The Great Lakes region is blessed with an abundance of water. But water quality, affordability, and aging water infrastructure are vulnerabilities that have been ignored for far too long. In this series, members of the Great Lakes News Collaborative, Michigan Radio, Bridge Michigan, Great Lakes Now, and Circle of Blue, explore what it might take to preserve and protect this precious resource.
This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
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Michigan and Ohio are both struggling to reduce the fertilizer runoff getting into Lake Erie which feeds cyanobacterial blooms, also called harmful algal blooms. Those toxic blooms can be hazardous to people and animals. -
The need for such research is urgent. Bacteria draining into recreational waters from overflowing wastewater treatment plants, livestock and poultry farms, and city streets and parking lots results in hundreds of beach closings annually across the five Great Lakes. Phosphorus running off farm fields and from big dairy, hog, and poultry operations causes harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie and other lakes across the region. -
Despite being on the Great Lakes, the cities of Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Windsor, and Toronto have all been labeled urban heat islands. -
The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert Township could be the first shuttered nuclear facility to reopen in the U.S. -
In the quest to defend Michigan’s rivers against climate change, government officials and fish advocates are increasingly zeroing in on a simple strategy that can lower temperatures by several degrees, and open up miles of new habitat. -
Nearly $1.2 billion is to be spent at one site to prevent invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes. There are a dozen more places where the carp could get in. -
Michigan communities with PFAS in their water supply could be eligible for payments from chemical manufacturer 3M, after the company reached a $10.3 billion settlement to address federal lawsuits from hundreds of water supplies across the country. -
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel gets another chance to convince a judge that her Line 5 lawsuit belongs in state court. -
Outdated federal water laws and chemicals that were approved for industry without assessing for risk leave Ann Arbor and other communities struggling to ward off water contaminants before they foul drinking water supplies. -
A new report suggests Michigan and Ohio will fail to reduce nutrient runoff by 40% as agreed upon.
