Environment & Science

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Environment & Science
4:10 pm
Tue May 21, 2013

EPA grants $600,000 to help assess Wayne County brownfield sites

EPA grants $600,000 to help assess Wayne County brownfield sites

Credit Wikimedia commons
The area around Zug island in Detroit.

The federal government is giving a Wayne county agency $600,000 to assess more than 30 potentially contaminated sites in Southwest Detroit.

The grant will not cover the costs of cleaning up or redeveloping these sites but Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano says it's exciting to see more focus being placed on the city's neighborhoods.

Environment & Science
12:00 pm
Tue May 21, 2013

Read this for a brief summary of all the problems at Palisades

Read this for a brief summary of all the problems at Palisades

The SIRWT tank on top of Palisades Nuclear Power Plant
Credit Mark Savage / Entergy
The 'safety injection refueling water storage tank' (SIRWT) sits above the control room at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant.

Operators at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant announced yesterday that it will take until early summer to repair the plant and get it back online.

The plant was shut down after it was discovered that radioactive water had been entering Lake Michigan.

The leak came from a water storage tank that has continually caused problems at Palisades. Water from the tank dripped into the plant’s control room in May of 2011.

This time the water leaked onto the roof, down the roof drains, and out into the lake.

The Environment Report
9:00 am
Tue May 21, 2013

West Michigan birders compete to find the most species

West Michigan birders compete to find the most species

You can listen to today's Environment Report above or read an expanded version of the story below.

If you’ve always thought of birding as a quiet, relaxing hobby… you haven’t been to a Birdathon.

During the recent West Michigan Birdathon, I met up with Team Fallout (as in migratory fallout) at the Blandford Nature Center. Shortly after I arrived, we were scrambling to the top of an overlook.

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Environment & Science
9:45 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Palisades water tank repairs take to early summer

Palisades water tank repairs take to early summer

COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Operators of the idled Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Michigan say repairs to a tank that leaked slightly radioactive water into Lake Michigan will take until early summer to complete.

The plant is in Van Buren County's Covert Township, about 80 miles east-northeast of Chicago,

New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. idled the plant May 5 after operators found a tank leaking faster than regulations allow. Some slightly radioactive water entered Lake Michigan, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says there was no public health risk.

The plant which has had nine shutdowns since September 2011.

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