(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - A Milwaukee Common Council committee took a welcome step forward this week when it recommended that the city declare an interest in selling Lake Michigan water to the city of Waukesha. That doesn’t mean the city will sell the water, but – if the full council follows suit Dec. 22 – declaring its interest in a letter to Waukesha allows discussion and the process to move ahead, and that is a good thing.

By Elisabeth Pernicone
Dec. 16, 2009
Due to its many health threats, mercury is regulated in foods, pesticides and industry.  But some coal-fired power plants in the Great Lakes region discharge mercury into water at levels hundreds of times greater than deemed safe for wildlife and up to 25 times greater than deemed safe for humans.
It’s all legal, and even when it’s not, most violators are never fined.
Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to step up its regulations of mercury and other contaminants in coal-fired power plant wastewater.  While mercury …

By Sarah Coefield
Dec. 15, 2009

Power plants across the nation dump water laced with metals and other contaminants into streams and lakes, threatening drinking water supplies and wildlife.
Some states let plants emit metals at hundreds of times the level that federal officials say is safe.  Others don’t even require monitoring for most of them.
But now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a new regulation that would require more than 600 coal-fired power plants to clean up—perhaps even eliminate—the waste they put into lakes, rivers and other waterways.
And electricity users will …

(VA) USA Today - It sounds like science fiction: an alien invasion of Lake Michigan by toddler-sized scum suckers. But around Chicago, the fear is so real that governments have already spent more than $11 million building electronic defenses to zap the invaders and trying to poison them.

(MI) The Associated Press – A town-hall meeting in Detroit is taking a look at the effect of diesel pollution in the city.

(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Less than two weeks after fishery experts spent about $3 million to poison the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in a desperate attempt to beat back an Asian carp invasion of Lake Michigan, the federal government has announced it will throw another $13 million at the problem.

(MI) Detroit Free Press - The Great Lakes are the absolute crown jewels of Michigan and the Midwest (“Capitol Hill joins in carp assault,” Dec. 13). Michigan has by far more Great Lakes shoreline than any other state. We must protect the Great Lakes at all costs, for the sake of our environmental and economic futures.

Burning coal is dirty business. This special report explains how clean air has come at the cost of dirty water and why coal-fired power plant wastewater is poorly regulated. See links below to stories.
Dec. 15, 2009
Great Lakes states spotty on coal limits; some water contaminants ignored. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is pushing coal-fired power plants to clean-up or eliminate waste they put in waterways.
Dec. 16, 2009
Mercury limits vary for Great Lakes; may harm already polluted waters Enforcement of wastewater discharge is confusing. Here’s why.
Dec. 17, 2009
Few Great Lakes …

(IL) Chicago Tribune – When we learned that wildlife officials had spent $3 million poisoning the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to kill one Asian carp (and tens of thousands of innocent by-swimmers), our first response was whew!

(MI) Detroit Free Press - As Michigan’s attorney general prepares to file lawsuits this week to force Illinois and federal agencies to do more to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, some members of Congress also are mounting an anti-carp assault.