Environment

Deer Lake toxic cleanup completed, state tells feds

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING — Deer Lake in Ishpeming, classified as a major international toxic hot spot since 1987, may get a clean bill of health this year after decades of costly cleanup. Environmental officials and residents of Marquette County are awaiting U.S. State Department action on Michigan’s recommendation to remove the lake from the list of Areas of Concern – AOCs – established by the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian advisory group. Deer Lake was designated as an AOC in 1987. “At this point I do not have any information as to when the U.S. State Department will approve the delisting of the Deer Lake AOC, but hopefully by the end of October this will happen,” said Stephanie Swart, Deer Lake’s area of concern coordinator at the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). DEQ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “will be hosting a celebration up in Ishpeming when we get the word,” Swart said.

Environment

Oh, buoy! Info from webcams helps anglers on lakes Michigan, Erie

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING — A newly activated webcam on a Lake Michigan buoy can help forecasters and anglers get a better sense of weather and water. The buoy is the first of its kind in the Great Lakes, said Edward Verhamme, a project engineer with LimnoTech, the Ann Arbor-based engineering firm that will maintain the buoy through 2015. Every 10 minutes the buoy reports the average wind speed, direction, gusts, air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wave height and water temperature. Additional sensors measure and report rainfall and hail intensity. The webcam is a new feature that helps verify the data that the buoy measures.

Environment

Results mixed in new air quality study

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan has reduced overall air pollution since 2012, but its most populous counties still don’t earn a passing grade, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. Its State of the Air report provides grades of A to F in two areas: particle pollution and ozone action days. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) declares ozone days when smog and weather conditions create the risk of health problems.
Wayne and Macomb counties received failing grades in the ozone day category. Other counties that failed include Allegan and Muskegon, while Oakland, Ottawa and St. Clair received Ds.

Environment

Projects protect U.P.'s coaster brook trout

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Removing sand from the Salmon Trout River in Marquette County has helped protect the spawning sites of coaster brook trout, according to researchers. A sand collector was installed upstream last spring to intercept sediment before it reached the endangered trout’s spawning habitat, according to a report from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Marquette Fisheries Research Station. The machine pumps sand out of the river, preventing it from covering stream-bottom rocks where the majority of coasters spawn. The Salmon Trout River is the last Lake Superior tributary with a natural breeding population of the species, said Casey Huckins, the project leader and professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University. “They were once common throughout Lake Superior basin tributaries and nearshore waters, but the populations were wiped out due to over-fishing and habitat degradation,” Huckins said on the project’s fundraising website.

Education

New concussion rules take the field in June

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan will soon require K-12 schools to create awareness programs to educate coaches, parents and athletes on the perils of sports concussions. Meanwhile, the effort to raise awareness about the signs, symptoms and consequences of concussions is growing statewide. A concussion is a serious brain injury caused by a blow to the head. It often happens to participants in sports or other recreational activities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emergency rooms in the U.S treat an estimated 173,285 children and adolescents for concussion injuries each year.

Government

More courts use cameras to charge distant prisoners

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Macomb County is partnering with the state to expand its video arraignment technology to other jurisdictions, reducing the need to transport criminals from jails to courtrooms.
Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said that video arraignment of defendants who are being held outside county borders is safer and cost-effective. “Using interactive video conference technology will help us save money, operate more efficiently and improve security at the court,” Wickersham said. An arraignment is a formal reading of the charges to a defendant who is being prosecuted. A two-way video system will be used to conduct such judicial proceedings for suspects held at local or county jails and statewide prison facilities. The technology is similar to popular video conferencing programs such as Skype or FaceTime.

Environment

Fish farming in Detroit's future?

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING — For Detroit residents, easy access to fresh Great Lakes bluegill and catfish could be closer than they know. With enough seed money now in the bank from through Food Field’s FISHSTARTER campaign, the aquaponics project could take off this spring. The system has already been constructed. Food Field’s farmers needed the funds to supply the fish and purchase additional equipment. Noah Link and Alex Bryan created Food Field by transforming an abandoned school site in the Durfee neighborhood into a four-acre urban farm.

Education

New partnership, new online focus for student teachers

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – The University of Detroit Mercy is partnering with the Michigan Virtual University to help UDM education students learn to teach online. Both undergraduate and graduate students can enroll this summer in Advanced Instructional Technology/Teaching in the Virtual Environment. The program, which resembles a student teaching experience, is an introductory course focused on online instruction. Students will help teach a variety of subjects to high school students in virtual classrooms through the Michigan Virtual University. They will shadow online teachers at MVU while attending lecture-style classes at UDM.

Education

High price tag of college draws concern, ideas

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – A statewide discussion is underway on how students pay for tuition at public, private and community colleges. College affordability, an ongoing subject of debate, gained considerable momentum when President Barack Obama highlighted the topic while speaking at the University of Michigan last year. And a State of the State Survey from Michigan State University found that while 95 percent of residents believe a college education is “very important” for success, affordability is a barrier for many. The report, “A Look at the College-Going Culture of Michigan Adults,” indicated that 67 percent of residents “somewhat disagree” or “strongly disagree” that a college education is reasonably affordable for people in the state. Brandy Johnson, executive director of the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN), said she was thrilled by such ambition but discouraged with the financial struggle students and their families face.

Environment

Lamprey genome may lead to cures for human diseases

By |

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Genetic mapping of sea lamprey may lead to ways to control the invader and improve human health, new research suggests. A team of scientists has assembled the sea lamprey genome, providing insight into how to control the invasive species that has terrorized the Great Lakes basin since the late 1800s. That same research could help cure a rare disease in human newborns and further the study of degenerative brain disease. Researchers said that decoding the lamprey’s DNA has revealed genetic factors that enable it to survive and thrive in the Great Lakes. In addition to the invasive species, two types of lamprey are native to the Great Lakes – silver lamprey and American brook lamprey.