Wisconsin environmental regulators are proposing to add 51 new water bodies to the state’s list of polluted waters for 2024, as well as 81 new listings for pollutants in waterways. Phosphorus and aquatic plants account for the majority of pollution under new listings. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-wisconsindnr-pollutedwaterways
An effort to block invasive grass carp from spawning in the Sandusky River will be explained during a public information session in Fremont, Ohio, on Monday. Officials are doing a study to see if sound waves, bubble curtains, and other barriers can deter the fish from spawning. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-efforts-deter-grasscarp-spawning
It’s a tricky balance: get enough salt on the roads to protect drivers, but also be environmentally conscious. Salt alternatives — like beet juice, or sugar and corn by-products — are an option, but not a cheap option. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-beetjuice-salt-michigan-roads-winter
After spring spawning runs, walleye return to shallow waters of Lake Erie’s western basin and up into the river during the fall season, leading to good reports of walleye catches. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-walleyeseason-lakeerie-fall
Old dredge spoils may be the culprit in private well PFAS contamination around Wolverine Worldwide’s corporate offices in Courtland Township, Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-pollutionprobe-wolverineworldwide
Manoomin is the word in Native language Anishinaabemowin for wild rice, which is on the cusp of being designated Michigan’s state native grain. It is perhaps the most culturally significant plant species among Great Lakes tribes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-tribalefforts-wildrice-mi-state-symbol
Southeast Chicago residents joined members of the Alliance of the Southeast and Friends of the Parks to protest the 25-foot-tall waste dump the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to build on the existing confined disposal facility off of Steelworkers Park. Read the full story by WBBM – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-toxicwaste-environmental-rejectedplan
The St. Lawrence Seaway announced Friday the shipping channel’s St. Lawrence River section will close on January 5, 2024. That’s the latest scheduled closing since the Seaway opened in 1959. Read the full story by North Country Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-stlawrence-seaway-latestclosingdate
Check your car, kayak or a nearby rail car – it might be providing free transportation for an invasive pest or plant. And you can be part of a renewed effort to stop the invaders as the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network needs help finding and identifying invasive species. Read the full story by The Mining Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231113-land-water-invasivespecies
Flint residents have spent years trying and failing to get the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce laws that could prevent communities of color from bearing the brunt of pollution. They had hope when President Joe Biden took office, but then nothing happened. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-epa-environmentalracism-flint
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reversing a Trump-era decision, is restarting a human health assessment of nitrate and nitrite, a move that has potentially far-reaching regulatory implications for one of the country’s most pervasive drinking water contaminants. Read the full story by Circle of Blue.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-epa-assessment-nitrate-drinkingwater
Michigan is close to having its first official state grain in manoomin, a naturally-occurring rice that holds special significance to the tribes and people of the Great Lakes region. Read the fully story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-michigan-manoomin-officialstategrain
Federal money will help accelerate habitat protection near Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula National Park, one of 10 parks prioritized in a new program announced last week. The area surrounding the park is renown for its diversity of native orchids and ferns and is considered one of the Great Lakes’ biodiversity hot spots. Read the full story by The Shoreline Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-nationalpark-federalfunds-greatlakes
Ever want to ride your horse along the Lake Michigan shoreline? The one-month long shoreline horseback riding season at Silver Lake State Park in Mears, Michigan is underway now. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-horsebackriding-lakemichigan
A piece of Coast Guard history now calls the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, Michigan, its home after the installation of a restored lifeboat last month. Read the full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-greatlakesshipwreckmuseum-lifeboat-exhibit
Ohio science students traveled to Stone Laboratory near Put-In-Bay, Ohio on Lake Erie recently to experience a hands-on approach to research and exploration. Read the full story by WKBN-TV – Youngstown, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-localstudents-lakeerie
On Monday, while running a survey for data collection off the shore of Lake Michigan, a University of Wisconsin student lost connection to her research boat. Now, she’s asking for the community’s help to find it. Read the full story by WISN-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-um-madison-research-boat-lakemichigan
This year’s 48th Anniversary Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Event will be virtual on Friday, November 10 at 7 p.m. Read the full story by WJMN-TV – Paradise, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-greatlakesshipwreck-edmondfitzgerald-anniversary
On Sunday the Union ended the strike that shut down a key North American trade route when it agreed to the tentative deal with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp covering engineering, maintenance and other worker groups in Ontario and Quebec provinces. Read the full story by Reuters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231103-canada-unifor-union-stlawrenceseaway
A major effort to restore nearly 200 acres of wetland habitat at Powderhorn Prairie and Marsh Nature Preserve on Chicago’s Southeast Side is now complete after more than three years of work. The $1.2 million restoration project aims to restore natural historic water levels in the area, alleviate flooding and improve wildlife habitat. Read the full story by WTTW-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-wetlands-restoration-chicago-powderhornlake
Shipping on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River delivers an economic impact of more than $29.8 billion annually to Indiana’s economy and supports more than 158,000 jobs, according to new study. Read the full story by the News and Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-maritimeshipping-economy-indiana
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted an electrofishing operation on the St. Joseph River in Benton Harbor, Michigan, on Tuesday, surveying for grass carp and other invasive species. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-usfws-invasivecarp-stjosephriver
Governor Kathy Hochul announced construction is complete on resilience projects in Monroe County, New York. The $10.4 million projects included improvements to the sewage system in Hamlin, and an upgrade to Sandbar Park in Webster. Read the full story by WHAM-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-lakeontarioflooding-hamlin
City of Muskegon, Michigan, officials are considering purchasing 10 lakefront parcels at the former Sappi paper mill site on Muskegon Lake to increase public access on the property, which is slated for a massive mixed-use redevelopment by its pending new owner. Read the full story by Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-muskegon-lakefrontproperty-formerpapermill
The federal government has instructed workers and management in the St. Lawrence Seaway strike to sit down with a mediator this Friday and hash out their differences, as groups ranging from grain farmers to steelmakers feel the squeeze. Read the full story by The Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-stlawrenceseaway-strike-negotiations
The transition from groundwater to Lake Michigan water for Waukesha, Wisconsin, is nearing its end, and residents are beginning to form opinions. According to a mid-October Milwaukee Journal Sentinel survey , the new water source tastes fine. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-newwaukesha-water-lakemichigan
A labor strike has shut down a major artery for transporting goods between the Great Lakes and overseas ports, leaving some oceangoing vessels stranded or waiting to enter. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231025-seaway-strike
Along with running the state, Gov. Whitmer was named the next Chair of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers on Friday. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-govwhitmer-greatlakes-stlawrence-governorsandpremiers-chair
Construction crews are working to complete a modernization of the Soo Locks, a task given greater urgency by revelations about the economic impact of disrupted supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic. The question is whether the upgrades can get the funds they need in time despite a huge influx of cash from Washington. Read the full story by The Wall Street Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-us-expandmichiganlocks
More than 130 road and bridge projects have bought credits to Michigan’s Perry Wetland Mitigation Bank bank since it opened. It was the first wetland bank built using state gas taxes — and a second one just opened. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-manmadewetland-michigan-fixroads
Like most older urban communities in Metro Detroit, the Red Run has combined sewers – pipes carrying raw sewage and stormwater runoff. These aging systems are ill-equipped to handle the massive volumes of stormwater runoff that we’re now seeing – and will continue to see more of – due to climate change. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-rain-climate-metrodetroit-unprepared
This week, TV6′s Elizabeth Peterson takes you along on a journey through the Great Lakes aboard the Lee A. Tregurtha, a vessel with the Interlake Steamship Company. Read the full story by TV6 – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-tregurtha-greatlakes
Experts say nutrient-rich water from greenhouse farms could be harming Lake Erie, but Ontario’s Environment Ministry has issued very few fines for potential algae-causing infractions since 2019. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-lakeerie-southwesternontario
Thousands of water utilities across the Great Lakes region and nationwide will decide in the next three months whether to join two multibillion-dollar, class-action settlements against the largest producers of toxic PFAS chemicals that have tainted drinking water supplies. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-pfas-nationalsettlement-waterutilities
What’s needed in Michigan is a true affordability plan, water rights advocate Monica Lewis-Patrick told Great Lakes Now in an interview. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-michiganwaterrights
A Minnesota angler broke a 53-year-old state record with a coho salmon he caught during a fishing trip on Lake Superior in September. Read the full story by KMSP-TV – Minneapolis, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-minnesota-recordbreaking-cohosalmon
Sinkholes don’t just happen on land, they also exist in the Great Lakes, a topic that will be explored in the next lecture hosted by the Maritime Museum as part of its Working Waterfronts Lecture Series. Read the full story by The Herald Palladium.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-lakehuron-sinkholes
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2023-1016-maritime-shipwrecks-quaggamussels
Manoomin was once widespread across Michigan and the entire Upper Great Lakes. But hundreds of years of European settlement removed it from much of the landscape as settlers trenched and drained natural waterways, destroying countless acres of natural habitat. Now Great Lakes tribes like Bay Mills are working to restore wild rice to the ecosystem not only to reclaim cultural heritage but also to build thriving beds of the native species for the future. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-wildrice-greatlakes-anishinaabe
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a plan Thursday to reduce the amount of phosphorus flowing into the Maumee River and eventually into Lake Erie, where the farm nutrient is considered the main contributor to the creation of harmful algal blooms. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-usepa-passesplan-habs
Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) levels are high in 13 areas around Erie County as of Sept. 27, according to the Erie County Beach Water Testing Results website. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-habs-highlevels-eriecounty
A beloved Windsor landmark’s tenure in Reaume Park has come to an end after 45 years of shooting water jets in the air and covering visitors with refreshing mist from the Detroit River. The Charles Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain — the biggest floating fountain in the world — was disconnected and barged to Lakeview Park Marina for the last time on Thursday. Read the full story by the Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-floating-peace-fountain
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed state officials from a lawsuit related to past lead contamination in a small southwestern Michigan city’s drinking water but said the case could proceed against city officials, including the mayor. Read the full story by ABC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-lawsuit-michigan-bentonharbor
The $7 million project, part of the massive Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, first dredged tons of muck out of the lake that had settled there over decades. Then it deepened parts of the lake and restored aquatic habitat and fish spawning habitat. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-perch-stlouisriver
A new Michigan bill package is set to be introduced to the Senate next week regarding water affordability. The package includes creating a fund to help people statewide who are struggling to pay their water bills, but not everyone is on board. Read the full story by WDIV-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-wateraffordability-mi
The Ports of Indiana have an annual economic impact of $8.7 million, a new study concluded. Indianapolis-based port authority the Ports of Indiana commissioned the study to determine the economic contributions of its ports at Burns Harbor, Jeffersonville and Mount Vernon. The study looked at domestic cargo, international freight, wages, taxes and the economic output of companies at the ports, such as all the steel service centers that operate out of the Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor. Read the full story by the Northwest Times of Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-portsofindiana-economicimpactstudy
The Door County Maritime Museum’s annual Maritime Speaker Series kicks off its 2023-24 season Oct. 5 with the chance for guests to watch, listen and learn both in person and online. The speakers present on a variety of topics ranging from historical to current issues affecting the Great Lakes and the economy that relies on them. The programs are held the first Thursday of each month from October through May. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-greatlakes-fringehistory-maritime
The Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center is having a golden moment. It turns 50 years old today. Read the full story by WDIO-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230929-lakesuperior-maritimecenter-50years
By the end of the month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to decide whether to approve an Ohio plan to reduce phosphorus pollution that feeds cyanobacteria in Lake Erie. Cyanobacterial blooms have become much larger in the last 30 years and have become a major public health concern. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230918-epa-ohio-reducephosphorus
H2Ohio’s incentive program for agriculture producers is expanding statewide. The program, led by ODA, provides funding to producers to help offset the financial risk associated with implementing H2Ohio’s agricultural best management practices that work to improve Ohio’s water quality. The program has been available only to farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin, but producers throughout the state will be eligible to participate in H2Ohio beginning in 2024. Read the full story by The Courier.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230918-h2ohio-expanding-statewide
