Great Lakes
TechTown is developing a Center of Excellence for the Great Lakes environment that offers unique resources for supporting regional economic development and environmental research. The long-term goal is development of a comprehensive center that includes cross-environmental data, environmental research companies, technology development businesses and monitoring and enforcement activities.
Companies in the Great Lakes Center of Excellence:
The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center was founded to protect the world’s greatest freshwater resource and the communities that depend upon it. Based at TechTown in Detroit, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center has a board and staff of dedicated and innovative environmental attorneys to address our most pressing environmental challenges. The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center was also founded on the idea that law students can and must play a significant role in shaping the future of environmental law. In all of our work, law students are one of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center’s most valuable resources.
Current projects include:
- The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center is working with state leaders and conservation groups to stop the spread of invasive species like the zebra mussel in the Great Lakes.
- Working on behalf of the Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center is challenging the U.S. EPA’s new rule exempting water transfers from Clean Water Act regulation.
- The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center will continue working with the Council of Great Lakes Governors, the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus, and numerous regional, state and local environmental organizations to implement the Great Lakes compact through state programs and make sure that it is enforced to protect our water resources.
- We are currently working with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Law and Policy Center to represent the Sierra Club in challenging the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Michigan.
- The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center works to reform water law by educating lawmakers and the public, litigating precedent setting cases, and researching new policy approaches and solutions.
Great Lakes Environmental Digital Library
The Great Lakes Environmental Digital Library is developing a comprehensive environmental data system linking atmospheric, aquatic and terrestrial measurements of urban watershed quality to give a complete picture of the urban environment at any given time. The implications of this effort extend beyond watershed management to public health, economic development and national security concerns.
Visca is an advanced engineering research and design company that provides services from basic research in sensing and micro system needs to the evaluation of working prototypes.
Visca has large programs dedicated to water monitoring, bacteria and chemical contamination detection for beaches, streams and lakes. Visca has been working on these projects for more than three years for the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. Visca is the main commercial arm for developing a field-portable and point of use real-time bio/chemical monitoring system for water.