THE GOAL: An artist’s rendering shows a section of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids after a nearly $28 million river improvement project is finished. (courtesy image) Michigan may be the Great Lakes State, but its 36,000 miles of rivers are becoming popular commodities for cities looking to revitalize downtowns, attract visitors and lure […]
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Posted inBusiness Watch
Drooping natural gas prices slow rush to 'frack'
Two years after oil and gas companies spent a record $178 million for the right to drill on state land, the rush to tap deep deposits of natural gas using a controversial drilling technology known as “fracking” still has momentum in Michigan. Even the Chinese government has joined the pursuit of what could be large […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Michigan's air cleaner, but watch out for carp and friends
Michigan may be best known as the home of the domestic auto industry, but state officials are focusing more on creating a wider public image, focusing on the spectacular natural world found so near the auto assembly lines. The state’s highly successful Pure Michigan tourism advertising campaign showcases many of them, including the Great Lakes, […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Michigan's map of LUST
There are approximately 9,100 underground storage tanks in Michigan (LUSTs in environmental parlance) leaking fuel into the surrounding soils and water. While more than 13,000 such sites have been cleaned up over the years, Michigan’s current backlog is the second-largest in the nation. Half of the current sites fall under the responsibility of the state — and the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan struggles against gas-tank leaks
Just before reaching the stunning vista of Grand Traverse Bay, motorists driving into Traverse City on U.S. 31 pass an abandoned gas station that symbolizes one of Michigan’s most serious but undervalued environmental problems. The former Union 76 station at the corner of U.S. 31 and West Front Street sits atop a large plume of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Big job, little money: State lags in tank cleanup
Dale Flaherty said he and his friends in the resort town of Lake Ann used to joke that buying gasoline at the local convenience store was risky, because the fuel was allegedly contaminated with water. And they were right, sort of. Contamination did occur. No one knew until the late 1990s, though, that gasoline from the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Fuel-tank cleanup leaves mess above ground, too
Michigan’s program for cleaning up leaking underground storage tank faces a major overhaul this year, one that could make cleanups simpler and less costly. But the planned changes, which are moving through the Legislature, won’t address one of the program’s biggest weaknesses: The program is grossly underfunded. Michigan spends $20 million annually cleaning up leaking […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Ruling could bog loggers in paperwork
Margaret Minerick’s family has survived many challenges over the past four decades as they built a large and successful timber business in the Upper Peninsula community of Sagola. Today, Minerick Logging and its sister company, Sagola Hardwoods, employ more than 100 workers in the western U.P. But Minerick, who is president of Sagola Hardwoods, fears […]
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