"Head in any direction on Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula and you will reach gushing rivers, placid ponds and lakes -- both Great and small. An abundant resource, this water has nourished a small Native American community for hundreds of years. So 10 years ago, when an international mining company arrived near the shores of Lake Superior to burrow a mile under the Earth and pull metals out of ore, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa had to stand for its rights and its water."

"BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- In this predominantly black town with the lowest per-capita income anywhere in this hard-hit Rust Belt state, municipal leaders allowed a development group to take over the heart of a city park that fronts onto Lake Michigan -- land originally bequeathed to the people of Benton Harbor forever."

"GARY — The secluded west side neighborhood once filled with chickens and horses has been replaced by giant yellow excavators and crews in hard hats. No remnants of the Hispanic enclave nicknamed Cowboy Town remain now as the cleanup of the toxic Ralston Street lagoon shifts into high gear after decades of delay."

"TOLEDO, Ohio -- A FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary said Thursday that they discovered and contained a pinhole-size leak spraying radioactive coolant at their Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio."

"About a mile south of Lucas Oil Stadium in Downtown Indianapolis, Tony Chao stood fishing one recent morning on the bank of the White River."

"Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sued current and past owners of Phillips 66's Wood River, Illinois, refinery on Tuesday, alleging the ground water in the nearby town of Roxana, Illinois, was contaminated by the plant."

"Crews are working to ensure that no more structures are damaged by a wildfire burning across more than 30 square miles of Michigan's Upper Peninsula."

"BP will spend more than $400 million to significantly reduce noxious air pollution from its massive refinery in northwest Indiana, the company announced today in a settlement with federal authorities and environmental groups that could set a precedent for oil companies nationwide."

"COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Doctors given new access to the proprietary chemical recipes that oil and gas drillers use to crack into Ohio shale would be prohibited from sharing the information with the public under an energy proposal moving through the Ohio House."

"FRAZEE, MINN. - Don and Norma Smith couldn't understand why their sheep stopped producing lambs in the mid-1990s. When half the animals died mysteriously over one winter, they gave up on the profitable hobby that had won blue ribbons for their kids at the Minnesota State Fair."

"Edison International announced Wednesday that Midwest Generation will shutter Chicago's Fisk and Crawford coal plants in September, ahead of schedule and years before a state-imposed deadline to clean up or shut down the plants.

"DETROIT -- The first call came in from one of the control towers at drawbridges along the Rouge River. It was April 10, 2002, and by the time the reports of large amounts of oil in the water reached U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, the spill likely had been under way for at least a day. By the time the contaminated flows had stopped, as many as 250,000 gallons of oil had spread over three miles of the Rouge, into the Detroit River and been carried as far south as Lake Erie."

"CLINTON, Ill. -- Fly over Clinton and the 266-acre landfill south of town doesn't look much different than 44 other landfills in Illinois.

But beneath its surface of inoffensive trash, the kind you put at the curb each week, are 4 trillion gallons of water used every day for public use, industry and irrigation in 15 Central Illinois counties.

And if ever the two shall meet, there could be trouble for the 750,000 people who rely on the Mahomet Aquifer, especially if Area Disposal's landfill starts accepting PCBs, a certain type of hazardous waste.

"A federal judge has ruled that NCR Corp. is responsible for paying for environmental damage to the Fox River in northeastern Wisconsin -- a decision that is expected to jump-start stalled cleanup work on the massive pollution project."

"With spring having sprung, it will only be a matter of time before many area residents who have ash trees will find out if their trees will be added to the rapidly growing list of victims of the notorious emerald ash borer."