The level of Lake Superior remained stable at above normal levels during August, but will soon drop into during the fall and winter months. Experts say the threat of shoreline damage will persist. Read the full story by Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200904-superior-levels
After a successful, 35-year collaborative restoration effort, the Lower Menominee River has been removed from the list of Great Lakes Areas of Concern. The restoration effort has transformed the river from being highly contaminated to a sport fishing destination. Read the full story by Upper Michigan’s Source.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200904-menominee
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution declaring Sept. 7, 2020 as Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Appreciation Day. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-september-7
The bipartisan Senate and House Great Lakes Task Forces requested that tribal, commercial, charter, and recreational fisheries in the Great Lakes be made eligible for future emergency funding provided by Congress because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full story by WNEM-TV- Bay City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-fisheries-support
Researchers at the University of Toronto published a paper on Wednesday revealing that they’ve detected microfibres from blue jeans in aquatic environments ranging from the shallow suburban lakes near Toronto, across the Great Lakes and all the way up to the Arctic Archipelago. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-water-pollution
A $3.9 million dredging project to restore a natural protection to an important fish spawning site in Michigan was completed this summer. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-buffalo-reef
The DuPage Forest Preserve District’s head-start program has helped raise and release young Blanding’s turtles for years. But Wednesday’s journey into an Illinois marsh featured the first cohort in the program’s 25 years that included captive-bred turtles from Brookfield Zoo. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-blandings-turtles
In the latest edition of National Geographic, you’ll find a big spread dedicated to exploring how ice coverage has dramatically decreased on the Great Lakes over the past 40 years. The photos you’ll see, of not-so-solid lakes, and people navigating warmer Michigan winters, were taken by Detroit photojournalist Amy Sacka. Read and listen to the full story by Michigan Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-great-lakes
The Shaw Point Historic District, located on the southeastern edge of Sand Island in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore off Wisconsin’s northern coastline, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in late-July. Read the full story by the Superior Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-shaw-point
Perched on a spit of sand and rock across from Mackinac Island, the Round Island Lighthouse is one of the most photographed old beacons anywhere on the Great Lakes, but its future is in jeopardy due to the historically high water levels of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-round-island
A $1.4 million project is underway aiming to eradicate invasive plants and restore Port Clinton, Ohio’s scenic Lake Erie coast to a native coastal wetland habitat. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-port-clinton
The Lake Erie – Niagara Monitoring Hub is testing the recreational water quality at three locations along Lake Erie’s North Shore for the second year in a row. Read the full story by CKTB – Ontario, CA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200903-erie-monitoring
Federal, state and tribal officials are hailing the completion of a more than $1 billion cleanup of contaminated sediments in the Lower Fox River in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The cleanup, which removed 700,000 lbs of toxic sediments, is considered one of the largest and most expensive in the nation. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-lower-fox
Environmental officials confirmed the presence of the invasive plant known as the European frogbit in four inland lakes in southeast Michigan. European frogbit forms dense mats on the surface of waters and can impede boat traffic and affect wildlife habitats. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-frogbit
Environmental groups are claiming that recent dredging in Duluth Harbor and beach restoration along Lake Superior may be illegal because it violates a 40-year-old settlement that prohibits dredging from Duluth harbor. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-duluth-dredging
A recent report from the EPA Office of Inspector General faulted a lack of training and internal controls at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes regional office for the loss of records the agency was required to preserve. Read the full story by the Wisconsin State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-wolf-protections
The Pays Plat First Nation community in Ontario is looking forward to receiving nearly $100 thousand in federal government funding through the Great Lakes Protection Initiative to continue its Protecting Gitchigumi project that focuses on improving water quality in Lake Superior. Read the full story the Aniskinabek News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-gitchigumi-project
The recent algal blooms in Torch Lake in Michigan have prompted residents and local environmental groups to investigate why the lake’s historically clear waters are turning brown. Read the full story by the Traverse City Record Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-torch-lake
The Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council is calling for action by the Wisconsin state legislature to address hazardous chemicals known as PFAS found in a growing number of drinking water supplies. Their report recommends establishing enforcement standards for PFAS in groundwater. Read the full story by the Wisconsin State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-wi-groundwater
The Michigan House voted Tuesday to send an additional $9 million in state funding to the Midland and Detroit areas for flooding relief efforts. The bill also includes $8 million in funding for putting up a barrier at Brandon Road Lock in Illinois to stop Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-mi-house
Michigan environmental officials announced that it will order the owner of failed Edenville and Sanford dams to make temporary repairs to avoid a repeat of the May flooding. The state also announced further examinations of dam integrity across the state. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-sanford-dam
Scientists in Ontario are calling on the minister of natural resources and forestry to provide a scientific explanation for a scheduled province-wide hunt on double-crested cormorants. The scientists argue that the hunt fails to meet the principles of North American wildlife conservation. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200902-cormorant
The Trump administration plans to lift endangered species protections for gray wolves across most of the nation by the end of the year, despite contention from the Humane Society of the United States and other wildlife protection groups that argue wolves are still vulnerable. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-wolf-protections
The Trump administration on Monday relaxed strict Obama-era standards for how coal-fired power plants dispose of wastewater laced with dangerous pollutants like lead, selenium and arsenic, a move environmental groups said would leave rivers and streams vulnerable to toxic contamination. Read the full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-epa-rule-coal-waste
Alongside the illnesses, deaths and closures caused by COVID-19, the threat of climate change still hangs over communities across the Great Lakes region and around the world. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-climate-justice
Drenching rains, wet winters, warmer air and water, less ice cover and more runoff have formed a meteorological cocktail that has contributed to unprecedented Great Lakes water levels, flood-producing storms and the degradation of the shoreline, scientists say. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-lake-ontario-shoreline
The agency that regulates outflows from Lake Ontario has announced plans to increase those flows slightly after the Labor Day weekend, following through on a decision made in May to let water levels drop in September in Lake St. Lawrence, just upstream of the Moses-Saunders Dam between Massena and Cornwall, Ontario. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-lake-ontario-outflow-levels
The wetland ecosystem of Braddock Bay in Monroe County, New York, is a prime example of how climate change and fluctuating Lake Ontario water levels have altered the shoreline habitat. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-climate-change-lake-ontario
The Shaw Point Historic District on Sand Island in Lake Superior has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district on Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands National Lakeshore holds a unique collection of three neighboring properties at Sand Island’s southeastern edge. Read the full story by the Ashland Daily Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-historic-lake-superior
Throughout the past few years, millions of dollars in grant funding have been utilized in Greenville, Michigan, to properly map, identify and locate deficiencies within the city’s wastewater system. Read the full story by The Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-michigan-sewer-line
Booming exports of grain are driving the Great Lakes shipping industry’s rebound, with shipments of Canadian grain up 13 percent from last year. The demand for grain helps offset downturns among many other products, like coal, steel and iron ore, which have brought the overall amount of cargo shipped on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway down eight percent year-to-date. Read the full story by The Stony Plain Reporter.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200901-shipping-grain
A major agronomic debate about the Nutrient Management Practice Standard, regulations limiting runoff from livestock farms or more commonly known as Code 590, is happening in now Columbus, with potentially large ramifications for western Lake Erie. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-manure
Unlike fish, native mussels take years to establish in a previously polluted stream, and since so many mussel species are in a precarious position, Ohio has strict laws to protect them. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-ohio-mussels
In a report card generated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the Western Lake Erie basin scored a 58%, or a C+. The overall report card is a holistic summation of all factors for the Western Lake Erie Basin and watershed. Read the full story by The Daily Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-erie-graded
A new study finds fishing lines are one of the highest potential pathways for spread spiny water fleas. Read the full story by Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-spiny-water-fleas
Recent sturgeon deaths in Lake Michigan highlight the fragile nature of Great Lakes ecology and should be a reminder of the urgent need for protective state and federal efforts to preserve the lakes. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-save-the-sturgeon
There is no clearly defined marker in either Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence River about where the boundary of the United States ends and Canada begins, meaning recreational boats may unknowingly cross federal lines. Read the full story by Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-uniform-boater-rules
The Detroit Zoological Society’s Piping Plover Captive Rearing Program, a breeding program for the endangered Great Lakes piping plovers, had its best year ever after welcoming 39 new hatchlings in 2020. Read the full story by WLHT – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-piping-plovers
Lake Erie saw several record high monthly mean water levels in 2019 and 2020, but U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projections show the lake is not expected to reach any more records for at least the rest of the year. Read the full story by The News-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-erie-water-levels
The International Joint Commission announced that it will adjust its outflow strategy and allow water levels in Lake St. Lawrence, an artificial lake in the international portion of the St. Lawrence River, to decline to the normal navigation season minimum following Labour Day. Read the full story by Seaway News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-st-lawrence+
The Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan, has completed $1.5 million worth of improvements designed to show off its outdoor artifacts and take advantage of its riverfront location. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200831-dossin-museum
Joliet, Illinois, is talking with 13 potential partners about forming a regional water commission that would share the costs of bringing Lake Michigan water to communities that now rely on aquifers. The city is deciding whether to buy water from Chicago or build their own pipeline. Read the full story by The Herald News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-joliet
Blount Small Ship Adventures, a small cruise company with a long-time presence in the Great Lakes, is exiting the cruise business as the coronavirus pandemic has continued to devastate the previously resurging Great Lakes cruise industry. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-blount
Work started on a $2.9 million project to clean up an area of contaminated sediments in the Detroit River and extend the popular RiverWalk along the east riverfront by linking the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-riverwalk
The waters of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River have been strikingly green in recent weeks. The phenomenon is called a “whiting event,” which occurs when the weather warms up and water loses its ability to hold onto the dissolved calcium carbonate that naturally occurs in hard water. Read the full story by NNY 360.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-whiting-event
State officials determined that a fish kill on the Escanaba River was caused by illegally discharged pollutants from the paper mill in Delta County, Michigan. Fortunately, there appears to be no long-term harm to the river’s ecosystem. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-fish-kill
After years of contaminated stormwater runoff being washed from the streets of Rogers City, Michigan, straight into Lake Huron, community members are now teaming up with graduate students from the University of Michigan to install new stormwater management systems. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-rogers-city
The Army Corps of Engineers recently began restoration of more than 1,300 feet of seawall along Lake Erie at Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park in Buffalo, New York, which has deteriorated over time due to ice and wave action. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-rcwilson-park
The Door County Land Trust in Wisconsin acquired 20 acres of rare remnant boreal forest on Washington Island in Lake Michigan. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-door-county
A new study has found no traces of COVID-19 in Lake Superior along several of Duluth’s popular beaches, including Park Point. The beach testing is unique to Lake Superior beaches, and supports findings from earlier tests showing the risk of coronavirus transmission through water to be extremely low. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200828-superior-covid
