Echo
Guilty pleas in Clean Water Act prosecution
|
An Ottawa County, Michigan, electroplating company and two of its top officers have pleaded guilty to violating the federal Clean Water Act by discharging wastewater with excessive amounts of zinc.
Commentary
August: Dibs on the Water
|
As anyone who lives in Michigan knows, March and April are the wet months. But like so many things that Anyone knows, this is only about half true. The amount of precipitation (the water in rain and snow) doesn’t change much from month to month in Michigan.
Water
Rising water makes Lake Michigan wetlands vulnerable to invaders: TikTok edition
|
In our newest TikTok, Echo reporter Caroline Miller discusses a recent study that documents the first sighting of an invasive species, European frogbit, in Wisconsin and says that it could threaten native plants, fish and invertebrates.
Commentary
July: Stay cool
|
July is our warmest month, its steamy days and sticky nights giving us a little taste of the tropics. When we look for ways to beat July’s heat, we often end up in the water – sprinklers, backyard pools, or one of Michigan’s many lakes. So let’s take a few minutes on this hot July day to think about how cool water is.
Echo
Finding home in our own bodies can rekindle connection to nature
|
For decades, people have largely ignored the Earth’s decay, treating climate change as a problem that can be postponed. Ranae Lenor Hanson, a retired professor and activist, rejects that fallacy and defends the Earth, its waters and all its creatures in her book Watershed: Attending to a Body and Earth in Distress.
Great Lakes
Water test: quagga mussels hijack key Great Lakes nutrient
|
The impact that quagga mussels have on the Great Lakes food web gives deep meaning to the saying, ‘food for thought.’ These prodigious filter-feeders are implicated in the decline of many Great Lakes fish species, well beyond those with commercial and recreational value.
Fish
Water test: Rending the Great Lakes food web
|
The food web in lakes Michigan and Huron has changed in ways that jeopardize age-old fishing traditions and raise questions about how we’ve managed them. Now negotiators are updating a legal settlement that spells out where and how much lake whitefish and lake trout can be harvested.
Capital News Service
Watershed groups fight decades-old pollution
|
Michigan watersheds are still wracked with pollution from decades ago, along with new runoff. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan would make preserving land and water a statewide priority.
Homepage Featured
Rising water makes Lake Michigan wetlands vulnerable to invaders
|
European frogbit, an invasive species, has been documented in Wisconsin, where it could threaten native plants, fish and invertebrates. The small, green, heart-shaped lily pad, forms dense mats along the surface of the water, blocking out sunlight that submergent plants need to survive.
Green Gavel
Allegheny River polluter cops plea in sludge ‘island’ case
|
“Glenn’s Island” in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh was formed of sludge illegally discharged from the nearby Aspinwall Drinking Water Plant. And some plant employees nicknamed it for retired supervisor Glenn Lijewski, who is awaiting sentencing for conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act.