Roughly 11 thousand Chinook salmon fingerlings were released into a special net pen Friday in the Kenosha Harbor as part of a new effort to increase salmon returns during spawning seasons. View the full video by Kenosha News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220411-fish-salmon
Great Lakes ice extent is down to 7.8%. The flow of water out of Lake Superior is below the average rate, and the flow into St. Clair River is above the average rate showing more water leaving the lakes suggesting a decrease in lake levels for Lake Huron and Michigan. Lake Erie and Ontario are both above the April average water levels. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220411-water-levels
After a two-year hiatus, Great Lakes cruise ships are back, and the industry is trying to prepare itself. Read the full story by The Capital News Service.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220411-cruise-ships
A shoreline protection program is currently underway in the West River near Buckhorn Island State Park near Grand Island, NY for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Read the full story by Niagara Frontier Publications.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220411-restoration
The 2022 commercial shipping season is underway after the opening of the Soo Locks at midnight March 25th. The Edgar B. Speer was the first freighter through the Poe Lock in Sault Ste. Marie and was presented with a plaque to the ship’s captain and hat to each crew member. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-shipping-opens
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation and the Canal Corporation published a plan to prevent the round goby’s spread, but members of the Nature Conservancy in Vermont say more may be needed. Read the full story by VTDigger.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-goby-invasive
Fined $100,000 for destroying piping plover habitat, the Town of South Bruce Peninsula is in court arguing over just what an Ontario beach should be. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-plover
Crews are hard at work replacing the lead water lines to get clean water to residents in Benton Harbor, MI. According to an online dashboard, 679 lines have been replaced so far out of the 3,700 expected over the next year. Read the full story by WBND-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-lead
Crews are hard at work replacing the lead water lines to get clean water to residents in Benton Harbor, MI. According to an online dashboard, 679 lines have been replaced so far out of the 3,700 expected over the next year. Read the full story by WBND-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-lead
The Western New York Land Conservancy has received a $2 million grant to protect forested watersheds and safeguard drinking water in Allegany County and another to supply native plantings to Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-restoration
For the last 40 years, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society has sought to teach the people of Michigan the history of the lakes that surround them. Read the full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-shipwrecks
The privately-owned retired U.S. Army Corps tugboat Lake Superior began listing at its slip in Duluth Harbor and over the course of a weekend the stern of the vessel was underwater. The saga of the Lake Superior continues, with the U.S. Coast Guard discovering the tugboat is now leaking oil. Read the full story by Bring Me The News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-duluth
Researchers at Central Michigan and others are studying long-term trends in the Great Lakes and connecting waterways in winter, trying to document the impacts of climate change and nutrient pollution. Read the full story by The Eagle-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-fish-climate
Smelt fishers will be able to tend their nets until midnight this spring in a traditional Milwaukee harbor spot, according to a plan announced last week by Port Milwaukee officials. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-fish
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported 806 known bald eagle nests throughout the state, marking a 14% increase from 2020. Read the full story by Spectrum News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-ohio
For the past two years, an 800-foot line of large, barrel-shaped green barriers have lined South Beach to prevent erosion along Lake Michigan in South Haven, MI. Considered as a must for saving the beach, but an eyesore by others, the HESCO barriers are going away in a decision citing lower water levels on Lake Michigan. Read the full story by South Haven Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220328-lake-levels
Due to the US and Canadian pandemic border crossing closures, U.S. and Canadian joint sea lamprey treatment programs were much harder to complete. In 2020, 93 Great Lakes tributaries and 11 standing bodies of water were scheduled with only 26 tributaries and six standing bodies of water treated. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-fish-lamprey
In response to the growing awareness of microfibre pollution being discharged in wastewater, a group of Canadian organizations focused on protecting freshwater resources are calling on all Ontario provincial parties to support action on mass-scale washing machine filters. Read the full story by the Georgian Bay Forever.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-plastic-pollution
Debra Shore, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Region 5, wants to create vast demonstration projects that knit together various agencies’ work to address climate change, promote resiliency, and protect environmental justice and public health. Read the full story by Bloomberg Law.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-epa-projects
Michigan’s health department is recommending people eat no more than one serving per month of Lake Superior smelt, due to elevated levels of PFOS. Read the full story by WNMU – Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-fish-pfas
The damage to public groundwater resources in Minnesota from missteps during construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline is more severe than previously known. Enbridge Energy crews ruptured three groundwater aquifers while building the 340-mile pipeline across northern Minnesota releasing nearly 300 million gallons of groundwater last year. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-enbridge-line-3
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced a new statewide monitoring system for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which will start by focusing on water testing and air emissions reporting at 379 potential emitter facilities across the state. Read the full story by KSTP – Minneapolis, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-pfas
A multi-disciplinary team of US Forest Service employees gathered at Michigan’s Gooseneck Lake to help Hiawatha National Forest fisheries biologists install forty “fish cribs” on the ice, providing increased cover and habitat after the ice melts in the spring. Read the full story by Radio Results Network.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-fish-habitat
Michigan’s Alpena Township is prepared to borrow $15.8 million to invest into its water system. Funds would be used to pay for large projects that include replacing approximately 2,600 water service pipes from the water main to the curb. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-water-infrastructure
The communities of St. Clair and Clay Township in St. Clair County, Michigan, are getting major awards in federal infrastructure funding, one that could kick off millions’ worth of water plant improvements and another aiming to bolster sewer access for new development. Read the full story by Port Huron Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220323-infrastructure
A wholesale fish dealer from Platteville has been convicted of illegally selling invasive carp in Wisconsin. As the state’s first case involving illegal sale of bighead, grass and silver carp, Li Fish Farm, LLC was ordered to pay more than $13,000 in penalties. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-carp-conviction
Enbridge’s plan to relocate a portion of its Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin could involve a controversial drilling method, Horizontal Directional Drilling, which the company admits may release toxic chemicals into surrounding waters. Read the full story by Public News Service.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-line-5
Concerns about potential impacts on rivers and lakes linger in the lead-up to a long-awaited environmental hearing into a proposed palladium and copper mine near Marathon, Ontario. Read the full story by The Chronicle-Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-mining
More than a year after it arrived at the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore for a scheduled maintenance overhaul to prep it for its Great Lakes assignment, the 225-foot cutter Spar is on its way to its new home port in Lake Superior. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-ice-breaker
Scientists at Bowling Green State University recently joined researchers from around the region in studying how Great Lakes algal blooms persist in winter months. Read the full story by Sentinel-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-winter-algae
An experimental project, named Phosphorous Optimal Wetland Demonstration, located in Defiance, OH is aimed at preventing harmful algae blooms and improving water quality in the Great Lakes and is featured in the February edition of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers magazine, The Corps Environment. Read the full story by The Star Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-phosphorous-ohio
The Ontario government is proposing legislative changes that would open the door to storing carbon dioxide underground in the province. Experts say the area near the north shore of Lake Erie between Port Dover and Windsor has the best geologic potential for storing carbon dioxide in Ontario. Read the full story by Canada’s National Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-carbon
Sandusky, Ohio has begun construction on the Cedar Point Causeway Wetlands, a long-awaited 30-acre wetlands project on the west side of the Cedar Point Causeway, using material dredged from the Sandusky harbor to provide a new home for wildlife like birds and fish. Read the full story by the Sandusky Register.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-cedar-point
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has recorded at least 18 earthquakes so far this year in Ohio, higher than the typical two or three earthquakes per month. Read the full story by Tribune Chronicle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220314-earthquakes
A wholesale fish dealer from Platteville has been convicted of illegally selling invasive carp in Wisconsin. As the state’s first case involving illegal sale of bighead, grass and silver carp, Li Fish Farm, LLC was ordered to pay more than $13,000 in penalties. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220311-carp
As levels of chlorides continue to rise in Lake Michigan and exceed state limits in Chicago-area waterways, municipalities across the region are grappling with the urgent need to reduce the use of road salt in winter. Read the full story by Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-road-salt
Congress needs to heed the call of the Great Lakes governors and change the cost-share of the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project to make the carp prevention 100 percent federal, as opposed to the traditional cost-sharing arrangement between the Army Corps of Engineers and its local sponsor. Read the full story by The Hill.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-carp
Congress needs to heed the call of the Great Lakes governors and change the cost-share of the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project to make the carp prevention 100 percent federal, as opposed to the traditional cost-sharing arrangement between the Army Corps of Engineers and its local sponsor. Read the full story by The Hill.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-carp
Some futurists depict Michigan and the Great Lakes as “climate havens” that will lure people and businesses weary of worsening drought, wildfire, hurricanes and other disasters. Amid images of abundance lurk problems with pollution, overuse and deteriorating infrastructure. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-michigan
Some futurists depict Michigan and the Great Lakes as “climate havens” that will lure people and businesses weary of worsening drought, wildfire, hurricanes and other disasters. Amid images of abundance lurk problems with pollution, overuse and deteriorating infrastructure. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-michigan
Conservation groups and local governments are asking that a lock on the Champlain Canal be closed, to keep out a small non-native species, round goby, that has made its way from the Great Lakes into the Hudson River, putting it dangerously close to Lake Champlain. Read the full story by The Sun.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-round-goby
Coordinated efforts among local, state, and federal agencies are raising the possibility that new trails and amenities could be delivered along five miles of lakefront or major roads close to it starting within several years. Read the full story by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-shoreline
The City of Monroe’s Commission on the Environment and Water Quality and River Raisin Area of Concern’s mini documentary film, River Raisin Legacy Project, has won gold in the 2021 dotCOMM Awards. The film details the extensive remediation, restoration and revitalization efforts called the River Raisin Legacy Project, illustrates the cleanup work, habitat restoration, remediation and recreational enhancements for the Michigan river. Read the full story by The Monroe News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-river-raisin
In an earnings call last month, Canadian National Railway shared a desire to sell off its nine Twin Ports-based Great Lakes Fleet of ore carriers. The move comes as the freight rail company reviews its non-rail business, including a trucking firm. Read the full story by The Duluth News-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-shipping-sell-off
Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes totaled 2.5 million tons in January, a decrease of 4.7 percent compared to 2021, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association. Loadings were above the month’s five-year average by 17.6 percent. Read the full story by Business North.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-shipping
A chemical release in a tributary of the Huron River was ongoing Friday but contained to a back channel of the river as officials work to determine its source. State and federal officials have been working to contain the leak since Monday after anglers notified city officials of a “sheen” on the river. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220228-pollution
A new report by the Canadian environmental group Environmental Defence recommends upgrading Enbridge Inc.’s new Line 78 pipeline to handle most of what Line 5 now delivers to Ontario and Quebec, as well as several Midwestern states. Read the full story by The Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220221-line-5
To increase data for the Great Lakes in the winter scientists from 18 institutions in the U.S. and Canada, are fanning out in 12 teams this month across the lakes to grab as much data as possible. Read the full story by Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220221-winter-research
The Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance is fighting to preserve the marina portion of a historic shipping “ghost town” in West Michigan once titled “Singapore,” which met its ultimate demise in the early 1900s. Read the full story by Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220221-logging-ghost-town
Cleanup of the Twin Ports’ St. Louis River will accelerate under new federal Great Lakes restoration funding. The Lake Superior estuary is one of 22 designated “areas of concern” to be restored using $1 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure deal approved by Congress last fall. Read the full story by Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220221-st-louis-river
