After an explosion four years ago, Wisconsin’s only oil refinery, just a few miles from Lakes Superior, is on track to start up early next year. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221109-oil-refinery
Thought to be on its way out, western Lake Erie’s Summer 2022 algal bloom has grown since Oct. 29, and its unusually tough resiliency is baffling scientists, who admit they have no good explanation for why it’s been hanging around so long this year. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221109-algal-bloom
A Great Lakes partnership has launched a new initiative to help preserve the local whitefish population and maximize the amount of revenue pulled from the waters. Read the full story by WJMN-TV – Escanaba, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221109-100-whitefish
Historically, Michigan’s Rouge River has been one of the most polluted in the Great Lakes. Today, it’s being transformed into a cherished natural resource and a national model of urban watershed restoration. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-rouge-river
Enbridge’s’ proposed Line 5 tunnel continues to face opposition, including from the Michigan environmental group Oil and Water Don’t Mix, who call the plan a recipe for disaster. Read and listen to the full story by WXPR – Rhinelander, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-line-5
The sale by Discovery World Museum of Wisconsin’s flagship schooner to an organization in Boston, Massachusetts leaves many local supporters in Milwaukee “heartbroken” and leaves questions about the deal unanswered. Read the full story by the Shepherd Express.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-denis-sullivan
Zebra mussels have already wreaked havoc in the Great Lakes and now the invasive species has been detected in the St. John River watershed in Lac Témiscouata, just across the border in Québec. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-zebra-mussles
Researchers at the University of Michigan are developing web-based tools in anticipation of a future influx in climate migration. The tools will be an important part in helping Great Lakes communities prepare and plan for the future, which may include many new residents. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-population-growth
A new report calling the conditions in Lake Erie poor may have some questioning whether it is safe to consume fish from the lake. The New York Department of Health provides guidelines for individual species and how frequently they can be consumed. Read the full story by WYRX – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-fish-safty
Responding to the Ohio Lake Erie Commission’s and Ohio EPA’s recommendations from earlier this year, U.S. EPA has agreed to remove the “Restrictions on Fish and Wildlife Consumption” Beneficial Use Impairment from the Maumee Area of Concern. Read the full story by the Sentinel Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-maumee-river
Of all the rivers in the world, the St. Lawrence River is undeniably one of the most challenging for mariners, resulting in several thousand wrecks hidden below the river’s surface. New expeditions continue to explore the notable wrecks. Read the full story by The Conversation.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-shipwrecks
As of this week, 95 percent of Benton Harbor’s 4,500 water lines have either been replaced or verified as non-lead. The milestone comes exactly one year after state officials, with a big push from activists, began trucking cases of bottled water to the Michigan city that began struggling with elevated lead levels in 2018. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-benton-harbor
While Tribal Nations will receive $720 million for climate and energy funding via the Inflation Reduction Act, true partnership means respecting tribal treaty rights and defending tribal sovereignty against fossil fuel projects. In Michigan and other states, agencies must consult in a meaningful way with Tribal Nations. Read and listen to the full story by Newsweek.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221010-indigenous-peoples-day
The State of the Great Lakes Report by the U.S. and Canadian governments assessed that Lake Erie’s ecosystem health is poor, despite major improvements made to the waterbody over the decades. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-lake-erie
Three property owners with land along northwest Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a 2018 ruling by Indiana’s high court which declared that the shoreline is owned by the state for the public’s enjoyment. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-shoreline-ownership
Some Michigan lawmakers are outraged by a recent State Historic Preservation Review Board decision to move forward in the process of adding some lands near the Menominee River to the National Register of Historic Places. The Menominee Indian Tribe considers the lands, which span Michigan and Wisconsin across the Menominee River, culturally and historically significant. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-litter-historic-site
The nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes announced Thursday that, through its Adopt-a-Beach program, it has surpassed 500,000 pounds of litter removed from Great Lakes beaches and shorelines. Read the full story by WJSM – St. Joseph, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-litter-removal
A $15 million regional dredging project, part of New York’s $300 million Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative for communities affected by high water levels along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, has been completed. Read the full story by The Citizen.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-dredging
The M/V Mark W. Barker, built by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay for Ohio-based Interlake Steamship Company, reached the top 16 in preliminary voting in the seventh annual Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce-sponsored contest. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-freighter
A new study out of Michigan State University bolsters predictions that the warming from climate change will exacerbate pressures on monarch butterflies. But in the Midwest, monarch populations could stabilize or even grow. Read the full story by WJBK-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-monarchs
The Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, a Chicago-based organization representing the governors of the Great Lakes states and the Canadian premiers of Ontario and Québec, on Thursday launched its “100% Whitefish” initiative that promotes using 100% of a whitefish for different purposes and beyond just food. Read the full story by The Mining Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-whitefish
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is suing an out-of-state company for PFAS contamination left behind in West Michigan, claiming hazardous substances were found in the soil and groundwater. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220930-pfas
The cost of algae in Lake Erie is falling on shoreline communities like Toledo, where toxic algae blooms hike water bills by $100 per year for a family of five. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-water-cost
A group of researchers want to make it easier for scientists to get a better picture of when flooding events might occur in Michigan by developing a new groundwater model to monitor surface and groundwater flow. Read the full story by WKAR-TV – East Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-flooding
Leaders with the University of Toledo say it was a productive season of testing new technology on Lake Erie. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-alage-monitoring
Wisconsin’s Bayfield County residents will soon have access to a map of the county’s artesian wells, following a controversial proposal to bottle and sell water from a well near Lake Superior. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-bottled-water
Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new federal health advisories for forever chemicals in drinking water and stated its intention to deliver enforceable standards by the end of 2023. For Ohio, that means more than 1,500 public water systems across the state would be forced to comply with whatever mandates come down the pike. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-pfas
Wisconsin anglers are banding together to clean-up Pike River, a known rearing pond for many popular sport fish in Lake Michigan. Read the full story by WTMJ-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-river-clean-up
A TVO documentary mini-series premiering this coming Monday called Great Lakes Untamed will bring a “Planet Earth-style” production to the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth. Read the full story by the Manitoulin Expositor.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-tv-series
Lockhart Chemical Company was the source of an oily spill that spread more than 20 miles downstream along Michigan’s Flint River earlier this year. Now the company has been ordered to stop using defective wastewater and stormwater tunnels on its property. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-lockhart-chemical
The cruise ship industry is booming on the Great Lakes, and port cities are embracing it as an economic driver, with cities like Duluth — which hadn’t hosted any cruise ships in nearly a decade — investing in infrastructures such as new docks and customs facilities to welcome them. Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-cruise
Wild rice, or manoomin (good seed) in Ojibwe, is sacred to Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region but changing climate, invasive species and pollution are threatening the plant. Read the full story by WHEC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220921-wild-rice
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson joined more than 25 other mayors from across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin for a discussion about safe water Thursday, Sept. 15. Read the full story by WITI-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-safe-water
A federal judge said Enbridge has been trespassing for years with its Line 5 pipeline on sovereign tribal lands in Wisconsin, and some believe elements of the ruling eventually may be felt in Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-line-5
Along the shores of Lake Erie, a Northeast Ohio grassroots effort is underway. A small non-profit called Eriesponsible is doing its part to help keep the lake free of marine debris and raising awareness to protect the health of Lake Erie for generations to come. Read the full story by WKYC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-eriesponsible
In 2021, an invasive aquatic plant Hydrocharis morsus-ranae, or European frogbit, was sighted in the Green Bay area. Now the invasive plant has been slowly spreading in northeast Wisconsin. Read the full story by the Eagle Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-efb
The U.S. Coast Guard Station in Kenosha, and two others in Wisconsin, could receive a big boost from proposed bipartisan legislation that would authorize as much as $40 million to reconstruct each facility, according to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, one of the bill’s authors. Read the full story by Kenosha News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-coast-guard-station
Supported by the Michigan Invasive Species program, the monthly, hourlong webinars are designed to keep people informed about available programs, current research and emerging issues in the state and the Great Lakes region. Read the full story by WCHT – Escanaba, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-webinars
A private Ontario transport operator promising 30-minute hovercraft service between Niagara Region and the Greater Toronto Area says it expects the first trips will be made in the Summer of 2023. Read the full story by Global News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-hovercraft
During a recent sampling trip in Rocky River, Ohio, a Cleveland Metroparks crew caught a pink salmon, a type of Pacific salmon that is native to Alaska. Read the full story by WKYC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-pink-salmon
As the focus on water safety continues to heat up, Ottawa County, Michigan’s, largest employer Gentex donated multiple digital displays to identify water and swimming conditions more prominently. Read the full story The Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-water-safety
Earthjustice estimates 2 million tons of coal ash fill will still be left behind at Indiana’s Michigan City Power Generating Station even after the planned excavation. Read the full story by the Indianapolis Recorder.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220916-coal-ash
On Thursday evening, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers heard from the public regarding construction on Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 during an online event. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-line-5
A cross-border program keeps sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes at bay. But a two-year disruption was never part of the plan. Now experts predict there will be at least a temporary surge to lamprey populations in the lakes following a dip in control efforts during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read the full story by Undark.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-lamprey
The New York state Assembly is putting together a task force to examine economic development and environmental issues unique to the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario watersheds. Read the full story by Spectrum News 1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-task-force
A class of chemical compounds that are no longer produced in significant quantities nor being used in the manufacture of new products, called polychlorinated naphthalenes, or PCNs, has been found in herring gull eggs in the St. Lawrence River; the probable source of these chemical contaminants is the Detroit River. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-herring-gull
It was a banner year for the Great Lakes piping plover. Audubon Great Lakes reports 150 chicks have survived the fledgling process, the largest number since the bird was placed on the federal endangered species list in 1986. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-plovers
Since their launch August 6th, two uncrewed, drone-operated sailboats are quietly collecting data from Lake Superior to study the accuracy of fish abundancy estimates in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-sail-drones
The Lake Superior buoy operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, located a mere 50 miles offshore from Grand Marais, Minnesota, experienced anomalously cold water temperatures this year: temperatures that haven’t been recorded in decades. Read the full story by WTIP – North Shore, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-lake-temp
As lake sturgeon populations have decreased in Lake Michigan, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources hope to reintroduce and rehabilitate the lake sturgeon population through a streamside rearing program. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-sturgeon
