Since the early 2000s, a collaborative partnership between local, state, and federal agencies formed the Michigan Hydro Relicensing Coalition with the goal to increase lake sturgeon recruitment and survival to adulthood, and led to the installation of a fish elevator to transfer sturgeon upriver on Wisconsin’s Menominee River. Read the full story by Up North Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210927-sturgeon
Coming in time for next summer could be a rule that bans swimming at Michigan beaches when the conditions are deemed hazardous. Michigan Department of Natural Resources is reviewing the rule that could mean fines of up to $500 for swimming when the waves are too high, when there’s contamination in the water, or when there’s another situation that imperils swimmers. Read the full story by WJSM-TV – St. Joseph, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210927-swimming
New York state intends that, by 2040, no greenhouse gases will be emitted in generating electricity. Oil- and natural-gas-burning electric power plants will be replaced by renewable wind and solar energy installations. Read the full story by New York Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210927-new-york-energy
The water levels of Lake Superior is 13” below the levels in September of 2019, a difference of 5.5 trillion gallons of water due to below average precipitation in the upper Midwest, but 1” lower than the September average. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210927-water-levels
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $309,300 grant to the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, to keep litter and trash out of Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie provided by the Trash-Free Waters Grant under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Read the full story by WZTE-FM – UNION CITY, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-epa
The Lake Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy, a nonprofit group based in Marquette, Michigan, received $122,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this year to remove marine debris from Upper Peninsula beaches and harbors. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-noaa-grant
Crystal M.C. Davis, vice president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, is being recognized for her efforts to ensure fair and equitable access to water. Read the full story by WKSU-FM – Kent, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-cleveland
This year at least six algae blooms were reported on the western arm of Lake Superior, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The blooms of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are likely increasing in the lake due to warm surface water and ample sunlight. Read the full story by The Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-algae-bloom
During the Mackinac Policy Conference on Wednesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other officials offered up the Lake Michigan Electric Vehicle Circuit, a plan to add charging stations all along the shoreline. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-ev
Waterspouts, an atmospheric phenomenon that resembles a tornado-like column of swirling air on water, were formed on Lake Michigan Wednesday amid gusty winds and high, damaging waves, according to multiple reports on social media. Read the full story by WMAQ-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-water-spout
The 2021-22 state budget passed this week by the Michigan Legislature includes $25 million for a pilot program in the western Lake Erie basin to increase the participation of agricultural lands using best management practices for water quality. Read the full story by the Daily Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-michigan-budget
The state of Michigan will provide bottled water and water filters in Benton Harbor, where tests have revealed elevated levels of lead, a spokesman said Wednesday. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-lead
Partners for Clean Streams, which focuses on improving quality of life along Toledo-area waterways, is reaching a milestone this Saturday with its 25th annual Clean Your Streams Day. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-cleanup
A fledgling initiative created in part by the Chicago-based Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers has attracted nearly $4 billion in sustainability investments for the region in 19 months. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210924-sustainability-investment
Large one-time investments in water infrastructure and environmental protection are included in Michigan’s 2022 budget, which puts millions toward drinking water emergency response, municipal flooding and erosion aid, pollution cleanups and dam repairs. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-michigan-budget
The bipartisan infrastructure bill, which has already passed the Senate and is expected to be voted on by the House by the end of September, directs dollars to improve water quality not just locally in the Great Lakes but across the Midwest. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-infrastructure
Wisconsin tribal official Daniel Guzman has been appointed to the EPA’s Small Community Advisory Subcommittee, which was established in 1996 to solicit input from community leaders about ideas to improve and protect the health of the people of the environment where they live. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-tribal-official
The nine catfish species found in the Great Lakes are a surprisingly interesting group of fishes. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-catfish
The Senecaville State Fish Hatchery is one of six fish hatcheries operated by Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, that produce more than 40 million fish a year to stock many of Ohio’s waterways. Read the full story by The Daily Jeffersonian.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-hatchery
A proposed solar canopy array in the parking lot will help Presque Isle State Park reach net-zero energy consumption. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-solar-panels
A meeting to discuss coastal resiliency is planned for this week in in a southwest Michigan township. The township has received a grant from the Land Information Access Association to help it update its master plan with coastal resiliency in mind. Read the full story by WSJM – St. Joseph, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-coastal-resiliency
Waves as high as 20 feet could be possible on the Great Lakes and flooding occurring in parts of southeast Michigan as a multi-day storm system settles into the region, according to the National Weather Service. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-waves-and-flooding
Tens of millions of fish from the Great Lakes are caught annually and most of them meet the same culinary fate becoming fried filets. However, groups and individuals around the region have recently been working on projects aiming to encourage this culinary path and expand the scope of Great Lakes fish and wild game consumption. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210922-fish-fry
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was present for a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off a project that will restore more than 100 acres of wetlands by connecting Powderhorn Lake to Wolf Lake in the southeast area of Chicago, Illinois. Read and view the full story by WBBM-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-restoration
Minnesota regulators have ordered Enbridge to pay more than $3 million for allegedly violating state environmental law by piercing a groundwater aquifer during construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-enbridge
According to the Great Lakes Seaway Partnership, the Seaway system handled over 20 million metric tons of cargo from the opening of the Seaway on March 22 through August 31. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-seaway
Previous research and current study find troubling trends for the freshwater fish of Minnesota and elsewhere, owing in part to the impact of global warming caused by climate change. Read and hear the full story by The Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-fish-trends
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on Friday appointed a new clean water public advocate. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-clean-water
A decade ago, a blue-green algae bloom had never been reported on Lake Superior. Now, half a dozen blue-green algae blooms have been reported this summer across Lake Superior, including one that formed recently in Superior. Read and hear the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-algae
A major voice has chimed in regarding the potential placement of wind turbines in Lake Erie. During its September meeting, the New York State Conservation Council went on record as calling for a “permanent moratorium on offshore industrial wind turbine development in any Great Lakes waters.”. Read the full story by the Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-turbines
Most of the Great Lakes continue to have declining water levels from the record-high levels over the past few years. The water level decline of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron has been the most amazing. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-water-loss
A native of Quincy, Illinois says he has created a solution that takes Asian carp and turns them into a liquid fertilizer at his facility in Pearl, Illinois. Read and view the full story by WGEM -TV- Quincy, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-carp
The North Country Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (NCCISMA) in Cadillac, Michigan has created a series of educational videos on how to control invasive species. Read the full story by the Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210920-invasives
In Illinois, a group of conservationists, officials and community members will gather this weekend to mark the groundbreaking for the eventual restoration of Powderhorn Lake, which will be connected to Wolf Lake, creating a link extending all the way to Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-powderhorn
A $1.3 million shoreline restoration project aimed at improving wildlife habitat and public access in Chesterfield Township, Michigan, is officially complete. Read the full story by The Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-chesterfield
The water-rich Great Lakes region may have cooler temperatures and sit high above sea level. But it can’t be a refuge for anyone if it doesn’t take action now to adapt to its own changing climate. Read the full story by Bloomberg CityLab.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-climatehaven
In Flint, Michigan, the city’s plan to blend an increased amount of water from Genesee County with its primary supply from the Great Lakes Water Authority has been postponed because of repairs needed due to settling of a newly constructed connector line to the county system. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-flint
Canada wants to store nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin, but a Michigan congressman is looking to stop it. Read the full story by Mid-Michigan Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-nuclear
In Michigan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel will apply lampricides to Schlotz Creek, located in the community of Oskar, in Stanton Township, to kill sea lamprey larvae burrowed in the stream bottom. Read the full story by the Daily Mining Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-lamprey
Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Eichinger will sign an order that will ban swimming on days with hazardous conditions at state parks in the near future. Read the full story by the Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-redflag
In Indiana, Save the Dunes and the Town of Long Beach have completed a project to restore the natural dune habitat and enhance public access to Stop 24, one of the town’s public dune and lakeshore access sites. Read the full story by WBND – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210917-dunes
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters led a group of Senate Democrats in calling on party leadership to include funding for Great Lakes port infrastructure in an infrastructure bill. Democrats in Congress are hoping to pass a $3.5 trillion budget plan before the end of the year. Read the full story by The Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-infrastructure
Concerns are flaring over a pipeline that carries crude oil and natural gas from western Canada. Enbridge, a Canadian company, owns the 645-mile line constructed nearly 70 years ago. The line starts in Superior, WI and ends at the southernmost point of Lake Huron. Read the full story by National Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-enbridge-oil
The City of London, Ontario says residents in the city’s southeast end might notice a slight odor and discoloration to their tap water due to an “inversion” in parts of Lake Erie due to seasonal changes in temperature and sunlight. These cause different layers of water to mix in a way that provides challenges for the water treatment process. Read the full story by Global News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-water
An interim report commissioned by federal regulators indicated that the sudden loss of soil strength under saturated conditions most likely caused the static liquefaction failure of the Michigan Edenville and Sanford dams during steady rain in May 2020 to collapse last year. Read the full story by Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-dam-collapse
As a part of Governor Whitmer’s $200 million proposed expansion of a state Clean Water Plan through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy is the removal lead service lines across the state, including in Benton Harbor, MI which has had six straight lead exceedances. Read the full story by Water & Wastes Digest.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-lead
After reports that the 2021 rice crop is about the worst the northern Great Lakes has ever seen, two University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Lake Trout Station scientists studied some of the impacts, which may be due to 5-6 years of unusually high water, competition with pond lilies which benefit from the longer growing seasons, and increases in swan and geese populations. Read the full story by WXPR-FM – Rhinelander, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-rice
Monarch butterflies make a stop in Cleveland Metroparks, usually near the Lake Erie shore at Wendy Park, to rest along their journey from Canada and the Northeastern U.S. to Mexico. Read the full story by WEWC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-monarchs
For the past seven years, Lake Superior water levels have been considered high. Now, they are dropping back to their historical long-term average due to the recent drought. Read the full story by KBJR-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-lake-levels
The first, fully-electric road ferries to sail in North America are now on their way from Damen Shipyards in Galati, Romania to Lake Ontario to begin operations. Ordered by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, the Amherst Islander II and Wolfe Islander IV, 68 and 98 metres in length respectively, represent a new generation of zero-emission large ferries. Read the full story by Ship Insight.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210915-ferries
