Great Lakes preservationists received a significant boost in December with the bipartisan passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). The Act provides significant resources for protecting the Great Lakes, including funding for preventing the infiltration of invasive carp. Read the full story by The North Shore Weekend.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-carp
Erie, Pennsylvania City Council recently passed an ordinance creating an Environmental Advisory Council (EAC). The EAC will build capacity and support community outreach efforts at a time when Erie’s environmental ambitions continue to grow. Read the full story by Go Erie.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-erie-pa
Flexsteel Industries has agreed to settle a toxic pollution lawsuit by paying $9.8 million to clean up its former furniture manufacturing site in Elkhart, Indiana. The agreement finalized in December resolves a suit against Flexsteel Industries for groundwater contamination. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-elkhart
A new study found that consuming freshwater fish harvested from urban areas 12 times per year could more than triple the level of PFOS — one of the most well-known and researched PFAS compounds — in residents of the U.S. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-forevers
A Midwest environmental law group is launching a new initiative this year to work with utilities, municipalities, and conservation groups to study the potential reuse of Michigan coal plants as public parkland as well as renewable energy production. The project is examining the reuse of at least four coal plants along each of the Great Lakes that Michigan touches. Read the full story by MiBiz.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-parklands
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has determined this isn’t the right time to put wind turbines in Lake Erie or Lake Ontario. The agency concluded the turbines would cost more than other renewable energy options, and wouldn’t offer a feasible contribution to state climate goals. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-eriewind
The federal government and the municipality of Central Elgin that includes the Lake Erie beach town of Port Stanley, Ontario, are funding the work jointly to manage the impact of storm surges and protect people and property. Read the full story by the West Elgin Chronicle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-portstanley
Shifting sandbars along the Leelanau County coast have uncovered a piece of wreckage which a northern Michigan diver believes is the remains of a schooner that sank in the treacherous Manitou Passage 150 years ago. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-fragment
January has been much warmer than usual, allowing very little ice on the Great Lakes to form yet this winter season. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-lowice
The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team has confirmed elevated levels of the “forever chemicals” have been found in South Haven. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-southhaven
Climate change is already affecting the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Commission is urging the Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces through an “Action Plan for a Resilient Great Lakes Basin” to coordinate their efforts to make the Great Lakes basin more resilient to those changes. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-climate
Both Michigan and the wider Great Lakes and St. Lawrence binational region could become a world leader in the high-quality, voluntary carbon offset market to the possible tune of $783 billion in revenues by 2050, according to new research from the University of Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-carbon-offsets
The Great Lakes region is in the early stages of knitting together economic development, transportation, and environmental improvement programs in a way that could leverage more federal investment and foster networking between academic and private-industry researchers under the proposed Great Lakes Authority. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-great-lakes-authority
A newly formed coalition called Great Lakes Clean Hydrogen in the Toledo area has been chosen to proceed in a national competition to become one of the Biden Administration and U.S. Department of Energy’s first “Hydrogen Hubs.” Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-hydrogen
A coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous quarry opponents on Lake Huron is trying to stop a quarry that could harm endangered Blanding’s turtles. It’s one example of a wider provincial dispute over aggregate extraction in Ontario. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-turtle-quarry
City of Hamilton, ON officials have announced that roughly 59 million litres of sewage had flowed from 11 Hamilton homes near Rutherford Avenue and Myrtle Avenue straight into Lake Ontario since 1996. A separate 337-million-litre sewage spill was discovered in late November. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-wastewater
A helicopter crew from the Coast Guard’s Air Station Traverse City recently worked with an Aids to Navigation Team from Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste Marie to get things working again at two lighthouses approximately 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge: the Grays Reef Light and the White Shoal Light. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-lighthouse-repairs
Anglers will soon benefit from the 624,205 fish, which collectively weighed 7.8 tons, that were stocked by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources at 85 locations across the state. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-fish-stocking
NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory keeps track of the ice cover percentage each day and has built a database of average ice cover, record high ice cover and record low ice cover. Graphs shared by NOAA displaying current ice cover in contrast to past years over the Great Lakes, show the region is set up for record low ice coverage by mid-January. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-low-ice
Two ground-breaking projects are underway at Illinois Beach State Park. The first will help protect the shoreline from erosion caused by Lake Michigan waves, and the second will inform future decisions about how to blunt the effects of erosion and climate change. Read the full story by River Bender.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-erosion
Construction on the Discovery Pier in Traverse City, MI has been helped thanks to a $1.6 million federal grant, taking the project closer to becoming a new freshwater research and innovation center. Read the full story by WILX-TV- Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-federal-grant
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin visited the Port of Green Bay, WI where she and other leaders highlighted a new ice breaker for the Great Lakes with hopes to boost commerce. Read the full story by the WBAY-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-ice-breaker
January 14 is the midpoint of meteorological winter, and so far, the seasonal temperatures have been above average across most of the United States. As a result, there are fewer days with temperatures below freezing, which has led to a lack of ice over the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WLNS- TV – Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-great-lakes-ice
More than a century after it was built, the Kewaunee Pierhead Lighthouse in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places. Read the full story by the Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-lighthouse
A major scientific study aimed to find the best way to allow a certain species of fish swim upstream, now sits in a legal limbo as the Michigan Supreme Court decides whether to consider the case. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-fish-research
Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 28.8 million tons last year, the Lake Carriers’ Association reports. That mark is down about 2.5 percent versus the total from 2021. Read the full story by Pit & Quarry.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-limestone
The Erie Coke Corporation based in Erie, PA, and its former plant superintendent have come under federal indictment for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act. Read the full story by the Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-clean-air-act
The Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan will close to marine traffic beginning January 15, or until commercial traffic ceases, through March 25 to perform critical maintenance. Read the full story by WDMJ – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-soo-locks-closing
A wetter atmosphere and slower freezing of the Great Lakes has made wintertime temperature increases in Wisconsin cities Milwaukee and Green Bay among the highest in the nation as research projects that rises will continue. Read the full story by PBS Wisconsin.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-climate-change-wisconsin
Michigan officials advise people to limit how much rainbow smelt they eat from the Great Lakes and some inland lakes due to elevated PFAS contaminant levels. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230113-fish-advisory
The EPA has not been active at Wurtsmith since 2014, when it ended participation in cleanup after the Department of Defense (DOD) stopped funding its involvement. The state has struggled to obtain compliance from the Air Force, which has pushed back strongly on EGLE’s oversight and enforcement attempts. The result has been years of poor communication, technical and legal disputes and Air Force refusal to accept responsibility for PFAS in many areas. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-epa-fortwursmith-pollutioncleanup
A proposed 18-kilometre pipeline from Oneida Nation of the Thames would connect to the same system that supplies treated Lake Huron Water to London and other municipalities. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-oneida-lakehuronwater
Experts have found that ice contains oil spills, making for an easier cleanup, but there’s a catch – it also makes it harder to detect. Read the full story by Iron Mountain Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-ice-oilspills-containment
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority released a study saying the economics don’t support putting wind turbines in the Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario. The Great Lakes Wind project, as proposed, doesn’t offer the same benefits to the electric grid as other offshore wind projects while relying on unproven technologies that call the project’s effectiveness into doubt. Read the full story by the Observer Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-statestudy-windturbines
The Lower Fox River basin covers four counties including Brown, Claumet, Outagamie and Winnebago. The clean-up on the Lower Fox River focused on polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs). Although the clean-up itself was completed in 2020, a final stage known as a state closure was only recently approved. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Examiner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-lowerfoxriver-pcbcleanup
It is well known that birds are constantly shifting their migration patterns to adjust to many factors from coastlines to industrial and other constructed structures, but the Great Lakes have now been found to be another factor. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-greatlakes-birdmigrationpatterns
The damage from the Blizzard of 2022 is evident along many sections of Buffalo’s waterfront. Some experts think that more natural barriers, such as vegetation, should be used along the shoreline, versus hardened walls. Read the full story by WGRZ-TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-protectinglakeerie-shoreline-storms
The city of Hamilton, Ontario, says it has uncovered another sewage leak that has been dumping waste into Lake Ontario for more than two decades. The revelation comes after the city reported in November that a leak discovered to be from 1996 had dumped 337 million liters of sewage into the Hamilton harbor in the 26 years it went undetected. Read the full story by the Toronto Sun.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-hamilton-sewageleak-lakeontario
Captains from across the Great Lakes area gathered in Traverse City, Michigan, for the annual Industry Days conference. The conference focuses on learning from each other and how to keep passengers on ferries, tour boats and other mid-sized boats safe while out on the water. Read the full story by WPBN – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-captains-greatlakes-traversecity
Michigan author and Great Lakes historian Ric Mixter is speaking in Bay City this month on his latest book, “Tattletale Sounds: The Edmund Fitzgerald Investigations,” which promises new information on the wreck nearly half a century later. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230111-newinfo-edmundfitzgerald
The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant organization learned in a scientific study, that other sorts of invaders may not be affected by the electric barrier technology. That means risk for damage to the Great Lakes food web remains from other aquatic invertebrates, such as mussels, crayfish, snails, zooplankton and more. Read the full story by Mlive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-electric-barrier
The Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio will be receiving funds through the U.S. Forest Service that will help the nonprofit operate a seed bank and promote forest restoration across the lower Great Lakes region. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-seed-bank
Lake Superior declined 2 inches from November 30, 2022 to December 30, 2022, a fairly typical decline for December that now puts the lake approaching its average water level. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-lake-levels
The Inland Seas Education Association in Suttons Bay, Michigan made an announcement that they have acquired a new vessel. The schooner “Alliance” will be joining the fleet on West Grand Traverse Bay. Read the full story by WWTV-TV – Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-tall-ship
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources stocked 624,205 fish at 85 locations across the state during fall 2022. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-mi-fish-stocking
The federal government is spending millions of dollars to repair damage to the West Arrowhead Breakwater in Oswego Harbor, New York. The breakwater runs 2,700 feet out to the historic West Pierhead Lighthouse and protects the deep draft, commercial harbor. Read the full story by Oswego County News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-oswego-harbor
Chicago has an opportunity to envision a holistic view of what Lake Michigan’s shoreline should look like far in the future. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District is seeking input through Jan. 17, which allows a great opportunity to express what the Chicago shoreline needs. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-shoreline-restoration
Recent rollbacks of Trump-era federal water laws are unlikely to change much about how Michigan’s waterways are regulated, though experts say the move will enhance water protections around the Great Lakes and across the rest of the country. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-water-laws
Named after one of the first women to serve as a federal cabinet minister, the Canadian Coast Guard’s newest light icebreaker made its way up the Welland Canal last week, docking in Port Colborne. CCGS Judy LaMarsh, formerly Mangystau-2 and home-ported in Turkmenistan, was purchased in November 2021 from Atlantic Towing Ltd. for $45.2 million to supplement operations in the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence and Atlantic regions. Read the full story by the Welland Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-welland-canal
An Ohio group has called on governments and citizens to heed the findings of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Great Lakes Wind Feasibility Study. That study, which was released before the New Year holiday weekend, casts doubt on the justification for building wind turbines in Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230109-lake-turbine
