Michigan has debated for decades but never passed a uniform statewide septic code and remains the only state without one. Whether the latest push can get over the finish line seems unlikely after a state Senate panel adjourned without voting on legislation this week. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-michigan-septic-legislation
The clock is ticking in a legal battle over a Minnesota mining project that some warn could inflict catastrophic damage on Lake Superior and nearby communities. Environmental advocates argue that the risks posed by the project’s tailings dams could have dire consequences for the Great Lakes ecosystem and residents living downhill. Read the full story by Newsweek.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-minnesota-tailings-dam
Last Friday, a large part of the Detroit River’s waterbed was exposed as strong winds pushed the water to the northeastern banks of the Great Lakes in a seiche event. The Windsor Harbor Master said mariners have to take extra caution navigating the river due to the lower water level and strong winds. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-detroit-river-seiche
Water bottler BlueTriton announced it will cease operations in Puslinch, Ontario, in January 2025. Activists said their exit could be due to issues with the well from where water is drawn, and the company was getting pressure to exit from the Indigenous Six Nations who claim the land. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-ontario-bottled-water
Michigan looks to get $700 million to clean up contaminated sediment in the Detroit River, but according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, decades of unchecked pollution from BASF’s Wyandotte facility could stand in the way. Read the full story by Planet Detroit.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-detroit-river-pollution
The U.S. Senate has approved the reauthorization through 2031 of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Now the measure moves to the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote. Read the full story by WTTW-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-glri-house-vote
The historic tugboat Robinson Bay was officially handed off to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, Michigan, in a ceremony last month. The Robinson Bay will allow maritime cadets to learn towing, ship handling, and engineering processes onboard the historic vessel, built in 1958. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241209-maritime-academy-tugboat
Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow delivered her farewell speech to the U.S. Senate Wednesday before the end of her last term, capping off a career spanning nearly 50 years. Stabenow highlighted her accomplishments that were made in that time, including preserving the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-stabenow-farewell
According to a recent report, pollution from coal-based steel production causes hundreds of premature deaths each year, with people in the Great Lakes region bearing much of the burden. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-steel-pollution
A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists argues that farmers can play a key role in protecting and restoring wetlands in the Upper Midwest. A key solution lies in the farm bill, specifically in strengthening policies that encourage farmers to take part in conservation, restoration, and sustainability efforts. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-farmer-wetland-protection
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $15.5 million contract to Miami Marine Services to prepare the Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois, for the installation of defenses to keep invasive carp from getting into the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-invasive-carp-prevention
Once-rare lake trout in Lake Superior are doing so well that Minnesota Department of Natural Resources biologists will use the fish to stock the species in lakes around the state. Read the full story by The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-trout-stocking
Sheboygan, Wisconsin, is among seven communities along Lake Michigan to receive portions of nearly $3 million in funding to develop plans for strengthening shorelines against flooding, erosion, loss of natural landscapes and climate change impacts. Read the full story by the Sheboygan Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-resilience-funding
For 25 years, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw has been buoying spirits by making a voyage from northern Michigan to Chicago, hauling a load of Christmas cheer. On Saturday morning at Chicago’s Navy Pier, 1,200 Christmas trees will be ceremonially unloaded, placed on trucks, and ultimately delivered to Chicago families in need. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-christmas-ship
Grounded for over a week, the Algoma Central ship – Tim S. Dool – remained lodged on a shoal near Crysler Marina, east of Morrisburg, Ontario, on Thursday. Recovery efforts have so far failed to budge the ship. Read the full story by the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-ship-grounded
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is getting a new 65-foot lakegoing vessel, the Sadie Ann, described as a floating classroom. The ship was designed as a scientific research vessel and a teaching environment. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-education-vessel
Alexander Cook holiday cards have been a big seller at the National Museum of the Great Lakes shop in Toledo, Ohio, for more than 50 years. After Cook’s death at the age of 99 in January, museum staff found a painting he’d done in 1985; it will be used as this year’s card to honor Cook’s decades of devotion to helping preserve the lakes he loved. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241206-art-legacy
According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, wetlands save Wisconsin and the upper Midwest almost $23 billion per year that would otherwise be spent combating flooding. This finding comes as the loss of wetlands has accelerated, and critical protections have eased. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-wetland-value
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has been surveying boat anglers, revealing that anglers on Lake Erie have had one of the best years in recent memory for catching walleyes. Fishing has improved due to the amount of forage fish that walleye have been eating and the nice summer weather that allowed more days for fishing. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241204-walleye-fishing
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
