Pipeline to Go Under Lake Michigan

Two energy companies are proposing a natural gas pipeline under
Lake Michigan. Peoples energy services corporation and coastal
corporation want to lay more than a hundred miles of pipe under the
western shore of the lake. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy
Nelson reports, the project has environmentalists wondering what might
be next:

Golf Course Erodes Support (Part 1)

The Great Lakes boast some of the finest beaches in the country…
and
more and more developers are snapping up lake shore property to build
everything from condominiums to golf courses. But coastline development
presents some challenges and potential risks to the lakes. In the first
of a two part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson
reports on one small community that’s struggling with change:

Golf Course Drives Legislation (Part 2)

A controversy over lake shore development on the coast of Lake Michigan
is creating a heated debate over how to handle erosion. In the second of
a two part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson
reports that how this case is resolved may have implications throughout
the Great Lakes:

Sediment Plume Carries Life to Lakes

  • The USEPA research ship Lake Guardian. (Photo courtesy USEPA Great Lakes Program Office)

For the second year in row, government scientists plan to be onboard a ship
chasing a natural phenomenon on Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports a sediment plume might be the key to all
life in the lake:

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Long Term Impacts of ’93 Flood

The Mississippi River is changing. Some fish and wildlife that once
lived in or around the river are gone and other plants and animals are
moving in. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports
researchers are finding that the flood of 1993 has accelerated those
changes:

Discovering Impacts of the ’93 Flood

  • Like many other trees that produce food for wildlife, this pecan tree died after the '93 flood.

It’s been more than five years since the great flood of ’93 hit the
upper Mississippi River and its tributaries. Since then towns have been
moved to higher ground. New levees have been built. And… people —for
the most part— have recovered from the damage. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that researchers are finding the
long-term damage has been to the environment:

New Ideas for Sediment Removal

The Corps of Engineers spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year
dredging harbors and river shipping channels nationwide to keep them
open. For more than 30 years conservationists have been yearning for
ways to do more than just keep barge canals open. They want to save
vulnerable river backwaters and ever-shallower lakes. Until recently
there has never been a technology capable of moving the amount of
sediment at reasonable costs while keeping the environment safe. But,
as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Charlie Schlenker reports, that
may be changing:

Wetlands Sedimentation a National Problem

Conservation agencies are having a tough time correcting one of the
worst problems in some on the most sensitive areas. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports on the damage sediment and silt
have on wetlands:

Old Mercury Resurfacing

A study to be published this month shows mercury, deposited in riversas long as forty years ago, is still getting into the food chain andcausing environmental and human health problems. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Stephanie Hemphill explains:

Mass Balance Study Underway

For the past four years, scientists have been hard at work around Lake Michigan, taking hundreds of water, sediment, and air samples and analyzing the data. It’s part of a study like no other—the largest of it’s kind. And the results are expected to have world-wide applications. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports: