Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

"Advocates and U.S. government agree to list the gray wolf as "threatened" in Minnesota and to put ones in Wisconsin and Michigan on the endangered list."

"AmerenIP hopes to begin a massive environmental clean-up at the former site of McCabe Scrap Iron & Materials Co. [in Galesburg, Ill.,] by September or October. Galesburg Gas Light & Coke Co. produced gas beginning in 1861 at the 3-acre site, with coal tar as a waste product."

When the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened 50 years ago, it promised to move the ocean 1,000 miles inland, boost commerce, and light cities. But some think it has been an environmental nightmare.

The Cuyahoga River, which became a symbol of pollution when it caught fire 40 years ago, has come back to life.

"Five wildlife protection groups today filed legal action challenging the removal of Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region."

"At least 10,000 more properties in residential neighborhoods of Evansville will be tested for lead and arsenic contamination in the soil of their yards" from foundries going back to the 1880s.

"Nearly a month after the onset of a navigational dredging project in the Saginaw River that some worry will send dioxin-contaminated sediments downstream toward the intakes for Bay City’s water supply, EPA officials responded to citizen concerns by announcing it would not test the water for the toxin."

"The largest, deepest and coldest Great Lake holds another distinction -- the highest levels of the contaminant toxaphene in the region and possibly anywhere in the world."