great lakes

The Old, Hidden Pipeline at the Bottom of the Great Lakes

The Old, Hidden Pipeline at the Bottom of the Great Lakes

By Conor Mihell At dawn, I launch my kayak and paddle into a velvety expanse of turquoise water. Here, in northern Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac, Great Lakes Michigan and Huron meet like the middle of an hourglass. To the east, the rounded form of Mackinac Island is the centerpiece of an archipelago in Lake Huron. […]

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    Trump’s 100 Days of Harm: Enough Is Enough

    Trump’s 100 Days of Harm: Enough Is Enough

    Like any arbitrary benchmark, the 100-day point of a new president’s term normally tells us only so much about what’s to come. In the case of President Trump‘s all-out assault on our environment and health, however, we’ve already seen more than enough. In his first three months on the job, Trump has acted again and […]

    Chemical Spill Closes Four Lake Michigan Beaches

    Chemical Spill Closes Four Lake Michigan Beaches

    A U.S. Steel plant in Portage, Indiana has spilled wastewater containing a potentially cancer-causing chemical into Burns Waterway, a tributary about 100 yards from Lake Michigan. The leak prompted the closure of four beaches and a riverwalk at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and Indiana American Water in Ogden Dunes—the nearest municipal water source—to shut […]

    Trump Proposes Cutting Great Lakes Funding by 97%

    Trump Proposes Cutting Great Lakes Funding by 97%

    By Melinda Pierce New findings revealed Wednesday show which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs will be most affected by the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts, including a 97 percent budget cut for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. https://twitter.com/robwdavis/status/837375087133122560 expand=1] The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative strategically targets the biggest threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem, […]

    Will Lake Erie Be Home to the First Wind Farm in the Great Lakes?

    Will Lake Erie Be Home to the First Wind Farm in the Great Lakes?

    By Susan Cosier The winds whipping across Lake Erie can average up to 16 miles per hour. And about 7 to 10 miles northwest of Cleveland, there’s a pilot project in the works to capture them. The offshore wind farm would be the second in the nation and the first ever in a Great Lake. […]

    22 Million Pounds of Plastic Enters the Great Lakes Each Year

    22 Million Pounds of Plastic Enters the Great Lakes Each Year

    U.S. and Canada together discard 22 million pounds of plastic into the waters of the Great Lakes each year, according to a new Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) study. Most of it washes up along the shores, accounting for 80 percent of the litter found there. Researchers said that Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland and Detroit are […]

    Solving Lake Erie’s Toxic Algae Bloom Crisis

    Solving Lake Erie’s Toxic Algae Bloom Crisis

    By Codi Kozacek A year after the most intense bloom of toxic algae on record engulfed Lake Erie, the lake is set to get a reprieve this summer. Federal forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict this year’s bloom will register a 5.5 in severity, about half the level recorded last year and […]

    Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Waste Dump

    Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Waste Dump

    Michael Leonardi July 1 marks Canada Day when many Canadians celebrate the unification of three colonies into their country on the same date in 1867. In Ontario, droves of people head off to their summer cottages and vacation get-a-ways on the shores of the Great Lakes for the holiday weekend. Lake Huron’s sandy beaches and […]