Environment & Science

When President Donald Trump announced in 2017 that the United States would pull out of the Paris Agreement, cities across the country declared that they would uphold the goals of the accord on their own.

Two years later, a handful of Michigan cities have plans in place to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but many more are just in the process of putting a plan together. Which is good, says Jenna Jorns, because cities are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Jorns is the program manager for the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center.

At times, the threat of climate change can feel overwhelming. Up to one million species are on track to become extinct in the near future, water levels are rising at a rapid pace, and parts of northern Michigan are warming at a faster pace than other parts of the state and the country. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether lake sturgeon should be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

This comes after a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity.

The cyanobacterial bloom on Lake Erie has grown 20 miles in the past week. It now covers 620 square miles of Lake Erie, taking up about 6 percent of the entire lake and covering more area than Detroit and its suburbs. 

A new contaminant is threatening Lake Superior. Microplastics — tiny plastic fragments under five millimeters — have been discovered in the western basin of the lake.

Researchers are studying their impact on Lake Superior, but their size makes them difficult to see and study. Elizabeth Minor is a professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Large Lakes Observatory. She says larger pieces of plastic are broken down in the water.

From January 2018 through May 2019, 6.7 billion gallons of diluted or partially treated sewage, called combined sewer overflows (CSOs) spilled into Michigan waters.

CSOs are the result of sewer systems that drain both stormwater runoff AND human and industrial waste. Eighty municipalities in Michigan have such systems, known as combined sewer systems.

Invasive Asian Carp may pose a greater threat to the Great Lakes than previously feared, according to a new report from the University of Michigan.

Five years after half a million Toledo-area residents were told not to drink or touch their tap water for two days, the same thick green sludge responsible for the 2014 water crisis has now spread across 600 square miles of western Lake Erie.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it's preparing to decide whether to let Canadian oil transport company Enbridge install supports for its underwater oil pipeline in Michigan's Straits of Mackinac.

A new bill (HB 4819) in the state Legislature would ban the manufacturing and sale of personal care products with microbeads. The small plastic beads are already banned in some products at the federal level.

Michigan’s largest state park, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in the Upper Peninsula, was damaged by Lake Superior's rising water levels along with a recent storm. Part of a major county road near the main entrance to the park is threatened by the nearby collapse of the shoreline. The emergency repairs are expected to start on Monday, August 5th, and cost $550,000.

John Pepin, deputy public information officer for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, says visitors will likely be concerned with the single-lane closures.

The city of Benton Harbor says lead continues to be problem in the city water supply.

The city says 12 of 47 homes tested since January of this year were above the federal action level for lead in the water.

Michigan could be among the first states to regulate a chemical known as GenX. It’s one of seven members of the PFAS family of compounds named by the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team, or MPART, as potentially requiring a maximum contaminant level for drinking water.

A state agency is supporting infrastructure upgrades and a public awareness campaign to boost recycling in Michigan.

The Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy announced more than $1.3 million in grants Monday to help Emmet County improve recycling technology and Kalkaska-based American Waste buy fiber equipment to produce higher-quality mixed paper recycling products.

Toyota says it will offset 40% of its global warming emissions from its North American operations within three years.

It will do that by buying contracts for new wind and solar projects.

The Toyota commitment is part of an encouraging trend, according to Greg Wetstone, CEO of the American Council on Renewable  Energy.

Activists are using this week’s 9th anniversary of the Kalamazoo River oil spill to dramatize their opposition to a proposed oil pipeline tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

The 2010 oil spill started when a pipeline near Marshall broke and started spewing crude oil.  The oil reached the Kalamazoo River, eventually spreading over about 30 miles of the river.   The cleanup took several years. 

Michigan and Ohio crews are on the lookout this summer for invasive grass carp.

The grass carp survey is being done by the Michigan Department of Natural Resource's Grass Carp Response Team.

Three binational Great Lakes coalitions announced their endorsement of the Invasive Mussel Collaborative as the “go-to forum” on developing solutions to the problems caused by invasive mussels in the Great Lakes. The three organizations are the Great Lakes Commission, International Joint Commission, and Great Lakes Fishery Commission.