July 2025
- LAKE magazine
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Our publishing group in recent weeks received some great news about recognition our team members got from fellow journalists for our story-telling efforts.
The Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) released in mid-May the results of the 2024 competition and members of our publishing team picked up recognition in a few categories. Judges were SPJ members in other states.
Our team members compete in the Class C (under 50,000 circulation) category.
Cover Design: Chris Grammer took third place for his December issue design of the cover for the Restaurant Inspections longform story appearing in Downtown Newsmagazine, the sister publication of LAKE magazine.
Health Reporting: Mark Stowers took second place for his longform story on Restaurant Inspections.
Environment Reporting: Stacy Gittleman took second place for her July longform on Fluoride in Water, many months before it became a national issue.
I remind readers that locally we are the only publication still committed to providing longform story-telling on critical issues. These stories are planned out months in advance and require weeks of work on the part of the reporters writing these pieces. So recognition by journalism peers is an honor.
We are looking forward to entering our efforts in LAKE magazine to the journalism competition next year.
Speaking of our longform efforts, in this issue you will find, starting on page 30, a piece on renewed concerns about the use of biosolids as fertilizer for crops on Michigan farms. Biosolids are produced from human waste at a number of processing plants in the state.
Over 75,000 tons of dried and treated wastewater sludge was produced last year by Oakland-based treatment plants, along with the treatment plant that serves the Detroit metro area.
While this fertilizer is welcomed by many farmers because it is generally free, there are concerns about the impact on the human food chain, especially when one considers existence of forever chemicals (PFAS). While Michigan is often looked at nationally as the pioneer when it comes to standards of PFAS levels allowed in the farmland application of biosolids, there is at least one farm, in neighboring Livingston County, where land has been classified as no longer useable for growing food products due to soil contamination. The state of Maine has banned application of biosolids and in South Carolina, some farmland has been considered as comparable to toxic Superfund cleanup sites. All due to high levels of PFAS in the soil because of application of biosolids.
No one seems certain about how widespread the land contamination is in Michigan but land is generally not tested to determine the longer term impact of PFAS contamination. Without that knowledge, the possible impact on the waterway chains in the state due to runoff from farms can only be guesstimated, hence our decision to include this piece in LAKE magazine this month.
In this July issue, we also take a relatively detailed review of the 10 types of turtles that populate our state and can be found in Oakland County.
If you are one of the estimated 100,000 homes in Oakland, mostly in the western and northern parts of the county, that have private residential water wells, then our longform story on this issue should also prove of interest.
JULY FRONT COVER: This month our front cover was from a photo shot by Paul Stoloff of the rain-delayed Fourth of July celebration on Cass Lake. As a short reminder, we are still accepting photo contributions for the cover of LAKE magazine. In return we will send a check for $100 if we select a photo for one of our covers to be used in the remaining issues this year or in 2026 issues. So please keep sending us your work. We just ask that the photos you send be high resolution. Vertical photos work best for the magazine’s cover. When you send in your photos (lakephotos@downtownpublications.com), please include your home mail address so we can send a check if your photo is selected.
David Hohendorf
Publisher
