Skip to content
  • logo
  • logo
  • Home
  • Solutions
  • Agriculture
  • Water
  • Cities & Suburbs
  • Nearshore
  • Recreation
  • Wildlife
  • Energy
  • Waste
  • About
  • Contact

Great Lakes Echo - Environmental news of the Great Lakes region

Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/water/page/6/)

  • Home
  • Solutions
  • Agriculture
  • Water
  • Cities & Suburbs
  • Nearshore
  • Recreation
  • Wildlife
  • Energy
  • Waste
  • About
  • Contact
Subscribe

Water

Energy

Report lists alternatives to controversial oil pipeline beneath Mackinac Bridge

By Max Johnston | June 30, 2017

One option has caught the interest of Michigan’s attorney general. But environmental groups aren’t pleased with any of them.

Art

Salvaging a forgotten classic

By Kate Habrel | June 2, 2017

A book about the salvaging business in the Great Lakes sat unread for over 50 years. Now its story will be told again.

Homepage Featured

This dam removal tool moves data rather than cement

By Jack Nissen | May 10, 2017

Dam removal is on an upward trend. A new tool helps to figure out which should go first.

Homepage Featured

Old dams threaten downstream life

By Laina Stebbins | May 9, 2017

Aging dams in high-hazard locations have the potential to do great harm to the environment and to human life.

Homepage Featured

Ballast water can harbor invasive viruses, study says

By Liam Tiernan | April 4, 2017

The water used to stabilize ships has been known to carry invasive species. A new study says viruses can be counted among them.

Great Lakes

Setting the story straight on Great Lakes water levels

By Steven Maier | March 15, 2017

Warm winters don’t necessarily make for lowered lakes.

Art

Poet turns Great Lakes shipwrecks to verse

By Kate Habrel | March 15, 2017

What do you get when you combine art and history? In this case, a poetry collection informed by Great Lakes shipwrecks.

environmental politics

Great Lakes businesses join forces against oil pipeline

By Steven Maier | February 27, 2017

The collection of businesses see Enbridge Line 5 as a threat to the economy and the environment.

Echo

Unique lake trout could help restore Lake Michigan population

By Steven Maier | February 17, 2017

The trout in Lake Michigan were once wiped out, but one strain might help bring them back.

Algae

Tracking harmful algae in Lake Erie

By Kate Habrel | February 3, 2017

Lake Erie’s western basin experiences the largest algal blooms in the Great Lakes. Thanks to a new computer model, scientists can track where and when they’ll happen.

Load more articles

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.

  • Great Lakes Echo

Contact Us

Email: GreatLakesEcho@gmail.com
Phone: 517-432-1415

Search This Site

Browse Archives

© Copyright 2026, Great Lakes Echo

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑