MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Algal blooms have forced health officials to close five Madison-area beaches.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported Friday that the first tests of the season revealed blue-green algae blooms at beaches at BB Clarke, Olbrich and Warner parks and the Hudson Park lake access point.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-algae-blooms-wisconsin-beaches/
Oxygen levels have dropped in hundreds of lakes in the United States and Europe over the last four decades, a new study found.
And the authors said declining oxygen could lead to increased fish kills, algal blooms and methane emissions.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-hundreds-lakes-united-states-europe-losing-oxygen/
On the West side of the United States, residents are seeing problems crop up in their waters. Great Lakes region residents will find those issues familiar.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/05/tapped-out-power-justice-water-west/
The first full-year report for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s much-publicized H2Ohio water quality initiative is out.
Introduced in 2019, the plan has already reaped benefits for Ohio residents and will continue to expand in its scope, according to officials charged with its implementation.
The report was offered in a web presentation by Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Dorothy Pelanda, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Laurie Stevenson.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/h2ohio-agency-directors-wetlands-lead-agriculture/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/university-michigan-discovery-lake-erie-dead-zone/
Deep below the cold, dark surface of Lake Superior, sensors strung like pearls along a vertical steel cable sway with the currents. Recording the lake’s dropping temperatures as winter sets in, their gentle rhythm belies their worrying readings: the lake is getting warmer.
Jay Austin heaved several of these science experiments off a boat last fall – tossing concrete blocks into the deep water to anchor the cable of sensors stretching down from floating platforms just below the surface.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/lake-superior-researchers-impact-warming-winters/
As climate change complicates Lake Erie’s algae problem, scientists say farmers must do far more to reduce phosphorus runoff. But will enough farmers change their ways without a government mandate?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/farmers-pollution-lake-erie-regulations/
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled a two-year, $75 billion state budget on Monday that includes a $1 billion initiative to help bring the state back from the economic downfall of the pandemic.
The budget proposal was crafted “with the goal of emerging even stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic,” DeWine said as he announced the plan with Lt.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/ap-highlights-ohio-governor-proposed-2-year-spending-plan/
Since the late 1980s, four of the five Great Lakes have played host to an increasing number of invasive mussels. First came zebra mussels, followed shortly thereafter by quagga mussels, both members of the Dreissenid family whose native range includes the waters around Ukraine.
Today, the filter-feeders comprise more than 90% of the total animal biomass of the Great Lakes (barring Lake Superior, whose depth and water chemistry make it a less suitable habitat for the two species of mussel).
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/invasive-mussels-phosphorus-chemistry-great-lakes/
Along the shores of Lake Erie live a wide range of people whose lives might seem very familiar to or wildly distinctive from your own.
In the documentary photo series North of Long Tail, photographer Colin Boyd Shafer tells the stories of more than 20 residents of Lake Erie’s north shore.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/lifeblood-photographer-lake-erie-shoreline-residents/
America’s rivers are changing color — and people are behind many of the shifts, a new study said.
One-third of the tens of thousands of mile-long (two kilometer-long) river segments in the United States have noticeably shifted color in satellite images since 1984.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ap-one-third-of-americas-rivers-have-changed-color-since-1984/
This is part of a series in which the Great Lakes Now staff looks back on 2020.
In any effort to sum up the year that was 2020, one word is unavoidable: poop.
Don’t you agree?
At Great Lakes Now, we’ve kept our finger on the pulse of poop news all year, because we care about our readers and viewers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/on-the-pulse-ive-got-one-word-for-you-2020/
This is part of a series in which the Great Lakes Now staff looks back on 2020.
It’s probably futile to try to find ONE moment that captures 2020 for Great Lakes Now, at least from my view today at my dining room table/desk on a grey winter day.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/great-lakes-now-year-in-review-predicts-2021/
NOTE: The report will formally be presented in English at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, Dec. 10. A French session will follow at 3:30 p.m. For more details about how you can watch or ask questions, click here.
Public concern about climate change is escalating in the Great Lakes region, according to a new report issued by a binational group that manages and protects the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/public-concern-climate-change-runoff-chemicals-ijc/
The watersheds that feed the Western Basin of Lake Erie are home to thousands of crop and livestock farms. Those farmers use underground systems to manage rainwater, including many located where a massive swamp once made up the Ohio landscape.
All those farms face challenges managing fertilizers and water in their fields with drainage systems.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/field-tiles-drainage-systems-pose-problems-lake-erie/
A familiar view for many who live and play around the Great Lakes graces the current cover of National Geographic – a stormy sunset over Lake Michigan, seen from the sandy beaches of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The feature story of the magazine’s December 2020 issue puts a spotlight on the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/saving-great-lakes-national-geographic-december-issue-struggles/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/great-lakes-stressed-climate-change-worse/
Even casual observers of Great Lakes issues are aware of the problems associated with algal blooms.
Perhaps they remember the headlines from August 2014 when Toledo went without drinking water for three days due to the threat of toxic blooms contaminating the city’s water supply. Or a day their favorite beach posted “No Swimming” signs because of toxic algal bloom threats.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/small-streams-impact-great-lakes-water-quality/
By Jane Johnston, Circle of Blue
ALMA — Murray Borrello, wearing khakis and a loose-fitting brown button-up, walked down a backroad during the summer of 2019 listening to the sounds of the woods. Water from the Pine River flowed slowly beneath him as he looked out over a bridge.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/michigan-county-cafos-agriculture-water-pollution/
By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
This story is the first in a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from the Park Foundation and Water Foundation.
Once a week, Florencia Ramos makes a special trip to the R–N Market in Lindsay, California.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/drinking-unsafe-water-contaminants-solutions/
For the second time in two years Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center appears to have forced the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s hand in seeking solutions to Lake Erie’s ongoing nutrients pollution problem.
In U.S Northern District of Ohio Court hearings on July 17 and July 30, ELPC attorneys sought a summary judgement requiring the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/total-maximum-daily-load-court-case-ohio-epa-nutrients-lake-erie/
In her first regional appearance after taking office in January 2019, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made it clear that Michigan would take a leadership role on Great Lakes issues.
“Michigan has to lead on Great Lakes issues,” Whitmer told Great Lakes Now after speaking to fellow Great Lakes governors and Canadian premiers and the broader Great Lakes community in Milwaukee.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/michigan-state-great-lakes-drinking-water-quality/
As algal blooms flourish on the edges of the Great Lakes, lake management bodies look to cut down the flow of nutrients into the water that feeds the algae. But, as a recent report by the International Joint Commission explains, not all parts of the lakes suffer from too many nutrients — in fact, the deeper offshore waters aren’t getting enough.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/offshore-great-lakes-fish-populations-nutrient-levels/
As Ohio farmers in Lake Erie’s Western Basin watershed face declining crop prices, increased media scrutiny and the looming threat of stricter regulations on the industry’s use and release of nutrients which cause algal blooms in the lake and its tributaries, they are in a constant battle to reduce their footprint on the lake and to stay in business.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/cost-conservation-agriculture-lake-erie/
With two segments in the latest episode of the Great Lakes Now monthly program, producer David Ruck is bringing audiences insight about two major issues in the Great Lakes region: how pollution from farmland impacts water quality and what financial cost current high water levels are having for communities around the region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/water-great-lakes-now-producer/
Scientists believe a dry spring in Lake Erie’s western basin watershed will help keep the annual harmful algal bloom in check this summer and early autumn.
The bloom’s biomass is expected to rank 4.5 on a scale of 10 in terms of severity, according to Rick Stumpf, oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/toxic-algae-2020-harmful-algal-bloom-forecast-lake-erie/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Lake Erie’s annual blob of pea-green algae is expected to be smaller this summer than a year ago following a relatively dry spring, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect significant improvement toward reducing the nutrient pollution that causes it, scientists said Thursday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-2020-lake-erie-algal-bloom-forecast/
Warmer waters, heavier storms and nutrient pollution are a triple threat to Great Lakes cities' drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/rust-resilience-climate-change-drinking-water-quality/
As the author of Great Lakes Now’s Collection of Lesson Plans, educational consultant Gary Abud Jr. is now providing more support for parents, teachers and caregivers who want to incorporate Great Lakes learning into their time with children and students. His series of writings can be found HERE along with the lesson plans and a Virtual Field Trip.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/great-lakes-learning-toxic-algae-harmful-algal-blooms/
Michigan EGLE said the ban is intended to prevent manure from flowing into waterways. Manure is a leading polluter of the Great Lakes, inland lakes and streams.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/04/ap-michigan-ban-manure-croplands-winter/
