Great Lakes Now

After 10 million pieces of beach trash, Chicago advocates push for sustainable packaging | Great Lakes Now

6 min read

After 10 million pieces of beach trash, Chicago advocates push for sustainable packaging

Plastic is the dominant source of beach trash in the Great Lakes region.

That’s the finding by the Chicago-based non-profit Alliance for the Great Lakes in a recently released report that analyzed beach litter picked up by its volunteers over the past 20 years.

“Twenty years of data collected by volunteers shows that 86% of the trash was either fully or partially made from plastic,” the Alliance said in a press release.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now Michigan

Who is working to preserve and restore wetlands in Metro Detroit? | Great Lakes Now

9 min read

Who is working to preserve and restore wetlands in Metro Detroit?

By Erica Hobbs, Planet Detroit

This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.

Wetlands don’t often come to mind when thinking about major metropolitan cities like Detroit. Bogs, marshes, vernal pools, and swamps contrast starkly with the city’s skyscrapers, roads, and industrial plants, and up to 90 percent of the area’s wetlands along the Detroit River have been lost since European settlement.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now

Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear case with broad implications for PFAS cleanup | Great Lakes Now

0 min read

Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear case with broad implications for PFAS cleanup

By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio

This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case that could have sweeping effects on state environmental regulators’ authority to force businesses to clean up PFAS pollution under the state’s spills law.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now

PFAS Roundup: Four Great Lakes’s states selected to test residents annually for environmental chemical exposure | Great Lakes Now

4 min read

PFAS Roundup: Four Great Lakes’s states selected to test residents annually for environmental chemical exposure

Six states were selected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to be awarded $5 million in order to test residents for environmental chemical exposures — like PFAS. Four out of the six states are located along the Great Lakes including Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York. These biomonitoring grants start September 2024 and go until 2027. 

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now

Cheryl Porter’s vision for the future of water | Great Lakes Now

1 min read

Cheryl Porter’s vision for the future of water

Great Lakes Now’s Anna Sysling spoke with Cheryl Porter, Chief Operating Officer of Water and Field Services at the Great Lakes Water Authority and the first African American president of the American Water Works Association (AWWA).

With 28 years of experience in the water sector, Porter shares her inspiring journey from junior chemist in Detroit to leading the AWWA.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.