Enbridge Energy defied Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shutdown the Line 5 pipeline, breaking Michigan state law. Read the full story by WNEM-TV – Saginaw, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-enbridge
Enbridge Energy defied Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shutdown the Line 5 pipeline, breaking Michigan state law. Read the full story by WNEM-TV – Saginaw, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-enbridge
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-bill
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-climate-school
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210514-fish-tags
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-plastic
Cities surrounding Michigan’s Thunder Bay may not have the equipment needed to respond to an oil spill, if one were to occur, but they do have well-stocked military base and disaster response agencies at their disposal. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-oil-spill
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-enbridge-profits
Gravel miners and other business groups are launching a new push to make it easier to open sand and gravel mines in residential areas in Michigan. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-gravel-mining
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-climate-school
A major effort is underway to protect the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk in Portage, Indiana, from further erosion. Read the full story by WFLD-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-portage-erosion
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-algae-blooms
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-sewage-bill
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210513-laurentian-researchers
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-steel-production
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-dredging
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-ludington
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-beach-monitoring
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-chapaton
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-lifeguard
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-enbridge
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-groundwater
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210512-erie-runoff
Canada’s Enbridge Inc will continue to operate its Line 5 despite an order from the U.S. state of Michigan to shut down the crude oil pipeline, Chief Executive Al Monaco said on Friday. Read the full story by Reuters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-enbridge
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-spill
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-diversion
Climate change is warming Lake Michigan’s surface, but also its deep waters, which could have a significant impact on the lake’s ecosystem and mixing process. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-fish
A spell of dry, mild weather is giving the Great Lakes a break after two years of high water that has shattered records and heavily damaged shoreline roads and homes, officials said Monday. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-surge
Coastal wind is a strong, consistent power source and Michigan’s more than 3,000 miles of coast could provide double the electricity residents used from all sources in 2019. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-wind
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-green
A competition between nature preserves in Green and Put-In-Bay Township, Ohio, removed over 3,000 pounds of garlic mustard, an invasive plant, in one day. Read the full story by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-invasive
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has recommended seven state parks as particularly kid-friendly travel destinations for this summer. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-parks
Three Michigan eighth grade students recently battled 15 mph headwinds, choppy wake from 1,000-foot freighters, rain, sleet and hail to raise money for the Great Lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210511-paddleboard
A new study found that exposure to traditional maritime music may influence listeners to support Great Lakes shipwreck preservation. Read the full story by Marquette Mining Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-folk
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-fdl
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-blooms
It’s unlikely that Line 5 will actually go offline this week. But if it were to shut down for more than a few weeks, the situation could spur a scramble to meet fuel demand in Ontario and Quebec, experts say. Read the full story by the National Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-line5
Pennsylvania’s Presqu’ Isle translates from French to English as “almost island.” However, did you know that Presque Isle was an island five times in the past? Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-presque
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210510-erosion
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-haaland
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-riversweep
Canada’s Enbridge Inc will continue to operate its Line 5 despite an order from the U.S. state of Michigan to shut down the crude oil pipeline next week, Chief Executive Al Monaco said on Friday. Read the full story by Reuters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-defy
Construction began this week for two of the 11 projects awarded to the Town of Greece, New York, through the Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative. The projects will improve stormwater management. Read the full story by WROC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-groundbreak
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill Thursday allowing for nearly $38 million in spending on park expansion and improvement projects around Michigan. Read the full story by WJRT-TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-expansion
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-plum
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-northpier
This year’s Peninsula State Park visitors can experience the park’s face lift with new and upgraded amenities, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-peninsula
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.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-port
The National Park Service is inviting public input on a study to determine the feasibility of designating the Finger Lakes region of New York as a national heritage area. Read the full story by The Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210507-parks
Every year, 22 million pounds of plastic end up in the Great Lakes. This plastic breaks down and slips through water treatment systems, entering our drinking water and the food we eat. Read and listen to the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210506-plastic
