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A new grant program in Michigan to rid drinking water systems of contaminants is proving to be quite popular.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy announced that 32 grant applicants, many of them small towns, requested more than $80 million in state funds. The problem? Only $25 million is available to hand out. |
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Recent storms provided relief to drought-stricken Istanbul and surrounding areas, leaving parched reservoirs in better shape than in mid-January, when water levels fell dangerously low.
After several seasons of limited rainfall, reservoirs in Turkey dropped last month to their lowest levels in years. In Istanbul, the country’s most populated city with 15 million people, dams were less than a quarter full, causing concerns over limited water supply in the coming months. But in recent weeks, a series of storms helped to alleviate the crisis, increasing water levels to 44 percent in reservoirs operated by the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration. |
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For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week’s episode of What’s Up With Water looks at: In Australia, government regulators rejected a mining company’s plan to expand two coal mines in the state of New South Wales. In India, the central government released its first national budget since the pandemic began. The spending plan includes a large boost for water infrastructure. In northern Minnesota, activists calling themselves water protectors have organized a makeshift camp to oppose the replacement of Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline. This week Circle of Blue reports on water affordability in Massachusetts. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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| | | Arnie Leriche holds a map of groundwater pollution plumes coming from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, in Oscoda, Michigan. Leriche, a community advisory board member who is involved with the site cleanup, stands in a field that was used for firefighting training at the base. The site is one of the major sources of PFAS chemicals into the area’s groundwater, rivers, and lakes. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue |
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Groundwater in Michigan is “compromised and deteriorated,” according to a 2018 report from FLOW, a Traverse City-based water advocacy group. Threats come both from legacy sites and current practices: abandoned industrial sites, military bases, dry cleaning facilities, landfills, septic tanks, underground tanks that store petroleum fuels, and fertilizers spread on farm fields. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has identified more than 4,000 potential sites where contaminated groundwater and soil could release toxic vapors into buildings. Other connections are just as hard to see. Excessive groundwater pumping in fast-growing Ottawa County has been found to worsen water quality because it pulls deeper, saltier water into wells.
The report criticizes Michigan on two fronts: for inconsistent policies that over decades allowed pollutants to accumulate in groundwater reserves, and for failing to provide adequate funds for cleanup.
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