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Great Lakes Echo - Environmental news of the Great Lakes region

Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/water-quality/page/5/)

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Water quality

This tag is further segmented with tags for pharmaceuticals, plastics, sewage, algae

Water quality

Can’t fix waterworks without knowing how water works

By Steven Maier | June 29, 2017

Few people can depict how water gets to the tap and where it goes after it hits the drain, an ignorance that requires a disaster to generate support to upgrade an aging system of pipes and treatment.

Endangered wildlife

Wastewater deadzone kills mussels

By Steven Maier | May 1, 2017

An extreme example in an Ontario river shows these mollusks are more sensitive to pollution than we knew.

Homepage Featured

Feces-contaminated snow makes winter water sports risky

By Talitha Tukura Pam | March 28, 2017

A recent study says that there’s little to no water quality monitoring for recreational waters in winter. Winter swimmers, surfers and sailboarders beware.

E. Coli

New tool helps locate water pollution threats from human, animal waste

By Ben Muir | March 23, 2017

It illustrates where bacteria affiliated with agricultural run-off or defective sewer systems is present.

E. Coli

These dogs are welcome at the beach

By Ben Muir | March 17, 2017

They sniff out pollution with the help of high-tech DNA analysis.

Capital News Service

Michigan private well water quality unregulated after installation

By Laura Bohannon | February 28, 2017

Frequent sampling is the only way to know well water is safe, but there are no statewide testing requirements for owners of private wells in Michigan.

Waste

New model tracks plastic in Great Lakes

By Abigail Heath | February 24, 2017

A new mathematical model could bolster research on plastic in the Great Lakes.

Capital News Service

Water quality a problem for rural areas, too

By Laura Bohannon | February 21, 2017

Michigan cities like Flint aren’t the only cause for water worry.

Great Lakes

Plastic litter on Great Lakes beaches

By Kate Habrel | February 13, 2017

A recent study found most trash on Great Lakes beaches is plastic – consumer goods like water bottles and food wrappers.

lakes/rivers/wetlands

Milwaukee bans coal-tar sealants after study shows they pollute streams

By Morgan Linn | February 8, 2017

The study found that as many as 78 percent of Milwaukee streams have toxic levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, also known as PAHs.

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About Great Lakes Echo

Environmental news of the Great Lakes region from the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

  • How seeds from the past are saving a unique flower of the Great Lakes

    By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva More than 30 years ago, a group of scientists planted just 4,200 seeds of the rare Pitcher’s thistle in the sandy dunes of the Great Lakes. At the time, no one knew if the new populations would survive. Today, three decades later, the restored populations are thriving and spreading.

  • Henderson holding a swan
    From otters to butterflies: How Minnesota became a pioneer in nongame wildlife conservation

    By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva In the late 1970s, when most wildlife conservation programs in the United States focused almost exclusively on game species, a quiet but historic shift began in Minnesota. It was here that one of the nation’s first state programs dedicated to protecting so-called nongame wildlife emerged from butterflies and bats to bald eagles and river otters. That story is now told in detail by Carrol Henderson in his new book, “A National Legacy: Fifty Years of Nongame Wildlife Conservation in Minnesota."

  • Michigan’s water infrastructure sees improvements, work still needs to be done

    By Clara Lincolnhol The U.S. would need to invest nearly $3.4 trillion over the next 20 years to fix and update drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, says researchers from The Value of Water Campaign. Much of that infrastructure was built 40 to 50 years ago and shows its age. Michigan’s is no exception. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state a D+ for its drinking water infrastructure, a D in storm water management and a C for its wastewater infrastructure. Funding is a major problem. Proposed data centers would put more stress on the infrastructure.

  • Mussels in a green net.
    Endangered spectaclecase mussels reintroduced into the Chippewa River

    By Ada Tussing To combat the population loss of spectaclecase mussels, researchers with both the Minnesota and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released over 177 mussels into the Chippewa River in Northwest Wisconsin.

  • Michigan allocates $77 million to clean thousands of contaminated sites

    By Clara Lincolnhol Michigan is pouring $77 million into clean-up of contaminated abandoned real estate such as former factories. The director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says the goal is to make the cleaned-up sites safe for housing, commercial developments and other uses.

  • Winter makes curved roads dangerous; researchers seek solutions

    By Eric Freedman Flashing light on warning signs near curves can slow drivers and reduce the odds of a crash during winter weather conditions, says a new study by Michigan State University engineers.

  • The cover of “Dead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf-Moose Project." The cover is moose antlers on the ground.
    Great Lakes books for your holiday gift list 

    By Eric Freedman   Looking for a holiday gift for a reader who loves the Great Lakes? Here are five prospects to consider – and what our reporters learned from interviewing their authors this year.

  • A side-by-side of the historic Portage Canal and modern Portage Canal from an aerial view.
    Restoration of historical site improves quality of life for Portage, Wisconsin residents

    By Joshua Kim Following the completion of segments 1 and 2 of the Portage Canal, local residents and visitors can use the historic site and its amenities following years of disrepair.

  • What herring gulls tell us about plastic pollution

    By Victoria Witke Christina Petalas, a doctoral student McGill University, studies herring gulls to learn about plastic pollution near the St. Lawrence River. Across two studies, she found plastic additives in every bird sampled, which could have human health consequences.

  • Scientists update geological map of northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula 

    By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva The U.S. Geological Survey has began large-scale low-level airplane flights over Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin to obtain high-resolution data on subsurface mineral structures and bedrock composition. The data will be used to create two- and three-dimensional maps to better understand the geological structure at depths of about 10,000 feet.

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