Photo courtesy Lakeland PBS

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Conflicted Over Copper

SEGMENT 1 | Duluth, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois

Upstream of Duluth along the St. Louis River is the Mesabi Range — one of Minnesota’s legendary iron ranges. The region’s mining once employed thousands of people, but employment in mining has dwindled over the years. 

Now, though, a proposed copper mine called NorthMet promises to revive a shuttered taconite mine and create jobs in a region that needs them. But opponents say the effort also poses threats to the environment. 

Mine supporters say we need copper and other metals the mine will produce for products we all use every day. But will mine waste pollute the groundwater? 

And is the mine’s tailings pond a disaster waiting to happen? 

Lawsuits have the project on hold, and the issue will soon come before the state’s Supreme Court. If NorthMet moves forward, more new mines could follow.

This report was made possible in part by the Fund for Environmental Journalism of the Society of Environmental Journalists. SEJ credits The Hewlett Foundation, The Wilderness Society, The Pew Charitable Trust, and individual donors for supporting this project.

Here is Lorraine Boissoneault’s Great Lakes Now work in the “Conflicted Over Copper” series:

• Conflicted Over Copper: How the Mining Industry Developed Around Lake Superior
• Conflicted Over Copper: PolyMet copper-nickel mine has been trapped in litigation
• Conflicted Over Copper: Technological advances clash with environmental concerns in Twin Metals case

Twin Cities PBS explored what’s at stake in the Twin Metals project in a documentary. Watch it HERE.

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Damming Decisions

SEGMENT 2 | Traverse City, Michigan

Four dams were built along the Boardman River in Northwest Michigan to generate hydroelectric power for Traverse City. 

But by 2004 they were no longer economically viable. A decision was made to remove three of the dams and renovate the last one in downtown Traverse City. 

Now the removal of the dams has changed the nature of the river and allowed native fish to return. 

But as the river is being returned to its natural state, the challenge has been keeping invasive species out. The answer is a state-of-the-art research facility called Fish Pass that will use a collection of technologies to determine which fish can go through.  

As the first project of its kind, Fish Pass is a decade-long effort that will begin this fall and is expected to serve as a model program for other programs across the world.  Part of the project includes additional amenities at the Union Street Dam in downtown Traverse City, including a pedestrian bridge, rain gardens, kayak and canoe portages and special areas for educational programs. 

Dam removal in the Pacific Northwest is covered in the PBS documentary series “The Age of Nature.” For more information about that series, click HERE. 

“The Age of Nature” will air on PBS stations at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesdays, Oct. 14, 21 and 28, 2020.

Photo courtesy of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

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Carp Advance

SEGMENT 3 | Kentucky Lake, Camden, Tennessee; Fort Wayne, Indiana, Brandon Road Lock & Dam, Illinois; Empire, Michigan

Since their introduction decades ago, invasive Asian carp have infested rivers and lakes around the United States. 

They’ve been kept out of the Great Lakes — so far. 

Some steps have been taken to protect the lakes system, but many believe that more effective policies — and more substantial barriers — are needed to keep the fish from spreading and to reduce the numbers where they’re already established.

This segment was produced in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation, which is exploring the issue of Asian carp in a documentary film. 

Where are Asian carp in the Great Lakes Region? Learn more HERE in an earlier Great Lakes Now segment.

Can you tell the difference between the types of carp? Learn more in a previous Great Lakes Now video HERE.

Here is other Great Lakes Now work on Asian carp:

• State Struggle: Budget shortfalls stall Asian carp plan, put cleanups at risk
• Study links Asian carp with Mississippi River fish drop
• Asian carp caught in southwest Minnesota
• Divide: Federal agencies, advocates differ on Asian carp strategy
• Study: Asian carp could find plenty of food in the Great Lakes
• Book Club: New book about Asian carp chronicles history, future

In her “previous life” as a writer at Detroit’s Metro Times newspaper, GLN Program Director Sandra Svoboda once ate some Asian carp. Read about that HERE.

A probable ablation spherule micrometeorite that NASA scientist Marc Fries believes has a good chance of being from the 2017 meteorite fall. (Photo courtesy of Adler Planetarium)

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Lake Michigan Meteorite – UPDATE

SEGMENT 4: Chicago, Illinois

In the “Finding Impacts” episode, produced in December 2019, Great Lakes Now reported about the search for a meteorite that crashed into Lake Michigan two years earlier.

The Adler Planetarium in Chicago launched The Aquarius Project, a teen-driven program with the ambitious goal of recovering meteorite fragments from the bottom of Lake Michigan. Scientists and researchers from NASA and Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum of Natural History got involved, and the teens designed, built, tested, and deployed the world’s first underwater meteorite recovery sled.

After a lot of analysis, the team members reported this month that they found something.

Read Great Lakes Now’s article about the discoveries:

One Old, One New: Teen project finds meteorite fragments in Lake Michigan

Here are more Great Lakes Now stories about meteorites:

• Click through this interactive timeline to learn more about meteorites that have fallen into the Great Lakes.
• Learn more about The Aquarius Project in this interview with Chris Bresky HERE.