HOUGHTON - Millions of metric tons of legacy mine wastes threaten a key Lake Superior fish spawning ground and Grand Traverse Bay beaches and homes. Michigan Tech researchers and partners seek long-term solutions. Off the coast of Gay, a small northern Michigan hamlet in the Keweenaw Peninsula, a potential environmental catastrophe lurks beneath the surface.
ANN ARBOR - Waves lapping against the shoreline is always a pretty scene, but it may also be a way for toxins from harmful algal blooms to become airborne. Harmful algal blooms—blooms composed of blue-green algae—crop up throughout the Great Lakes region during hot summers. Algae reproduces, unchecked, producing toxins and sapping oxygen from water.
LANSING - An agreement between the state of Michigan and Enbridge Energy Partners on the Line 5 oil pipeline calls for a series of safety measures such as moving it beneath the St. Clair River and a study into putting it underneath the Straits of Mackinac as well, but the state says shutting down the
ANN ARBOR - University of Michigan researchers and their partners predict that western Lake Erie will experience a less severe harmful algal bloom in 2016 than last year's record-setting event. The outlook reflects less discharge from the Maumee River and a return to an average nutrient runoff into the lake. The 2016 bloom is expected
FLINT - The city of Flint has filed a notice of intent to sue the state of Michigan for the actions of the Department of Environmental Quality that led to the water crisis afflicting the city. The notice was filed March 24 in the Michigan Court of Claims, one day after Flint Mayor Karen Weaver
ANN ARBOR - Large-scale changes to agricultural practices will be required to meet the goal of reducing levels of algae-promoting phosphorus in Lake Erie by 40 percent, a new University of Michigan-led, multi-institution computer modeling study concludes. Last month, the U.S. and Canadian governments called for a 40-percent reduction, from 2008 levels, in phosphorus runoff
LANSING - The Flint water crisis galvanized Democrats in the Michigan House and Senate joined on Wednesday to discuss legislation they plan to introduce that would restore Department of Environmental Quality citizen oversight commissions, which were eliminated in 1991 by executive order by then-Republican Governor John Engler. The Democrats said at a press conference that
