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In: Featured, Lake Michigan, Recreation and Tourism, whitefish, Wisconsin

STURGEON BAY, WISCONSIN — It’s midmorning in late February, and Bruce Smith is regaling two ice fishing buddies when a tug on his line interrupts the story.

“There we go!” he shouts as a shimmering 23-inch whitefish appears through a hole in the ice. “That’ll make a nice filet.”

No sooner has Smith tossed it into a cooler than his buddy Terry Gross reels in another one. Five minutes later came another bite, then another, until by 10:30 a.m. the trio had hauled in 15 fish — halfway to their daily limit, even after putting several back. 

Welcome to southern Green Bay. Or as Smith likes to call it, “Whitefish Town, USA.”

Once written off as too polluted to support many whitefish, the shallow, narrow bay in northwest Lake Michigan has produced an unlikely population boom in recent years, even as the iconic species vanishes from most of the lower Great Lakes. The collapse has dealt a blow to Michigan’s environment, culture, economy and dinner plates.

Oddly enough, nutrient pollution from farms and factories may help bolster the bay’swhitefish population, spawning a world-class recreational fishing scene while helping a handful of commercial fisheries in Michigan and Wisconsin stay afloat despite the collapse in the wider lake.

“This is a paradise,” Smith said. “The best fishing I can ever remember, for the species I want to catch.”

Terry Gross, 63, hauls in a large whitefish in the ice fishing shanty he shares with Ed Smrecek, 73. Both men are from Appleton, Wisconsin. (Daniel Kramer for Bridge Michigan)

As scientists work to understand what makes Green Bay unique, their findings could aid whitefish recovery efforts throughout the Great Lakes. Michigan biologists, for example, have drawn inspiration from Green Bay’s sheltered, nutrient-rich waters as they attempt to transplant the state’s whitefish into areas with similar characteristics.

“Having places they (whitefish) are doing well … gives us context for the places that they aren’t doing well,” said Matt Herbert, a senior conservation scientist with the Nature Conservancy in Michigan. “It helps us to figure out, how can we intervene?”

But lately, sophisticated population models have shown fewer baby fish making their way into the Green Bay population, prompting worries that Lake Michigan’s last whitefish stronghold may be weakening.

A Great Lakes miracle

Not long ago, it seemed impossible that a fishery like this could ever exist in Green Bay.

Before the Clean Water Act of 1972 and subsequent cleanup efforts, paper mills along the lower Fox River — the bay’s largest tributary — dumped toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the water without restraint while silty, fertilizer-soaked runoff poured off upstream farms.

Southern Green Bay was no place for “a self-respecting whitefish,” said Scott Hansen, senior fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Lake Michigan’s much larger main basin, meanwhile, was full of them. 

Commercial fisherman Todd Stuth’s business got 80% of its catch from the open waters of Lake Michigan before the turn of the millenium. Now, 90% comes from Green Bay.

How did things change so dramatically?

Invasive mussel shells are more common than pebbles on a Lake Michigan beach near Petoskey.  (Kelly House/Bridge Michigan)

First, invasive filter-feeding zebra and quagga mussels arrived in the Great Lakes from Eastern Europe and multiplied over decades, eventually monopolizing the nutrients and plankton that fish need to survive. Whitefish populations in lakes Michigan and Huron have tanked as a result.

Fortunately for Wisconsin and a sliver of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Hansen said, “Southern Green Bay kept building.”

In the late 1990s, scientists began spotting the fish in Green Bay area rivers where they hadn’t been seen in a century. Soon the species started showing up during surveys of lower Green Bay. By the early 2010s, models show the bay was teeming with tens of millions of them.

It’s not entirely clear what caused the whitefish revival, but most see cleaner water as part of the equation.

A decades-long restoration project has cleared away more than 6 million yards of sediment laced with PBCs and nutrient-laced farm runoff from the Fox River and lower Green Bay. Phosphorus concentrations near the rivermouth have declined by a third over 40 years — though they’re still considered too high.

“Pelicans are back, and the bird population seems to be thriving,” said Sarah Bartlett, a water resources specialist with the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District, which monitors the bay’s water quality. “And now we have this world-class fishery.”

Hansen’s theory is that back when whitefish were still abundant in Lake Michigan, some wanderers strayed into the newly hospitable bay and decided to stay. Or maybe they were here all along, waiting for the right conditions to multiply.

Either way, the bay has become a lifeline for whitefish and the humans that eat them.

“I feel very fortunate that the bay is doing as well as it is,” said Stuth, who chairs the state commercial fishing board. 

As commercial harvests in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan plummeted from more than 1.6 million pounds in 2000 to less than 200,000 pounds in 2024, harvests in Green Bay skyrocketed from less than 100,000 pounds to more than 800,000.

The bay has also become more important to fishers in Michigan, which has jurisdiction over a portion of its waters.

While the state’s total commercial harvests from Lake Michigan have plummeted 70% since 2009 to just 1.2 million pounds annually, the decline would be steeper were it not for stable stocks in the bay. Once accounting for just a sliver of the catch, the bay now makes up more than half.

Vytautas Majus, who lives in Chicago, left the city at 2 a.m. to be on the ice fishing for whitefish by 7 a.m. Behind him, the horizon is dotted with ice shanties and anglers also hoping to land a whitefish. (Daniel Kramer for Bridge Michigan)

A recreational ice fishing scene has sprung up too, with thousands of anglers taking to the ice each winter, contributing tens of millions to the local economy.

Ironically, the bay’s lingering nutrient pollution may be helping to some extent – a dynamic also seen in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay. 

Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen are the building blocks of life, fueling the growth of aquatic plants and algae at the base of the food web. Plankton eat the algae, small fish eat the plankton, and big fish eat the small fish.

Unlike the main basins, where mussels have hogged nutrients and starved out whitefish, polluted runoff leaves the shallow bays with more than enough for the mussels and everything else. 

Some have even suggested Michigan and its neighbors should start fertilizing the big lakes in hopes of giving whitefish a boost, Herbert said, but “there’s the question of feasibility.” 

First, because the lakes are far deeper and wider than the bays, it would take vast quantities to make an impact. And while excess nutrients may help feed fish, they could also cause oxygen-deprived dead zones, harmful algae blooms and other serious problems.

Green Bay is already offering other lessons for Michigan, though. 

Inspired by whitefish’s return to the bay’s rivers, biologists including Herbert are trying to coax Michigan whitefish to spawn in rivers that connect to nutrient-rich rivermouths like Lake Charlevoix. 

The hope is that if hatchlings can spend a few months fattening up before migrating into the mussel-infested big lake, they’ll stand a better chance of surviving.

Scientists in Green Bay are also tracking whitefish movements, hoping to figure out where they spawn and what makes those habitats special. That kind of information could prove useful to recovery efforts throughout the Great Lakes, said Dan Isermann, a fish biologist with the US Geological Survey.

Living in ‘the good old days’

“We’re really lucky to have what we have here,” said JJ Malvitz, a commercial fishing guide who owes his career to Green Bay’s whitefish resurgence. 

But he lives with fear that “the good old days are now.”

(Courtesy of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

Stocks have shrunk by half since the mid-2010s, according to population models fed with data from DNR surveys and commercial and recreational harvests. The adult whitefish seem to be fat and healthy. But for reasons unknown, fewer of their offspring have been making it to adulthood.  

It’s possible the bay’s population is just leveling off after a period of strong recruitment, Hansen said, “but we want to be vigilant.”

A recent string of lackluster winters adds to the concern. Whitefish lay their eggs on ice-covered reefs. When that protective layer fails to form or melts off early, the eggs can be battered by waves or enticed to hatch early, out of sync with the spring plankton bloom that serves as their main food source.

As whitefish disappeared from the main basin of Lake Michigan, they experienced a resurgence in Green Bay that still isn’t fully understood. (Courtesy of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

While this winter was icier than most, climate change is making low-ice winters more frequent.

“Whitefish are a cold-water species, and we know that’s not where the trends are going,” Hansen said.

Time to cut back?

So far, Wisconsin officials haven’t lowered Green Bay’s annual whitefish quota of 2.28 million pounds, evenly split between the commercial and sport fisheries. Commercial boats are limited to fish bigger than 17 inches, while recreational anglers are limited to 10 fish a day of any size.

A group of ice fishermen grill hot dogs outside an ice shanty on Green Bay in late February. (Daniel Kramer for Bridge Michigan)
A large whitefish is measured after being caught by a recreational angler. (Daniel Kramer for Bridge Michigan)
A hearty catch of whitefish from a morning of fishing on Green Bay. (Daniel Kramer for Bridge Michigan)

But during a recent presentation to the state’s Natural Resources Board, Hansen said it’s time to start keeping closer tabs on the population. 

“If these trends continue,” he said, “We need to have some more serious discussions amongst ourselves about lowering the exploitation rates.”

Malvitz, the guide, believes it’s time for commercial and recreational anglers to collectively agree to harvest fewer fish. He would be satisfied with a five-fish limit for recreational anglers along with smaller quotas for the commercial fishery, which harvests far more fish. 

The bay’s whitefish reappeared quickly and unexpectedly, he said. Who’s to say they couldn’t disappear just as fast?

“I don’t want to be standing on the shore in five years saying ‘remember when,’” he said. 

Stuth, the commercial fishing board chair, isn’t ready to accept tighter quotas in the bay, but said population models should be closely watched. If the declines continue, he said, cuts may be on the table.

“A very conservative approach is going to be necessary,” he said. “Because it’s our last stronghold. If that goes away, what do we have?”

The post A Wisconsin whitefish refuge offers lessons for Michigan. But will it last? appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/12/a-wisconsin-whitefish-refuge-offers-lessons-for-michigan-but-will-it-last/

Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

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In: Featured, History and Culture, Latest News, Recreation and Tourism, shipwrecks, Wisconsin

By Richelle Wilson, Wisconsin Public Radio

This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.

Paul Ehorn started scuba diving as a teenager in the early 1960s. On his first dive, he was wearing a self-assembly wetsuit he purchased from a Montgomery Ward catalog for $28.

“The water’s cold, probably the low 40s, and I came up just shivering uncontrollably,” Ehorn told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “All I could say was, ‘How long before we can go back in?’”

“I was hooked. That was it,” he added. “It just became a passion and obsession.”

After that, it wasn’t long before Ehorn picked up some sonar gear and started what would become a lifelong career as a shipwreck hunter. Now 80 years old, he has discovered 15 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. 

His latest find, which he announced to the public in February, is Lac La Belle, a luxury steamer that sank in Lake Michigan more than 150 years ago. The ship has been on Ehorn’s radar from the beginning due to his interest in wooden steamers and because it’s “close to home,” he said in the press release. 

After nearly 60 years of searching, Ehorn got the clue he needed and finally located the sunken wreckage about 20 miles offshore between Racine and Kenosha.

“It was just a wonderful day,” Ehorn said. “Beautiful wreck, it turned out.”

A scuba diver approaches the bow of the Lac La Belle. Photo courtesy of Paul Ehorn

Ehorn and his crew first found the wreckage of Lac La Belle in 2022, but he waited to publicly share his discovery until conditions were right to go down for a dive to film the ship and create a 3D model. Documenting the shipwreck is an important part of the process to educate the public and give historians a unique view into the past.

“All of our wrecks on the Great Lakes have a shelf life — they’re not going to look like this in 100 years,” said Brendon Baillod, president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association. “I have to commend Paul for really wanting to do that photogrammetry model, because that’s a good standard for recording exactly how that wreck was at the time he found it.”

As a maritime historian, Baillod has researched a number of Great Lakes shipwrecks. His book “Fathoms Deep But Not Forgotten: Wisconsin’s Lost Ships” includes an entry for Lac La Belle that details its history carrying passengers and cargo — first between Cleveland and Lake Superior starting in 1864, and later on a trade route between Milwaukee and Grand Haven, Michigan. 

On Oct. 13, 1872, the ship sank a couple hours after departing Milwaukee due to a leak that sprung during a storm. The ship was carrying cargo and 53 passengers. Eight people died after one of the lifeboats capsized.

“The Lac La Belle is a time capsule. It’s an underwater museum from 1872,” Baillod told “Wisconsin Today.” “It played such a pivotal role not just in the industrialization of America, but in Milwaukee’s history.”

The steamer Lac La Belle docked in Milwaukee in 1872. This image is from an original stereoview by W. H. Sherman. Image courtesy of Brendon Baillod

A ‘golden age’ of shipwreck discovery

The Great Lakes are home to an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 shipwrecks, most of which remain undiscovered, according to the Wisconsin Water Library. 

But more of these sunken ships are being found, Baillod said, due to advancements in affordable technology and with the help of citizen scientists who are becoming more aware of shipwreck history.

“It’s kind of the golden age, I guess you might say, of shipwreck discovery on the Great Lakes,” he said, “and a tremendous opportunity for us to tell the stories of these ships that played such a huge role in the cultural history of the Midwest, and Wisconsin in particular.”

And the race is on to find more of these wrecks, as invasive quagga mussels congregate around shipwrecks and damage what remains.

For shipwreck hunters, the mussels are a double-edged sword: Despite the damage they cause, the mussels also are clarifying the water, making shipwrecks easier to spot. Whereas Lake Michigan used to have only about 5 or 10 feet of visibility underwater, now divers have a much clearer view.

“We called it ‘Braille diving.’ You’d go down and you’d have to get within a couple of feet of the shipwreck,” Baillod said. “Now, you go down there and you can see sometimes 50, 80, 100 feet — you can see the whole ship.”

While that has created opportunities for “beautiful underwater photos of these shipwrecks” and raised public awareness, Baillod said, the quagga mussels are ultimately decimating the food web and changing Lake Michigan’s biome, leading to the collapse of native species like whitefish.

Baillod is one of the founders of the Ghost Ships Festival, an annual community event to promote research, education and public awareness of Wisconsin’s shipwreck history. This year, the event is being held in Manitowoc on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7 and includes a presentation from Ehorn about his discovery of the Lac La Belle.

“We’re trying to educate the public about the Great Lakes maritime history and about the role these ships played in building America back in the 1800s,” Baillod said. “And we’re having a lot of success — people are learning about it.”

The post Shipwreck hunter discovers sunken 150-year-old luxury liner off the coast of Wisconsin appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/10/shipwreck-hunter-discovers-sunken-150-year-old-luxury-liner-off-the-coast-of-wisconsin/

Wisconsin Public Radio

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In: Featured, Industry, Energy, Economic Development

“This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.”

The Canadian oil pipeline giant Enbridge will pay Wisconsin law enforcement for riot suits, training, and hours spent policing protests, according to an agreement approved by two counties last week. The secretive arrangement offers an uncapped funding source to local sheriffs as the company prepares for disruptive, Indigenous-led resistance to the controversial Line 5 reroute.

Last Tuesday, Enbridge began construction on a 41-mile segment of Line 5, which carries around 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids daily from a transfer point in Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario. The pipeline is designed to send fossil fuels from Canada’s tar sands region and the Bakken fracking fields to U.S. refineries before shipping much of the refined products back into Canada. 

The proposed reroute comes after the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa fought for years to force Enbridge to shut down an existing 12-mile segment of the pipeline that passes through the tribe’s reservation. After several of the pipeline’s easements expired in 2013, the Bad River Band declined to renew them over concerns about a potential oil spill. Enbridge continued operating, and in 2023, a federal judge ruled that the company was illegally trespassing and ordered it to shut down the reservation segment by June 2026. 

Enbridge appealed, and last Friday, the same judge that issued the trespass decision lifted the June deadline until the appeal is resolved. Bad River’s leaders want the pipeline stopped altogether, arguing that the reroute would surround the reservation and threaten the tribe’s treaty-protected watershed and wild rice beds. Tribal nations have also joined the state of Michigan in demanding that a separate section of corroding Line 5 pipeline be shut down under the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. However, under President Donald Trump, the federal government has repeatedly weighed in in favor of keeping Line 5 oil flowing. Shortly after taking office, Trump declared a national energy emergency to speed up the development of fossil fuel projects. Under this directive, the Army Corps of Engineers expedited a permit last spring to build a tunnel for Line 5 under the straits. The move prompted several tribal nations in the region to withdraw from pipeline talks in protest.

Anticipating significant public pushback against the reroute construction, Enbridge and the Wisconsin Counties Association negotiated the Public Safety Expense Reimbursement Agreement. The agreement is designed specifically to address the cost of potential protests, allowing police and public safety agencies along Line 5 to submit invoices for an array of expenses. Eligible costs include daily patrols of the construction area, crowd control, police coordination with Enbridge, education programs, and Enbridge trainings on “human trafficking and cultural awareness” — an attempt to thwart transient construction workers who use trafficked women for sex. Firearms, tasers, K-9 units, and recording devices will not be reimbursed. 

An account manager appointed by the Wisconsin Counties Association will review the reimbursement requests before Enbridge pays the police via an escrow account. 

At Ashland County’s Board of Supervisors meeting last week, about a dozen people spoke out against the account. Riley Clave, a community member, told the board the agreement “would be turning our public service into private security.” Another commenter, Soren Bvennehe, called the agreement “a blatant conflict of interest,” arguing that paying the sheriff’s office incentivizes preferential treatment for the company.

Wenipashtaabe Gokee, a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, raised concerns about the disproportionate policing of Indigenous people in the area. She noted that the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office, which would be tasked with policing Indigenous-led protests against Line 5, already has a presence on the Bad River Reservation — in 2017, her 14-year-old nephew, Jason Pero, was killed by an Ashland County sheriff’s deputy in front of his home. “We’re already targeted,” Gokee said during the hearing. She also pointed to a 2019 state law making it a felony to trespass on the property of oil pipeline companies, part of a wave of anti-protest legislation passed nationwide following the 2016 Dakota Access pipeline protests. 

Those in favor of the agreement repeatedly expressed their desire to avoid raising taxes or using sparse county resources to police the pipeline. County officials asserted that they would rather have local law enforcement respond to protests than private security. Andy Phillips, a lawyer for the Wisconsin Counties Association, estimated the counties will face “millions” in pipeline-related public safety expenses. The agreement includes no cap on reimbursements and does not specify that the money has to come from Enbridge. “We didn’t care where it came from,” Phillips said, so long as the burden did not fall on taxpayers.

Bayfield County Sheriff Tony Williams noted his chief deputy is already making a list of equipment, including helmets and shields. “I think that cost was up to $60,000,” Williams said, adding, “I don’t know if it’s fair to put the cost back on the community and the taxpayers if we can get a billion-dollar company to pay us back.” 

Ashland and Iron counties ultimately approved the agreement, while Bayfield County rejected it.

The approved agreement includes a clause stating that all communications regarding the reimbursements are highly confidential, citing unspecified risks to public health and safety. “The clause in the agreement is wildly over broad,” said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, arguing that it looks like an attempt to “tip the balance” of the state’s public records laws. 

Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said, “Enbridge does not believe local communities and taxpayers should be saddled with these extra costs associated with Line 5 construction and offered a constructive solution.” 

Funding arrangements like this emerged after the 2016 Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, which cost North Dakota $38 million in policing and other protest-related bills. The state spent years in court attempting to get the federal government to pay the costs, even after Energy Transfer donated $15 million to offset the bill. In 2019, South Dakota, under then-governor Kristi Noem, drafted legislation to establish a protest-policing fund for the Keystone XL pipeline, before the project was canceled by the Biden administration.

The model was successfully tested in Minnesota during construction of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline expansion. There, the state Public Utilities Commission established an Enbridge-funded escrow account that ultimately reimbursed $8.6 million to 97 public agencies for everything from energy drinks to zip ties and porta potties. 

In the aftermath of Line 3, several people arrested during the protests pursued legal motions arguing that the escrow account created an unconstitutional police bias that violated their rights to due process.

While Minnesota’s escrow manager was state-appointed, Wisconsin’s manager will be appointed by the Wisconsin Counties Association — an organization that a judge ruled in 2014 is not subject to public records requests. The Wisconsin Counties Association did not reply to requests for comment.

Dawn Goodwin, a White Earth Nation member who worked with the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network to fight Line 3 in Minnesota, attended the recent Ashland County meeting. She said she watched trust in law enforcement deteriorate in counties that accepted Enbridge’s reimbursements. In her own county, however, the sheriff decided not to submit any invoices to the company.

“Our sheriff told me he took an oath to uphold the First Amendment,” Goodwin recalled. ”He held to that.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/indigenous/enbridge-paid-police-to-protect-one-pipeline-now-it-wants-to-do-it-again-in-wisconsin/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

The post Enbridge paid police to protect one pipeline. Now it wants to do it again in Wisconsin. appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/09/enbridge-paid-police-to-protect-one-pipeline-now-it-wants-to-do-it-again-in-wisconsin/

Grist

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In: Climate change, Featured, History and Culture, indigenous communities, Ontario, Tribal Governments and First Nations, Water Quality and Restoration Efforts

Six Nations of the Grand River is one of the most highly populated Indigenous communities in Canada with around 29,000 residents. A primary source of water is from the McKenzie Creek, which is mostly used for agricultural purposes for the Six Nations and non-Indigenous communities throughout the watershed. 

According to a recent study, Ontario’s McKenzie Creek watershed is likely to face increasing levels of water scarcity throughout the rest of the century. This research examines how water scarcity, due to factors like climate change, land use and water consumption, will have impacts for agricultural production for the Six Nations.

“I live on reserve and it’s just something that you don’t really think about on a daily basis until you’re actually living it, where you see your appliances die early because of the hardness of the water,” said Six Nations Senior Manager of the Environment Sara Curley-Smith.

Of the water available for Six Nations, the people here also face ongoing challenges with water quality. This compounds the effects of water insecurity.

“You have the majority of families at Six Nations that are water insecure already, so if they’re water insecure in good times, you can’t imagine what’s coming our way in the next 50 years,” said emeritus professor of Indigenous Studies at McMaster University Dawn Martin-Hill, who was also involved with the study.

Martin-Hill leads the Ohneganos Indigenous Water Research Program, which the study was a part of. She is also part of an initiative to create a Haudenosaunee Environmental Research Institute that centers Indigenous knowledge to better understand these issues. Part of her interview is also featured in the article, “Water is Life, Six Nations lead international approach to long-standing water insecurity.”

“In the design of the project we consulted with the environmental folks at Six Nations, the fish and wildlife folks, leaders, traditional knowledge holders, we just got a sense of what their concerns and priorities were,” Martin-Hill said. “Climate change came up quite a bit because cities and towns have access to that information and modeling, whereas reserves and reservations do not.”

Throughout the project process, Indigenous traditional knowledge holders helped guide the scientists on where and when to conduct the research, Martin-Hill said.

This led to a focus on the McKenzie Creek subwatershed, which was understudied compared to the Grand River watershed, according to Tariq Deen, lead author of the study at McMaster University.

Map of the study area for “Blue and Green Water Scarcity in the McKenzie Creek Watershed of the Great Lakes Basin.” Credit: Dr. Tariq Deen

“That’s why that project was so beneficial in terms of process, because traditional ecological knowledge was the foundation of it,” said Smith.

Traditional ecological knowledge incorporates Western and Indigenous knowledge together in dialogue, Martin-Hill said, to better understand the environment.

The McMaster University study based its projections of water scarcity off of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios 4.5 and 8.5, which signify medium and high greenhouse gas emission and climate warming levels. 

The study by hydrologists and geographers looks at the projected levels for two types of water; blue and green water. While the study anticipates increased levels of water scarcity for both types of water in the future, Six Nations has already experienced these challenges. 

Blue water is fresh water that can be extracted for human activities.

To account for blue water scarcity, the study used two scenarios. The first was a low estimate scenario using monthly agricultural water consumption patterns. The second scenario estimated higher water consumption using the maximum amount of water that could be extracted, assuming this would occur with warming climate trends and an increase in agriculture.

“Under that scenario, we saw that blue water scarcity would increase to a level where it would negatively affect the ecosystem,” said Deen.

Another study on the Grand River watershed from the University of Guelph found similar trends in blue water scarcity considering increasing water demands due to climate change.

“This is a common trend where if you have more withdrawals and more agriculture use, there would be some scarcity that would be coming in,” said author and University of Guelph associate professor in water resources engineering Prasad Daggupati.  

However, water use data for the Six Nations was not included in the water scarcity estimates of the McMaster University study. This is because the Grand River Conservation Authority, who manages the McKenzie Creek watershed, does not collect water use data for the Six Nations. This means the water scarcity levels projected in both blue water scenarios are a low estimate.

“Under climate change scenarios, we saw that green water scarcity would increase throughout the next century,” Deen said.

Similar future patterns for green water scarcity were also found in the University of Guelph study, which used the same Representative Concentration Pathways to account for future impacts of climate change. 

Green water is the type of water that remains in the soil for plant growth.

“Moving into the future, obviously with increased precipitation, there would be more evapotransportation happening up, which would result in having less soil water available, which is green water,” said Daggupati.

Evapotranspiration is the process where water on land and in plants evaporates into the air.  

On top of agriculture and climate factors, corporations like Nestlé and BlueTriton have a history of extracting water without consulting and securing consent from Six Nations.

“We believe there are good veins of water that are much deeper than what wells were dug to, and that’s the water that Nestlé had been taking which we didn’t know about – 3.6 million liters every day for the last decade,” Martin-Hill said. 

The Six Nations pursued legal action and were able to get Nestlé and BlueTriton to stop their water extraction operations under previous laws requiring Indigenous consultation.

“The problem however has been made much worse because of the Bill 5 that the new federal government and Doug Ford passed so that they can bypass any kind of consultation for development, such as water extraction,” Martin-Hill said. 

According to Smith, this is a big issue because 70% of the community relies on groundwater. This issue is further exacerbated by the potential for wells running dry and the inability to support the agriculture that a lot of people at Six Nations rely on.

“I think our people have a problem with the way Western science compartmentalizes and silos things such as water,” Martin-Hill said. “We see ourselves as a part of the natural world.”

The post Climate change is worsening water crisis for Canada’s largest First Nations population appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/04/climate-change-is-worsening-water-crisis-for-canadas-largest-first-nations-population/

Mia Litzenberg, Great Lakes Now

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In: Chicago, Featured, Illinois, Science, Technology, Research

By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Under the warm light of a hanging lamp, Marty Landorf carefully crumbled the dried flower head of a black-eyed Susan between her fingers, teasing apart the chaff to uncover its puny black seeds. Each one was destined for long-term cold storage alongside roughly 46 million other seeds at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Every seed in the garden’s vault is different. Some seeds have hooks. Others verge on microscopic. A few carry a sharp, deterring scent. And some, like the airborne seeds of the milkweed, the host plant for monarch caterpillars, are fastened to silky fluff that drifts everywhere, hitching rides on volunteers’ clothes and following them home.

“Fluff is fun,” Landorf said laughing, seated alongside five other volunteers cleaning, counting, and sorting seeds at a long metallic table in the garden’s seed bank preparation lab.

For all their variation, these seeds share a common trait: They’re native to the Midwest. These species genetically adapted over thousands of years and sustain the region’s ecosystems. That evolutionary inheritance makes them indispensable for restoring the nation’s remaining prairies, wetlands, and woodlands.

Seeds displayed at the seed bank in the Carr Administrative Center of the Chicago Botanic Gardens on February 10, 2026. | Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

The problem: Native seeds are in short supply. And climate change is intensifying demand.

“Climate change is affecting our weather and the frequency of natural disasters,” said Kayri Havens, chief scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden. “Wildfires becoming more common, hurricanes becoming more common — that increases the need for seed.”

In 2024, the Chicago Botanic Garden, a 385-acre public garden and home to one of the nation’s leading plant conservation programs, helped launch the Midwest Native Seed Network, a first step in improving the region’s fragile seed supply. The coalition now includes roughly 300 restoration ecologists, land managers, and seed growers across 150 institutions in 11 states. Together, they are researching which species are most in demand, where they are likely to thrive, and what it will take to produce them at scale and get them in the ground.

The collaborative is compiling information on seed collection, processing, germination, and propagation while identifying regional research gaps and planning collaborative projects to close them. For example, the network is currently collecting research on submerged aquatic plants such as pondweeds, and other species that are challenging to germinate, like the bastard toadflax, a partially parasitic perennial herb.

“We’re addressing these local, regional, and national shortages of native seed that are really just hindering our ability to restore really diverse habitats, build green infrastructure, and support urban gardens,” said Andrea Kramer, director of restoration at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Sarah Hollis-research assistant at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Highland Park Illinois tours the seed bank in the Carr Administrative Center on February 10, 2026. | Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

Last year, the network undertook its first major project: a large-scale survey of more than 50 partners across the region. The results were stark. More than 500 are effectively unavailable for restoration. In some cases, it’s because no one grows them. In others, the seeds are available, but the cost — even at a couple of dollars per packet — becomes prohibitive when restoration projects require thousands of pounds. And for certain finicky species, the bottleneck is technical: Researchers and growers still don’t fully understand how to germinate them reliably or help them thrive in restoration settings.

Kramer said that ultimately the goal is to connect the people who need seeds with those who know how to grow them. While the network does not sell seeds, it works with organizations and partners that do. “We are using the network to help elevate what we all know and share what we know to make it easier,” she said.

The shortage itself is not new. In 2001, following sweeping wildfires in the West, Congress tasked federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service — which combined manage approximately one-fifth of the nation’s public lands — to craft an inter-agency, public-private partnership to increase the availability of native seeds. But according to a 2023 report, which identified the lack of native seeds as a major obstacle for ecological restoration projects across the United States, those efforts remain unfinished.

Wildfires have scorched more than 170 million acres in the U.S. between 2000 and 2025, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In 2020 alone, the Bureau of Land Management purchased roughly 1.5 million pounds of seed to rehabilitate burned landscapes. In a bad fire year, the agency can buy as much as 10 million pounds.

Marta Raiff, a volunteer, at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Highland Park Illinois works on separating the seeds from the chaff at the seed bank in the Carr Administrative Center on February 10, 2026. | Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dedicated $1.4 billion for ecosystem restoration over five years, including $200 million for the National Seed Strategy, a coalition of 12 federal agencies and various private partners established in 2015 to provide genetically diverse native seeds for restoration. The following year, the Inflation Reduction Act invested nearly $18 million to develop an interagency seed bank for native seeds. And in 2024, the Interior Department announced an initial round of $1 million for a national seed bank for native plants.

“The U.S. does have a major seed bank run by the [Department of Agriculture], and it mostly banks crops,” said Havens, the scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden.“But we don’t have that kind of infrastructure in place for native seed.”

Momentum for establishing a native seed bank stalled following funding cuts by the Trump administration. In early 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency cut 10 percent of the staff at the National Plant Germplasm System, which is home to one of the largest and most diverse plant collections in the world.

Marty Landorf, a volunteer, at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Highland Park Illinois works on separating the seeds from the chaff at the seed bank in the Carr Administrative Center on February 10, 2026. | Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

“If something isn’t supported on a national level, then it becomes incumbent on states and regions to do that kind of work,” Havens said. “So that’s why we’re focusing right now in the Midwest.”

The network is the first of its kind in the Midwest, though similar initiatives have been active elsewhere in the country for years. Today, there are more than 25 similar networks operating across the U.S. In the western United States, these coalitions have come together in response to post-wildfire restoration projects.

“One of the reasons why we were among the first is because of this federal land ownership that we have in the West, whereas in the Midwest, it’s more private land,” said Elizabeth Leger, a professor at the University of Nevada in Reno and co-founder of the Nevada Native Seed Partnership. More than 90% of all federal land is located in 11 western states.

Kramer said she hopes to run the seed availability survey again in 20 years and get a different response.

“I want them to say, ‘We have access to all the seed we need,’” said Kramer. “And we can move on to the next challenging question, like, ‘Why isn’t the seed establishing in my restoration? Or, how do we manage the next challenge coming with climate change?’”

This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Elizabeth Leger’s name.

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Mike Shriberg, University of Michigan

What began as a straightforward question from one water-quality advocate has morphed into a high-stakes battle over an oil pipeline at the highest levels of the U.S. government – with implications that go far beyond the fate of a technical legal conflict.

The question arose after a 2010 Enbridge Energy oil spill in Michigan. The advocate asked what other Michigan waterways were at risk from crude oil spills. But in the wake of, among other issues, two ships doing damage to an underwater section of another Enbridge oil pipeline, the conflict has now come all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Feb. 24, 2026, the justices heared oral arguments and will thereafter deliberate about the future of Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 oil pipeline, which runs through Michigan and Wisconsin.

As a water policy scholar with a focus on the Great Lakes, I have participated directly in the Line 5 debate as a gubernatorial appointee to an advisory board, as well as analyzed its implications. I see this moment in the Supreme Court as one layer of a complex debate that Line 5 has stirred up about states’ rights, Indigenous rights and the future of the fossil fuel economy.

Enbridge Energy vs. Dana Nessel

The actual issue in front of the Supreme Court is procedural: In 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued Enbridge in a Michigan state court, seeking to shut down the pipeline, alleging “violations of the public-trust doctrine, common-law public nuisance, and the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.” Federal law allowed Enbridge to seek to move the case to federal court within 30 days of the initial filing.

Enbridge did not do so, but the Canada-based multinational company has since argued that it still should be allowed to deal with the case in federal court, as it is doing in a similar case brought by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

The specific question before the Supreme Court is a very technical legal one: Even though Enbridge failed to request the move to federal court in a timely way, should that prevent Enbridge from moving it later?

A sensitive waterway

There is no debate that Line 5’s crossing of the Straits of Mackinac – which separate Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas right where Lakes Michigan and Huron meet – lies within Michigan’s territorial boundaries.

The lawsuits from Nessel and Whitmer are attempting to stop Enbridge from operating the pipeline in this sensitive area of the Great Lakes.

The risks became clearer to the public when a ship’s anchor struck the underwater pipeline in 2018 and another ship damaged one of the pipe’s supports in 2020. In the 2018 incident, some fluid – not crude oil – leaked into the lake water.

But Enbridge is refusing to shut the pipeline down. The company says the dispute belongs in federal court because state laws and regulations generally do not apply to this pipeline, which carries mostly Canadian oil to mostly Canadian refineries, using Michigan and the Great Lakes as a shortcut. Enbridge maintains that a treaty with Canada supersedes state authority.

The ruling from the Supreme Court will likely be narrow and procedural. However, all parties seem to agree that the decision will also have much wider consequences, including being a key determinant and signal of states’ rights to protect their waterways and other natural resources in the face of industry opposition.

Bad River Band vs. Enbridge Energy

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, the Line 5 oil pipeline passes through the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the pending legal outcome in a separate federal court case is well beyond procedural.

The band revoked Enbridge’s easement in 2013, but Enbridge has refused to remove the pipeline, so – after years of failed negotiations – the Bad River Band sued in 2019.

U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled in 2023 that Enbridge had been trespassing for 10 years and awarded US$3 million in damage payments. Conley gave Enbridge until June 2026 to find an alternative route around the Bad River Band’s land, or shut the pipeline down.

As this date approaches with no clear resolution in sight, the Trump administration joined Enbridge in seeking to reverse that decision and keep Line 5 open. While Conley’s decision is being contested by both Enbridge and the Bad River Band in an appeals court one level below the U.S. Supreme Court, the status of the pipeline during this legal process is very much in question.

Line 5 cannot operate without the Bad River Band reservation section, but the deeper issue is about Indigenous peoples’ rights to control their own lands and future on reservations. If Enbridge wins, many analysts believe that Indigenous rights to self-determination on reservations will be significantly eroded.

Attempts to reroute

Enbridge has a two-pronged strategy to save Line 5 from decommissioning: fight in the courts against the state of Michigan and the Bad River Band, while simultaneously working to reroute the pipeline around these problematic areas.

In the Straits of Mackinac, that means attempting to put Line 5 in a tunnel underneath Lake Michigan. This requires federal permits – which will likely be issued soon – as well as state permits. The permission issued by the Michigan Public Service Commission to build the tunnel is being challenged in the Michigan Supreme Court, while advocates are pressuring Whitmer not to issue another state permit that is also required.

The situation is similar in Wisconsin, where federal permits for rerouting the pipeline outside the reservation – but not beyond the watershed serving the Bad River Band’s land – were issued in October 2025 by the Trump administration. The state permit is caught up in legal and political challenges.

In each case, the immediate issue is about the direct environmental impacts of the projects. But also in each case, the underlying battle is about the long-term effects of projects involving fossil fuels. Environmental advocates want the state and federal agencies to consider the permits in light of the potential for more climatic, health and environmental damage from burning the oil the pipeline carries. Enbridge and its allies want to focus narrowly on local ecological impacts and not on the larger debate about the future of fossil fuels.

The bigger debate

As the highest court in the land considers what some might see as a very mundane and localized issue, I believe it’s useful to peel back the layers and see deeper meaning. Jeffrey Insko, an American studies professor at Oakland University and tireless chronicler and analyst of the Line 5 saga, summarizes this depth well:

“If shutting down Line 5 were about nothing more than getting an aging pipeline out of the water, if it weren’t about addressing the climate crisis, about reducing fossil fuel consumption, about a habitable future, about cultivating better relations with the more-than-human world, about respecting Indigenous rights and lifeways, it wouldn’t be a movement worth having. It would just be a technical problem with a technical solution, one that basically accepts the way things are. But shutting down Line 5 is ultimately a step toward changing the way things are.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling may be on technical grounds, but its repercussions could be very wide indeed.

This story was updated Feb. 24, 2026, with the fact that oral arguments at the Supreme Court had concluded.

Mike Shriberg, Professor of Practice & Engagement, School for Environment & Sustainability; Director of the University of Michigan Water Center, University of Michigan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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By Elaine Anselmi, The Narwhal

Photography by Carlos Osorio

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, Michigan Public and The Narwhal 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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

The cold snap held its grip on southern Ontario for weeks. On the shores of Lake Erie, some speculated this could be the year the ice makes it all the way across — something that hasn’t happened in three decades.

Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes, typically sees the most ice cover. Still, the most recent full freeze-up was in 1996, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

On a Sunday in early February, as ice cover crept over 95 per cent, locals and visitors braved frigid temperatures to look out across the frozen surface. 

Among them was photographer Carlos Osorio, who captured the lake and the people who set out across it — on foot, studded-tire bicycle or all-terrain vehicle. Wind had sculpted blowing snow into rippling waves, as if the water, on a blustery summer day, suddenly stood still.

“It’s really amazing to see it like this, when we usually see it in the summer and there’s all these water sounds, and now it’s so still; so still, so quiet,” Eleanor, who drove down to the beach at Port Dover, Ont., with her husband, Frank, said.

“When you think about water freezing, you think about smooth ice, and then you come here and the ice almost looks like frozen waves,” Frank said. “You can just imagine the water swelling up and down, but it’s not, it’s just frozen.”

The lighthouse in Port Maitland, Ont., stretches out into the frozen waves of Lake Erie.
Jay Augustine, a four-year resident of Crystal Beach, Ont., rode his bike with studded tires on the frozen lake.
Fort Erie, Ont., sits on Lake Erie’s northern shore, where wind stirred up the snow and ice pushed up over the beach.
With much of the lake frozen over, some people headed out in search of fish. A few ice fishing huts dotted the Lake Erie shore and nearby waterways, but some locals said there were more in previous years.
In Port Colborne, Ont., the Welland Canal that opens into Lake Erie froze over in the cold snap of early 2026.
The town of Crystal Beach, Ont., crawls with tourists in the summer, but the snow-covered sand and piers sat quiet on a cold day in February.

“This is exceptional,” Gerald Meyering said, marveling at the amount of ice and snow on the lake, compared to recent mild winters.

— With files from Carlos Osorio

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This story is part of a Great Lakes News Collaborative series called Shockwave: Rising energy demand and the future of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes region is in the midst of a seismic energy shakeup, from skyrocketing data center demand and a nuclear energy boom, to expanding renewables and electrification. In 2026, the Great Lakes News Collaborative will explore how shifting supply and demand affect the region and its waters.

The collaborative’s five newsrooms — Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, Michigan Public and The Narwhal — are funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. – As a study in troubled operation, the Palisades Nuclear Plant once was ranked by the federal government as one of the four worst-performing nuclear power stations in the country. The 51-year-old facility closed in 2022, joining Big Rock Point near Charlevoix and 11 other nuclear plants decommissioned outside Michigan in what appeared to represent the sunset of the era of splitting atoms to produce electricity.

Not so fast. Sometime in the next few months a New Jersey-based company called Holtec International is expected to finish renovating Palisades, fire up the old reactor, and add 800 megawatts of generating capacity to Michigan’s electricity supply. It would be the first time a decommissioned nuclear plant has ever restarted in the United States. 

And that’s not the only game-changing nuclear development occurring at the Palisades site along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the state’s southwest corner. Holtec is busy seeking permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal licensing and safety agency, to start construction for a new 680-megawatt nuclear generating station next door to the old reactor. The company wants to power the new plant with not one but two 340-megawatt advanced small modular reactors. 

So-called “SMRs” are now viewed by the industry, government, utilities, and big energy consumers as one of the go-to electrical generating technologies of the 21st century. Holtec’s planned Pioneer I and II small reactors, and its Palisades reactor restart, signal the opening of a new era of electrical supply and demand in the Great Lakes basin. 

Holtec’s commitment to nuclear power, like other developers in the U.S. nuclear sector, is motivated by several converging and unconfirmed projections that are prompting billions of dollars in investment. By far the most important are that the cost of building nuclear plants will fall, and that demand for electricity will significantly increase. Nuclear developers and utility executives have embraced both optimistic scenarios, especially that electrical demand could increase as much as 50 percent by mid-century, driven by data center construction, new manufacturing plants, growing cities, and electrified transportation. Both of Holtec’s projects in Michigan, and several more developments by other companies in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Ontario, are giving nuclear power new purchase in the region’s energy landscape.

One of the most influential supporters is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is positioning Michigan at the lead of the nuclear revival era. She declared in a statement that opening Palisades and adding the SMR plant “will lower energy costs, reaffirm Michigan’s clean energy leadership, and show the world that we are the best place to do business.” 

Gov. Whitmer signed legislation in 2023 mandating that 100 percent of the state’s electricity come from “clean power” sources, among them nuclear energy. Michigan awarded Holtec $300 million to restart Palisades, a portion of the public funding package that included $1.52 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy Department also awarded Holtec $400 million more to develop the new SMR plant. 

A study of SMR development by the Department of Energy in 2023 found that construction costs for the first plants, like the one Holtec is planning, will be high because of limits on the supply chain providing parts, construction experience, and unknown interest rates for financing. At current estimates of SMR construction costs of $12 million to $15 million per megawatt, Holtec’s 680-megawatt plant could be put into operation at a cost of $7 billion to $10 billion.

Michigan’s bid to stimulate new markets for nuclear energy, moreover, are still dogged by old concerns about safety, waste management, and the cost of construction and operation. Three public interest groups filed a federal lawsuit in November asserting that opening the old Palisades reactor was illegal and unsafe. The case is pending in Federal District Court in Grand Rapids.

Safety, Cost, Waste Addressed

By any measure, managing high-level radioactive waste from commercial reactors has not changed much in the last half century and persists as an issue because no permanent waste repository has been established in the U.S. But other considerations of the risks, benefits, and cost of nuclear power are tilting in new directions, especially for SMR plants like the one Holtec is proposing in Michigan. 

SMR developers make a consistent case for proceeding with the new technology. 

Water consumption looks to be an environmental advantage, particularly in water-abundant regions like the Great Lakes. Holtec’s environmental statement filed with the NRC reports that the two reactors will draw 25,000 gallons a minute for operation, as much as 36 million gallons a day. At that rate the new plant, which is 15 percent smaller than the existing Palisades plant, will withdraw 75 percent less water. 

Because of its more compact 123-acre footprint, the new Holtec plant would easily fit onto the 438-acre site that already encompasses the existing reactor. It will transmit electricity with the existing powerlines and infrastructure. And like other commercial reactors, SMRs don’t discharge climate-warming gases, a big factor in why nuclear power has gained considerably more support in public polling in recent years.

When it comes to operational safety, Holtec and other SMR plant developers say their designs also answer that concern. The advanced modular reactors are smaller and contain less fuel, produce lower levels of radiation, and can operate at a lower temperature and pressure than big conventional reactors. Those properties enable engineers to design a reactor that can be cooled with water or air, and can be shut down with gravity-fed systems that don’t rely on mechanical pumps. 

“When it comes to safety the question is, ‘How do I keep this cool?’” said Brendan Kochunas, associate professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan. “And that comes back to the amount of fuel that you have in the core. SMRs have smaller cores. There’s less heat being produced so you need to remove less heat.”

Industry executives assert that because the reactors are smaller than conventional 1,000-megawatt plants, they will require fewer construction materials, take fewer years to build, and be less expensive to operate. Industry executives say their goal is to standardize designs so that parts can be manufactured and new reactors can be assembled and shipped on trucks or by rail.  And because SMR plants have multiple reactors, one can be shut down for maintenance while the others continue operating. 

“In discussions we’ve had about small modular reactors, there may be lower upfront costs and potentially faster deployment because you don’t have quite as much concrete,” said Scott Burnell, the spokesman for the NRC in an interview. “And once you get into operation, the concept is you’ve got several small reactors running. If you bring one down for maintenance, you still have others running, generating profit.”

Race For Orders

Holtec is competing with 30 other SMR developers in the U.S. to be among the first to bring its reactor to market. Patrick O’Brien, the Holtec spokesman, explained that the company has spent 15 years designing the SMR-300, preparing architectural plans for the generating station, and keeping the NRC informed of its activities. Though the SMR-300 has not received an operating license, O’Brien said Holtec is confident it will be approved and the plant would be operating in 2032. “A lot of the work was done up front,” he said. “We’re anticipating two and a half more years’ worth of licensing work from the NRC. And two and a half years of construction.”

That’s an optimistic schedule for new nuclear plants. NuScale, an SMR designer based in Oregon, licensed its first 66-megawatt reactor with the NRC in 2023. It has yet to build a new plant. NuScale’s first project to install seven SMRs at a 462-megawatt plant in Idaho collapsed after construction cost estimates increased from under $4 billion to more than $9 billion. 

The NuScale experience reveals that uncontrolled costs are a primary impediment not just for big traditional reactors but also to SMR development. SMRs don’t exist in North America or Europe, and just three SMRs operate in the world – two 35-megawatt reactors operating on a ship in Russia and a third 125-megawatt SMR in China. “One always has to remember that these are experimental technologies,” said Joseph Romm, a physicist and senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. “Both the Russian and Chinese reactors had huge cost overruns.”

According to an important study published last year by the University of Michigan, SMRs also may produce new environmental risks that could attract more review. Small reactors, for instance, have the potential to introduce new and unregulated byproducts and increased levels of radioactivity due to the demand for highly enriched uranium fuel, according to the report, “The Reactor Around The Corner.” 

Another likely environmental risk is deploying small reactors to power big industrial projects in the world’s wild and undeveloped places. SMRs pack a lot of energy into a small and portable power source, said the report’s authors, who projected that the small reactors will enable construction of big mines and industrial plants in terrain that has been too expensive to reach or entirely inaccessible. “SMRs will introduce and exacerbate direct and indirect environmental harms, especially on marginalized communities, that complicate the justification for using them to mitigate climate change,” they wrote.

Midwest Familiarity with Atomic Technology 


To date, elected leaders and residents in Michigan and the other Great Lakes states have responded to the opening of a new era of nuclear development with much more enthusiasm than alarm. That may be due principally to the region’s pioneering role in fostering atomic energy. The first nuclear chain reaction occurred at the University of Chicago in 1942. Argonne National Laboratory opened in Illinois in 1946 to serve as the center of atomic research and technology development. The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania opened in 1957 as the first commercial nuclear generating station.

Not since the height of commercial nuclear energy construction in the 1960s and 1970s have Great Lakes states seen such a concentration of new nuclear projects either underway or planned. The Palisades restart would push the number of operating nuclear reactors in the eight states to 24, second only to the more than 30 big reactors operating in the six Southeast states. 

More big reactors could be on the way. DTE Energy notified the NRC last year that it is actively studying the development of a new reactor at its Fermi Nuclear Generating Station south of Detroit along Lake Erie. 

SMR plants, too, are attracting attention in the Great Lakes basin. Ontario Power Generation is constructing a 1,200-megawatt plant, composed of four 300-megawatt SMRs, at its Darlington Nuclear Generating Station along the shore of Lake Ontario. It could be the first operating commercial SMR plant in North America. 

Utah-based EnergySolutions is proposing to build “new nuclear generation” along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Wisconsin at the Kewaunee Power Station, which closed operation in 2013. Oklo Inc., a California company, is proposing a SMR reactor in Portsmouth, Ohio, where a closed federal plant once enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. The University of Illinois notified the NRC that it is developing a gas-cooled SMR research reactor at its campus in Champaign-Urbana. 

The surge of interest is the second time this century that utilities, government, and investors have tried to revive nuclear power in the U.S., and is driven by many of the same factors. One is federal policy to promote nuclear projects. The second is a tide of government financing that can be traced back to 2021 when President Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that directed $8 billion to nuclear energy. Three years later Biden signed the ADVANCE Act to make it easier and less expensive for nuclear plant developers to license their designs with the NRC.

President Trump also supports nuclear energy. He signed four executive orders in 2025 to accelerate the deployment and integration of advanced nuclear reactor technologies, and directed federal agencies to take aggressive action to build a nuclear production industry to mine and enrich uranium and construct manufacturing plants to fabricate fuel, reactors, and parts. Earlier this month, the Department of Energy exempted SMRs from National Environmental Policy Act review. 

Westinghouse late last year signed an agreement with the U.S. government to build ten 1,000-megawatt reactors in the U.S. That agreement is tied to the pact that President Trump reached with Japan last October to finance $332 billion “to support critical energy infrastructure in the United States” including the construction of ten Westinghouse AP1000 reactors and SMRs. The president also wants to develop the capacity to recycle nuclear fuel to reduce highly radioactive waste. 

Trump’s goal is to quadruple electrical generation capacity from nuclear power from 97 gigawatts today, powered by 94 operating reactors, to 400 gigawatts by 2050.

In the last five years Congress has enacted more than $20 billion in direct appropriations for nuclear energy programs, along with tax credits and federal loan authority that add billions more in federal support for existing and advanced reactors. 

U.S. technology giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft also are getting involved. 

Company executives are establishing formal agreements with nuclear developers to build and buy power for their data centers. Meta, for instance, has an agreement with Oklo Inc. to build a proposed 1,200-megawatt SMR plant in Ohio. The high-tech stalwarts also joined 14 major global banks and financial institutions, 140 nuclear industry companies, and 31 countries in signing a pledge last year in Texas to support tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050.

Just Marketing?

The big unknown is how much of this fervor is grounded in reality, and how much is hype and marketing. During the last attempt to revive nuclear energy in the U.S., from 2007 to 2010, the NRC counted over 20 nuclear plant proposals to review. But the heat of atomic hope quickly cooled as fracking started to produce ample supplies of natural gas, and much less expensive wind and solar power was gaining momentum. Just two new reactors that started construction during that period actually got built and began operating at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle. It took the utility 15 years to finish the project in 2024 at a cost of more than $30 billion. 

“Some vendors are overselling the vision,” said Kochunas of the University of Michigan. “I hope we do see some SMRs. They still have challenges in their economics. For it to succeed, one of these companies is going to need to establish a pretty substantial order book.” 

Could that be Holtec? 

“Yes,” Kochunas said. “I think they’ll get that built in Michigan. If they execute the project successfully, they will have opportunities to build more of them. Hopefully, you’ll see people lining up to get them. But if the execution of the project goes poorly and there’s significant delays and cost overruns and problems, it’s going to be hard to change that first impression.”

The post A nuclear shift buoyed by billions, and the waters of the Great Lakes appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue

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This story is part of a Great Lakes News Collaborative series called Shockwave: Rising energy demand and the future of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes region is in the midst of a seismic energy shakeup, from skyrocketing data center demand and a nuclear energy boom, to expanding renewables and electrification. In 2026, the Great Lakes News Collaborative will explore how shifting supply and demand affect the region and its waters.

The collaborative’s five newsrooms — Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, Michigan Public and The Narwhal — are funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

A six-decade history in the Great Lakes region of ecosystem and water protection is being put to the test as a dynamic era of energy investment, rising electricity demand, aging assets, and political intervention dawns across the basin.

The energy story emerging today is one of tumultuous change in energy supply and demand coupled with conflicting state and federal objectives that are colliding with a buzzy economic narrative centered around AI and data centers. Electricity consumption in the basin’s eight states and two provinces is climbing for the first time in at least a decade. 

Forecasts show electricity demand in the region growing 2 to 3 percent annually over the next 10 years. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is injecting carbon-promoting policies into energy markets, requiring coal power plants in Michigan and Indiana to continue operating beyond their announced closure dates while also slowing the solar and wind projects, two energy sources that emit no climate-altering carbon and use little to no water. 

Along with coal, another water-intensive energy source is being revived or reimagined to satisfy projected electricity demands. With nearly $3 billion in federal and state financing, the 55-year-old Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is preparing to restart after a four-year shutdown. When it does, the old reactor will draw 98,000 gallons a minute, 141 million gallons a day from Lake Michigan.  

In addition to these legacy energy sources, new gas-fired power plants, battery storage, transmission lines, and a planned new nuclear plant north of Benton Harbor, Michigan, are being added to keep pace with demand. Agriculture, the region’s biggest water consumer and water polluter, is playing a larger role in energy production – by converting corn into biofuel and producing methane from manure in industrial-scale biodigesters. 

Liquid fuels also remain in the spotlight due to the lingering question of Line 5, an oil pipeline that crosses the Straits of Mackinac. The future of the 73-year-old pipeline is the subject of several lawsuits, with key legal and permitting decisions expected in 2026.

This is the first article in our “Shockwave” project, a series of reports that will investigate the rapid evolution of the energy landscape in the Great Lakes region and the consequences the new era will have for one of the world’s largest reserves of fresh water. Produced by the five partners of the Great Lakes News Collaborative — Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, Michigan Public, and The Narwhal — Shockwave will document the depth and breadth of the region’s energy transformation and its influence on water use and pollution.

“As electricity demand is soaring, in part due to data centers, we’re seeing changes in water use, we’re seeing changes in electricity consumption,” said Mike Shriberg, director of the University of Michigan Water Center. “And how our region responds to that over the long term will have a massive impact for the Great Lakes and for our energy future.”

Altogether, these changes amount to an inflection point in the region’s energy policy, one with as many questions as answers. Will data center demand and the White House’s lifeline to fossil fuel units jeopardize state clean energy targets? Will the numerous binational, regional, and state-level consultative bodies enable collaboration that reduces harm to waterways? Can local officials, researchers, and lawmakers assemble the data to inform their responses? Will a decade-long decline in the energy sector’s water use continue or stall? Will the projected data center demand for electricity materialize or will the energy buildout result in stranded assets?

What is certain is that the energy playing field today is set up for a different game than just a few years ago. These are still early days, but the region, its $9.3 trillion economy, its border-crossing energy infrastructure, and its world-class environmental riches stand at the threshold of a profound shift in some of its basic economic inputs and assumptions.

A Detroit Edison worker guides the unloading boom of the freighter Walter J. McCarthy, Jr. to a coal chute at the Monroe power plant in Monroe, Michigan, in this image from 1997. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue

Top-Down Orders

The changes begin at the top. 

For political, ideological, and grid reliability reasons the Trump administration is adamant on propping up fossil fuels and shepherding a nuclear power revival. It is doing so through executive orders and agency action. 

The Department of Energy issued a series of emergency orders to prevent the coal-fired J.H. Campbell Power Plant, in West Olive, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan, from shutting down last year. It issued a separate order in December to prevent the closures of the R.M. Schahfer Generating Station and F.B. Culley Generating Station in Indiana. 

In addition, the administration extended the deadline for closing coal waste dumps in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, though none is directly within the basin. Though the administration asserts it is “clean,” coal is the dirtiest and among the thirstiest sources of electricity. 

The Department of Energy excluded small modular reactors, or SMRs, and other “advanced” nuclear generation technologies from National Environmental Policy Act review. SMR developers promote the new reactors as more mobile and less risky than the older generation of big reactors. SMRs are under development or have been proposed in Ontario, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

Canada, too, has announced national energy strategies that appear certain to affect Great Lakes waters. Rebuffed and taunted by tariffs imposed by President Trump, Prime Minister Mark Carney told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, “We are an energy superpower.” Carney outlined his plan for $1 trillion in fast-tracked Canadian investments in energy, AI, and critical minerals. He also promoted a national infrastructure campaign for oil pipelines, electricity transmission lines, and mines.

Big political announcements are reinforced by facts on the ground. The numbers tell a story of rapid growth in electricity demand that has analysts reaching back decades for a historical equivalent. Some compare it to the push for rural electrification in the United States after the Second World War. Already rising, electricity demand in the Great Lakes region could soar ever higher if high-tech corporate interest in data centers manifests as real-world construction. This comes as NERC, a North American regulatory agency, warns that the Great Lakes region faces high risk of electricity shortfalls in the next five years due to rising demand and power plant retirements.

This represents a head-spinning, era-defining reversal in electrical demand. In Wisconsin, electricity sales had been on a downward slope since the Great Recession began in 2007. By one estimate, data center electricity demand in the state will increase seven-fold by 2030, amounting to more than 4 percent of its electricity consumption. Data center load in northern Illinois has climbed 27 percent annually between 2022 and 2025, according to ComEd, the region’s electric utility. 

DTE Energy, the largest Michigan electric utility, announced a deal last fall to provide power to the 1,383-megawatt Green Chile Ventures data center in Washtenaw County. The Michigan Public Service Commission conditionally approved the state’s first “hyperscale” development in December. 

Consumers, the second largest electric provider in Michigan, has 9,000 megawatts of projects in its development pipeline, mostly for data centers and manufacturing.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced a 20-year deal with Vistra last month to buy 2,100 megawatts from three nuclear plants while also expanding the generating capacity at those facilities. The agreement covers Perry and Davis-Besse, both located along Lake Erie in Ohio, as well as Beaver Valley, in Pennsylvania along the Ohio River. Meta also signed an agreement with California-based Oklo Inc. to build a 1,200-megawatt SMR plant in Ohio.

The rise in electricity demand could pose a challenge to state renewable energy goals. Illinois has a target of 100 percent clean energy by 2050. For Michigan’s electric utilities, the deadline is sooner: 100 percent clean energy by 2040.

That shift to renewables and the closure of water-intensive coal plants has been a net benefit for Great Lakes water so far. Water is drawn from lakes and rivers to cool the equipment at thermoelectric power stations, a category that includes fossil fuels and nuclear. Water withdrawals in the basin for thermoelectric power are down 24 percent compared to a decade ago, according to a University of Michigan report prepared for the Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers. That decline is true for power plants that use once-through cooling as well as for those that have recirculating systems that reduce withdrawals but increase consumption.

There are “substantial water savings as the region transitions away from traditional fossil fuels,” the report found. Besides water demand, the shift away from thermoelectric plants means fewer fish sucked into cooling-water pipes or trapped against their screens. It means less thermal pollution of nearshore waters and rivers. It means less mercury deposited into waterways from coal plant air emissions. 

The downward trend could shift upwards this year when the Palisades nuclear plant is scheduled to open, and may tilt higher as another shuttered nuclear plant in Wisconsin could reopen and new SMR plants come online. For data centers, the largest piece of their water use is not in direct operations. It is through the electricity they consume.

Years ago, the Great Lakes Commission, which represents the eight basin states and two Canadian provinces, was thinking about the same questions of water supply. In 2011, the commission published the findings from a multi-year project to identify water quality and quantity vulnerabilities in the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes basin due to thermoelectric power generation. 

The analysis, led by Sandia National Laboratories, considered multiple power generation projections and assessed three energy-related risk factors for the region’s water resources: water quality, thermal pollution of waterways, and low stream flows. It was the first model to consider water resources in future electricity scenarios for the region. A fifth of the basin’s 102 sub-watersheds scored a high risk in at least two categories.

The commission published the analysis, but largely moved on. No follow-up review was completed to determine the project’s effectiveness in shaping policy, said Erika Jensen, the commission’s executive director.

Today with data centers commanding so much attention, the water-energy connection resurfaced. That focus is partly due to growing public pushback against data center growth. Lawmakers in Indiana, Michigan, and Minnesota have introduced legislation to mandate more transparency from data center operators on their water and energy use.

At its meeting last October, the Great Lakes Commission signaled its reengagement when the commissioners – largely high-ranking state officials and lawmakers – signed two new resolutions related to energy and water. One resolution encourages water reuse for industry, where appropriate. The other, on the water-energy nexus, asserts the “importance of coordinating and integrating water, energy, and sustainable resource management” in the face of data center development and related industries that are poised to increase energy demand and water use.

The resolutions reaffirmed that energy and water are back on the table at the highest levels, Jensen said. “We’re just getting restarted right now.”

Digital Crossroad, a data center facility in Hammond, Indiana, sits on the shore of Lake Michigan. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Electricity is only part of the region’s evolving energy story. Aging legacy assets are also a part of the mix. 

The most noteworthy of these older assets is Line 5, the 645-mile oil pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario. Enbridge, the Canadian company that owns the pipeline, wants to drill a tunnel to house the structure so that it does not sit exposed on the lakebed. Michigan officials are seeking to shut down the line. Lawsuits are proceeding in both state and federal courts, with a U.S. Supreme Court hearing later this month to determine the appropriate venue. 

The outcome will be a bellwether for energy policy, Shriberg said. “It’s really symbolic and may be determinant of which direction this region and this country is headed on energy and water issues.”

Reliable water and cheap energy are foundational economic pieces. Historically, these resource inputs were the great engines of the Great Lakes economy. Water-intensive industries – tanneries, breweries, pulp mills, manufacturers and the like – were drawn to a region where they could extract water and pump out profits. Nuclear and coal-fired power plants were installed on the shores of Michigan, Ontario, Huron, Superior, and Erie, the source of water to cool their electricity-generating equipment.

Today a different set of businesses has entered the market. The entire sweep of large water users catalyzed by the new energy economy – semiconductors, battery manufacturers – need to be part of the water-use equation, said Alaina Harkness, CEO of Current, a Chicago-based organization focused on water innovation.

“If we had better policy and planning frameworks, this could be a great place to do that relative to some of the water-scarce regions in the rest of the country,” Harkness said. “But again, we’ve got to shift our frameworks, got to look much more at water reuse and these water-energy connections.”

There is indeed opportunity in the new energy landscape, said Liesl Clark, director of climate action engagement at the University of Michigan and the former head of the state environment agency. Not just for a foothold in the 21st century economy, but also for continuing on a low-carbon path and strengthening the policies that ensure the region’s water is not abused in the process.

“How do we make sure we’re doing it in the most protective way possible in the state?” Clark asked.

As the new energy era takes shape, that is a prevailing question not just for Michigan but for the region as a whole.

The post The energy boom is coming for Great Lakes water appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/02/12/the-energy-boom-is-coming-for-great-lakes-water/

Brett Walton, Circle of Blue

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Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these monthly Energy News Roundups.

Michigan is taking on oil companies. Its approach hasn’t been tried before. In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the state’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, accused four companies and an industry lobbying group of forming a “cartel” and colluding to undermine research on climate change and suppress the growth of renewable energy and electric vehicles. Michigan has some of the highest electricity rates in the region, and the measures the companies took to prevent competition with gasoline vehicles inflated costs for ratepayers, the suit alleged.

A bribery trial is underway in Ohio for two former FirstEnergy executives accused of orchestrating the largest public corruption scheme in state history. Prosecutors allege former CEO Chuck Jones and senior vice president Michael Dowling paid a $4.3 million bribe to Sam Randazzo, the former chairman of Ohio’s Public Utilities Commission. Attorneys for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, who was convicted in federal court of taking a $61 million bribe from FirstEnergy in exchange for favorable legislation, said he is open to taking a plea deal to avoid a state trial.

Burning trash and wood for electricity can officially qualify as carbon-free in Minnesota. The state’s 2023 clean energy law requires all electricity generated in Minnesota to come from carbon-free sources by 2040. State utility regulators decided burning trash or biomass can be considered carbon-free under the law if a life-cycle analysis shows burning would result in fewer carbon emissions than another disposal method. Only a tiny fraction of Minnesota’s power comes from burning trash and biomass, but environmental groups are concerned the practice will become more widespread as a result of regulators’ decision.

Another shuttered nuclear site is attracting notice. This time, it’s in Wisconsin. EnergySolutions, the Utah company that owns the Kewaunee Power Station site near Lake Michigan, announced it has notified federal regulators of its plans to pursue new nuclear generation at the site. In a statement, Ken Robuck, the company’s president and CEO, called the notice an “important milestone” for nuclear power in Wisconsin. EnergySolutions is currently studying the site’s “suitability for new nuclear construction,” he said.

And months after Michigan announced it was canceling support for a controversial EV battery plant due to its lack of progress, both sides are saying they’re owed money. Nessel, the state’s attorney general, has joined the effort to recover millions in incentives paid to Gotion, Inc. for the central Michigan factory. Gotion said in a court filing that it plans to seek damages from the township where the factory was proposed, arguing the delay was the township’s fault. The company appears to have abandoned the project.

More energy news, in case you missed it:

  • Federal regulators are nearing a decision on the proposed Line 5 pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac.
  • Ontario is fast-tracking a proposed nickel mine, which its developer said could start construction later this year and be operational by the end of 2028.
  • Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed an energy reform package that will fund battery storage and lift the state’s moratorium on large nuclear plants, among other measures.
  • Crews demolished multiple units of the more than 2,000-megawatt W. H. Sammis coal plant in eastern Ohio following the plant’s closure a few years ago.
  • Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he wants more data centers built in the state — and more protections in place for ratepayers.

The post Michigan accuses oil companies of blocking EVs, inflating power costs appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/02/10/michigan-accuses-oil-companies-of-blocking-evs-inflating-power-costs/

Nicole Pollack, Great Lakes Now

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In: Climate change, Featured, Science, Technology, Research

By Vivian La, Interlochen Public Radio

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Michigan researchers have gone back in time to get a picture of ice cover on the Great Lakes since the late 19th century.

Using historical temperature records from weather stations around the region, researchers improved their understanding of where ice might have formed and for how long it lasted — spanning the last 120 years.

Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Data last month. Researchers said this new data record could help with efforts like research on fish in the winter, regional climate and improving safety on the ice.

“Lake ice is really part of the system, part of our life. It matters [for] our culture, regional weather, safety, everything,” said Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, study co-author and associate director for the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the University of Michigan.

There’s a “pretty good satellite record” of Great Lakes ice cover from the last 45 years, she said. But research into the region’s historical climate requires a longer timescale and there isn’t good data specific to ice.

According to researchers, there’s a general gap in scientific knowledge about winter on the Great Lakes — buoys get pulled out because of harsh conditions.

There are good weather observations, though. And air temperature is a good proxy for ice cover on the lakes because ice typically forms when there’s several cold days in a row.

To peer into the past, researchers looked at temperature records from weather stations all around the Great Lakes, limiting their study to stations with the most consistent data since 1897.

They calculated ice cover using this information, and the end result was a dataset that can be compared to present day conditions. Researchers said it can inform future research on how animals behave during the winter, for example.

“A lot of the biological conditions under ice are really poorly understood,” said Katelyn King, fisheries research biologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the study’s lead author. King is using the data set to study the historic decline of whitefish in the Great Lakes.

King said this dataset is a helpful baseline as the region continues to shift under climate change. Research shows that average temperatures in the region have increased in the last two decades, frost seasons are shortening, and heavy snow or rainstorms are becoming more frequent.

Still, year-to-year variability is the new normal. Ice cover on the Great Lakes was relatively close to average last winter, but followed historic lows the season prior.

And so far this winter, cold temperatures in recent weeks have contributed to some of the highest ice cover on the Great Lakes in years, according to data tracked by the U.S.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“These really extreme years where we have really cold weather or really warm weather is just a sign that long-term climate is changing,” King said. “It really affects all of us in our day-to-day.”

The post New ice cover data offers insight into whitefish declines, climate change appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/02/04/new-ice-cover-data-offers-insight-into-whitefish-declines-climate-change/

Interlochen Public Radio

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By Fatima Syed, The Narwhal

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

The Ontario government is moving ahead with plans to transfer management of 60 per cent of Wasaga Beach from the province to the town, despite receiving feedback from thousands of Ontarians decrying the proposal as potentially endangering sensitive piping plover habitat and affecting beach access.

The Doug Ford government received 14,233 comments over a 30-day period last summer, about 98 per cent of which were in opposition to the proposal. Many expressed concerns that erasing provincial protection could mean the loss of sand dunes in favour of hotels, condos and other beachfront development.

“We did not consider any changes to the proposal based on the feedback received, given the Town of Wasaga Beach’s commitments to keeping the beach public, not building on the beach and protecting environmentally sensitive dunes,” the government said in its decision.

Under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, the government is required to post moves with environmental or energy implications to the publicly accessible Environmental Registry of Ontario to allow for widespread feedback from industry, experts and residents. (The Ford government has, though, exempted several projects and types of notices from the registry, such as the Ontario Place redevelopment and permits to harm at-risk species, under Bill 5.)

Last June, the Ford government posted its decision to amend the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, the legislation which created more than 340 parks across Ontario. The amendment would permit the transfer of 60 hectares, or three per cent, of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, which protects the world’s longest freshwater beach and surrounding natural areas, to the town’s management to help boost tourism and the local economy.

The transfer includes more than half, or 60 per cent, of the beachfront, which contains all the sand dunes and vegetation that serve as nesting area for the piping plover.

Among the roughly two per cent of respondents that supported the move for the sake of economic development and revitalization, there was also a push for “continued environmental management and continued public access.”

Most of the comments on the registry posting highlighted the consequences of losing this beach environment, or even threatening it with increased development.

“Once this precedent is set, we risk irreversible environmental degradation, reduced public access and the commercialization of what should remain a protected, public space for generations to come,” one local resident wrote. “Tourism and environmental stewardship are not mutually exclusive, and development must not come at the cost of conservation.”

“Public land — especially waterfront property as ecologically and recreationally important as Wasaga Beach — should remain in public hands and under provincial protection,” another wrote.

None of this swayed the province. The amendments to enable the transfer were passed in Ontario’s 2025 budget, released last fall. With the recent decision, the government will now advance the transfer to the town.

This is not the first time the Ford government has disregarded feedback through the Environmental Registry of Ontario. The Auditor General of Ontario has repeatedly called out this government for failing to adhere to its own laws — at times “deliberately” — that require it to meaningfully consult the public through the registry.

In late 2022, for example, the government received more than 30,000 comments about its plans to remove 7,400 acres of land from the protected Greenbelt. In spite of this, “no changes were made to the proposal as a result of public consultation,” the government’s posting on the registry read.

In choosing not to consider any changes based on public feedback, the government’s decision said the lands removed from provincial protection in Wasaga Beach “will continue to be subject to Ontario’s species protection and environmental laws.”

However, shortly before announcing this transfer, the Ford government weakened species protections through its controversial Bill 5, as well as exempting certain postings from the environmental registry. The provincial parks legislation was the last law standing to protect plover habitat in Wasaga Beach.

The post Ontario will sever Wasaga Beach park despite 98% disapproval in public comments appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/01/27/ontario-will-sever-wasaga-beach-park-despite-98-disapproval-in-public-comments/

The Narwhal

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In: Featured, PFAS, Water Quality and Restoration Efforts

By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.

In the years since Michigan’s PFAS crisis became public knowledge, widespread contamination has prompted a growing list of “do not eat” advisories in waterways across the state.

But a study published this month in the Journal of Great Lakes Research offers hope that, one day, the fish could be safe to eat again.

The study was conducted by researchers in the former US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, which the Trump administration has since dismantled amid a broad push to curtail federal oversight and loosen regulations on a host of chemicals, including PFAS.

Using decades’ worth of archived lake trout and walleye samples originally collected to track older pollutants like mercury and PCBs, scientists discovered PFAS levels in Great Lakes fish have declined significantly since the late 2000s, when manufacturers began phasing out once-common compounds like PFOS and PFOA amid growing regulatory pressure.

“The ecosystem responded very quickly to these changes in industrial production,” said Sarah Balgooyen, a lead author of the study and former EPA chemist who is now a researcher at the Colorado School of Mines.

A growing body of research has linked certain PFAS (an acronym for a class of thousands of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) to cancer, thyroid problems and developmental, fertility and immunity challenges.

The research team tested for 45 compounds, using fish taken from the Great Lakes between 1975 and 2020. They found that average contamination levels by 2020 had reached their lowest since the 1980s.

In Lake Erie, for example, PFAS levels in the freeze-dried tissue samples peaked at close to 450 nanograms per gram in 2005 but were closer to 50 nanograms per gram in 2020. In Lake Michigan, levels reached a high of about 150 nanograms per gram in 2010 before drifting down to about 80 nanograms per gram in 2020.

“We hope to see that trend continue,” Balgooyen said.

That’s welcome news to Chris Matteson, a 76-year-old from Muskegon who has been fishing in the Great Lakes since the days when factories lined the shore, spewing effluent so foul that, “if you could see a foot into the water, that was pretty good.”

“I’ve been through a lot of fish warnings,” Matteson said.

Although PFAS manufacturers have known their products are toxic since at least the 1970s, the public wouldn’t learn until decades later. Unregulated use of the so-called “forever chemicals” allowed them to escape into the environment, poisoning drinking water and embedding in the bodies of humans, fish and wildlife.

Only in recent years — after a series of contamination scandals — have state and federal governments begun regulating PFAS and investigating the extent of the pollution.

In 98 Michigan water bodies, some fish species are so full of PFAS that state health officials say it’s not safe to eat them. Health advisories in hundreds more water bodies call for limiting meals to anywhere from 16 servings a month to six a year.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said agency staff are reviewing the study.

For now, she said, “our advice for anglers remains the same: To learn how to choose safer fish to eat, follow the Eat Safe Fish Guides.”

Find out whether your local fishing spot is affected here.

Gary Ankley, a former EPA research toxicologist and coauthor on the study, said the declining PFAS levels are encouraging. But there is no way to know how low PFAS levels will ultimately fall.

Known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down readily in the environment, some amount of PFAS will remain in the lake indefinitely, Ankley predicted.

Balgooyen cautioned that the study offers only a partial picture of PFAS risks in the lakes.

While manufacturers have largely stopped using the so-called “long-chain” PFAS compounds that tend to bioaccumulate in fish, many have switched to new “short-chain” compounds that do not.

The health risks of those newer compounds have not been well-studied.

“We’re seeing decreases in these compounds that we know are harmful, which is great,” Balgooyen said. “But there’s still this unknown component of the replacement chemicals.”

Citing evidence that PFAS is more toxic than previously thought, state and federal regulators in recent years have lowered allowable PFAS levels in drinking water and taken other steps to discourage the chemicals’ use.

Seeking to make the EPA more business-friendly, the Trump administration has reversed some of those actions, announcing plans to loosen PFAS drinking water standards and requirements for manufacturers to report their PFAS use.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called those “commonsense” changes that would lower costs for industries and water providers while still protecting the public.

But Matteson, the Muskegon fisherman, views the administration’s loosening of environmental regulations differently.

“The companies will go back to the easiest, cheapest way to do anything,” he said. “Most likely, it isn’t environmentally friendly.”

The post PFAS levels are declining in Great Lakes fish, new research shows appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/01/26/pfas-levels-are-declining-in-great-lakes-fish-new-research-shows/

Bridge Michigan

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By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva

A new study documents a fivefold increase in shoreline armoring along Lake Michigan’s Eastern coast.

From 2014 to 2021, the length of engineered structures built to protect the shore from erosion grew by nearly five times.

Rising water levels and increased wave activity prompted many coastal communities to install seawalls, rock revetments and other protective structures, the study said.

“Armoring changes how sediment moves within the coastal system and how beaches recover after high lake levels, so we wanted to precisely document the scale of this process,” said Ethan Theuerkauf, the study’s lead author and a professor of geography, environment and spatial sciences at Michigan State University.

Researchers compared shoreline armoring data from 2014, collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with high-resolution coastal imagery taken in 2021 after the period of peak water levels.

“The goal was not to classify different types of structures but to document the total length of shoreline that had been altered by human activity,” Theuerkauf said. “This provides a foundation for future work that can examine how armoring changes coastal systems.

The analysis revealed a substantial increase in the use of engineered structures along the shoreline.

“We had seen this anecdotally in the field and heard it from communities and agencies: During the period of rising water levels from 2014 to 2020, a large amount of shoreline armoring was installed,” Theuerkauf said.

The study found that the most substantial increase occurred along the southern third of the Lake Michigan coast, where some areas are now almost fully armored. In northern regions, the increase was smaller, but even there new armoring appeared on stretches that had previously remained natural.

“Because there was no updated documentation of how shoreline armoring changed during the period of rising lake levels, decision-makers had very little understanding of the scale of the issue,” Theuerkauf said. Our data can help develop strategies aimed at keeping the Lake Michigan coast as natural as possible while still providing protection where it is truly needed.

One notable example identified by researchers is Chikaming Township in Southwest Michigan’s Berrien County, where hard shoreline armoring is restricted. That area showed substantially lower levels of armoring than in neighboring municipalities.

“This example demonstrates that policies restricting armoring can have a real impact on the character of the shoreline,” said Theuerkauf.

The results of the study, published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, have implications for shoreline management, Theuerkauf said.

“Homeowners can see how widespread and potentially impactful these practices have become. And government agencies can better understand how permitting decisions influence the functioning of Michigan’s coast,” he said.

Shoreline armoring is a common measure to protect property from erosion. It helps prevent damage to homes, roads and infrastructure. But widespread use of hard structures changes sediment movement along the coast and may affect beach recovery after periods of high water.

Shoreline armoring influences both the ability of beaches to recover after high lake levels and public access to the coast.

The extent of armoring was greater than the research team expected.

“There were places where the shoreline was almost completely armored. And nearly every city or township in Michigan had at least some amount of armoring,” Theuerkauf said.

Particular concern arises in Northern Michigan, where many natural, minimally developed shorelines remain and are important for tourism.

“These are the areas where coastal managers need to be especially careful when making future armoring decisions,” Theuerkauf said.

The researchers are now studying how beaches recover after periods of high water and how shoreline armoring affects this process.

“This work directly informs our research on coastal changes related to shoreline armoring and will help guide future coastal management policy,” Theuerkauf said.

The post Growth in shoreline armoring is reshaping Michigan’s Lake Michigan coast appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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Great Lakes Echo

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By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio

This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.

A new contaminant may threaten the health of America’s national bird.

Findings from a long-running project have already shown high levels of PFAS in nestling bald eagles across Wisconsin. Now researchers are looking to gauge the effects on their health.

The Great Lakes Bald Eagle Health Project has been tracking levels of heavy metals and other contaminants in nesting eagles across Wisconsin since 1990. In 2023, researchers at Wisconsin Sea Grant, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago began collecting blood samples from eaglets along the south shore of Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. In 2024, they sampled birds in the Green Bay area and Lake Michigan shoreline, as well as along the Wisconsin River from Prairie du Chien to Minocqua last year.

Researchers collected samples from 50 eaglets in each region to better understand the health effects of PFAS on the birds, said Gavin Dehnert, an emerging contaminant scientist with Wisconsin Sea Grant.

“They haven’t left the nest yet, and all of their food source is coming from the parents. So they give us a really good understanding of the contaminants within about a 3- to 5-mile radius of the nest,” Dehnert said.

He and partners on the project worked with a tree climber to collect eaglets that are about 5 to 9 weeks old, which are brought down to the ground for a suite of health checks similar to those conducted by a veterinarian.

Researchers also measured around 40 different PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in blood samples. An analysis showed the highest PFAS levels of up to 600 parts per billion in samples taken from birds nesting on the middle portion of the Wisconsin River, from the Rhinelander area to a dam near Sauk City, Dehnert said.

Samples also showed PFOS, one of the most widely studied PFAS chemicals, made up as much as 90 percent of the total PFAS. Dehnert noted fish consumption guidelines advise people not to eat fish that contain PFOS levels above 40 parts per billion.

“Our levels that we’re finding in the eaglets are 10 times higher than that,” Dehnert said.

While eagles aren’t on the dinner menu, the levels indicate significant contamination. Total PFAS levels in the Apostle Islands region ranged from 300 to 400 parts per billion and around 200 parts per billion in the Green Bay area of Lake Michigan.

Emily Cornelius Ruhs, a postdoctoral research scientist with the Field Museum, said blood samples with higher levels of PFAS showed a decline in natural antibody levels and white blood cell counts when exposed to bacteria in a lab. Researchers conducted the test to mimic bacterial or viral infections.

“In those eagles that are highly contaminated with PFAS, what we’re seeing is that some of those immune function markers are out of whack a little bit,” Cornelius Ruhs said.

Even though results show a weaker immune response in the birds, they’re not dropping dead out of the sky, said Sean Strom, the DNR’s fish and wildlife toxicologist.

“But what we’re starting to see is that eagles with higher levels of PFAS may not be as healthy as less contaminated birds,” Strom said.

Researchers fear that may reduce their ability to respond to new infections, such as the H5N1 bird flu. Their findings are in line with studies that show reduced antibody response to vaccines in people who have higher PFAS levels in their blood. The so-called forever chemicals have also been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, as well as reduced fertility in women.

Dehnert and Cornelius Ruhs said their working theory is that PFAS contamination in the Lake Superior region may have stemmed from a 2018 oil refinery explosion in Superior. That’s due to high levels of certain chemicals associated with firefighting foam that contain PFAS.

For the middle portion of the Wisconsin River, they speculate contamination may come from spreading of industrial sludge from paper mills due to a chemical that’s commonly found in nutrient-rich material. Dehnert said they didn’t find a clearcut cause or chemical fingerprint in the Green Bay and Lake Michigan area.

While those theories are plausible, Strom said they’re not proven. He believes contamination probably comes from multiple sources.

Either way, Strom noted that people are eating the same fish the eaglets are consuming. Researchers agree the birds can give researchers a good sense of how PFAS are affecting the health of both wildlife and humans. They hope to finalize and release their findings in the coming months.

Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/01/09/high-pfas-levels-in-wisconsin-eaglets-may-reduce-ability-to-fend-off-illness/

Wisconsin Public Radio

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This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.

By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva, Great Lakes Echo

More than 30 years ago, a group of scientists planted just 4,200 seeds of the rare Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) in the sandy dunes of the Great Lakes. At the time, no one knew if the new populations would survive.

Today, three decades later, the restored populations are thriving and spreading. This unexpected success became the foundation for a newly published scientific paper in Annals of Botany.

The study was authored by research ecologists with the U.S. Geological Survey Noel Pavlovic and A. Kathryn McEachern, along with conservation scientist Jeremy Fant at the Chicago Botanic Garden, whose genetic research made it possible to view the restoration of the rare plant not only as a field experiment, but as a long-term genetic survival strategy.

Pitcher’s thistle grows only on the Western Great Lakes sand dunes.

To most visitors, it looks like an ordinary wildflower: a spiky, silvery-green plant with cream-to-light-pink flowers.

To scientists, it represents the fragile coastal ecosystems of the region.

Sand mining, residential development and recreational activities have historically been threats to sand dunes which serve as a natural gateway to the shoreline and protect the coast from erosion.

In the late 1980s, Michigan designated areas along the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior shorelines as “critical dune areas” in an effort to protect these ecosystems.

In 1988, it was listed as threatened by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“In 1988, I was working as a statistician for the National Park Service at Indiana Dunes National Park,” Pavlovic recalled.

“That’s when graduate student McEachern from the University of Wisconsin joined us,” he said.

“She was exploring research topics on dune ecosystems, and our supervisor suggested that we study Pitcher’s thistle, which was about to be listed as a threatened species. I hired a technician, and the three of us began studying this plant together.”
Once it was federally listed, a recovery team was established with representatives from federal and state agencies. Pavlovic became the team leader, helping shape the official recovery strategy for the species.

That meant Pavlovic was not only studying the plant – he was actively involved in defining how the government might protect it.

The plant became the focus of McEachern’s dissertation and took a job with the National Park Service in California after finishing her doctorate.

“Meanwhile, my colleague, a long-term technician, and I continued monitoring the plants at Indiana Dunes, while McEachern returned nearly every summer to help with field surveys,” Pavlovic said.

In 1994, the team launched a historic reintroduction effort.

They collected 4,200 seeds from 54 maternal lines and planted them at Indiana Dunes National Park – now part of the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk – across three stages of habitat succession: early sites dominated by bare sand, mid-stage areas with a mix of marram grass and sand, and late successional habitat dominated by little bluestem grass.

“Everything begins at the foredune, where shifting sands are stabilized by marram grass, and Pitcher’s thistle thrives under the same conditions.”

“Farther inland,” he continued, “secondary dunes develop as the sand stabilizes, and over time grasses give way to shrubs and eventually forests.”

“This gradual transformation is known as ecological succession, and we placed our research plots across these different stages to understand how Pitcher’s thistle responds to changing habitats,” he said.

It was not a large number of seeds. And planting was done only during the first year.

After that, no more seeds or plants were introduced, and the scientists stepped back and let nature take over.

“Pitcher’s thistle has a very interesting life history,” Pavlovic explained. “Everything starts from seeds”

“In the first year, a tiny seedling appears. If it survives, the second year it becomes a juvenile plant. Over the next few years it continues to grow.”

“It can flower anywhere between 3 and 8years of age — and then it dies. Unlike many perennials, it only blooms once. It has a single chance to reproduce,” Pavlovic said.

The populations were monitored for more than 30 years, with genetic sampling of both native and reintroduced populations in 2009.

“The populations at Indiana Dunes were small, scattered and genetically vulnerable.We already knew from earlier studies that genetic diversity was especially low in southern Lake Michigan. That’s why we decided to mix seeds from different local populations,” Pavlovic said.

High seedling mortality, limited seed numbers and the risk of losing genetic diversity made failure a real possibility.

“We never expected these populations to survive this long,” he said.

“We used just 4,200 seeds, and seedling mortality was very high. We assumed genetic diversity would collapse. But it didn’t. The plants survived, and the populations began expanding. It’s truly remarkable.”

The two surviving populations, out of three, also showed higher genetic diversity than native populations, showing seed mixing was effective.

The researchers also discovered that deliberately sowing seeds into the sand was more effective than simply scattering seeds across the surface.

“These dunes are home to many unique species, and Pitcher’s thistle is symbolic of these ecosystems,” Pavlovic said.

“ Its flowers provide essential nectar for pollinators, and its seeds feed birds like American goldfinches. Many dune plants were also used by Indigenous peoples for food, dyes and crafts.”

This isn’t just about saving one rare flower — it’s about preserving an entire living landscape,” Pavlovic said.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/01/02/how-seeds-from-the-past-are-saving-a-unique-flower-of-the-great-lakes/

Great Lakes Echo

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By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.

Changes to Michigan’s energy sector are expected to dominate the headlines in 2026, with big implications for the state’s environment.

From data centers, coal plants and solar arrays to petroleum pipelines and aging dams, energy-related decisions next year that could shape Michigan’s environment for decades to come, affecting everything from which fish can survive in rivers to how quickly the state’s utilities ditch planet-warming fossil fuels. 

Here are the topics to watch:  

Data centers

Swift and secretive dealmaking involving some of the world’s most powerful corporations. 

Vast quantities of money, land and electricity. 

Promises of prosperity from a booming industry, coupled with fears that Michiganders could be left holding the bag in a bust.

Given those dynamics, it’s no wonder data centers became one of Michigan’s biggest environmental and political issues in 2025. And the debate shows no signs of letting up in 2026.

“It’s not going away,” said Sarah Mills, a land use planning expert at the University of Michigan who advises local officials as they consider how to respond to the data center boom.

“I’m telling you, like, two weeks ago, the priest talked about it at church.”

Tech giants OpenAI, Oracle and Related Digital expect to break ground soon on Michigan’s first hyperscale data center in Saline Township, a milestone hailed by some as a win for Michigan, and maligned by others as an example of corporations railroading communities.

Developers have approached multiple other communities with data center proposals, prompting pushback from neighbors and fears that rapid expansion of the energy and water-hungry industry could imperil Michigan’s environment and drive up utility rates.

Support and opposition blurs party lines. Data center supporters include President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. Both contend the facilities are important to state and national economic development and national security interests.

Meanwhile, bipartisan criticism has emerged in response to Michigan’s tax breaks for the industry and regulators’ approval of data center deals with limited public scrutiny. They note that the facilities employ few permanent workers and have overtaxed water and energy supplies in some other data center-heavy states.

Michigan’s two largest utilities, Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, both say they’re in late-stage negotiations to bring on several gigawatts’ worth of new data centers in the near future.

“We’re talking about doubling our entire electricity demand,” said Bryan Smigielski, a Michigan organizer with the Sierra Club. “There’s no way to do that in a sustainable manner.”

The next year will be crucial for both sides, as developers continue to pursue deals and local governments decide whether to grant them access to the land they need to operate.

Michigan’s energy transition

More than two years after state lawmakers passed a law requiring utilities to get all of their power from designated “clean” sources by 2040, Michiganders will get their first glimpse next year at how the largest utilities plan to meet that goal.

Both DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, the monopoly utilities that provide electricity to the vast majority of Michigan households, are scheduled to file so-called integrated resources plans next year with the Michigan Public Service Commission. 

The long-range planning documents spell out how utilities plan to meet demand over the next 20 years. Because of the new climate law, they also must include details about how they’ll invest in clean energy to get off fossil fuels.

Both utilities contend they’re on track to meet the 2040 deadline, along with an interim deadline to reach 50% renewables by 2030. 

But they have a long way to go. Right now, about 12% of Michigan’s in-state electricity generation is from renewable sources.

Concern has emerged recently that growing demand from data centers could make it harder for utilities to make the transition. A single hyperscale facility typically consumes as much power as a large American city.

And at least in the near-term, DTE Energy is planning to power the Saline Township facility largely with fossil fuel energy generated by ramping up production at existing power plants.

“We cannot build renewables fast enough to avoid at least a temporary increase in greenhouse gas emissions” from data centers, said Douglas Jester, managing partner at the energy consulting firm 5 Lakes Energy.

Over the longer term, utilities will need to build even more solar arrays, wind farms or other approved clean energy to meet rising data center demand while still complying with the state’s clean energy law. Adding a single 1 gigawatt data center to the grid would require an extra 10,000 acres of solar arrays if utilities looked to power it exclusively with solar.

That raises big questions about where that energy infrastructure might be built and how utilities will add it to a power grid that’s already facing lengthy interconnection backlogs.

Palisades power plant

Against that backdrop, the Palisades nuclear plant has emerged as a controversial answer to Michigan’s energy supply conundrum.

It seems all but certain that the shuttered facility on Michigan’s southwestern shoreline will reopen in 2026, as the federal and state governments pour money into an effort to boost Michigan’s supply of carbon-free energy during a time of rising demand.

Subsidies for the project now top $3.5 billion. 

A nuclear plant control room
A training facility at the Palisades nuclear plant includes technology dating back to the 1970s, when the plant came online. Nuclear energy proponents want Michigan to be ground zero for an industrywide renaissance. (Kelly House/Bridge Michigan)

The federal government has authorized a $1.5 billion loan plus $1.3 billion in grants to help two rural electric cooperatives buy power from the plant and another $400 million to build additional reactors at the site. Michigan taxpayers have chipped in another $300 million. 

“I’ll keep working with anyone to grow Michigan’s economy and build a more affordable, clean energy future right here in Michigan,” said Whitmer, a supporter of the restart plan. 

Officials with Holtec Energy, the plant’s owner, began refueling the facility in October and say they’re on track to start generating power as soon as year’s end. But as of early December, federal officials were still inspecting the plant and opponents were fighting on multiple fronts to prevent the restart. 

Arguing the promise of emissions-free energy is not worth the risk of reopening a 54-year-old plant that has a history of problems, three anti-nuclear groups filed a November lawsuit contending the restart scheme should never have received regulatory approval.

“They’re making a mockery of safety regulations and even laws,” said Kevin Kamps, a Kalamazoo-based radioactive waste specialist with Beyond Nuclear. His group will likely file additional suits if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows the plant to reopen.

And then there’s the issue of what to do with the spent nuclear fuel. The United States still has no permanent storage location for the stuff, so, for now, it’d be held indefinitely in storage casks situated on concrete pads near the Great Lakes shoreline. 

Line 5

After years of delays, cost overruns, lawsuits and political controversy, 2026 could be the year Michigan learns for sure whether Enbridge Energy will build the Line 5 tunnel.

Federal regulators say they’ll decide by spring whether to grant key permits for the proposed concrete-lined tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, where Enbridge has said since 2018 it plans to reroute the petroleum pipeline that currently poses an oil spill risk in the open water of the Straits. 

But this fall, they announced they’re also studying a separate option that would involve drilling a narrow borehole hundreds of feet underground and snaking the pipeline through it.

While pipeline fans and foes await decisions on the federal permit and a separate state permit that Enbridge needs to begin tunnel construction, the US Supreme Court is preparing to issue a key ruling pertaining to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s yearslong effort to shut down the pipeline.

The court will decide which court  — federal or state — should decide whether the pipeline shuts down. 

It may sound insignificant, but onlookers widely agree that a state court is more likely to side with Nessel, while a federal court is more likely to side with Enbridge.

Climate change

So far, Michigan is seeing its most normal winter in years, by historic standards.

Snowpack across much of the state is at or above average, temperatures have been seasonally chilly, and a brave few are already augering fishing holes into the ice as Great Lakes bays freeze over.

Downtown Gaylord
Michigan has endured a string of lackluster winters, including in 2024, when the ice spire outside Gaylord City Hall was rapidly melting on an early February day. (Kelly House/Bridge Michigan)

But the respite from a string of lackluster winters and smoky, hot summers can’t mask the fact that Earth’s atmosphere is steadily warming, with consequences reverberating into the Great Lakes region’s ecosystem.

Bridge has written extensively about how climate change affects Michigan, from lost winter pastimes to disappearing fish and worsening storm damage. It’s impossible to say what sort of climate disruption is in store for Michigan in 2026, but you can bet on more coverage about how the global changes are hitting home locally. 

The post 5 Michigan environment stories to watch in 2026 appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/12/30/5-michigan-environment-stories-to-watch-in-2026/

Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

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By Nina Misuraca Ignaczak, Planet Detroit

This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.

Lead exposure remains a serious health risk in Michigan, but many residents don’t know whether their water system complies with state rules or whether their service line contains lead.

Utilities must notify customers of sampling results and the presence of lead or galvanized lines. Yet, these notices don’t always reach people — leaving families unsure about their potential exposure and what steps to take.

Depending on where you live in Michigan, you may have recently received updates from your water utility about compliance with state and federal Lead and Copper Rule requirements.

Most utilities completed their annual lead and copper sampling by Sept. 30, and Michigan regulators have since notified communities that exceeded the lead action level. If you live in one of those areas, you should have been told.

Utilities must also notify all residents served by lead, unknown, or galvanized-previously-connected service lines. You should have received this notice last November, and the next round is due by Dec. 31.

Michigan is simultaneously working to remove an estimated 580,030 lead and galvanized service lines statewide. About 11% — roughly 69,891 lines — were replaced from 2021 to 2024. Progress varies by water system, and many still lack complete inventories or are behind on required reporting.

To help residents see the whole picture, Planet Detroit and Safe Water Engineering created the Michigan Lead Service Line Tracker. This statewide dashboard shows how much progress each water system is making in identifying and replacing lead service lines. This guide explains what the dashboard includes, how to use it, how to protect yourself from drinking water risks, and what to do if your community is not keeping pace with Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule.

Michigan Lead Service Line Tracker

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) releases lead sampling data on a separate timeline, so limited information is available: the full set of 2024 compliance results and the 2025 action-level exceedances.

Without a complete 2025 dataset, we chose not to include 2025 sampling results in the dashboard at this time. Stay tuned for future updates as more data becomes publicly available.

Why this matters

Lead exposure remains a major environmental health threat across Michigan. Lead is a well-documented neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure. Even small amounts can affect learning, behavior, and long-term health. Planet Detroit’s reporting has highlighted several statewide concerns:

  • Children face the greatest risk. Lead can harm brain development, lower IQ, and affect attention and learning. Infants who consume formula mixed with contaminated water are particularly vulnerable.
  • Pregnant people are also at higher risk. Lead exposure is linked to high blood pressure, premature birth, miscarriage, and reduced fetal growth.
  • Adults can experience cardiovascular and kidney impacts. Long-term exposure is associated with hypertension, decreased kidney function, and increased risk of heart disease.
  • Exposure often tracks with inequity. Many of the state’s highest concentrations of lead service lines — and some of the slowest replacement rates — are in communities that have faced historic underinvestment.
  • Installation work can temporarily increase lead levels. Disturbing old pipes during replacement can cause short-term spikes, underscoring the need for filters and clear public communication.

Michigan’s 20-year replacement mandate is designed to reduce these risks, but the pace of removal varies, and residents often struggle to get clear information about what’s happening in their communities.

Many drinking water systems still have thousands of known or suspected lead lines, and some continue to exceed state or federal lead limits. Planet Detroit’s reporting has shown:

  • Significant regional differences in replacement speed, with some systems moving quickly and others reporting little to no progress.
  • Inconsistent public notification, including instances where residents weren’t told about lead exceedances, construction schedules, or mandatory notification that a lead or unknown service line serves a home.
  • Higher risks in historically under-resourced communities, where lead lines and aging infrastructure tend to be concentrated.

Checking the dashboard is one of the simplest ways for residents to understand how their water system is performing under Michigan’s 20-year replacement mandate.

How to use the lead service line dashboard

Follow these steps to look up your water system and interpret what you’re seeing.

In the middle, click Search Systems and type the name of your water system — usually a city, township, or regional authority. Select it from the dropdown to open its profile.

2. Review your system’s profile card

Each water system has a standardized card with key information required under Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule. The card shows:

  • Population Served: The estimated number of people receiving water from the system.
  • Known Lead Lines: Service lines confirmed to be made of lead. These are the highest-priority lines for replacement. Example: 1,999 lead lines.
  • Lines Replaced: The number of lead or galvanized lines that have been removed and replaced with safer materials between 2021 and 2024.
    Example: 96 lines replaced.
  • Galvanized (GPCL)  Lines that are galvanized steel but were previously connected to lead pipe. These are considered “galvanized requiring replacement” under federal rules.
  • Unknown Material Service lines where the material is not yet confirmed. To protect your health, these should be treated as though they are lead until they are confirmed to be a non-lead material.
  • Total to Be Identified and/or Replaced: The combined number of known lead lines, GPCL lines, plus all unknowns that must be resolved through inspection or replacement.
  • Replacement Progress: The percentage of replacements completed between 2021 and 2024. During this four-year period, water systems were required by the Michigan Lead and Copper Rule, as enforced by EGLE, to complete an average of 20% of their total lead service line replacements.
  • Compliance Status: Indicates whether the utility has met state inventory and reporting requirements. Systems that have replaced at least 20% of the required lines between 2021 and 2024 are compliant.

This card is your quick snapshot of how well your water system is doing compared with state requirements and nearby communities.

3. Check the statewide map for context

The map shows systems by color:

  • Green: Compliant
  • Red: Not compliant

If your system appears in red while neighboring systems are green, that may signal slow progress or reporting problems.

4. Look for missing or incomplete data

If the card shows large numbers of unknown materials, low replacement counts, or a noncompliance flag, the system may be struggling to meet Michigan’s 20-year replacement mandate. A large, future project can bring a water utility into compliance.

The sooner the lead pipes are removed, the sooner the residents experience the public health benefits.

What the numbers mean for your household

  • Lead or galvanized lines: These carry the highest risk of lead release, especially during construction or partial replacements.
  • Unknown lines: To protect your health, treat these as lead until they are confirmed to be non-lead materials. Many Michigan systems still have thousands of unknown materials.
  • Low replacement progress: Systems with single-digit progress may struggle to meet Michigan’s 20-year requirement, leaving residents with long wait times and extended exposure to lead in drinking water.
  • Exceedances: If your system exceeds the lead action level, it must accelerate replacement and notify residents.

If your water system has a high proportion of lead or unknown lines, or if you know or think you have a lead service line, request or purchase a certified lead-reducing filter. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has some filter distribution programs targeted to specific communities in Michigan. You can also check whether your service line is lead using your utility’s inspection program.

Featured image: Close up shot of some metal pipes. (Photo Credit: iStock)

The post How to check if your Michigan water system is replacing lead pipes appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/12/10/how-to-check-if-your-michigan-water-system-is-replacing-lead-pipes/

Planet Detroit

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By Christian Thorsberg, Circle of Blue

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS, Michigan Public and The Narwhal 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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.

In early August, days after thousand-year rain fell on southeastern Wisconsin, officials waded through the devastation’s wake — and liked what they saw.

Beyond the overflowing banks of the Little Menomonee River, which surged six feet in less than 10 hours, floodwaters were deep enough to support swimming beavers and waterfowl. On farmland near the northern border of Milwaukee, 70 acres of standing rainwater overtopped boots. Further south, in the town of Oak Creek, another 114 acres of public grassland resembled an aboveground pool.

These inundated sites worked exactly as intended. All were purposefully restored wetlands, which are often called “nature’s kidneys” for their ability to absorb excess water that would otherwise cause harm to infrastructure, homes, and sewage systems during storms.

“Water needs space to expand, to flow,” said Kristin Schultheis, a senior project planner with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD). “It’s not destructive when it has its room.”

The three locations were recently completed Greenseams projects, a flood mitigation program that acquires and protects undeveloped wetlands. The effort is a testament to a long-standing cohesion of environmental policy, dedicated funding, and sound climate science in Wisconsin.

Over 25 years, Greenseams has applied $30 million in state and federal grants to conserve 5,825 acres of wetlands in the Milwaukee area. Their collective storage capacity totals 3.2 billion gallons of water. Though neither MMSD nor the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) quantified the role wetlands played in August’s storm, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimate these natural floodplains prevent $4.56 billion each year in flood-related damages in Wisconsin.

“As catastrophic as the flooding was, it would have been so much worse without the investments that MMSD and others have made,” Democratic state Rep. Deb Andraca told Circle of Blue.

Despite these benefits, Wisconsin’s wetland development program is in serious trouble, just as they are in other Great Lakes states. On both the state and federal levels, legislation that safeguards surface waters that produce wetlands is eroding. A lapse in federal disaster assistance means the importance of local, preventive action has never been greater.

This week, wetland protections took an additional, drastic hit on the federal level. The Trump Administration’s EPA and Army Corps of Engineers proposed new rules that would strip protections for up to 85 percent of the country’s wetlands, totaling 55 million acres.

“We’ve forgotten that we have clean water because of the Clean Water Act,” Jim Murphy, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior director of legal advocacy, said in a statement. “This rule would further strip protection from streams that flow into the rivers and lakes that supply our drinking water. The wetlands now at risk of being bulldozed filter our water supplies and protect us from floods.”

And a funding source in Wisconsin specifically intended to conserve land that can be used to produce new wetlands — called the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund — faces an uncertain future in the state Legislature.

Created in 1989, the state has invested more than $1.3 billion into the stewardship fund. As of 2020, more than 90 percent of Wisconsin residents lived within a mile of property that received Knowles-Nelson investments. A significant portion of these projects have gone to wetland restoration. Of the $30 million MMSD has spent on lands for Greenseams wetlands, $7 million has come from the Knowles-Nelson fund.

But amid ongoing tensions between Gov. Evers, a Democrat, and the Republican-led Wisconsin Senate, the new two-year state budget, signed in July, did not renew the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced dueling bills this legislative session to save the fund, which would otherwise expire in 2026 and leave a massive financial hole for environmental groups.

“It’s just another example of partisanship getting in the way of a project that we know so many Wisconsinites like,” Rep. Andraca said. “I get more mail on Knowles-Nelson than anything else, from people wanting to save it.”

A Wetter Climate Means Future Flooding

Added up, the flurry of changes amount to weakening government support for conserving existing wetlands and developing new ones. It couldn’t come at a worse time. 

Fueled by warmer air lifting water into the atmosphere, climate change is projected by century’s end to dump 6 more inches of annual rainfall on Great Lakes states, according to NOAA data.

In Wisconsin, precipitation has already increased by 20 percent since 1950, and is expected to continue to rise. The likelihood of flooding remains high, with these deluges predicted to come in erratic, concentrated bursts.

But the landscape now is ill-suited to receive more moisture. Across the Great Lakes basin, floodplains have been overwhelmingly filled, to communities’ detriment. Recent damaging floods in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois — which have each lost between 85 percent and 90 percent of their own historic wetlands — serve as a costly reminder of this change.

Wisconsin, which has retained roughly half of its wetland cover since pre-colonization, now finds itself at an uncertain tipping point. Decisions made today will affect lives during the next great deluge.

“I think everyone should have a new appreciation for wetlands. We need to recognize that making small investments helps all of us,” Rep. Andraca said. “If we’re cutting back on basic science, staff, and people who have expertise, we’re not going to make smart decisions, and that’s going to impact everyone down the road.”

Communities Left ‘On Their Own’ After Floods

In Milwaukee-area neighborhoods without substantial floodplains, August’s storm and subsequent flash flooding prompted emergency evacuations and swift-water rescues. Crop fields submerged. Cars deteriorated in city lots. Suburban roads were made inaccessible. Nearly 50,000 residences and businesses across six counties lost power.

After the storm, Gov. Evers estimated the flooding had caused at least $33 million worth of home damages alone, with another $43 million accrued in public sector losses. Later that month, he requested $26.5 million in federal assistance.

The governor’s appeals for assistance were denied. The Trump administration has apparently politicized FEMA’s disaster aid programs. In a reversal from earlier commitments made by the Trump administration, FEMA announced in October it would halt all aid for the state the president flipped red in the 2024 election. Of the six counties in need of funds, two — Milwaukee and Door — voted Democrat that year.

“Denying federal assistance doesn’t just delay recovery, it sends a message to our communities that they are on their own,” Evers, who has recently feuded with Trump over immigration policy and other spending cuts, said in a statement.

The denial stands out amidst a backdrop of recently approved flood-assistance packages for Republican-led Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Alaska.

FEMA “categorically refutes” that their funding follows partisan lines. This month a coalition of 12 states — including Michigan and Wisconsin — filed suit against the agency and Department of Homeland Security for restricting grants, an act amounting to what they say is “an inconsistent patchwork of disaster response across the Nation.”

They also accused the agency of slowly unloading the responsibility of disaster financing solely onto states altogether, a move that magnifies the importance of local momentum for pre-emptive flood mitigation.

“In southeast Wisconsin in particular, this issue exemplifies how the protection or lack of protection in an area can impact such a wide swath of stakeholders,” said Tressie Kamp, assistant director of the Center for Water Policy at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

State and Federal Protections Weaken

For the better part of the last 20 years, wetlands in Wisconsin were doubly protected by both state and federal environmental legislation. But key changes on both levels, in quick succession, have left thousands of acres of floodplains vulnerable to filling.

The first action came in 2018, when the Wisconsin Legislature introduced an exemption in state law allowing for the filling of wetlands that were not protected by the federal government. At the time, this constituted a relatively small amount of habitat in Wisconsin.

But this change had massive consequences just a few years later, when, in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly rolled-back its definition of federally protected waters. Suddenly, wetlands in Wisconsin and across the country that were not permanently connected to a navigable stream, river, or lake were legally eligible to be filled.

In the two years since this decision, officials in Wisconsin have noted developers taking advantage of its large swath of unprotected areas. “It makes it easier [to fill wetlands] when there’s only one entity regulating it,” said Chelsey Lundeen, the wetlands mitigation coordinator for the Wisconsin DNR.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determines if a wetland is eligible to be filled. According to Joseph Shoemaker, the Corp’s Wisconsin East Branch Chief, Section 404 of the Clean Water Act — which pertains to wetland filling or dredging — is now “the most common reason people request that we review federal jurisdiction over aquatic resources,” he said.

Between 2018 and 2022, the number of acres of wetlands filled steadily rose each year, from 2.5 acres to 40 acres, according to Kamp. This rise is likely to continue, she said, as the Army Corps streamlines their permitting processes.

In January, the matter was addressed with even greater haste when President Trump issued an executive order directing the Corps to speed up its review for filling wetlands, encouraging more development projects.

The southeast region of Wisconsin, which receives the highest number of requests, is particularly vulnerable to these fillings, said Tom Nedland, a wetland identification coordinator with the Wisconsin DNR. “As the state’s largest population center,” he said, “development pressure is high.”

Reliable Funding Sources Disappear

The state’s looming loss of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund is magnified by the Trump Administration’s freezing and outright cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal grants for conservation initiatives.

In Ozaukee County, several wetland restoration projects — completed just before August’s historic flooding, supported by the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative  — are telling examples of what might be missed during the next great deluge.

Wetlands at Mineral Springs Creek, Mequon County Park and Golf Course, and the Little Menomonee Fish and Wildlife Preserve all showed “proof of concept” this summer, said Andrew Struck, the county’s director of planning and parks.

“We didn’t get any complaints about flooding that we were constantly hearing about,” Struck said. “We retained a good amount of water during that event…so I think we’ve seen that as being very successful.”

But big challenges lay ahead, with potentially devastating consequences. For county neighbors living along Lake Michigan’s shoreline — where unchecked drainage and stormwater runoff are causing erosion and slumping — the future of wetland restoration could very well determine the fate of their properties.

“We’re also trying to do some of this work on private lands,” Struck said. “We have a comprehensive goal of managing the water, and also managing infrastructure. But we face a lot of challenges. Funding is disappearing from the landscape.”

Catch more news at Great Lakes Now: 

Intense rainfall means more floods. What can we do?

This wetland fight could go to the Supreme Court

Featured image: Wetlands at Tendick Nature Park in Saukville, Wisconsin. Photo by Christian Thorsberg/Circle of Blue.

The post The Next Deluge May Go Differently appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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By Ellie Katz, Interlochen Public Radio

This article was republished with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently revived an alternative to the Line 5 tunnel. The new option was proposed in a supplemental environmental impact statement published by the federal agency last month.

The Army Corps is now proposing to use a technique called horizontal directional drilling, or HDD, which was tabled as an option for replacing the pipeline in 2018. HDD would create a narrow borehole to house the pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, as opposed to the tunnel that’s been at the center of criticism and lawsuits for several years.

Public comment on the Army Corps’ new proposal is due by the end of the week. An online public comment session on Wednesday went for nearly three hours. The majority of those speaking were against the project, raising fears about a potential oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac and voicing frustration with the new drilling option.

“This proposal before you is a bait and switch,” said Lauren Sargent of Ann Arbor. “We were talking about a tunnel. Now what we’re talking about is essentially fracking technology below the Straits.”

Horizontal drilling is not the same as fracking, but is sometimes used to drill wells for fracking.

Joseph Torres, a business agent for Pipeliners Local Union 798, spoke in favor of the continued operation of Line 5 regardless of the method used to replace it.

“Building this pipeline, whether going through a tunnel or by HDD, is a safer option compared to transporting resources by railcar or truck,” Torres said. “I do believe that maintaining the integrity of Line 5 is crucial and shutting it down will impact citizens and our economy.”

In email to Interlochen Public Radio, an Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said there is confusion surrounding the new horizontal directional drilling alternative.

“This is not something we proposed,” Duffy wrote. “Nothing has changed on our end, we are still planning to build the tunnel.”

According to an online timeline, U.S. Army Corps expects to issue a decision on the Line 5 project in spring 2026.

Featured image: A view of part of the Enbridge Energy Line 5 pumping station near Mackinaw City, Michigan on the south side of the Straits of Mackinac. (Photo: Lester Graham/Michigan Radio)

The post Tensions flare as Line 5 public comment deadline nears appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

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