A northern Wisconsin tribe along with a coalition of groups moved Dec. 12 to block plans to reroute an aging pipeline around the tribe’s reservation, arguing state regulators have underestimated the environmental damage that construction would cause. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-line5-reroute
A bipartisan duo is pushing the House to pass a Great Lakes conservation bill that has already cleared the Senate. The bill would reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), a program that spans the lakes and is set to expire in fiscal 2026. Read the full story by Politico.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-glri
Researchers, companies and farmers are developing and deploying systems that can control agricultural runoff, benefiting landowners, water consumers and the environment alike. These controlled drainage structures have resulted in a 20 to 50% reduction in nitrate loads coming out of drainage outlets. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-drainage
Earlier this year the Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $50 million grant for a controversial copper mine in the Upper Peninsula. Now, the state House Appropriations Committee has given its support, too. A major point of concern is the potential for mine waste to escape into Lake Superior, less than two miles away from the mine site. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-up-copper-mine
The St. Clair River is a 40-mile watery conduit that connects Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair. It is a vital part of the Great Lakes and provides not only transportation for commerce, but habitat for wildlife, a recreational shoreline for human use, a supply of drinking water, and a place to boat and fish. One of the people trying to protect the river is the executive director of the Friends of the St. Clair River. Read the full story by Second Wave Media.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-st.clair-river
Cleaner water could have negative impacts on certain types of fish in Lake Erie, a study by researchers at Ohio State and other universities found. This is due to reduced nutrients impacting food creation for species like yellow perch. Read the full story by WOSU – Columbus, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-lake-erie-fish
The landmark Lake Erie case in federal court could be expanded again. The latest parties trying to become part of it are Lake Erie Waterkeeper and two national environmental groups, the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, and the Washington-based Food & Water Watch. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-lake-erie-case
The mayor of the Detroit suburb of Troy is the new chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, an agency responsible for fishery management, leading a science program, and controlling invasive sea lamprey. Read the full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-glfc
Crews have started work on a new attempt to refloat a cargo ship that ran aground in the St. Lawrence River near Morrisburg, Ontario, nearly three weeks ago. The U.S. Coast Guard says the operation to remove cargo from the vessel could take several days. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-stuck-cargo-ship
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has announced plans to no longer stock splake in Lake Superior. The fish is popular among anglers, and the move received considerable attention during their Lake Superior Fisheries Management meeting. Read the full story by Northern News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241213-splake-stocking
We know less about the bottom of the Great Lakes than we do about the surface of Mars, which is why the Great Lakes Observing System is leading a concerted effort to fully map the Great Lakes, surface to floor. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-lake-bottom-mapping
The multi-billion-dollar Great Lakes shipping industry is bracing for the impact of a potential 25% tariff on Canadian imported goods, as recently promised by President-elect Donald Trump. Shipping stakeholders worry the tariffs will hurt agriculture companies on both side of the U.S.-Canadian border. Read the full story by WCMU – Mount Pleasant, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-tariff-plan
More than 70 ships have plunged to the bottom of the Great Lakes during November. Among them was the S.S. Daniel J. Morrell, which went down in 1966 and claimed all but one crew member. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-daniel-j-morrell
On Thursday, Canada announced that land near the Lake Huron shoreline will not be used to permanently bury its spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization instead narrowed its focus down to land that a tribal nation in northwest Ontario. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-nuclear-fuel-storage
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced earlier this month that it approved Enbridge’s permits for its Line 5 reroute project. The permits are a step in a long list of necessary approvals for the energy company’s project, which aims to bypass the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Activists argue moving the pipeline farther up the watershed means it’s ultimately crossing more rivers and wetlands that drain into Lake Superior. Read the full story by Inside Climate News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-line-5
Ice coverage on Minnesota lakes has declined by an average of 10 to 14 days over 50 years, with ice-in dates about nine days later and ice-out dates moving four to five days earlier, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reported in 2021. But the effects of shorter lake ice duration? Researchers at University of Minnesota Duluth are trying to understand just that. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-minnesota-ice-coverage
A western Quebec First Nation is urging the provincial and federal governments to protect American eels from dangerous practices at dams in the upper St. Lawrence River watershed that have severely curtailed their population. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-american-eels
A new plan to free the Tim S. Dool, a large cargo ship that ran aground on a shoal along the St. Lawrence River near Morrisburg, Ontario last week is expected to be finalized early next week. Despite efforts to refloat the vessel, the vessel remains stuck. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-stuck-cargo-ship
Officials are launching a study to figure out how best to restore the area where Graham Creek meets Lake Ontario in Newcastle, Ontario. The Great Lakes Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative is earmarking $100,000 over a two-year period for the project. Read the full story by Durham Radio News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-clarington-waterfront
Since 1977, a mine waste slurry in Silver Bay, Minnesota, has grown to 2,100 acres — and the mining company wants to increase storage at the site. The expansion, which would include building upstream dams and managing stream mitigation adjacent to the tailings basin, which is located 600 feet above Lake Superior and only three miles away, has many concerned about the environmental safety of the project. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-wastewater-lake
Dunkirk, New York, is one of seven U.S. Great Lakes cities to get a share of nearly $3 million from the National Coastal Resilience Fund for shoreline projects. The $2.98 million will be used to complete design and planning for projects that address coastal and neighborhood flooding; erosion of dunes, beaches and bluffs; degraded habitat; and compromised infrastructure and public safety. Read the full story by The Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-shoreline-funding
More ships will be cruising the Great Lakes in summer 2025, carrying up to a few hundred passengers at a time. The growing industry is important to the communities with ports where the ships dock. Michigan cities like Holland, Marquette, Mackinac Island and Detroit have all benefited from the spending. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-cruise-industry
An old workhorse tugboat will have a new home. On Friday, November 22, the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation proudly completed the formal transfer of the Robinson Bay tugboat to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy during a ceremony at Eisenhower Lock in Massena, New York. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-robinson-bay
After nearly being wiped out in the mid-20th century, one of the Great Lakes’ top native fish species, the lake trout, has “fully recovered” in the Lake Superior, according to natural resource managers. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-lake-trout
Red Lake Nation leaders and state officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources disagree on how to combat zebra mussels at Upper Red Lake. Until 2018, Upper Lake and Lower Red Lake remained the only large walleye lake in the state still free from zebra mussels. That year the DNR announced it had found zebra mussel veliger — the tiny larvae — in Upper Red Lake. Read the full story Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-zebra-mussels
On November 12, 1878, the James R. Bentley was sailing across Lake Huron when a fierce storm blew in and took the schooner down. Now, after spending the past 146 years submerged in Lake Huron’s chilly waters, some of the rye on board may be getting a second life. A team of Michigan-based scientists, distillers and divers is trying to resurrect the long-submerged grains in hopes of one day turning them into whiskey. Read the full story by the Smithsonian Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-whiskey-from-shipwrecked-rye
Long-distancer swimmer, Jim “The Shark” Dreyer, has crossed all five Great Lakes, setting world records along the way. And at age 61, he’s still not finished. His latest challenge is Grand Haven, Michigan, to Milwaukee — his longest swim yet. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-jim-dreyer
A few years ago, the second only location in the Great Lakes to receive marine sanctuary designation came to Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary manages a collection, along with the state of Wisconsin, of 40 historic shipwrecks that are an important part of our nation’s history and story. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-wisconsin-shipwreck-coast
Whitefish Point, a sandy corner of Michigan’s eastern upper peninsula, juts out into Lake Superior. Of the 550 recorded shipwrecks on Lake Superior, more than 200 happened not far from there. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-whitefish-point
The phosphorus load, the nutrient that feeds harmful algae, into western Lake Erie is trending downward, but the 40% reduction target has yet to be met consistently. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-algae-bloom
Ohio State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson has been elected by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Legislative Caucus to represent Ohio on its executive committee for the next two years. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-great-lakes-st-lawrence-legisltaive-caucus
Sea lampreys are the newest residents at Michigan’s Cranbrook Institute of Science. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission provided the sea lampreys along with an enclosure and tank fittings for the exhibit which will allow guests to get up close to the invasive species. Read the full story by the Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-sea-lamprey-exhibit
The F.T. Barney, a two-masted schooner, collided with another ship and sank within minutes on Oct. 23, 1868, off the shore of Presque Isle, Michigan, in Lake Huron. Today it’s one of the best-preserved shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-shipwreck
The Department of Natural Resources will hold meetings in November on the future of smallmouth bass management in Door County waters, including a potential “catch and immediate release” rule. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-smallmouth-bass-managment
More than a hundred naval personnel joined city officials at Ontario’s Windsor riverfront Tuesday morning to greet and honor HMCS Harry DeWolf, one of Canada’s newest naval vessels. Part of a month-long deployment in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, the docked ship docked will be opening its decks to the public on the weekend. Read the full story by the Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-hmcs-harry-dewolf
Two cities, Tawas and Bay City, along Michigan’s “Sunrise Coast” are hoping to bring tourism and boost local economy by becoming a stop for Great Lakes cruise liners. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-new-cruise-locations
The St. Lawrence River Institute hosted the 31st Annual River Symposium from October 23 to 25, drawing researchers, students, policymakers, and community members where the event explored the theme “River Connections: Land, Water & Community,” highlighting the interdependence of ecosystems, nature, and human communities. Read the full story by the Seaway News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-annual-river-symposium
As swimming season draws to a close, unofficial tallies show 88 people have drowned in the waters of the Great Lakes so far in 2024, an increase from 2023. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-lake-michigan-drownings
Up to 3.2 million Michiganders may get their drinking water from PFAS-tainted aquifers, according to a landmark national study on “forever chemicals” in America’s well water, which is among the highest rates in the nation. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241030-pfas
New projects to improve the health of Lake Erie and the Detroit River have financial backing from the federal government. The Essex Region Conservation Authority’s projects will get $15-million from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change’s Great Lakes Fresh Water Ecosystem Initiative for two habitat projects planned for the Detroit River Area of Concern. Read the full story by Windsor News Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-new-funds-for-aoc
The 17th Annual Freshwater Summit will be held on October 30 in Traverse City, Michigan and will feature presentations on aging whitefish populations, effective swimmer’s itch prevention strategies, a microplastic survey, and a workshop on climate anxiety. Read the full story by WWTV-TV – Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-annual-freshwater-summit
As Western New York prepares for the cold winds of winter, New York Sea Grant and local groups are trying to prepare residents off Lake Erie for seiche events, with massive waves that can cause major damage. Read the full story by WBFO – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-seiche-events
The very dry September combined with the typical seasonal decline in water levels are bringing Great Lakes’ water levels down to lowest level in several years. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-low-water-levels
A state park with several historical elements, including two Lake Superior lighthouses, is getting a new long-range management plan and officials are seeking public input. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-lake-superior-lighthouses
The city of Cleveland will receive nearly $60 million in federal grant money for the proposed North Coast Connector project. The project aims to enhance waterfront access by increasing connection between Cleveland residents and the lakefront. Read the full story by WKYC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-cleveland-lakefront
Each Great Lake is now at least four degrees warmer than the typical surface water temperature for this date. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-lake-temperature
Wisconsin ranks second in the nation for dam failures in the last two decades, raising concern over whether extreme storms driven by climate change may overwhelm them and communities downstream. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-wi-dam-failures
Last December, the Coast Guard announced it was closing its station in Ashtabula, Ohio and downsizing its station in Fairport Harbor, Ohio because of understaffing. On Wednesday in Ashtabula, local leaders said that ending staffing there this summer did not end the calls for help they would have answered. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-staffing-coast-guard
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) is finalizing its Strategic Plan for Management of Trout Fisheries, which involves wild trout and finding places to stock 4.2 million hatchery trout each year. The plan is open for public comment until November 2nd. Read the full story by the Pocono Record.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241018-trout-stocking
New York’s Rochester Embayment, a 35-square-mile bay on southern Lake Ontario’s shore, is no longer considered one of the Great Lakes’ most environmentally degraded areas, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday. Read the full story by Spectrum News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241009-rocherster-embayment-delisting
