Category: Great Lakes Now
What is a liquid? Utilities sue to avoid coal ash cleanup — and lose | Great Lakes Now
By Gautama Mehta, Grist
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
Across America, millions of tons of toxic waste are sitting in pits next to coal plants. But whether they will get cleaned up has come down to a legal debate over the definitions of words.
PFAS News Roundup: End of Chevron deference may intensify drinking water contamination by further delaying PFAS cleanup, experts warn | Great Lakes Now
In an article by the Wisconsin Examiner, legal experts cited the myriad of ways the Supreme Court ruling on Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron deference, will likely harm future PFAS litigation. The decision came just days after a group of utilities and chemical companies filed three lawsuits in the U.S.
As climate change alters lakes, tribes and conservationists fight for the future of spearfishing | Great Lakes Now
By Melina Walling and John Locher, Associated Press
HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) — Chilly nights on northern Wisconsin’s Chippewa Flowage don’t deter 15-year-old spearfisher Gabe Bisonette. He’s been learning the Ojibwe practice for so long now that when his headlamp illuminates the eye-shine of his quarry, he can communicate the sighting to his dad with hardly a word.
FEMA will now consider climate change when it rebuilds after floods | Great Lakes Now
By Jake Bittle, Grist
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency spends millions of dollars to help rebuild schools and hospitals after a hurricane, it tries to make the community more resilient than it was before the storm.
Great Lakes Learning: Bringing back buffalo reef | Great Lakes Now
This lesson will explore the phenomenon of stamp sand deposition in the Buffalo Reef near the Traverse Bay area of Lake Superior. Native fish species use this ecosystem to spawn in the Great Lakes, but the remnants of copper mine waste are threatening their populations—and the people who depend on fishing for their livelihood.