The Environment Report

Kalamazoo residents struggle with EPA over "Mount PCB"

Lindsey Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:11:14 +0000

People in Kalamazoo are rallying to get rid of a major dump site that contains cancer causing waste.

Imagine decades’ worth of wood pulp and grey clay waste from the paper mill industry. There are 1.5 million cubic yards of it and it’s laced with polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs.

Now, plop it in the middle of a neighborhood.

Sarah Hill lives a little more than a mile away from what neighbors have dubbed "Mount PCB."

U.P. residents weigh in on proposed wolf hunt (part 1)

Steve Carmody — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

This week, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission is expected to vote on whether to authorize a wolf hunt.

The hunt would take place in three separate zones in the Upper Peninsula.

I traveled to the U.P. to talk with people who live near wolves to get their thoughts on the proposed hunt.

For many years, gray wolves were listed as an endangered species in Michigan. That ended last year. But the battle between the wolves and locals in the Upper Peninsula has been going on for some time.

By law, the state can only own so much land, but that might change

Rebecca Williams — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:26:52 +0000

The state of Michigan owns 4.6 million acres of land. But for now, the state can’t buy any more land. That’s because the Michigan Legislature capped the amount of land the state can own.

But there’s a release valve built into the law. Last fall, Governor Rick Snyder asked the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to make a strategic land management plan. If the Legislature likes it, then the land cap will be lifted.

Detroit high schoolers explore wilder side of Belle Isle

Sarah Cwiek — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:43:05 +0000

If you’ve heard about Belle Isle in the news lately, it was probably a story about people fighting over who should control Detroit’s famous island park. Those political fights tend to overshadow the island’s unique ecosystem. It’s a tiny fragment of what southeast Michigan looked like before industrialization.

Recently, some Detroit schoolkids got to take a look at this natural heart of Belle Isle. I had the chance to tag along.

It wasn’t a great day to be out on Belle Isle. In fact, it was pretty miserable. It was rainy and cold, and a lot of these ninth-graders from Detroit’s Western International High School didn’t exactly dress for the weather. But too bad.

US EPA to propose rules on wastewater from power plants

Tracy Samilton — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:48:39 +0000

Burning coal in a power plant creates byproducts called fly ash and bottom ash. That ash contains a lot of bad stuff - mercury, lead, arsenic, to name a few.

While some plants ship the dry ash to landfills that accept hazardous materials, others mix the ash with water to make a slurry, which is moved into holding ponds.

Eventually, the water in those ponds is released into the nearest waterway.

Grand Rapids officials looking ahead to next big storm

Rebecca Williams — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:36:24 +0000

The Grand River hit a record high level in Grand Rapids over the weekend. Volunteers spent hours filling sandbags to protect homes and city buildings.

City managers are still dealing with the flood waters. But they’re also planning for future storms.

Haris Alibasic directs Grand Rapids’ Office of Energy and Sustainability.

“Given the more intense and more frequent, intense rain events we’re probably going to be experiencing, as climate change is anticipated to really have a serious impact in the Midwest," he says.

Decision time for Isle Royale, only 8 wolves left

Rebecca Williams — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:36:59 +0000

Wolves and moose fight for survival on Michigan's Isle Royale National Park. For more than 50 years, researchers have been closely watching them in the world’s longest-running study of predators and prey.

The number of predators on the island has been sinking fast.

The Park is a dedicated wilderness area, so managers do their best to keep it as untouched by humans as possible. But people might need to step in.

Phyllis Green is the park's superintendent. “At this point we’re concerned about the low levels of wolves on the island, but we’re also concerned about making sure the next steps we take are well-thought-out,” she says.

There are just eight wolves left on Isle Royale. This is the first year that Michigan Technological University researchers were unable to document any pups born to the wolves.

Will Congress preserve Great Lakes restoration funding?

Rebecca Williams — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

President Obama is asking for $300 million for the Great Lakes in his 2014 budget. That money would go to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

It’s a huge project to clean up pollution, fight invasive species and restore habitat.

Chad Lord is the policy director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. He says there’s been a lot of progress over the last four years.

“All of these results are coming from the investments in new wetlands, buffer strips along rivers, cleaning up toxic sediments in areas around Detroit,” he says.

Once too polluted, Lansing's Red Cedar River is once again open to anglers

Steve Carmody — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:04:00 +0000

For the first time in nearly a half century, people will be encouraged to fish along a portion of the Red Cedar River as it winds its way through the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing.

At a ceremony Monday near the campus’s western edge, MSU dignitaries, including Sparty, took turns dumping buckets of Steelhead trout into the meandering Red Cedar River.

Organizers want anglers to start casting their lines into the Red Ceder in hopes of reeling in the sportfish.

That’s a big change.

A surprising comeback for Lake Huron's native fish

Peter Payette — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

For years now, we’ve heard bad news about the Great Lakes. Most of it has to do with invasive species getting into the lakes and wrecking the food web.

One writer called it a slow-moving underwater wildfire.

So it might surprise you to hear that native fish are doing very well in one of the lakes. The changes are so dramatic scientists are a bit puzzled and can’t explain what’s happening.

Michigan winemakers experiment to get the most out of their grapes

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Michigan winemakers are exploring a variety of options to get the most out of their crops. They’re experimenting with growing hardier grapes to handle whatever curve balls Mother Nature throws.

Michigan is now the eighth largest wine grape growing state. The grapes we grow really have to like Michigan weather, no matter what happens. Right now we’ve got room to improve.

Are the safety problems at Palisades getting any better yet?

Lindsey Smith — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:56:44 +0000

This week Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner William Magwood came to South Haven to tour the Palisades nuclear power plant in nearby Covert Township.

Magwood did not respond to requests to comment on how his tour went or why he chose to come.

He’s the second commissioner to visit the plant in less than a year. NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng says that many high-level visits in such a short time is “not necessarily” uncommon.

“You can draw your own conclusions about that because I cannot do that for you,”Mitlyng said.

Kevin Kamps is with the anti-nuclear watchdog group Beyond Nuclear. Unlike the media, he and several others got a chance to sit down with Commissioner Magwood.

“There were some hints around the edges that it’s because of the problem plagued nature of Palisades and he even used the word disappointment for continued problems out there,” Kamps said.

2012 was a crazy year for the Palisades. Get a feel for it in our timeline on Palisades here.

Michigan chefs experiment with Asian carp

Peter Payette — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:59:26 +0000

One of the strategies to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes is to eat the fish now living in the Mississippi River. But finding a market for millions of pounds of carp is not easy. Peter Payette wondered if people could get excited about Asian carp as a seafood delicacy. So he put some in the hands of chefs in Traverse City:

Asian Carp doesn’t taste like much. In fact, you might describe its taste as neutral.

MDCH releases report on drinking water wells after Kalamazoo River oil spill

Rebecca Williams — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:27:50 +0000

We’re rounding the corner on the three year anniversary of the Enbridge oil spill near Marshall.

The cleanup isn’t over yet and so far, more than a million gallons of thick tar sands oil have been cleaned up from the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek.

State officials have been looking at possible health risks from the spill.

This week, the Michigan Department of Community Health released a report on drinking water wells along the spill zone.

Battle over public land passed down to local governments

Peter Payette — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:31:55 +0000

Some state lawmakers think there’s too much public land in Michigan.

They don’t like how conservation decisions are made and think the state favors environmental goals over uses like logging and ORV trails.

In November, Governor Snyder announced townships and counties would need to approve projects before the state could buy land with the Natural Resources Trust Fund.

The trust fund has been used to preserve beaches and forests all over the state.

But townships in particular have complained about property being taken off the tax rolls, and the state has not always made the payments it promises in place of some tax revenue.