Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

After years of being written off as a putrid eyesore, the Chicago River is now slated for cleanup by the Obama EPA.

"'NUMBY' -- Not Under My BackYard. That's what Greenville, Ohio, residents told the U.S. government when it wanted to bury global warming emissions under the town."

"American Municipal Power, an Ohio nonprofit utility, will permanently retire its Richard H. Gorsuch Station coal-fired power plant near Marietta, Ohio under a settlement to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act."

"More than half of the students tested in Detroit Public Schools have a history of lead poisoning, which affects brain function for life, according to data compiled by city health and education officials."

Native Americans in Michigan are trying "to stop an international mining giant from destroying the site where Ojibwa ceremonies have taken place as long as elders can remember."

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a legal request by Michigan aimed at keeping voracious Asian carp out of the Great Lakes where they are considered a threat to fisheries."

"Environmentalist Jeff Spoelstra says an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River that runs through toxin-laced land in southwestern Michigan was on its way to becoming safe again. ...Then, in January 2009, Lyondell Chemical Co. filed for bankruptcy protection. The Houston-based petrochemical giant argued in court that as it reorganized, it could avoid what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said were about $2.5 billion in cleanup costs...."

"The Supreme Court on Monday rejected another request by the state of Michigan for an order to close two Chicago-area waterway locks to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes."