage systems breed record bacteria in our waters

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Metro Detroit’s outdated sewage systems regularly violate the law by dumping raw and partially treated human waste into rivers, streams and lakes that provide recreation and drinking water to more than 3 million people, a Free Press analysis of state records found. In the last two years, sewer systems in more than three dozen communities dumped a combined 80 billion gallons of raw and partially treated human waste into waterways. More

Water

Mercury limits disregarded

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(OH) Columbus Dispatch – Since 2004, the state has allowed 42 treatment facilities, power plants and factories to ignore federal limits on dumping mercury into lakes, rivers and streams.

This year, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering more than 30 new requests for variances from companies that argue that the cost of keeping mercury out of the water far exceeds any benefits to wildlife and human health. More