A bill proposed by Ohio lawmakers seeks to remove pollution control for a large swath of Ohio streams and wetlands by relaxing regulations to align Ohio’s rules with the environmentally unsound federal regulation known as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule. Read the full story by The Columbus Dispatch.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-bill

Ned Willig

Algoma University in Sault St. Marie, Ontario, is partnering with other universities and community partners in the Lake Superior region to create the Lake Superior Climate Action Field School. The Field School will train a diverse group of young Canadians to become regional and national climate leaders through an experiential program of virtual workshops, community site visits, and events around the Lake Superior watershed. Read the full story by The Sault Star.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-climate-school

Ned Willig

Anglers on Lake Huron are encouraged to check any salmon or trout they catch in Lake Huron for an electronic tag on the fish’s adipose fin. The tags are used by state and federal researchers to track fish populations, and anglers could receive $100 for their catches. Read the full story by The News Herald.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-fish-tags

Ned Willig

There’s been a lot of news about the amount of plastic debris in the oceans, but plastic pollution also affects the Great Lakes. A study from the Rochester Institute of Technology estimates 22 million pounds of plastic debris enters the Great Lakes from the U.S. and Canada each year. Read the full story by WDET – Detroit, MI.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-plastic

Jill Estrada

If Line 5 is still pumping petroleum through the Straits of Mackinac on Thursday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has notified Enbridge Energy she will consider all resulting profits to be property of the state of Michigan. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-enbridge-profits

Jill Estrada

Ontario’s Lakehead University has announced the launch of the Lake Superior Climate Action Field School, in cooperation with three other universities on both sides of the international boundary. Read the full story by Thunder Bay News Watch.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-climate-school

Jill Estrada

The University of Toledo recently received more than a million dollars from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, part of which will fund research to understand the biological mechanisms of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-algae-blooms

Jill Estrada

A recently proposed bill that would modify the Fisheries Act in a way that would essentially return to prior laws, which were ineffective and rarely enforced, was dismissed as a step backwards by environmentalists and opposing Members of Parliament. Read the full story by the Toledo Star.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-sewage-bill

Jill Estrada

Ontario’s Laurentian University will be losing three researchers within its environmental sciences department due to restructuring. The loss of the three “Sudbury Model” researchers will affect local opportunities for the education and research of aquatic ecology and plant ecology. Read the full story by The Sudbury Star. 

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-laurentian-researchers

Jill Estrada

Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly along the South Shore of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, made 615,000 tons of metal in the week that ended May 8, down from 616,000 tons the previous week. Read the full story by the Northwest Indiana Times.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-steel-production

Ken Gibbons

The Sturgeon Point Marina problem requires a temporary solution that evolves into permanent settlement. The Buffalo area marina on Lake Erie, home to recreational boaters and fishermen, is impassable due to winter storms that ushered in about 28,000 cubic yards of sand and blocked the entrance. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-dredging

Ken Gibbons

The Downtown Ludington Board announced Tuesday that it will be celebrating National Maritime Day with a run around the harbor on May 22.  The event, the fifth race in its #RunLudington race series, will coincide with the start of the SS Badger’s sailing season. Read the full story by MLive.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-ludington

Ken Gibbons

EPA officials announced Monday the agency will award $9.6 million in grants to states, tribes and territories to monitor beach water for bacteria. The funds will also be used to develop programs to notify both the agency and the public about water quality. Read the full story by The Hill.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-beach-monitoring

Ken Gibbons

Stating that the county wants to protect Lake St. Clair for generations to come, the Macomb County Public Works Office announced that changes made at Chapaton Pump Station in St. Clair Shores, Michigan will prevent up to 30% more treated combined sewer overflows from being discharged into the waterway. Read the full story by C & G Newspapers.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-chapaton

Ken Gibbons

Milwaukee County Parks is seeking around 300 strong swimmers for lifeguard positions, and if they don’t find them, some pools and beaches won’t open this summer. The lifeguard shortage has been a problem for years now and there has been a steady decrease over the last four years. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-lifeguard

Ken Gibbons

The Government of Canada and entities representing hundreds of thousands of businesses and workers from across the Great Lakes region in the United States and Canada demonstrated support for Enbridge’s case in federal court over the Line 5 easement in the Straits of Mackinac by submitting friend of the court briefs. Read the full story by Yahoo! Finance.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-enbridge

Ken Gibbons

Dave Dempsey of For Love of Water urges advocates for more stringent regulations to better protect ground water. Groundwater is very important in Michigan. However, since groundwater is out of sight, it lacks critical protections. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-groundwater

Ken Gibbons

A federal Great Lakes official told an eight-state commission Tuesday that nutrient-laden farm runoff feeding western Lake Erie algal blooms keeps him “up at night” but he struggles to propose any control measures beyond continuing to promote voluntary incentives for the agricultural sector. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-erie-runoff

Ken Gibbons

About 200,000 gallons of wastewater and sludge from an Oceana County food processor escaped from an unpermitted lagoon last month, polluting a nearby creek and the Big South Branch of the Pere Marquette River, a tributary to Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-spill

Ceci Weibert

Since water diversions first gained traction in the early 1980s, when a coal company attempted to divert Great Lakes water to Wyoming, interest in the Great Lakes Basin’s water has grown from a trickle to a gush. Straddling communities that sit just outside the Great Lakes basin boundary are the most likely candidates for diversion permits. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-diversion

Ceci Weibert

After several reviews this spring, officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin, have put the finishing touches on a five-year plan for the city’s green spaces. The finalized document places renewed emphasis on partnerships with local groups. Read the full story by the Kenosha News.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-green

Ceci Weibert

In Wisconsin, experimental projects underway in both Fond du Lac and Outagamie counties are pioneering the continuous use of conservation practices aimed at protecting the soil. The initiative incorporates no-till farming methods, planting of cover crops and the use of low-disturbance manure injection instead of spraying manure onto bare, open fields. Read the full story by the FDL Reporter.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-fdl

Beth Wanamaker

Algae blooms can be dangerous, but there is no system that captures the total picture of algal blooms in Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes, according to a new study. Read the full story by the Journal Sentinel.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-blooms

Beth Wanamaker

So, should erosion control or lake access be the primary goal of a lakefront district, or can they build off each other? Is this lakefront district a wise long-term model, setting the stage for more public-private partnerships to create lake access or near-lake access for public trails? Or should allowing public lakefront access be required for those participating in any publicly subsidized program, which likely would reduce participation and could end the lakefront district before it starts? The Editorial Board Roundtable surveys the landscape. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-erosion

Beth Wanamaker

With the recent confirmation of Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior, the nation has its first Native American cabinet member. The position has significant influence on Native American affairs, and tribal representatives in Michigan say they’re optimistic about what Biden administration’s policies and Haaland’s position mean for Native representation. Read the full story by Capital News Service.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-haaland

Beth Wanamaker

Over the past 30 years, thousands of volunteers from around Northeast Ohio have picked up nearly 715 tons of trash along the Cuyahoga River. Saturday morning at the annual RiverSweep cleanup, hundreds more lent a hand to help keep the waterfront free of debris and trash. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-riversweep

Beth Wanamaker

A lighthouse restoration project kicked off on Plum Island in northern Door County, Wisconsin. The front range light will receive new paint and foundation repairs, and the watch and lantern rooms of the 65-foot-tall rear range light will get a makeover. Read the full story by the Door County Pulse.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-plum

Laura Andrews

A 7-mile peninsula juts out into Lake Erie from the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, forming a magnificent natural harbor called Presque Isle Bay. Today, two active lighthouses protect the ships plying Lake Erie. The North Pierhead Lighthouse is one of them. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-northpier

Laura Andrews

The U.S. Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation announced that eight U.S. ports in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System received the Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award registering increases in international cargo tonnage shipped through their ports during the 2020 navigation season. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-port

Laura Andrews