Lake Michigan Shoreline. The Gary Post Tribune reports today, in a story headlined: "Purchase of steel mill lakefront land first step in shoreline rehab":
PORTAGE — The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore announced an ambitious timetable Monday for cleaning up and opening to the public 60.63 acres of beachfront property it is purchasing from the U.S. Steel Midwest Plant. Superintendent Dale Engquist said the existing sewer plant on the property, which currently services U.S. Steel, should be demolished by May 2005. Engquist is hoping the beach will be open for hiking, swimming and fishing in about two years. The land, which lies within the authorized boundaries of the national lakeshore, will cost about $3 million when its purchase is complete soon.Electronic reporting of environmental data. An AP story today reports:
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - It sounds positively medieval in the computer age: submitting handwritten reports to the government.Is Indiana a member of the Network? I can't tell for sure. But here is the Network's website. And this list includes Indiana:Yet that was how hundreds of businesses and agencies in Michigan prepared monthly wastewater discharge reports - until the state began using a new online system designed to rescue environmental data collection from the technological Dark Ages.
"It was very cumbersome," said Bruce Merchant, wastewater superintendent for the city of Kalamazoo. "We had to write the numbers onto old computer forms that made four or five copies, so you had to press real hard."
Michigan has joined the National Environmental Information Exchange Network, a newly formed system that makes it easier for government workers to compile, submit and swap data collected under federal air and water pollution laws.
Thirteen states are members, and the total is expected to reach 35 this year, the Environmental Protection Agency says. Federal and local agencies and Indian tribes also can take part. Eventually, the network will be a vast reservoir of information accessible not only to government officials, but also to scientists, environmentalists and other interests.
"It does for environmental data reporting what the Internet does for the general public," said Kimberly Nelson, assistant EPA administrator.
The network will provide regulators with more accurate and timely information and will be especially helpful during emergencies such as floods, oil spills, even a terrorist attack, when officials need rapid, up-to-the-minute facts and the crisis cuts across different government jurisdictions, Nelson said. * * *
In Michigan, Beaulac estimates the change will save the DEQ $250,000 to $500,000 a year, mostly in reduced staff time. It is already paying off in Kalamazoo, where Merchant said the monthly reporting chore now takes about half a day of staff time instead of two or three days.
The average citizen cannot log onto the network. But membership will be granted to some private interests such as academics and environmental organizations. And much of the information will end up on Web sites that anyone can view. "Letting people have the raw data so they can crunch the numbers themselves and take off any spin that an agency might put on it is an important check and balance in the system," said James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council.
Nine states, consisting of Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin, recieved a Network Challenge Grant award to develop security and data exchange technologies to help states advance their capacity to participate in the Exchange Network.More environmental stories may be posted here later today. Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 27, 2004 08:27 AM