Great Lakes News Collaborative

Communities in Michigan and elsewhere in the Midwest are taking steps to guard against groundwater depletion, including some surprising places near the Great Lakes.

As researchers learn more about the hazards of plastics and microplastics in the Great Lakes, it's becoming clear Canada and the U.S. need to cooperate in stopping the pollution.

It took years of resident complaints and millions in federal money but the lead water lines have finally been replaced. But now there's a growing challenge in this cash-strapped city: ever-increasing water bills.

Federal money can be used to restore wetlands, buy property to use as a buffer, and invest in nature-based infrastructure.

Consumers Energy is weighing what to do with old, hydropower dams that cost more to operate and maintain than the value of the energy they provide. But removing the dams has consequences for major rivers and local economies.

Almost a century later, frog-bit has become a formidable nuisance, especially along parts of Lake Huron and in southeast Michigan.

Industrial pollution taints the fish in a host of Michigan rivers, but anglers often don’t know the risks. River walkers like Jim Bridgforth aim to change that — but not everyone has the luxury of skipping a fresh-caught meal.

Training exercises like the one that recently took place in Rogers City help companies that transport or store oil in the Great Lakes prepare for a worst-case scenario.

Once abundant in Michigan, wild rice has dwindled in numbers since the early 1900s. Now, tribes are partnering with government agencies to bring back the grain that is vital to their heritage.

Big money is coming into Michigan, other states, but an expert says 'the elephant in the room is: where are the workers going to come from?'

In 1961, Michigan’s bald eagle population dipped to 52 breeding pairs. Bans on DDT and other harmful chemicals fed a recovery. But the national bird still faces threats from lead bullets and sprawling development.

NOAA satellite images and a research vessel sampling Lake Erie water both found evidence of harmful algal blooms on July 5, a much earlier date than typical.

Nearly $1.2 billion is to be spent at one site to prevent invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes. There are a dozen more places where the carp could get in.

Residents of Highland Park face $24 million in delinquent water bills.

Some Michigan water suppliers may be eligible for payouts from the settlement over the chemical that was used in thousands of everyday products and has been linked to cancer and other health woes.

As Michigan economic development officials fret over population loss that threatens the state’s future, some see a potential solution in so-called “climigrants” fleeing drought, wildfires, hurricanes, rising seas and heat.

The attorney general on Wednesday filed a brief in Wisconsin federal court supporting a Native American tribe’s effort to shut down the Line 5 pipeline over fears of a rupture into a river that runs through tribal land.

The Edenville and Sanford dams once blocked invasive lampreys from entering upstream rivers. But the 2020 dam failures provided an opening, and lamprey now threaten native fish. Regulators say they have a plan.

Great Lakes whitefish are in decline, in part because dams block their passage to rivers where they once spawned. Tribal scientists are looking to save a fish of economic and cultural importance.

Thanks to the Clean Water Act, the Rouge is no longer a dumping ground for industrial waste. But its gains are fragile and incomplete, with contaminants still soiling the river bottom and the fish that returned to its waters.