The Ontario Ministry of Environment, Climate and Parks charged the City of Hamilton, Ontario, with two counts of discharging sanitary sewage in water. The two sewage spills that began decades ago and were discovered in 2022 and 2023. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-sewage-discharges
The Kinnickinnic River is the most urbanized and developed river in Wisconsin, ranking last out of Milwaukee’s three rivers in terms of ecological health. Several project partners are working to remove seven miles of concrete liner to restore the Kinnickinnic River corridor, making it less of a flood-risk and safety issue as well as a community amenity. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-river-restoration
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reminds anglers that Lake Superior’s lake trout season opened December 1 and will run until September 30, 2025, or until the harvest cap is met. Thanks to sound management practices, the lake trout populations in Lake Superior have been rehabilitated. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-trout-season
Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation Administrator Adam Tindall-Schlicht says shipping numbers have been improving over the years. The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System opened its 66th navigation season on March 22, and the shipping channel’s St. Lawrence River section will close on January 5. Read the full story by NNY360.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-shipping-numbers
Ghost streams, waterways that were filled in or covered up during city development, are a contributing factor to flooding events, especially underneath historically redlined neighborhoods. Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is one example; it was built on top of marshland and has a history of experiencing flooding after heavy storms. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-flooding-causes
Landowners at Crystal Lake in Benzie County, Michigan, are suing a local township and developer over environmental violations that affected nearby wetlands during a recent construction project. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-wetland-litigation
We know less about the bottom of the Great Lakes than we do about the surface of Mars, which is why the Great Lakes Observing System is leading a concerted effort to fully map the Great Lakes, surface to floor. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-lake-bottom-mapping
The multi-billion-dollar Great Lakes shipping industry is bracing for the impact of a potential 25% tariff on Canadian imported goods, as recently promised by President-elect Donald Trump. Shipping stakeholders worry the tariffs will hurt agriculture companies on both side of the U.S.-Canadian border. Read the full story by WCMU – Mount Pleasant, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-tariff-plan
More than 70 ships have plunged to the bottom of the Great Lakes during November. Among them was the S.S. Daniel J. Morrell, which went down in 1966 and claimed all but one crew member. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-daniel-j-morrell
On Thursday, Canada announced that land near the Lake Huron shoreline will not be used to permanently bury its spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization instead narrowed its focus down to land that a tribal nation in northwest Ontario. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-nuclear-fuel-storage
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced earlier this month that it approved Enbridge’s permits for its Line 5 reroute project. The permits are a step in a long list of necessary approvals for the energy company’s project, which aims to bypass the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Activists argue moving the pipeline farther up the watershed means it’s ultimately crossing more rivers and wetlands that drain into Lake Superior. Read the full story by Inside Climate News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-line-5
Ice coverage on Minnesota lakes has declined by an average of 10 to 14 days over 50 years, with ice-in dates about nine days later and ice-out dates moving four to five days earlier, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reported in 2021. But the effects of shorter lake ice duration? Researchers at University of Minnesota Duluth are trying to understand just that. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-minnesota-ice-coverage
A western Quebec First Nation is urging the provincial and federal governments to protect American eels from dangerous practices at dams in the upper St. Lawrence River watershed that have severely curtailed their population. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-american-eels
A new plan to free the Tim S. Dool, a large cargo ship that ran aground on a shoal along the St. Lawrence River near Morrisburg, Ontario last week is expected to be finalized early next week. Despite efforts to refloat the vessel, the vessel remains stuck. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-stuck-cargo-ship
Officials are launching a study to figure out how best to restore the area where Graham Creek meets Lake Ontario in Newcastle, Ontario. The Great Lakes Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative is earmarking $100,000 over a two-year period for the project. Read the full story by Durham Radio News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241202-clarington-waterfront
Since 1977, a mine waste slurry in Silver Bay, Minnesota, has grown to 2,100 acres — and the mining company wants to increase storage at the site. The expansion, which would include building upstream dams and managing stream mitigation adjacent to the tailings basin, which is located 600 feet above Lake Superior and only three miles away, has many concerned about the environmental safety of the project. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-wastewater-lake
Dunkirk, New York, is one of seven U.S. Great Lakes cities to get a share of nearly $3 million from the National Coastal Resilience Fund for shoreline projects. The $2.98 million will be used to complete design and planning for projects that address coastal and neighborhood flooding; erosion of dunes, beaches and bluffs; degraded habitat; and compromised infrastructure and public safety. Read the full story by The Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-shoreline-funding
More ships will be cruising the Great Lakes in summer 2025, carrying up to a few hundred passengers at a time. The growing industry is important to the communities with ports where the ships dock. Michigan cities like Holland, Marquette, Mackinac Island and Detroit have all benefited from the spending. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-cruise-industry
An old workhorse tugboat will have a new home. On Friday, November 22, the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation proudly completed the formal transfer of the Robinson Bay tugboat to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy during a ceremony at Eisenhower Lock in Massena, New York. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-robinson-bay
After nearly being wiped out in the mid-20th century, one of the Great Lakes’ top native fish species, the lake trout, has “fully recovered” in the Lake Superior, according to natural resource managers. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-lake-trout
Red Lake Nation leaders and state officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources disagree on how to combat zebra mussels at Upper Red Lake. Until 2018, Upper Lake and Lower Red Lake remained the only large walleye lake in the state still free from zebra mussels. That year the DNR announced it had found zebra mussel veliger — the tiny larvae — in Upper Red Lake. Read the full story Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-zebra-mussels
On November 12, 1878, the James R. Bentley was sailing across Lake Huron when a fierce storm blew in and took the schooner down. Now, after spending the past 146 years submerged in Lake Huron’s chilly waters, some of the rye on board may be getting a second life. A team of Michigan-based scientists, distillers and divers is trying to resurrect the long-submerged grains in hopes of one day turning them into whiskey. Read the full story by the Smithsonian Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-whiskey-from-shipwrecked-rye
Long-distancer swimmer, Jim “The Shark” Dreyer, has crossed all five Great Lakes, setting world records along the way. And at age 61, he’s still not finished. His latest challenge is Grand Haven, Michigan, to Milwaukee — his longest swim yet. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-jim-dreyer
A few years ago, the second only location in the Great Lakes to receive marine sanctuary designation came to Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary manages a collection, along with the state of Wisconsin, of 40 historic shipwrecks that are an important part of our nation’s history and story. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-wisconsin-shipwreck-coast
Whitefish Point, a sandy corner of Michigan’s eastern upper peninsula, juts out into Lake Superior. Of the 550 recorded shipwrecks on Lake Superior, more than 200 happened not far from there. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241127-whitefish-point
The cruise ship industry is expected to have a $230 million economic impact on the Great Lakes region in 2025, according to a forecast by Cruise the Great Lakes, a marketing program focused on attracting more cruise passengers to the region. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-cruiseships-greatlakesregion-2025-economicimpact
In Canada, conservationists are calling on the provincial government of New Brunswick to do more to protect the cold waters favored by wild Atlantic salmon, as 2024 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for survival of the heralded fish. Read the full story by the Telegraph-Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-dwindling-salmon-canada
The wetlands of Michigan and the Great Lakes are quickly becoming popular migratory stops for one of the biggest birds to call North America home: the pelican. Read the full story by WJBK-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-pelicans-migrating-michigan
A fisheries biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife is studying the movement of smallmouth bass in Lake Erie, tagging the fish to study whether they’re capable of making long-distance movements. Read the full story by the Sandusky Register.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-tag-you-are-it
What more is there to know about the gales of November on the Great Lakes? What lake has the most shipwrecks? And what were some of the region’s most devastating November storms? Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-galesofnovember-greatlakes
State grants are funding the renovation and preservation of buildings in Michigan’s Great Lakes shoreline communities. Money for projects near lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior is coming from State Historic Preservation Office grants. Read the full story by City Pulse.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-historicpreservationprojects-greatlakes-shoreline
The Tim S. Dool, a 225-metre-long lake freighter, became stranded in U.S. waters just east of Morrisburg, Ontario, on Saturday afternoon. Read the full story by CTV News Ottawa.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-cargoship-stlawrenceriver-morrisburg-ontario
Seven decades after overfishing and invasive species nearly wiped them off the map, Lake Superior’s lake trout population has finally recovered. The fish come from the Linesville Fish Hatchery in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and are provided by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to help keep a healthy amount of brown trout in the area. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241125-browntrout-lakeerie-winter
A bipartisan coalition of Congressional leaders want the U.S. Government to formally oppose a Canadian plan to bury 50,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste hundreds of feet underneath the Great Lakes basin. Read the full story by WCMU – Mount Pleasant, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-nuclear-waste
As climate change increasingly shapes the Great Lakes region’s ecology and economy, scientists plan to use underwater robots to gather previously inaccessible data they say will help communities adapt. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-underwater-robots
The Great Lakes Protection Fund recently announced the appointment of Tim Eder as Chair of its Board of Directors. Eder will help the Fund continue its mission to support innovative solutions for safeguarding the Great Lakes’ future, tackling challenges like climate resilience, invasive species and water quality. Read the full story by The Sun Times News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-new-chair
A new book by two Calvin University professors explores an ongoing effort to restore Plaster Creek, a tributary of Michigan’s Grand River, to a healthy stream worthy of its original name: “Water of the Walleye”. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-restoration-book
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula may be primed for a major hydroelectric future because of its underground mining past. Scientists at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI believe it may be possible for hundreds of abandoned mines to be transformed into pumped water storage facilities. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-mine-energy-storage
More than 70 townships and several counties are suing the Michigan Public Service Commission, challenging a law put in place that gives the state authority to approve big renewable energy projects without consultation with local government. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-law-challenge
The city of Buchanan, Michigan is working with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative to redevelop the St. Joseph Riverfront to improve public access and restore the ecosystem by focusing on improving clean water, reducing runoff, and eradicating invasive species. Read the full story by WSJM – Benton Harbor, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-riverfront-restoration
The Great Lakes Water Authority has partnered with Focus Hope, Michigan Works, and the City of Detroit to look for apprentices to soak up valuable knowledge from their retiring workers to keep their water services running smoothly. Read the full story by WJBK – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-apprenticeship-program
The Gales of November were in full force Thursday as large waves crashed into an iconic Lake Michigan pier. A ‘Gale Warning’ was in effect by the National Weather Service who advised of winds up to 50 mph with precipitation. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241122-massive-waves
Lake Superior’s top predator fish is at a sustainable population. The lake trout population has recovered to the point it no longer has to be stocked. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-troutrestore
Tribal communities have played a pivotal, but often overlooked, role in lake sturgeon restoration efforts in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-sturgeon
Beavers are considered ecological architects, but certain conservationists are worried there can be too many in some areas of Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-beavers
A $10.4 million award from the U.S. Department of Transportation will go to the Put-in-Bay Township Port Authority for a new breakwater project and expand the ferry dock infrastructure on South Bass Island. Read the full story by the Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-putinbay
Lake Michigan’s water levels have dropped below long-term averages for the first time in 10 years. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-levels
Northwestern Michigan College’s Great Lakes Maritime Academy is receiving a donated vessel, the Robinson Bay tugboat. The tugboat will give students more hands-on learning opportunities. Read the full story by WGTU-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-tugboat
Before arriving in Two Harbors, Minnesota, a friendly snowy owl landed on the Great Lakes freighter James R. Barker on Monday, much to the crew’s delight. Read the full story by MPR News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-snowyowl
The 183-foot steamer Portsmouth ran aground off the shore of Michigan’s Middle Island during a storm on Nov. 15, 1867. It now rests in eight feet of crystal-clear Lake Huron water. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241120-wreck
