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Water in (Re)View
What do I really love about water? The smell of rain, the floating in it, the slipperiness of our bodies swimming in it. The way that floating with ears under the surface mutes all sounds except my own heartbeat and blood flow. The way we gather around it, flock to it, retreat at it and in it.
Manatees in Massachusetts???
Well, Labor Day is behind us and fall is here, unofficially. What stands out for me this summer is the weirdness of the weather and...manatees! It is official: we have just experienced the warmest summer yet -- NASA has confirmed that and is predicting that 2016 will be the warmest year on record, on track to surpass 2015 which previously held the title.
Additionally, this summer was the driest on record for Boston, with under 4" of rain in June, July and August. And my poor garden is hurting, as are our region's farmers.
The weather definitely has me off-balance and concerned, but what really
Michigan’s Outdated and Dangerous Combined Sewer Systems
Many of Michigan’s urban and suburban areas expanded rapidly between the 1920s and the 1950s — an era with different priorities for water management. Many of Michigan’s water systems were originally built as combined systems, meaning the pipes carried both stormwater and wastewater. These systems simply discharged all water directly into local lakes, rivers, and streams, without treatment. Wastewater treatment centers were built later, and the combined sewer pipes were redirected there for the water to be processed before being released back into the water table. Starting in the mid-1950s
Protecting Michigan’s Waters: Infrastructure for the Future
Michigan is the Great Lakes state. As such, Michigan residents are acutely aware of our duty to protect the Great Lakes and our water resources for future generations. There are currently many threats to our water here in Michigan. Most of these threats have been looming for years, but action on them has been pushed off, as our legislature procrastinates and ignores the problems instead of taking the hard steps that action requires.
The Flint water crisis brought the dangers of lead infrastructure and poor oversight from the state to the surface and a city was poisoned as a result. Every year
Michigan’s Aging Septic Systems
E. coli is a major bacterial pollutant in Michigan’s water. While E. coli is commonly talked about in reference to combined sewer overflows and large-scale agricultural operations, there is another major source of E. coli in our water that every state in the country other than Michigan has worked to eliminate — leaking and failing septic systems.
Michigan is currently the only state that does not require regular inspections of septic systems, and the problem is only getting worse with time. Septic systems are generally found in rural areas where municipal sewer systems don’t exist, or in older