Conneaut in northern Ohio has received a $19.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, for critical infrastructure work on the city’s port. Read the full story by Star Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201014-port-grant
Three new all-terrain wheelchairs have been added for guest use at Indiana Dunes State Park, provided access to trails and the Lake Michigan beach. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201014-wheelchairs
The old lighthouses of the Great Lakes are believed to hold the unsettled spirits of those who kept them, and those who met tragic, untimely deaths. Read the full story by Fodor’s Travel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201014-haunted-lighthouses
Construction on a pipeline in Waukesha, Wisconsin that is designed to return treated water back to Lake Michigan, is slated to begin later this month. Read the full story by GM Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201014-pipeline-construction
After twenty-seven years, two states and one Great Lake, a small wooden boat was discovered on a remote beach on Lake Superior. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201014-toy-boat
The Ports of Indiana and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are working to have the northern and southern portions declared as maritime districts; the alignment will create one district for Lake Michigan shipments and one district for Ohio River shipments, allowing the state to be better represented in national rankings. Read the full story by The Center Square.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-ports-martime
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District, has completed construction for the final phase of the Fort Sheridan Great Lakes Fishery and Ecosystem Restoration project at Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve in unincorporated Lake County, including 60 acres of shoreline and placement of artificial underwater reefs. Read the full story by the Daily Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-fort-sheridan-restoration
The owner of a Detroit River dock that collapsed in November 2019, spilling large piles of gravel-type rocks into the river, has been fined $60,000 by state regulators for violating state environmental laws. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-detriot-dock-collapse
The Duluth City Council approved a resolution that will halt any further work to advance the path and redirect $915,000 in federal disaster aid that had been earmarked to repair a crushed stone shoreline path, to be used to help fund repairs of other storm-damaged areas. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-duluth-construction
Consumers Energy spent from May through mid-September pulling four to eight 46 kV cables from the water. The cables had been installed in 1956 to carry electricity to the Upper Peninsula. Read the full story by MLive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-mackinac-energy
The project on Detroit’s Oakman Boulevard will drain 64 acres to prevent flooding by installing permeable medians as much as 15 feet below the street surface. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-green-infrastructure
According to the Chamber of Marine Commerce, from April through the end of August, cargo volumes in the St. Lawrence Seaway, was down 8% compared to 2019’s figures. Read the full story by NPR.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-shipping-slowdown
More than 91,000 dams impede the passage of rivers all around the United States. Most dams have a lifespan of about 50 years, and many that exist in the United States were built long before the 1970s—including the Edenville Dam in Michigan, which failed earlier this year. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-aging-dams
The ongoing disaster striking the coastal communities of the Great Lakes has not captured national attention like hurricanes and wildfires in other parts of the country, but those communities are reeling from untold billions in damage and the prospect that climate change will make things worse in the years to come. Read the full story by Wisconsin Examiner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201013-coastal-damages
University of Wisconsin-Superior researchers are trying to figure out how to better regulate small invasive organisms that stow away in the ballast water of large vessels traversing the Great Lakes Basin. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-ballast-water
Community members, local officials and supporters celebrated the grand opening of a free water testing lab in Flint, Michigan, that fosters STEM education, job-skill training, and trust in the community amid the Flint water crisis. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-flint-water-testing
A new study reveals that other invasive species may be impacting invasive mussel populations in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Capital News Service.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-invasive-mussels
Record setting amounts of water flowed through some Michigan rivers this year on the way to Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-michigan-rivers
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula residents are waiting to see how much of the $500 million for water infrastructure upgrades announced by Michigan Gov. Whitmer last week will make it to the region. Read the full story by Your Daily Globe.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-indrastructure-investment
Nearly three dozen public health and environmental organizations are calling on Wisconsin state officials to require thousands of public water systems to test for hazardous chemicals known as PFAS. Read the full story by Kenosha News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-pfas-testing
A smell that some residents in Saginaw, Michigan, have noticed in their tap water is due to a seasonal turnover in the city’s water source out of Lake Huron. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-tap-water-odor
Lawmakers in Washington are again making bipartisan efforts to push for funding to protect the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-great-lakes-support
Lakefront erosion is not hurting property values for communities along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, where housing prices have been on the rise since months after the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full story by the Post-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-lake-michigan-property
Storm chasers and meteorologists observed a record number of waterspouts over the Great Lakes this month, according to the Toronto-based International Centre for Waterspout Research. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201012-waterspouts
The Anishinaabe people lived along the Great Lakes for centuries before European explorers arrived, however the history of indigenous people is overlooked by many. Organizations in Michigan are working to include more details about the lives of Native Americans in exhibits, museums, and statewide historical markers. Read the full story by Upper Michigan’s Source.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-anishinaabe
The American shipping industry has kept itself safe on the Great Lakes during the pandemic, but the shippers are feeling the economic impact of the shutdown that caused declines in manufacturing output. Read the full story by Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-ore-down
A western Michigan woman honored by the federal government for her environmental activism is attributing her recent cancer diagnosis to toxic PFAS chemicals that polluted her community’s drinking water supply. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-pfas-activist
Sleeping Bear Dunes turns 50 this month and is a cornerstone of tourism in northern Michigan. But it took nearly a decade to establish the National Park site because of heated opposition from residents. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-sleeping-bear
Western Lake Erie’s summer 2020 algal bloom is still present and visible from space. With fall temperatures dropping, the remaining toxic microcystin chemicals will soon deteriorate. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-tough-bugger
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management will host a free virtual webinar series to teach about watershed protection and restoration efforts within the Lake Michigan basin. Read the full story by the Indiana Environmental Reporter.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-idem
Researchers at Michigan Technological University have partnered with a Canadian shipping company to develop autonomous marine vessels to use for cargo shipping on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by State Scoop.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-boat-research
Temperamental fall weather and high lake levels threaten a beleaguered stretch of shoreline road in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, that has been closed due to erosion. Read the full story by The Community Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-lake-erie-autumn
An upstate New York couple is scrambling to protect their water supply after they were denied state funding to repair damages from record flooding on Lake Ontario in 2019. Read the full story by WWNY – TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-ontario-flooding-dw
To make beaches safer, the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project confronts the issue of drowning on five fronts: gathering statistical data, education, support and advocacy for drowning victims and their families, lifeguard and service training and first responder training. Read the full story by the Petoskey News-Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-swimming
It’s just the beginning, but Saugeen Shores, Ontario, is taking its first crack at protecting part of its shoreline from erosion. Hardening the shoreline is happening up and down the Lake Huron coast, as record setting lake levels batter the water’s edge. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201009-saugeen
Together, the five Great Lakes contain upwards of 6,000 shipwrecks. These vessels are scattered across the entire Great Lakes from the Thousand Islands on the eastern end of Lake Ontario to Duluth on the western end of Lake Superior and provide habitat for fish and other aquatic species. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-shipwrecks
The Trent Port Marina in Trenton, Ontario is using cutting-edge technology to filter plastic waste out of the water and stop more plastic from finding its way in. Read the full story by The Intelligencer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-plastics-cleanup
Researchers at the University of Windsor have been using an underwater robot to study harmful algal blooms and low oxygen levels in Lake Erie. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-uwindsor-robot
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials visited Cleveland, Ohio Wednesday announcing they will start the process to delist the Ashtabula River as an Area of Concern (AOC) “as final beneficial use impairment is removed.” Read the full story by WEWS-TV -Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-ashtabula-river
Both the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University are recipients of large federal grants announced this week to address the national rise of harmful algal blooms and the toxins they create which can endanger public health. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-lake-erie-algae
Northwestern Michigan College students aided in the multi-million dollar FishPass Project on Wednesday in Traverse City, MI. Scientists implanted radio trackers in some fish, and the students scanned the river to find them and monitor their movement. It will serve as baseline data before the systems installed. Read the full story by WWUP-Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-fishpass
For more than a decade, dozens of agencies and millions of dollars in state funding have supported the Black River Watershed Initiative in New York, and stakeholders continue to push for environmental remediation in the mostly-forested north country drainage basin. Read the full story by Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-black-river
The federal government is about to spend $15 million on a new push to restore the Cuyahoga River by adding more twists and turns to its sections that traverse Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. Read and hear the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-cuyahoga-restoration
The water level on Lake Michigan continued its seasonal decline and had fallen below record stage as of early October. September marked the first month of 2020 in which the Lake Michigan-Huron basin did not set a record for the highest monthly average water level. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-lake-micihgan
One of three shoreline projects in Bright’s Grove, Ontario meant to prevent Old Lakeshore Road from falling into Lake Huron wasn’t done this year and must be retendered. Read the full story by The Sarnia Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201008-shoreline-restoration
The Lake Erie Bill of Rights, the surprisingly successful ballot measure that conferred legal rights on Lake Erie, is hanging on by a legal thread. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201007-lake-stunt
Large swaths of Northeastern Minnesota’s wild country — including the Superior National Forest and North Shore state parks — are potential safe zones for nature to adapt to climate change, but only if they remain protected and undeveloped. Read the full story by the Duluth News-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201007-wild-areas-MN
A family property with a long history of Great Lakes maritime heritage is now under the control of the Michigan Maritime Museum. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201007-maritime
In Port Clinton, Ohio, members of the Port Clinton Lighthouse Conservancy raised $47,000 to keep a bronze statue near the shores of Lake Erie. Read the full story by The Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201007-lighthouse
Painesville, Ohio, is celebrating its new $14 million, 4,000-foot raw water intake pipe in Lake Erie, which has been in the works since November 2016. It was the longest microtunneling project in the United States by tunneling 25 feet below the bottom of Lake Erie’s shale and clay for a total of almost 4,000-feet for the 60-inch pipe. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201007-microtunneling
