The ice cover is starting to grow on the Great Lakes and a few even have ice cover that is in line with the long-term average. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220119-ice-expanding
The Town of Saugeen Shores on the shores of Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario will renew its membership and pay dues to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities 2022 Initiative, despite misgivings about the value of the program to local taxpayers. Read the full story by the Owen Sound Sun Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220119-membership
The State of Michigan is continuing to replace lead service lines that are the source of lead contamination in drinking water in a southwest Michigan community. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220119-lead
The shortest route to get a ship from Asia to the U.S. is through America’s West Coast ports. But given the pileup there, some ships are going the long way through eastern Canada into the Great Lakes. Read and hear the full story by National Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-cargo
The Badger, which was built and launched in 1952, has returned to Ludington, Michigan after an inspection and new paint job. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-ss-badger
In testimony before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), a veteran in the oil and gas industry claimed that housing Line 5 in an underground tunnel poses a risk of explosion. Read the full story by the Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-tunnel
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has completed its annual Great Lakes survey season, conducted on all of our Great Lakes waters from April to November 2021. Read the full story by the Up North Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-fish-survey
Lake Superior currently has less than 10% ice coverage. The National Weather Service says this isn’t unusual. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-superior
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will host a virtual public hearing on Feb. 2 on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that the department has prepared for the proposed relocation of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in Ashland, Bayfield and Iron Counties. Read the full story by The Dunn County News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-line-5
There is a kind of migration is starting to happen where residents, exhausted and weary from the risks of forest fires, floods and other hazards, elect to move to a different part of the country. Read the full story by Global News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-climate-migration
The 2021 shipping season in Thunder Bay, Ontario wrapped up with the departure of the MV Manitoulin carrying a shipment of wheat. Read the full story by Northern Ontario Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-shipping
Black Swamp Conservancy has acquired the conservation easement on 1,100 acres of marshland in Ottawa County, increasing the land it protects from development in northwest Ohio to more than 2,100 acres. Read the full story by the Review Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-black-swamp
Ohio DNR has awarded a $2.2 million grant to the Chagrin River Watershed Partners to restore wetlands and strengthen riverbanks five miles from Lake Erie, according to ODNR. Read the full story by The News-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-chagrin-river
The Beaver River Watershed Initiative (BRWI) is seeking funding to build a fish culvert at the mouth of the Little Beaver Creek in Thornbury, Ontario as part of a series of projects being undertaken to rehabilitate and promote a healthy ecosystem in the river. Read the full story by the Toronto Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-fish-culvert
The thin ice on Muskegon Lake crumpled as the 122-foot tugboat sliced its way from its dock in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lake Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220117-ice-breaker
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers researchers are working with the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and other Native American tribes to help improve wild rice productivity in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Read the full story by Midland Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-rice
The ice on Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River is weak for this time of year, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, and the public is advised not to go onto the ice. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-ice
As part of the city’s $34 million Forward Looking Infrastructure Project, Port Clinton, Ohio, plans to spend at least $4 million to improve its Lake Erie shoreline. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-port-clinton
On any winter day in Cleveland, hundreds and sometimes thousands of gulls can be spotted in the shipping channels. But what brings them all to the area? Dr. Andy Jones, the curator of ornithology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, says the gulls are there to eat. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-gulls
Sand sculpture formations were spotted on Lake Michigan beaches this week near St. Joseph, Michigan. Cold, snow and wind combine to erode the semi-frozen sand, then preserve the strange shapes. Read the full story by WLS-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-sand
On Friday, Enbridge Energy will continue to push for its controversial tunnel project to relocate Line 5 beneath the Straits of Mackinac before the Michigan Public Service Commission during a virtual hearing. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-enbridge
Every year, the Corps of Engineers uses the winter period to perform maintenance to keep the Soo Locks operating. This year, the Soo Locks will close to marine traffic beginning 11:59 p.m. Jan. 15 through 12:01 a.m. March 25. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-soo-locks
After big storms in Minnesota, Lake Superior can experience 15-foot waves. Last week, surfers flocked to the shore of Lake Superior in subzero windchills in search of large waves. Read the full story Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-surfing-
The National Museum of the Great Lakes is hosting a virtual book club in 2022. The series will bring people together to read and discuss books about the Great Lakes region. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220114-book-club
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory’s most recent projection shows that only 12.3% of the lakes’ surfaces are likely to freeze before spring. Read and hear the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-ice-coverage
The North Shore Steelhead Association in co-operation with the City of Thunder Bay, Ontario is proposing the installation of fish counting devices and the making of minor changes to the internal structure of the fishway at Boulevard Lake. Read the full story by the Lake Superior News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-thunder-bay
Icebreaking operations are underway on the Great Lakes with two Canadian Coast Guard ships working in partnership with the United States coast guard. Read the full story by the Welland Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-icebreaker
Overall, ice coverage stands at 7.1% across all of Lake Michigan. In comparison, last year Lake Michigan was under 1% (0.7%) covered. Read the full story by WFRV-TV- Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-ice
Dave Dempsey, a senior advisor for the Traverse City-based nonprofit For Love of Water (FLOW), argues that commodifying the water in the Lakes would amount to a massive failure of stewardship. Read the full story by WMUK- Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-great-lakes
In a shoreline outlook statement issued on Monday, the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority said strong winds out of the south or east could still cause result in flooding and shoreline damage along Lake Erie due to a lack of ice cover. Read the full story by CKXS- Wallaceburg, Ontario.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-flooding
EPA today took its first steps to ramp up oversight of toxic coal ash following a Trump-era rollback, a move that threatens early retirement for some coal plants in the Midwest. Read the full story by E&E News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-coal-ash
Early last year, the state of Wisconsin issued a fish consumption advisory that recommended eating no more than one meal a month of Lake Superior rainbow smelt, caught by tribes and local anglers during smelt runs in the spring. Read the full story by The Washington Post Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-pfas
Several ships will soon be making their way into Erie, Pennsylvania’s Presque Isle Bay for repairs. Read the full story by Erie Times-News
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-ships
Next month one of Michigan’s most anticipated fishing seasons is scheduled to return for four days — though it very well may wrap up in a matter of hours. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220112-black-lake
Rochman Laboratory at the University of Toronto and Georgian Bay Forever conducted a study with households adding a filter to the outflow of water from their washing machines and measured the amount of microfibres in the town’s wastewater treatment plant. With approximately 10 per cent of town homes fitted with a filter, the team saw a large decrease in microfibres. Read the full story by Parry Sound North Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-microfiber-plastic
Researchers in Ontario have discovered 6PPD-quinone – which has been found to harm populations of fish – in two Toronto waterways, the Don River and Highland Creek, both of which empty into Lake Ontario. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-pollution
During the Ice Age, much of Canada and the northern United States were covered with a massive ice sheet. As this began to melt, Lake Agassiz formed from the meltwater forming an immense proglacial lake. Read the full story by The Travel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-lakes
In July 2020, province of Ontario released a Sustainable Bait Management Strategy, which describes the new approach to managing baitfish and leeches to reduce the ecological risks associated with the use and movement of bait. Read the full story by Orillia Matters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-bait
Minnesota county crews are installing 28 new boat-cleaning stations on lakes infested with starry stonewort in an effort to prevent the spread of the invasive species. Read the full story by Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-starry-stonewort
Ohio’s Democratic congressional delegation is excited to watch billions of dollars in infrastructure funding come to the state, but where that funding goes now depends on local efforts. Read the full story by Ohio Capital Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-infrastructure
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was not able to carry out dredging for Sandusky’s harbor in 2021 as it was lacking a place that could legally accept dredged material. However, the Corps is on track to resume dredging this year by using dredged material to build a new wetland. Read the full story by Sandusky Register.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-sandusky
Among other things, deer are jeopardizing efforts to restore the Lake Erie Sand Spit Savannah, a globally rare ecosystem that supports 25% of the species at risk in the park. Read the full story in the Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-deer
For close to four decades, U.S. Coast Guard motor lifeboat 40300 was on duty in Lake Michigan and later, in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. Now at 81, is among the most recent properties added to the National Register of Historic Places, based on its importance in maritime engineering and maritime history. Read the full story by Capital News Service.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-historic-ship
Built on the shores of Presque Isle, the original U.S. Brig Niagara played a major role in defeating the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220110-ship
As part of the H2Ohio Initiative, the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge has partnered with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ottawa County Soil and Water Conservation District on a project aiming to allow around 580 acres of wetlands in the western Lake Erie basin. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220107-wetlands
A tiny bug, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, is sucking the life out of the evergreens up and down Michigan’s west coast. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220107-hemlock-pest
The Michigan state House is expected to take up a $3.3 billion water infrastructure bill which passed the Senate in December. The money would help upgrade drinking water and wastewater utility systems, replace lead pipes, remediate toxic sites, protect private well owners from contaminants, replace failing septic system, and install filtration in schools. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220107-water-woes
Michigan regulators have fined an Ohio-based paper company nearly $250,000 following a wastewater mishap that caused an Escanaba River fish kill. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220107-paper-mill
An oil and gas expert warned Michigan utility regulators not only would a tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline not be a failsafe replacement for the underwater section of the line, but possible accidents could cause a catastrophic underground explosion. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220107-pipeline-risk
The Army Corps of Engineers analysis of the lake level data suggest there’s a 13% chance of water levels on Lake Ontario reaching 247.70 feet, also known as the threshold for still water flooding along the south shore. Read the full story by WKRG-TV.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220107-spring-flooding
