Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Technician James Stone works to remove a floating solar-powered telemetry receiver from the Mississippi River backwaters near La Crosse, Wis. on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (AP Photo / Todd Richmond)

Over the last five years, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have employed a new seek-and-destroy strategy that uses turncoat carp to lead them to the fish’s hotspot hideouts.

(WTTW News)

Meet Ellis Chesbrough, Chicago’s first city engineer and designer of the water delivery system we still use today. WTTW News Explains how water cribs work out on Lake Michigan. 

Flamingos stand by the water along a Lake Michigan Beach on Sept. 22, 2023, in Port Washington, Wis. (Paul A. Smith / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP)

The American flamingos spotted Friday in Port Washington, about 25 miles north of Milwaukee, marked the first sighting of the species in Wisconsin state history.

Lake Michigan. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
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Representatives of Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, said Chicago's lawsuit was “meritless” because the company never manufactured or disposed PCBs in or near the Chicago area.

A water rescue device is pictured in a file photo. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

A pair of water rescues on Chicago's lakefront over the holiday weekend resulted on one person dead and another in critical condition, according to the Chicago Police Department. Indiana officials report a teen drowned in East Chicago.

The Wisconsin Historical Society released this image from Lake Michigan. (Wisconsin Historical Society)

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Trinidad was built for the Great Lakes grain trade between Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo and Oswego. The ship’s owners did not invest much money into its upkeep, leaving its career relatively short.

Flooding in Chicago. File photo. (WTTW News)

It might come as a surprise given our proximity to Lake Michigan, but some of Chicago’s neighbors could soon be facing a water shortage. According to a new report, flooding and scarcity can “wildly alternate in the same place or transpire in proximity to each other.”

(WTTW News)

A 19-year-old woman was seen struggling in the water Wednesday night.

(WTTW News)

The drowning was the second in a week along the Northwest Indiana lakefront. Chicago police are also investigating the death of a man pulled from the lake near Rogers Park. 

Lake Michigan is pictured in a file photo. (WTTW News)

The boy went missing in the water near the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk Beach in Indiana. This marks the seventh drowning in Lake Michigan in 2023.

An aerial view of the Chicago Area Confined Disposal Facility, a 45-acre site on Chicago’s Southeast Side that has been in operation since 1984. Inset: The CDF is outlined in red. (Credit: Army Corps of Engineers)

The Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to build a 25-foot-tall “toxic tower” on Lake Michigan has hit a speed bump.

The BP Whiting refinery in East Chicago, Ind., stands on Sept. 21, 2017. (DroneBase via AP, File)

The 134-year-old refinery, located between Hammond, Indiana, and Chicago, is the biggest in the U.S. Midwest and sixth largest nationally. It processes about 440,000 barrels of crude oil daily, making a variety of liquid fuels and asphalt.

(WTTW News)

Researchers at Northwestern University found that people who live directly next to Lake Michigan or along one of the major interstate highways running through Chicago are regularly exposed to more air pollution than residents in the rest of the city.

An aerial view of the Chicago Area Confined Disposal Facility, a 45-acre site on Chicago’s Southeast Side that has been in operation since 1984. Inset: The CDF is outlined in red. (Credit: Army Corps of Engineers)

Opponents of a toxic sludge landfill on Lake Michigan have filed a lawsuit to stop a plan by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to expand the dump by 25 vertical feet.

Foster Avenue, in the North Park neighborhood. Experts say a single mug of salt is enough for 10 squares of sidewalk. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Road salt runoff is making its way into Great Lakes waterways. Wisconsin has pending legislation that could encourage contractors to use less.

“The Great Lake Jumper” Dan O’Conor takes a plunge into the frigid waters of Lake Michigan, as he does every morning, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, in Chicago. O’Conor has jumped every day since June 2020. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)

You might call Dan O’Conor an amateur authority on cold water immersion. Since June 2020, the 55-year-old Chicago man has plunged into Lake Michigan almost daily, including on frigid winter mornings when he has to shovel through the ice.