The Environment Report

Our series on Asian carp continues.  We’ll take a look at a proposal to sever the man-made connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system to try to keep carp out of the Lakes... and why a number of industry groups don’t like the idea.  Some people argue there are ways to make it work for everyone.

Many biologists say the best way to keep Asian carp from getting into Lake Michigan would be to completely separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River watershed.  But in the first of our five-part series, Adam Allington reports that basin separation comes with its own multi-billion dollar price tag, and would require re-plumbing the entire City of Chicago.

The vast majority of climate scientists agree that climate change is real.  But you won’t hear a lot of politicians talk about it these days.  We’ll hear what’s changed in political circles from author Bill McKibben.

For decades, communities have been preserving land in Michigan using grants from the Natural Resources Trust Fund.  Now some state senators want to change the way the system works.  We’ll hear how land conservancies could be affected.

A Texas gas pipeline company wants to shut down transmission lines across several states... and possibly convert them to carry crude oil.Governor Snyder’s office and several businesses have filed objections to the plan.  We'll hear why the federal government will have to weigh in.And... 20 new positive hits for Asian carp DNA have turned up in Lake Erie.

People who live in southwest Detroit’s Delray neighborhood could have a new bridge in their backyard.They’ve already lived with pollution for decades and many have moved out. But others say they want to stay.We'll hear about life in Delray.

Enbridge Energy plans to build a bigger oil pipeline across the state. The company says, not only will it be bigger and move more oil. They say it will also be safer than the line that broke in 2010.The Michigan Public Service Commission approved the first phase of the project last May, but some landowners have sued. They say they weren’t properly notified that the construction work could force them to give up more land. And that Enbridge could remove more trees.And... the last big summer holiday is right around the corner. On Labor Day weekend, folks will roll out their grills, slap on some burgers or asparagus, and kick back before the cool weather returns. But which kind of grilling is greener? We sent reporter Jennifer Guerra to find out which is better: gas or charcoal.

Pine martens are feisty little critters.The animals were wiped out in Michigan... and reintroduced decades later.Their populations haven’t rebounded and biologists don’t know why.That’s on the next Environment Report. 

We’ll meet a husband-and-wife team who launched a crowd-sourced website called Real Time Farms dot com.  Anybody can add info and photos about farms to the site.We’ll hear why they want to get us more connected to where our food comes from...

The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant near South Haven has been shut down again. This is the second time this summer Entergy Corporation has had to shut down the plant for repairs.  We'll get an update from Michigan Radio's Lindsey Smith.

There haven’t been a lot of mosquitoes around this summer. Except for the kinds of mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus. 

We’ll hear about the hunt for Asian carp in Lake Erie.State and federal officials are out on the lake looking for the fish after finding carp DNA in samples from last summer.

It’s been a rough year for tart cherry farmers in northern Michigan, but grape growers have done very well. We’ll visit a farming family that’s made the transition from one fruit to the other...On the next Environment Report.

There’s a pollution problem in the Huron River.  It’s not new pollution – it’s left over from many decades ago. We’ll hear where it came from and who’s cleaning it up.

Scientists are analyzing new data that’ll determine whether offshore wind farms are viable in Lake Michigan and the data is more detailed than any available from the Great Lakes so far.A floating eight-ton research buoy is collecting the data. There are only three such vessels in the world and this is the first one launched in the United States.