water pollution

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.Both states are working toward a 40% reduction goal set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Canada is working toward that same amount of reduction. So far, the efforts are not meeting the goals.

Prompted by persistent complaints of odor and contamination, regulators from the Ohio Agriculture Department and the state Environmental Protection Agency investigated earlier this year and cited nine farms for manure mismanagement, and issued fines to three farms for failing to secure proper operating permits.

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.

Michigan State’s Jason Rowntree is out to prove that ranching is an ecological asset.

Three southeast Michigan watershed councils combine resources to make it easier for residents and municipalities to reduce rainwater runoff.

In Canada, no rule or law prevents many unmonitored and invisible substances -or "contaminants of emerging concern"- from entering our water, including the Great Lakes.

The first ever federal rules limiting PFAS chemicals in drinking water, the Armenian diaspora in Michigan, and possible improvements to the state's 2016 Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act

Barring a late season snowstorm, Michigan expects to use 175,000 tons less salt than usual. That saves money and cuts down on salt pollution.

For the last 18 years, the power to issue new water pollution and other standards has largely been in the hands of the state Legislature.

A new report from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says that residents of northern Kent County have higher-than-average levels of PFAS in their blood.