I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
One of the few Michigan communities that does not disinfect its public water supply has been ordered to begin treating its water after years of health violations involving elevated levels of coliform bacteria.
For 20 years the state has been encouraging the town of Three Rivers, population around 7,000, to begin continuous disinfection of its drinking water. Today the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment ordered the town to immediately begin chlorinating the water and to develop a long term plan for water treatment.
“The issue become more urgent because several tests last year came back high,” MDNRE spokesman Bob McCann said. “The current system doesn’t give assurance to residents that water meets Safe Drinking Water Act.”
According to an MDNRE fact sheeton the situation in Three Rivers:
Both state and federal Safe Drinking Water Act standards establish maximum contaminant levels or “MCLs” for total coliform bacteria as an indicator of water supplies susceptibility to other, potentially pathogenic or disease-causing, microorganisms.
Public supplies nationwide are required to meet the total coliform MCL and the vast majorities do. In Michigan, of 1,405 regulated water supplies, 1,046 have not experienced any total coliform violations since January 1, 2000. Only six supplies in the state have experienced six or more violations in the same period of time. The City has reported ten violations since 2000.
While citizen comments are generally divided in opining that the City’s water is “the best” in the state or the worst, those taste and odor preferences do not sway the fact that the City has reported more total coliform violations than any other supply in the state of Michigan serving a population of 5,000 people or more.
Some residents have reportedly opposed chlorination of the water supply out of concern that it could leave health damaging residues in the water.
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