Michigan voters will decide next month whether to change how money can be spent under a popular program that buys land for public use and supports projects such as construction of trails, playgrounds and boat launches. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-michigan-natural-resources-fund
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has confirmed reports of zebra mussels in Lake Minnie-Belle, near Litchfield in Meeker County, after a watercraft inspector reported finding a zebra mussel on a four subsequent settlement samplers. Read the full story by West Central Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-minnesota-zebra-mussels
Lake Erie’s Western Basin received an overall C+ on its report card produced by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science based on a variety of factors regarding the lake’s condition. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-lake-erie-report
As a part of a three year study including 61 ecosystem indicators and 40 organizations a report out from the 2019 Canada-United States State of the Strait Conference indicates improving ecosystem health including the return of birds of prey, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish and beaver; but also is evidence that these ecosystems are facing eight health challenges including climate change, eutrophication and algal blooms, and toxic substance contamination among others. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-great-lakes-ecosystem
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has named Terry Coleman the new director of Indiana State Parks. Coleman has served as deputy director of state parks since 2014 and has been serving as interim state parks director since his predecessor, Dan Bortner, was appointed director of the DNR in August. Read the full story by Inside Indiana Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-indiana-parks-director
The William Richard is a $4M jet ferry that officially completed necessary trials by transporting only luggage to and from Mackinac Island on behalf of Grand Hotel guests on Sunday. Read the full story by MLive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-mackinac-ferry
The Great Lakes Children’s Museum is reopening to the public on October 14 in Traverse City, MI after going through air and soil vapor testing. Staff is currently adding COVID-19 safety measures, including sanitizing stations. Read the full story by UpNorthLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-great-lakes-museum
A Detroit site tied to the notorious “green ooze” on I-696 last year was purportedly on its way to having its contaminants removed last January; now more than eight months later, the site is unsecured, easily accessible, with pollution remaining. Read the full story by Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-detroit-pollution
The company is one of six shipbuilders to receive a $7 million award on Sept. 4 from the Navy to develop a prototype for a new unmanned ship that would be between 200 and 300 feet long with a focus on being low-cost, reconfigurable designs with capabilities to attack both land and sea targets. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-ship-design
The Canadian federal government is in the market for another used icebreaker that could be converted for use by the Canadian Coast Guard on the Great Lakes, much to the dismay of shipbuilders across the country as this decision would represent a loss of domestic jobs and investment into local economy hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201006-canadian-icebreaker
Michigan Senator Gary Peters introduced bipartisan legislation that codifies the United States Coast Guard’s icebreaking mission on the Great Lakes and increases icebreaking capacity of the Great Lakes fleet. Read the full story by the Cheboygan Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-ice-breaking
The Trump administration’s new plan to fast-track mining projects and incentivize mining in the U.S. could spoil rivers and lakes in Minnesota’s Iron Range. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-mining
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced a new $500 million dollar initiative to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure across the state. The plan includes funding for lead service line replacements, PFAS removal, and combined sewer overflow control. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-lebor
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio, that would add “Great Lakes” to the name of St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the group that oversees navigation along the U.S. side of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-gl-slsdc
U.S. Congress recently passed the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act, which includes $15 million in annual funding for coordinated research and monitoring of binational fisheries within the Great Lakes Basin. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-congress-conservation-bill
After nearly becoming extinct a few years ago, the Lake Superior caribou herd is rebounding but is not yet at numbers biologists believe is necessary for sustained survival. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-caribou
Former Michigan Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley argues that building a tunnel to house the Line 5 oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinaw for the Line 5 pipeline will reduce the risk of an oil spill in the Great Lakes and provide jobs to the Michigan economy. Read the full story by Ionia Sentinel-Standard.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-calley-oped
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency should take a stronger stance in enforcing the Clean Water Act and supporting the Lake Superior Chippewa Bands and environmentalists against mining companies seeking to bypass environmental standards. Read the full story by MinnPost.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-mpca
The Great Lakes were critical for early commerce and transportation during the European settlement of the Northwest territory in the 18th and 19th centuries, and later supported regional industrial production in the 20th century. Read the full story by the Hoosier Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-nwterritory
The annual Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Beacon Lighting to honor the loss of the sailors aboard the lost freighter is going virtual this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Read the full story by KBJR-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201005-virtual-lighting
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced a new $500 million dollar initiative to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure across the state. The plan includes funding for lead service line replacements, PFAS removal, and combined sewer overflow control. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-mi-clean-water
After years of inaccessible websites purporting to contain water quality data, the Canadian government is working to make water data more accessible to the public. The effort hopes to help Canadians understand national trends in water quality and water use. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-canadian-water-data
Several nature preserves in Michigan will have names from First Nations languages added to their current titles in an effort to raise the visibility of indigenous people in the region. The names were chosen by members of the Blue Water Indigenous Alliance, drawing from language of First Nations people including Anishinaabemowin, Huron-Wendat, Lenape, and Lakota. Read the full story by Port Huron Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-first-nations-naming
Indiana Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Bortner visited nature preserves in Lake and Porter counties to hear public concerns around high water levels and coastal erosion. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-in-dnr-leader
A proposed federal marine sanctuary in Lake Ontario in St. Lawrence County, New York, has seen broad support by local officials and stakeholders, who are touting the sanctuary’s potential to increase regional tourism. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-
Researchers testing beaches in Duluth, Minnesota, for evidence of COVID-19 reported they found traces of the virus for the first time since beach testing began in July. Read the full story by KBJR-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-covid19
Drownings in Lake Michigan have reached record levels with at least 53 people dead so far this year, according to the water safety advocacy group the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-drownings
In the eight Great Lakes states, officials at every level along 4,500 miles of coastline are scrambling to save what they can from the rising water, competing for scarce state and federal dollars and rubber-stamping permits to build private seawalls at an unprecedented pace. Read the full story by GazetteXtra.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-rising-waters
The loss of the Lady Elgin in 1860 is one of the most famous shipwrecks in Great Lakes maritime history and claimed hundreds of lives. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-lady-elgin
The new Sailor Sam Canal to Shore Challenge program from the H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego, New York, aims to help the public learn about the unique history scattered along the Lake Ontario shoreline and Oswego canal. Read the full story by Oswego County Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201002-maritime-museum
In Traverse City, the Environmental Protection Agency announced $5 million funding going towards trash free water projects. Northern Michigan communities have the chance to apply for funding to clean up the Great Lakes and beaches. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-epa-funding
In his role as president and CEO of the Council of the Great Lakes Region, Mark Fisher is now helping to lead a project to collect some of that plastic from marinas around the province of Ontario using two kinds of trash-trapping technology: Seabins and Littatraps. Read the full story by CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-great-lakes-plastic
New York Sea Grant is providing property owners with virtually-available resources and assistance for erosion management. Read the full story by Oswego County Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-ny-erosion-management
In a crucial step toward the reintroduction of Arctic grayling to Michigan waters, 4,000 young, healthy fish were moved this month to a facility with conditions that will trigger spawning. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-michigan-salmon
Port of Green Bay director Dean Haen says this year’s numbers on tonnage coming in are a positive for Northeast Wisconsin and have been aided by the record-high water levels on Lake Michigan. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-greenbay-shipping
State officials at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) heard its first of two public hearings Tuesday afternoon on a permit request for Enbridge allowing the Canadian oil company to discharge a significant amount of wastewater into Lake Michigan as part of its Line 5 tunnel project. Read the full story by Patch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-line-5
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has, since August, been dredging sand to ease navigation at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-erosion-indiana
For more than a decade a group in Cleveland, Ohio has been working to harness Lake Erie’s wind energy with a proposed six turbine windfarm called Icebreaker. But the project ran afoul of regulators earlier this year and a provision to save migrating birds has left the future of Icebreaker up in the air. Read and hear the full story by WKSU- Kent, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-erie-windfarm
The 44-acre Refuge Gateway of Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, which runs from Jefferson to the river in Michigan, opened on Thursday. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201001-DRIWR
An array of more than 80 marine-debris-turned-art works will be making another Great Lakes stop, adding a lake sturgeon sculpture when it’s installed at a Wisconsin site next year. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-trash-fish
The health of the environment in Northeast Wisconsin was up for discussion, at the annual Clean Bay Backers event Tuesday. There were challenges, and stories of success. Read the full story by WLUK-TV- Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-fox-river
Mike Smith spent most of his career as a diver with the Detroit Police Department recovering cars, guns, and sometimes bodies from the city’s murky rivers. Now, Smith works to clear invasive plants out of inland lakes using a 21-foot boat outfitted with a long vacuum tube. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-diving
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources will soon begin a new project to create a series of treatment train wetlands and repair a stream along the Maumee River in Paulding County. Wetlands play a huge role in helping to reduce the amount of phosphorus in the water to keep the river as clean as possible. Read the full story by WNWO-TV- Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-wetland
Governor Mike DeWine said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he plans to sign a bill into law that would temporarily ban local governments from setting local bans on plastic bags and other single-use containers. Researchers recently estimated that Lake Erie includes 381 metric tons of plastic, much of which originates in city streets and makes its way into the lake via storm drains. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-bag-bans
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set mercury standards on the taconite industry, something the federal agency has avoided for 30 years. The agency cited a study that found 10% of tested Minnesota newborns in the Lake Superior Basin region had elevated mercury concentrations at birth. Read the full story by the Duluth News-Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-taconite
In a presentation to the Huron Water Protection Steering Committee, a recent study has found that shoreline erosion will continue and that ice cover may become rarer. Read the full story by Blackburn News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-erosion
The weather pattern is right for numerous waterspouts to develop on the Great Lakes between now and Saturday. The recipe for waterspouts is warm water, cold air aloft and significant wind-flow. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-waterspout
The Michigan Legislature on Tuesday finalized a bill that would lengthen the financing period of lake projects in the wake of flooding that damaged dams and drained lakes in the Midland area. The change would allow project costs to be spread out over more time and made more manageable for property owners. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-dam-bonds
Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler will be in Traverse City, Michigan, on Wednesday to discuss a new grant opportunity for those who want to fish litter out of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200930-EPA
Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) City Council agreed Monday to try to persuade the federal government to locate a new Canada Water Agency to keep our water safe, clean, and well-managed in the city. Read the full story by Sootoday.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200929-sault-ste-marie-agency
