Recently, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper conducted a tree planting on Grand Island on Spicer Creek, New York, that helped to restore the shorelines that have been eroding for years. Read the full story by Buffalo Rising.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-waterkeeper
After months of delays, the Morrow Dam in Michigan is close to completion. For the past year, sediment-laden water has been flowing through the dam, polluting the Kalamazoo River, which ultimately discharges into Lake Michigan. Read the full story by WWMT-TV- Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-dam-spill
The Great Lakes may be the United States’ greatest natural resource, and the many challenges facing the Great Lakes should be high on both the budgetary and environmental to do-list of the new administration. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-biden
The Grand River Conservation Authority is calling on the province of Ontario to reconsider changes it believes will limit its role on important issues, including flood mitigation. At issue are proposed changes included in Bill 229, which would limit Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities powers on how they regulate development in flood plains. Read the full story by The Gananoque Reporter.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-grca
The International Joint Commission’s Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board will decrease to a six-member board, with an equal number of members from the U.S. and Canada, effective December 1. Read the full story by the Niagara Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-ijc
As the city of Joliet, Illinois, looks to sign a contract to start getting its water from Lake Michigan, the Illinois cities of Chicago and Hammond both want the potentially lucrative deal to deliver it. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-water-chicago
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has called for Michigan’s Attorney General to investigate Nestle on the grounds that the company’s groundwater withdrawal for its bottled water is damaging to the environment. Read the full story by Cadillac News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-nestle
Enbridge is fighting an order to shut down its oil pipeline that crosses the waterway connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The Canadian company filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who demanded earlier this month that Line 5 be closed within 180 days. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020125-shutdown
The county council of Haliburton, Ontario will be discussing what can be done to better inform residents when blue-green algae blooms are suspected on area lakes, and how to improve education for everyone, following several confirmed cases of the potentially toxic organisms. Read the full story by The Haliburton County Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-ontario-blue-green-algae
The Crown Vantage project is the first step in a new phase of Kalamazoo River cleanup, which will escalate next spring along an urbanized stretch that’s long awaited its turn with the type of remedial work that began years ago downstream in Michigan communities like Plainwell and Otsego. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-michigan-superfund-river
The most recent count documented more than 700 nests across the state, a sign that the remarkable recovery of bald eagles in Ohio is reaching new heights. The recent numbers are a far cry from around 40 years ago, when Ohio was then home to only four breeding pairs of bald eagles. View the full story by USA Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-ohio-eagles
Port Huron Township, MI is getting a $4.6 million loan to replace a handful of water main systems as part of a state drinking water revolving fund program. Read the full story by the Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-michigan-water-systems
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy late Friday announced it was dismissing a permit challenge against Nestle Waters North America. The most recent permit challenge came from the grassroots Michigan environmental protection group, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Read the full story by WBBCK – FM – Battle Creek, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-nestle-water
Halton’s mayors and the board of Conservation Halton are calling on the province to scrap planned changes to the Conservation Authorities Act, which many say will drain conservation authorities of their ability to protect the environment. Read the full story by the Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-conservation-authorities-act
On Nov. 23, 1912, the 44-year-old schooner ROUSE SIMMONS, also known as the Christmas Tree Ship, foundered in Lake Michigan near Two Rivers, with all on board. A piece of it lives on right here in Milwaukee. Read the full story by On Milwaukee.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-shipping-rouse-simmons
A unique set of maps is guiding current restoration efforts that could help remove Milwaukee’s harbor from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s list of areas of concern and stimulate the local economy. Read the full story by Milwaukee Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-milwaukee-harbor-restoration
Enbridge has received the last federal permit needed to replace its Line 3 oil pipeline across Minnesota, leaving only a few state approvals before construction can begin. Read the full story by WDIO – TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-line-3-minnesota
As the new outreach specialist for the Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Eat Wisconsin Fish initiative, Sharon Moen plans to share her enthusiasm for aquatic edibles with consumers throughout the state. Read the full story by Superior Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020124-wisconsin-sea-grant-fish
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on Friday rejected a case challenging Nestle Waters North America’s permit to increase their water withdrawals from its facility in Osceola County. Read the full story by WDIV-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-nestle-case-dismissed
Michigan environmental officials are turning to radio telemetry and modified shower loofas in their fight to contain a tasty invader in the state: the red swamp crayfish. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-michigan-invader
A power outage at a pump station led to raw sewage being dumped over the weekend into mid-Michigan’s Flint River. Water quality tests on the Flint River will be performed, with the results posted on the State of Michigan website. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-flint-river-sewage
A long-awaited renovation of a Lake Michigan trout and salmon hatchery, promised by state officials since 2013, is getting closer to completion but is still not ready to take fish. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-hatchery-renovation
The director of the environmental law clinic at University of Detroit Mercy updates viewers about the latest legal actions on Line 5 and provides a refresher about what the pipeline is all about. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-line-5-news
After a successful fundraising effort to purchase loads of big riprap rock to protect the iconic Round Island Lighthouse from damaging ice and wave action, contractors shipped out 1,500 tons of big rock on barges to the island. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-michigan-lighthouse
Three days of court hearings are expected to take place in January in the legal case against polluter Gelman Sciences, whose toxic chemical plume of dioxane continues to spread through Ann Arbor’s groundwater in southeast Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-dioxane-pollution
With a La Niña in place this winter, what does that mean for the Great Lakes? Will they freeze over? Read the full story by WZZM-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-ice-forecast
With a La Niña in place this winter, what does that mean for the Great Lakes? Will they freeze over? Read the full story by WZZM-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-ice-forecast
Great Lakes ports handle millions of tons of cargo a year, linking the Upper Midwest with the wider world via international commerce. But they are underutilized and have tremendous potential to have even greater economic impact, according to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers CEO, who appeared on a panel on regional competitiveness. Read the full story by The Northwest Indiana Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-maritime-insdustry
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is urging caution around Great Lake piers, breakwaters, and jetties, especially during times of high wind and waves. Read the full story by WSJM – St. Joseph, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020123-great-lakes-dangers
Michigan land managers are about to reopen their public lands playbook, making revisions that will guide the next six years of decisions about where the state owns land, and how it manages the land it owns. Read the full story by Bridge Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-public-lands
According to environmental law experts, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has a strong case against Enbridge Energy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the oil will stop flowing through Line 5 anytime soon. Read the full story by Bridge Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-line-5
According to Ontario’s Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, proposed changes to the Conservation Authorities Act have the potential to put people and the environment at risk, removing conservation authorities’ ability to independently appeal decisions made around permits and municipal planning applications. Read the full story by Orillia Matters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-province
Three Chatham-Kent, Ontario, residents are among the 20 people whose stories are told in an online documentary photography exhibition that showcases deep personal connections with Lake Erie. Read the full story by The Chatham Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-erie-documentary
The Port of Duluth-Superior is on course to set another record for wind cargo shipments as about 525,000 tons of blades and tower parts are expected to move through the port by the end of the year. That blows past last year’s single-season record of 306,000 tons. Read the full story by the Duluth Star-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-wind-turbine
The controversial owner of four dams in Michigan’s Midland and Gladwin counties — including two that failed in May, causing catastrophic flooding — has agreed to give up ownership of the dams to a two-county group of lakefront owners. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-dams
In a step to improve accessibility and further enhance a crown jewel of Michigan State Parks, Friends of Ludington State Park is raising funds to purchase and install a universal access kayak launch at the Hamlin Lake beach. Read the full story by Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-kayak-access
Lake Michigan is emblematic of the myriad issues facing all of the Great Lakes as the climate continues to change. Surging water levels have collapsed bluffs, swamped coastal dune lands, erased beaches and damaged homes, businesses, docks, trails, campgrounds and sewer systems. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020120-erosion
Milwaukee’s three-masted, wooden schooner Denis Sullivan may never sail again. The vessel’s operator, Discovery World, posted on Instagram that the last of its crew have been let go and the popular floating classroom is heading into winter with an uncertain future due to losses caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Read the full story by WDJT-TV Milwaukee.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-sailing
Once again, water was a must-mention this fall for candidates of both major parties seeking to represent Michigan in public office. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-water-pollution
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources recently confirmed a new detection of invasive hemlock woolly adelgid at Ludington State Park in Mason County, it announced in a press release Wednesday. Read the full story by the Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-ludington-invasive
The Minnesota Supreme Court denied a request from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to add several documents into the record that would have supported a clay liner for the tailings basin of PolyMet’s proposed copper-nickel mine. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-polymet-dam
On Sept. 23, Northwestern University students in Evanston, Illinois received an email from Facilities Management that the University would begin an emergency coastal stabilization project along the perimeter of the campus bordering Lake Michigan. Read the full story by The Daily Northwestern.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-illinois-stabilization
The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday passed the Preliminary Damage Assessment Improvement Act of 2020 which would strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) ability to help communities impacted by disasters. Read and view the full story by WHEC-TV- Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-fema-response
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is continuing to monitor state highway M-116 on the Lake Michigan coast of the northwest Lower Peninsula, and with recent erosion and fluctuating water levels on Lake Michigan, it’s keeping a closer eye on the highway. Read the full story by the Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-michigan-erosion
While the winds battered Michigan, mother nature got busy creating breathtaking natural sand sculptures along the shores of Lake Michigan. Read the full story by WBCK – Battle Creek, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-sand-sculptures
Amidst a challenging 2020 navigation season, overall tonnage across the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System is down 7.9 percent compared to this time last year. Read the full story by the Maritime News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-us-agriculture
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urges caution around Great Lake piers, breakwaters and jetties, particularly during times of high wind and wave events. Read the full story by WLUC -TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020119-high-water
As high water levels persist in the Great Lakes, Michigan communities are revisiting their coastal land use policies that allowed residents to build homes precariously close to the shoreline, with devastating consequences when Great Lakes water levels inevitably rise. Read the full story by Bridge Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020118-land-use-planning
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s move to shut down the section of the Line 5 oil pipeline that runs through the Mackinaw Straits relies on the state’s public trust doctrine that compels state authorities to protect the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020118-public-trust
The Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association has published an online interactive map of lighthouses in the Great Lakes region. The map lets users learn more about the history of the lighthouses and information for visiting. Read the full story by WKFR – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2020118-lighthouse-map
