Special report - The Great Lakes: An endangered legacy

Error processing SSI file

Sunday, August 14, 2005

New threats, old wounds cripple precious waters
The Great Lakes are being squeezed from all directions. Invasive pests, stowed away in the bellies of freighters, are reshaping life in the water in ways people are powerless to stop. Development around the shore is intensifying pollution pressures. Sewage routinely fouls beaches. Thousands of tons of industrial waste run down sewer pipes and up smokestacks every year. 08/14/05

Urban sprawl
Relentless growth transforms Lakes
TRAVERSE CITY -- Drive a few minutes in any direction and the transformation here is obvious. Houses spring up out of old cornfields and orchards; shopping centers materialize next to them. Every year brings more people, more houses, more cars and more roads, changing the landscape relentlessly. 08/14/05

A rural shift
Mega-farms threaten nearby waters
HUDSON, Mich. -- Looking down the length of one of Stephen Vander Hoff's long white barns is like looking at two football fields crowded with cows. He has three more just like it. 08/14/05

Creeping development in region plows under farmland
HOLLAND TOWNSHIP -- Like it or not, the suburbs have come to Nelvie Van Kampen. 08/14/05

Aging sewer systems
Massive sewage releases turn lakes into cesspools
DETROIT -- If you're looking for Mahanvir Prasher, don't bother trying on a rainy day. 08/14/05

Estrogen found in waters alters sex organs of fish
Fish in the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair have been detected with sexual abnormalities and scientists say they may be linked to estrogen -- or chemicals that mimic estrogen -- showing up in waterways. 08/14/05

Industrial pollution
Worries grow over toxins raining down
SARNIA, Ontario -- Over the years, the chemical plants that squat in gray rows along the river here have spilled thousands of pounds of industrial poisons into the water, roiling their neighbors on both sides of the border. But even more troubling, some environmentalists say, are the toxins that escape invisibly into the air. 08/14/05

Pollutants leave scarred landscape
THOMAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Most of the pollution swirling past John Taylor's back yard is older than he is, byproducts of a vast chemical plant upstream still churning in the Tittabawassee River's slow currents. 08/14/05

Invasive species
Foreign species crowd out local fish
The Great Lakes are in the throes of an environmental meltdown, with more than 180 foreign species of animal and plant life in its waters, scientists say. 08/14/05

Plant invaders stir up lake problems -- and residents
Foreign marine animals aren't the only threat to the Great Lakes. So are non-native plants. 08/14/05

The seaway
Invasive species hitch ride on big ships
The job of trying to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes currently falls to a 10-inch device that looks like a miniature clarinet. 08/14/05

Battle of habitat vs. highway plays out on seaway
DETROIT -- After squelching calls three years ago to substantially deepen the 2,350-mile St. Lawrence Seaway and enlarge its locks, environmentalists are gearing up for another battle pitting the needs of fish and other wildlife against those of commercial shippers. 08/14/05

The personal toll
Fishing industry suffers as Lakes shift
ALPENA -- Skinny whitefish mean a thinner wallet for John Gauthier. 08/14/05

Sewage spills make millions sick each year
To get ready for grueling races across Lake Ontario, Canadian Pat Kriwoy and his outrigger team practice water-switching -- the time-sensitive moment when a rested paddler treading water quickly lifts himself up into the canoe and swaps places with an exhausted paddler. 08/14/05

Health warnings persist about PCBs, mercury found in fish
DETROIT -- The most visible reminder of the toxic chemicals that still taint the Great Lakes are the health warnings cautioning fishermen that not everything they catch is safe to eat. 08/14/05

New threats
Warmer climate will change Lakes
Global warming could suck enough water from the Great Lakes to send their levels plunging several feet, wiping out wetlands and wounding commercial shipping. 08/14/05

New toxins appear in lakes
A generation after the United States promised to stanch the flow of toxic pollution into the Great Lakes, scientists are finding evidence of a new crop of chemicals building up in the waters. 08/14/05

Studying the Lakes
The range of threats facing the Great Lakes is so broad and complex that scientists still don't fully understand them all. A number of studies promise to offer additional details. Among those being planned or already going on: 08/14/05

The diversion debate
Thirsty states may covet Lakes' water
Prowling the streets of Albuquerque, N.M., water cop Carol Edwards spotted a serious offense -- water merrily flowing down a street gutter. 08/14/05

Bottled-water dispute could weaken control over Lakes
EVART, Mich. -- The biggest battle over plans to siphon water from the Great Lakes and sell it someplace else isn't about pipelines or tanker ships. 08/14/05

Hope builds for federal bailout bill
WASHINGTON -- Environmentalists and some Michigan lawmakers see a window of opportunity this coming year to seek passage of a multibillion-dollar package to revitalize the Great Lakes. 08/14/05

Report outlines rescue strategy
The $20 billion recommended by a presidential task force to rescue the Great Lakes would pay to upgrade old sewage systems, speed up the restoration of highly contaminated areas, expand wetlands and boost native fish populations. 08/14/05

Money for cleanup of toxic sites evaporates
The money that pays to clean up toxic hot spots in Michigan and the rest of the region is drying up, even as lawmakers and environmentalists are setting their sights on a multibillion-dollar federal cleanup of the Great Lakes. 08/14/05

The push for legislation
Canada doesn't follow as U.S. bans drilling
While Congress permanently banned drilling under the U.S. side of the Great Lakes last month, Canada has no plans to halt production of oil and natural gas in its sections. 08/14/05

U.P. mine proposal triggers controversy
Environmentalists warn that a controversial proposal to open a nickel mine in the Upper Peninsula may mark the beginning of a mining boom that could threaten fish, spoil the wilderness of the Yellow Dog Plains, and leak dangerous sulfuric acid and heavy metals such as mercury into waters flowing into Lake Superior. 08/14/05

Restoring national treasures
Over the past two decades, Congress has agreed to help rescue three other celebrated environmental sites. Here's a look at ongoing federal efforts elsewhere: 08/14/05

A national treasure
Rescue requires tough choices
MONROE -- There was a time when the idea of swimming in Lake Erie was almost laughable: Pollution fouled the water, and green slime coated the beaches. Even today, there are parts of the lake Florence Anderson avoids. 08/14/05

A historical perspective
08/14/05

About this report
Over two months this summer, The Detroit News interviewed more than 200 scientists, regulators, fishermen and other people who live, work and play around the Great Lakes, tracking the continued threats to the lakes that range from development, pollution and invasive species to fears other parts of the country will try to siphon some of the water. 08/14/05