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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Surface and groundwater protection is covered under Part 31 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act. The Legislature prohibited the then-Department of Environmental Quality from making new rules under Part 31 after December 31, 2006.That is still the case.During the current lame duck session, the Legislature is considering bills would lift that ban on making rules for — what is today — the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). -
Hundreds of schools and day care centers will receive grants for water filters. The filters are to protect children from lead exposure. -
After the population of Lake Superior's top predator fish fell by 95%, the lake trout restoration effort has returned it to sustainable levels, researchers say. -
The Great Lakes system system is no stranger to invasive species, but grass carp could upend the Great Lakes' ecology, as well as the operations of some of the world’s most significant freshwater commercial fisheries. So far, the Great Lakes have successfully held grass carp at bay. Those involved in managing the grass carp — not to mention the fishermen who rely on the abundance of native fish — can only hope that success is sustainable. -
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.
