Environment & Science

It’s the first month of a 20-year effort to replace every lead service line connecting a Michigan home to a public water supply. Already, Jeff Lampi is predicting his city won’t meet the deadline.

“I requested an additional 10 years, so that we don’t hit the ratepayers as hard as what they’re telling us to,” said Lampi. 

As volunteers loaded her trunk with cases of bottled water Thursday at the RL Jones Community Outreach Center, a weekly ritual that involves waiting for hours in a line of cars that snakes far down the highway, Paula Stephenson simmered with anger.

Days after Flint residents learned that former Gov. Rick Snyder and other officials would face criminal charges for their role in the water crisis that poisoned Flint residents, news emerged that Snyder would face two misdemeanors for, in Stephenson’s words, “destroying us.” 

In its 2021 budget, Congress included millions for lead testing in schools, where children are still exposed to the toxic metal.

The Canadian company Enbridge Energy refuses to shut down Line 5 and has asked a federal judge to dismiss the demands of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to turn off the crude oil and natural gas liquids dual pipeline that spans the Straits of Mackinac, the stretch of water which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

The Trump administration has finalized a rule that will cut protections for migratory birds.

The federal government will no longer prosecute companies and landowners who unintentionally kill migratory birds.

Another barrier to keep Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes is about to enter the planning and design stage.

There are already electric barriers to stop Asian Carp. This new one will be more complex and the first line of defense.

This barrier is a joint project between Illinois, Michigan, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The owner of an oil processing company in Flint is accused of violating the Clean Water Act. 

Robert Massey faces a felony charge for allegedly telling employees to illegally dump contaminants into the city's sewer system.  

The U.S. Justice Department made the charges in a document called an "information," which is similar to a complaint, but is typically filed when it is expected that the defendant will plead guilty to the charges.

A Michigan-based environmental group has found many nonstick pans are coated with a chemical from the PFAS family.

“We suspected that a lot of pans that say nonstick would be coated with PTFE without saying so on their packaging. And that was one of the findings of this investigation. That Teflon-type coatings, the same polymer, are very common on nonstick cookware. But, it’s very hard to tell from the packaging you see in the store,” said Gillian Miller, senior scientist with the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor.

The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club’s ‘Environmentalist of the Year’ did not plant a forest or fight pollution. The environmental group is honoring Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

The COVID Relief Package passed by Congress includes an extension in a tax credit for solar power. That credit was supposed to be reduced at the first of the year.

“The investment tax credit was slated to go from 26% to 22% as of January 1st, 2021. So, this will keep it at 26%. So, that four percent additional amount of reduction of the cost will in fact help to put more people back to work which will help everybody in Michigan,” said John Freeman, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association.

Money for cleaning up and restoring polluted areas of the Great Lakes has been approved by the U.S. Senate. The House already approved the bill. Now, it goes to President Donald Trump. Because of the bipartisan support for the legislation, the President is expected to sign it.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative started ten years ago at a funding level of $475 million a year, but it was reduced to $300 million after the first year.

Michigan has an infrastructure problem with raw sewage getting into streams and rivers.  

In the State of Michigan’s next fiscal year, there's about $500 million available for fixing up sewer pipes and updating wastewater plants. So far, municipalities have applied for $200 million. That’s below what is typical for this time of year. There’s no doubt about the need for sewer infrastructure repairs or replacement.

Sky watchers will get a rare holiday gift this year.

On Monday evening, Jupiter and Saturn will appear to be nearly on top of each other as the two largest planets in our solar system reach their closest point to each other in nearly 800 years.

The “Great Conjunction,” as astronomers call it, will coincide with the winter solstice.

The University of Michigan has a draft plan to reach carbon neutrality. The President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality’s recommendations call for the university’s campuses to reduce emissions and to use carbon offsets to become carbon neutral by 2025 and reduce total U-M emissions to net-zero by 2040.

State officials say emergency efforts are underway to prepare the Edenville spillway for high spring water levels after a dam collapsed earlier this year.

The project is intended to clear and lower the waterway and allow any spring surges to flow downstream uninterrupted.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is signing up eligible residents of four West Michigan communities for a study of the potential long term health impacts of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The study is called the Michigan PFAS Exposure and Health Study (MiPEHS).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public comment period Monday as part of a review of Enbridge Energy’s permit for a tunnel to house a replacement section of the Line 5 pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

As part of the process, the Army Corps will determine whether an additional environmental impact review of the project is necessary.

If they choose to do so, the governors of the Great Lakes have less than three weeks to object to an Environmental Protection Agency proposal.

That proposal would exempt cargo ships that only travel in the Great Lakes from having to treat ballast water to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. For years, the Great Lakes shippers say they were not responsible for invasive species; it was the ocean-going cargo ships that were the problem.

Applications for shoreline protection permits tripled this year compared to last, according to Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The department granted 2,284 permits in the year ending September 30, compared to 730 permits the previous year. Most of those permits went to residential property owners wanting to protect their homes from rising water levels.

Often those permits allow the construction of rock walls as a barricade against encroaching waves.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is providing $800,000 to expand an ongoing COVID-19 detection program in wastewater.

The expanded program, which has been running as a pilot since spring, will test untreated sewage in some Detroit zip codes, as well as certain targeted zip codes in suburban communities like Sterling Heights, Oak Park, and West Bloomfield.

The Michigan Dam Safety Task Force held a meeting on Monday to discuss recommendations for how the state should oversee dam safety, particularly at privately-owned dams.

In the spring, the failure of the privately-owned Edenville and Sanford dams led to millions of dollars in damages and the evacuation of thousands from the region.

Consumers Energy has reached a one percent cap on rooftop solar customers established by the state's energy law. 

The utility says it plans to ask the Michigan Public Service Commission to allow it to voluntarily increase the cap to two percent, so that additional customers will be able to get permits to install solar panels on their homes.

Environmental groups are pleased by the utility's plan, but they say reaching the one percent cap is a wakeup call. DTE Energy has not yet reached its one percent cap.

A group wants the University of Michigan to think beyond its campuses as it works on a climate action plan.

Voices for Carbon Neutrality says climate change affects people of color and low-income people first.

Ember McCoy is a U of M student and one of the panelists on a webinar. She said those are the people who should also be part of the plan.

The Biden campaign platform promises to designate some chemicals in the PFAS family as hazardous substances. That’s something the Trump administration also promised. The EPA completed recommendations more than a year ago and nothing has happened. One report suggests the White House might be holding up those recommendations.