Over the past weeks, a proposed natural gas pipeline under Lake
Michigan has been making headlines. But in the meantime, another Great
Lakes pipeline is nearing the final stages of a regulatory review. The
four-hundred-forty mile millennium pipeline will run between Dawn,
Ontario, and the New York City area. Most of the natural gas pipeline
will follow a land route. But a ninety-mile stretch is expected to be
laid
beneath Lake Erie. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy
Nelson reports, that appears to be the path of least resistance:
Tag: resources
Catching Underwater Looters
Laws protecting Great Lakes shipwrecks from looting vary from
state to state. But officials agree it’s nearly impossible to catch
underwater thieves… and only a handful of arrests are made each year.
Now, a Michigan case is encouraging officials to step up their efforts
to
save the shipwrecks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy
Nelson reports:
Tribes Re-Negotiate Fishing Rights
In the mid 1800’s the federal government established several treaties
with Native American tribes. Those treaties gave them broad rights to
fish the Great Lakes and they must be
re-negotiated every few years. These treaties have become a major point
of contention as fish resources become more strained. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports that Michigan is in middle of
working out a new settlement with the tribes in their state:
Cormorant Control Begins in Earnest (Part 1)
In many ways, the double-crested cormorant is a wildlife success story. The
birds were almost wiped out by pesticide exposure in the 1960’s. But in
recent years, they’ve returned in large numbers to prime fishing areas in
the Great Lakes and elsewhere. In fact, they’re so good at catching fish,
commercial fishermen have been affected. In the first of a two part series,
the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly found that the biologists who
protect these birds are also looking for ways to get rid of them:
Peter Raven-Are We Facing a Mass Extinction?
Peter Raven is the director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. More than that, Raven is a world-leader in the effort to classify, understand, and use plants in a sustainable fashion.
Recently Time Magazine labeled Peter Raven one of the "Heroes of the Planet"
for his work in understanding plants and the environment. Raven is the
director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. In the first installment of a
three-part interview at the botanical garden, the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham talked with Peter Raven about his conclusion that
we’re facing a mass extinction of species:
Mercury Levels Spur Fish Advisories
Officials in three Great Lakes states are warning anglers that any fish
caught in their streams, rivers or lakes could have high levels of mercury .
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Scheck reports:
CUT: SCHECK (1:03 "…I’M TOM SCHECK.")
The Fate of Slant Drilling
Far below the bottom of the Great Lakes, valuable pockets of oil and
gas sit waiting to be tapped. But laws prohibit offshore drilling. So
for the last twenty years, oil companies have been using another method
to get to the deposits; it’s called directional or slant-drilling. Up
until this point, there hasn’t been much opposition. But now a number
of bills are pending that could change oil and gas development beneath
the lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports:
State Tries to Avoid Superfund Stigma
A polluted river in northeastern Wisconsin is due for a clean-up. But
who runs the massive project is a hot topic. The Environmental
Protection Agency may add the Fox River to its national priorities list,
more popularly known as Superfund. But state officials would rather
handle the project on their own…and have recently released preliminary
studies on how they envision the cleanup. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Patty Murray reports:
Clean Up Planned for Fox River
The state of Wisconsin is asking for the public’s opinion of its plan
to clean up a polluted river that flows into Green Bay. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Bald Eagle Reproduction
Bald eagles living near Lake Superior aren’t reproducing as frequentlyas those who nest on inland lakes. A new study blames the lack of foodrather than contaminated fish…and one of the study’s authors says policymakers should take note. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s ChuckQuirmbach has more: