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.
During the first quarter of 2010 Consumers Energy failed to conduct required environmental monitoring at two coal ash landfills associated with the company’s Karn/Weadock power plant outside Bay City, according to a Notice of Violation issued by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
The violation, made public by the state in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Lone Tree Council, states that the energy company violated the terms of its landfill license by not fulfilling its water monitoring obligations.
According to a recently agreed upon water sampling plan the company was to measure the water levels inside their ash piles and sample the surface and groundwater around the piles in order to determine whether toxins are leaching out of the landfills.
The DNRE Notice of Violation states that the company failed to implement the plan and failed to notify the state of its difficulties in establishing testing.
According to state records arsenic, boron and lithium have leached from the landfills.
The company recently installed a slurry wall around its 292-acre Weadock ash land fill and is in discussion with the state about how to prevent leakage at its 172-acre Karn landfill. Both landfills sit along the shore of Lake Huron.
“We applaud the DNRE for holding Consumers Energy accountable,” Terry Miller of the Lone Tree Council said in a statement. “We cannot allow Consumers Energy to brazenly sweep its toxic coal ash problems under the rug.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to implement new rules to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste.
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