"Climate change and invasive mussels may have made Lake Erie a more inviting host for toxic bacteria in recent years, suggesting that ambitious goals are needed for reducing phosphorus runoff that feeds large blooms like the one that forced a temporary tap water shutdown in and near Toledo, Ohio, scientists said Wednesday."

"Trucks hauling mounds of sand into the southern Minnesota town of Winona for delivery to drilling sites across the nation's shale regions are not spewing dangerous dust emissions into the air, preliminary data shows."

"When billionaire Chris Cline's company bought an option to mine a swath of northern Wisconsin in 2010, the company touted the project's potential to bring up to 700 well-paid jobs to a hard-pressed part of the state."

"Environmental groups came up short in their fight to prevent freighters from sweeping or washing limestone, iron ore, coal and other non-toxic remnants of their dry cargo into the Great Lakes."

"The Great Lakes Commission wants to slash the amount of phosphorus flowing into Lake Erie, the source of toxic algae outbreaks and the reason the city of Toledo lost its drinking water for two days this past summer."

"Although not the primary source of Great Lakes algae, climate change is exacerbating the problem and making it harder to reduce phosphorus and other nutrients that help algae grow, experts say."

"The Obama administration announced a new 5-year plan for the Great Lakes on Wednesday that will accelerate efforts to address toxic pollution, invasive species and farm runoff and restore plant and wildlife habitat."

"At first glance it appears to be nothing more than a natural mound swathed in sumac and buckthorn, and shadowed by cottonwoods, like much of the land fronting the Mississippi River gorge. But that mound, actually a dump site, has become the focus of ongoing concerns about pollutants left by the Ford Motor Co. at its former factory site in St. Paul."

"Nearly 400 years after French voyageur Jean Nicolet arrived with a bang on the banks of lower Green Bay — he fired two pistols skyward to announce the white man's arrival in the world's largest freshwater estuary — the same stretch of shoreline was the scene of another fateful landing."