A proposed moratorium on freshwater wind turbines was defeated by members of the New York state Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee. Read the full story by The Post-Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220429-wind-turbines
Indigenous women leaders and more than 200 advocacy organizations sent a letter Wednesday demanding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers block federal permits for an expansion of Enbridge’s Line 5, a 645-mile-long pipeline that currently transports millions of gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids per day from Wisconsin to Ontario, Canada. Read the full story by Truthout.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220429-line-5
Not surveyed since the 1940s, areas of Lake Erie’s south shore and the Detroit River will be mapped by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) deep-water hydrographic survey vessel Thomas Jefferson. Read the full story by the Niagara Fall Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220429-floor-mapping
The Great Lakes Basin will continue receiving funding with the reauthorization of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act. It was approved in the U.S. House with bipartisan support this week. Read the full story by WSJM-TV – Benton Harbor, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220429-great-lakes-fish
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the U.S. celebrated its 50th anniversary. The agreement has improved and protected the water quality of the Great Lakes and also improved the lives of millions across the basin. Read the full story by The Welland Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-50th-anniversary
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative announced this past week that it will expand its Resilient Coastal Projects Initiative to include shoreline in West Michigan. The initiative will partner with mayors along the Lake Michigan shoreline to create funding-ready implementation frameworks for priority coastal protection projects with the goal of advancing coastal resilience. Read the full story by News-Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-coastal-protection
On the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Flint water crisis, the city of Flint, Michigan, announced the completion of its $17 million water pipeline project. The new system will ensure the city has a backup water source in case of an emergency. Read the full story by Flint Beat.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-flint
Despite 50 years of working jointly to address water quality challenges, the U.S. and Canada are far from declaring “mission accomplished.” We are still up against toxic algal blooms undermining access to safe drinking water, thousands of tons of plastics and microplastics ending up in our waterways and invasive species wreaking havoc on our fisheries and infrastructure. Read the full story by The Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-great-lakes
A Michigan woman started with the goal to pick up one million pieces of trash and instead launched Great Lakes Great Responsibility, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Great Lakes freshwater sources. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-pollution
Started by a former National Parks Service ranger, the first and only tour service authorized to lead tours into the wilderness areas of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is educating and bringing small groups to observe piping plovers. Read the full story by The Ticker.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-piping-plover
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is hoping not to see a repeat of last year when it comes to air quality. Much of the smoke that afflicted Minnesotans drifted south from Canada pooling over Lake Superior and then was being cycled back into the Duluth area. Read the full story by Duluth News-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-minnesota
The Biggest Week in American Birding is just a week and a half away, and that means tens of thousands of people are flocking to northwest Ohio to view the return of migratory birds. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-birding
Great Lakes research vessels will be visiting ports across the Great Lakes this year as a part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ effort to conducting annual fish surveys. Read the full story by The Daily Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220427-ship
Volunteers gathered at Wendy Park in Cleveland to clean up the beach during Earth Day weekend. The litter picked up this year along the shores of the Great Lakes could put the total amount of trash that’s been kept out of our lakes at over half a million pounds. Read the full story by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-beachcleanupwendypark
The Meijer company has donated $1 million toward cleaning up the Great Lakes. The money will be used by the Council of the Great Lakes Region to clean up beaches and waterways throughout the Midwest and to educate the public about plastics pollution. Read the full story by WGRT – Port Huron, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-beachcleanupdonation
In New York, nearly 300 Earth Week volunteers gathered at Hamburg’s Woodlawn Beach, hauling away a winter’s worth of debris deposited on shore. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-earthweekcleanup
Algal blooms cause lower housing prices in Lake Erie communities, according to a study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. View the full video story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-housingprices
If you’re at a Great Lakes port this season, you might see one of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ large fisheries research vessels conducting annual fish surveys. The vessels are based out of Marquette, Alpena, Charlevoix and Harrison Township harbors in Michigan. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-fishpopulations
In light of the present crisis unfolding on The Sullivans – and the fact that epoxy is a temporary fix for holes in its hull that caused it to list severely last week – a larger plan to protect the future of the ship has risen in importance. Read the full story by the Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-thesullivans
After last year’s free parking program for beaches, the city has decided to charge $15 for the season. Trish Sorrenti, corporate executive administrator, said last year’s free parking program was a struggle for staff. Read the full story by the St. Catherines Standard.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-beachparking
As the invasive tench tries to make inroads in the St. Lawrence River from east to west, another aquatic invasive critter, cousin to the round goby, is making its mark from the opposite direction. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-invasivegobies
In March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the Building Michigan Together Plan, which included the largest infrastructure investment in state history. Included in that investment is nearly $2 billion for water infrastructure. Read the full story by the Petoskey News-Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-waterinfrastructure
An area like the Great Lakes that has rain and higher temperatures in the summer, followed by a cold, snowy winter, is best suited for maple production. But the Great Lakes maple season is evolving as climate change increasingly impacts maple syrup production with shorter harvest seasons, less sugar production and unreliable sap flow. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220425-sugaring
Nearly 22 million pounds of plastic debris get into the Great Lakes each year, according to a Rochester Institute of Technology study. Beach cleanups help combat that by collecting plastic and other litter found on beaches and by raising awareness about the problem. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-plastic
The Great Lakes Water Authority in Detroit announced that due to the continued high level of performance of its Water Resource Recovery Facility, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has terminated the Administrative Consent Order it imposed more than a decade ago due to frequent non-compliance of the utility’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Read the full story by DBusiness.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-glwa
A rare Great Lakes piping plover was spotted this week at Rainbow Beach in Chicago, which was recently named by birders as the most promising new nesting site for the endangered bird. Neighbors hope to encourage the plover to stay by cleaning the beach this weekend. Read the full story by Block Club Chicago.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-plover
Milwaukee was selected as one of more than a dozen cities deemed to be “climate havens” – places that could avoid the worst effects of natural disasters and support larger populations, according to a report from CNBC. Making the list are also several other cities close to the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WTMJ-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-climate-haven
Workers and volunteer fire personnel were at work along the Olcott region lakeshore, filling and laying sandbags in trouble spots in order to stem potential erosion and flooding. This work is not uncommon for this time of year, as water levels in Lake Ontario begin to rise. Read the full story by the Niagara Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-water-level
On the shores of Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and other North Country water bodies lie unique communities driven by seasonal tourism. Despite many challenges in the past few years, the communities have been driven in part by the marine industry, which has proven to thrive. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Henderson Harbor, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-marine-industry
The Town of Marathon and Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, Ontario, are looking to revive the port facilities at the site of the former Marathon Pulp mill. Read the full story by Northern Ontario Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-port
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources stated that it and partner organizations will begin conducting an acoustic telemetry study this month that looks at walleye in the Saginaw Bay region of Lake Huron and their spawning habits. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-walleye
An Illinois bill that requires life equipment to be available along the Lake Michigan coasts was passed by both houses of the state’s Congress after activists pushed for increased safety measures following multiple drownings. Read the full by the Loyola Phoenix.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-rescue-equipment
Changing ecosystems and the COVID-19 pandemic are forcing Lake Michigan commercial fishing companies to change where they fish and how they sell their products. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220422-fishing
In less than a decade, the city of Joliet, Illinois, home to 150,000 people and roughly 45 minutes southwest of Chicago, could run out of water. The city is facing a looming water crisis as the patchwork of underground wells and aquifers it currently uses for municipal water is drying up, leading elected officials to join with other municipalities to create a regional water commission now focused on one looming goal: connecting these communities to Lake Michigan water. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-lake-michigan
In western Michigan, sprawled like a gigantic swimming pool atop a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, is the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, which uses simple technology to produce electricity for 1.6 million households: water is piped from a lower reservoir to an upper one, then released downhill through supersized turbines that generate electricity. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-energy
Rising water temperatures and pollutants such as microplastics and road salt are threatening the health of Ontario’s Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. Read the full story by the Midland Mirror.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-loon
The world’s two oldest-known common loons once again have returned to Michigan, and if they choose each other as mates, it will mark a record 26 consecutive summers together for the pair. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-loon
As the weather warms up, Ontarians are looking to get back outside and to the lakes, with fishing being a favorite pastime for many. While the Great Lakes provide many great fishing spots, the lakes have struggled in a battle against invasive carp species, and anglers must take caution against contributing to the risk of invasion. Read the full story by The Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-carp
Round gobies, an invasive fish, are of particular concern in the Great Lakes because of the impact they can have on the sporting fishing industry. Gobies first established themselves in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and continued their eastern migration into the St. Lawrence River. Read the full story by the Poughkeepsie Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-goby
The International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board, the organization that controls outflows from Lake Ontario, indicated this week that it is not worried that flooding will occur on the lake’s New York shore this year based on current water levels. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-flooding
The People’s Water Board Coalition in Benton Harbor, Michigan, is calling on state and local officials to be more transparent with the public about the quality of the town’s drinking water over concerns about bacterial contamination. Read the full story by The Herald-Palladium.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-benton-harbor
The Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy has gifted nearly 1,300 acres of pristine highlands wilderness in Marquette County to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to protect the property from degradation and maintain public access. Read the full story by Up North Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220420-land-gift
Plans to restore the Ford Cove shoreline along Lake St. Clair will be shared with the public during an event on April 30 from 1-4pm. Read and hear the full story by Macomb Daily.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-ford-house
The U.S. Coast Guard announced Saturday that its icebreaking operations on the western Great Lakes are complete for the season. Read and hear the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-icebreaking
In Minnesota, where early colonists came from France and later came from other parts of Europe, roughly 90 percent of lakes in the researchers’ sample were Name Lake. Read the full story by MinnPost.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-lake-names
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan and Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault have issued a statement to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United States-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Read the full story by the WaterWorld Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-wqa
Head of Alliance for the Great Lakes praises Milwaukee initiative to stop overflows by 2035. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-overflow
Michigan is home to five national parks: Isle Royale park, Keweenaw park, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Pictured Rocks national lakeshore and River Raisin park. These five gems are rich in both history and scenery. Read the full story by the WDIV -TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-national-parks
The West Michigan Tourist Association has once again released its Lake Michigan Lighthouse map. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-lighthouses
DNR teams completed more than 260 fisheries surveys across Michigan in 2021. DNR fisheries staff surveyed 152 inland lakes and 115 streams. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220418-dnr-survey
