The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $1.5 million contract to Michigan-based Ryba Marine Construction Co. to dredge the federal navigation channel in Barcelona Harbor on Lake Erie near Westfield, New York. Dredging will focus on the mouth of the harbor and address shoals currently impacting navigation. Read the full story by WRFA – Jamestown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240913-dredging-contract
The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council are hosting the annual Nmé Celebration on Saturday in Wolverine, Michigan. The event will include a farewell to “Gimiwan,” the Watershed Discovery Center’s resident sturgeon, which will be released into the Sturgeon River along with hundreds of juvenile sturgeon. Read the full story by the Cheboygan Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240913-sturgeon-release
Erieau, Ontario, residents are worried erosion will erase Rondeau Bay’s so-called “barrier beach” because the pier at Erieau prevents sand from naturally moving east to build up the barrier. Residents are calling on upper levels of government for help because a quarter of the beach falls under the Canadian federal government’s domain. Read the full story by The Chatham Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240913-beach-erosion
Lake Ontario from Cape Vincent to Pultneyville, New York, has been declared a National Marine Sanctuary. The federal designation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the 16th so-called “underwater park” in the country and the first in New York waters. It protects more than 1,700 square miles of lakebed while still allowing for shipping, boating, fishing, and other recreational activities. Read the full story by WSLG – Gouverneur, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240913-marine-sanctuary
At Kettle Moraine Springs Hatchery in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, hundreds of thousands of salmon and trout are raised each year, playing a critical role in sustaining the fish population in Lake Michigan. The hatchery raises 340,000 steelhead for Lake Michigan, stocking 25 different tributaries to the lake. Read the full story by WISN-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240913-fish-hatchery
On Monday, Michigan Technological University launched the pioneering mission of an Autonomous Surface Vessel. Data supplied by its high-resolution sonar will aid in mapping the Great Lakes, assessing repair needs of underwater structures like harbors and bridges, and keeping shipping channels clear. It is also expected to locate multiple archaeological sites from the more than 200 never-found Lake Superior shipwrecks to remnants of civilizations that lived on the shores of a much smaller lake a thousand years ago. Read the full story by Second Wave Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-autonomousvessel-greatlakes-map
City officials in Norton Shores, Michigan, have approved a contract to start work on a new path connecting two parks along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The Lake Harbor Trail will connect P.J. Hoffmaster State Park with Lake Harbor Park, using a new 8-foot-wide path. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-trail-connecting-lake-michigan
A $2 billion cleanup in Lake Superior to address pollution from historical copper mining is still in the works. Stamp sands are a waste byproduct from processing copper, and off the Keweenaw Peninsula, they cover 1,426 miles of shoreline and lake bottom, partially suffocating a natural reef. A plan to dredge all stamp sands from the bay and truck the material to a nearby landfill is still in its early stages. Read the full story by WCMU – Mount Pleasant, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-buffaloreef-cleanup-decadeslong-project
The Cheboygan Lock, which provides access between Lake Huron and Michigan’s Inland Waterway for recreational and commercial watercraft, will close for much of the fall and winter for restoration work and reopen in late spring 2025. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-cheboygan-lock-temporarilyclosed
Every September, Michigan’s rivers and streams burst with life as tens of thousands of salmon make their annual migration from the Great Lakes. This natural event, rooted in decades of deliberate fishery management, provides a significant economic and ecological impact in the state. Read the full story by the Manistee News Advocate.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-wildlife-michigan-salmon
The Army Corps of Engineers is expected to deliver its flood mitigation results for the Huron River by the end of September. The results are based on four years of data collected by the group “Residents Working Against Huron River Flooding.” Read the full story by WHMI – Howell, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-armycorp-flood-mitigation-huron-river
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who have studied invasive species in lakes for decades published a summary of key findings in the journal BioScience in August. In their recent analysis, the authors presented broad takeaways from their past research, reasoning that understanding the proliferation and impacts of invasive species in the lakes can inform policies and management strategies. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/202409011-um-madison-invasivespecies-wisconsin
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials released a final environmental impact statement on the Canadian energy firm Enbridge’s plans to reroute an oil and gas pipeline around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation. The 898-page document released Friday relied on 10,000 pages of materials that reflected hours of testimony and more than 32,000 comments submitted to the DNR. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-pipeline-impact-statement
Researchers from the governments of Canada and Quebec released a report monitoring the state of the St. Lawrence River from 2018-2022. It found that the state of health of the river remains fragile and certain indicators, such as water temperature and oxygen saturation, show worrying signs of deterioration. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-stlawrence-water-quality
Researchers at Michigan Sea Grant, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Michigan state agencies recently published a study identifying the top 10 most invasive species in the Great Lakes. Read and listen to the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-invasive-species-research
Canadian pipeline company Enbridge recently agreed it would not act on a 2021 permit from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy approving its Line 5 tunnel project. The Bay Mills Indian Community led a challenge to the permit, prompting a review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that delayed the proposed tunnel construction timeline. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-permit-redo
On Thursday, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission approved a $15 million plan to pipe water from the Green Bay Water Utility through Hobart to the village of Pulaski. The state says the move will improve water quality and bring Pulaski into compliance with state regulations. Read the full story by WGBA-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-water-pipeline
Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries biologists caught a 75-inch, 125-pound sturgeon – the biggest ever caught by the DNR – during a state survey in Lake St. Clair. None of the 17 sturgeon netted by the survey had been tagged before, providing another indication of the lake sturgeon’s population. Read the full story by the Macomb Daily.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-sturgeon-survey
Leaders from the Wisconsin cities of Franklin and Oak Creek have agreed to a new contract through which the Oak Creek Water and Sewer Utility will provide Lake Michigan water to the Franklin Municipal Water Utility for the next forty years, replacing the previous thirty-year contract from 1994. Read the full story by WISN-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-water-deal
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday celebrated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s designation of the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary – the first to be designated off New York State’s coast. The sanctuary will cover over 1,700 square miles of state waters in eastern Lake Ontario and protect approximately 43 known shipwrecks and one submerged aircraft, spanning centuries of history. Read the full story by the Finger Lakes Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-marine-sanctuary
Hundreds gathered as the Gun Lake Tribe released roughly 160 hatchery-raised lake sturgeon into the Kalamazoo River on Friday. The fish eggs were collected in April 2024 from mats put in the Kalamazoo River by the Tribe’s Environmental Department. Read the full story by WZZM-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-sturgeon-release
As a National Historic Landmark, the SS Milwaukee functions as a travel through time for visitors who climb abroad to hear her maritime history. For the first time since she returned to Muskegon in 1998, the ship is offering haunted tours taking place Fridays and Saturdays in October. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240909-steamship-tours
Cleveland Metroparks in Ohio, along with partners, recently unveiled plans to open a state-of-the-art community sailing center, aimed at increasing lakefront access for residents and breaking down barriers to the sport. Read the full story by Spectrum News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-clevelandmetroparks-sailingcenter-2026
The Adopt-a-Beach program, an initiative to keep litter and waste out of the Great Lakes, has passed a milestone. Volunteers with Adopt-a-Beach have removed more than 10 million pieces of litter from Great Lakes beaches and shorelines since 2003. Read the full story by WSGW – Saginaw, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-litter-removed-greatlakes
After nearly a decade of waiting, Oswego County, New York, is celebrating the designation of the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary and inviting the public to join in the festivities. Read the full story by Oswego County News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-noaa-lake-ontario-sanctuary-designation
Michigan environmental advocates are hailing a “groundbreaking” settlement to a civil rights complaint filed with state regulators over the expansion of a hazardous waste facility in Detroit. The settlement requires EGLE to deny a license to a hazardous waste facility, including the renewal of a license, if it will have an “unlawful impact on human health and the environment.” Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-michigan-civilrights-settlement
Fertilizer made from city sewage has been spread on millions of acres of farmland for decades in states across the country, including Michigan. Scientists say this fertilizer can contain high levels of PFAS, and the national scale of farmland contamination by these chemicals is only now starting to become apparent. Read the full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-foreverchemicals
An ultra swimmer nicknamed The Shark was back on shore Wednesday, having given up on yet another quest to cross Lake Michigan after 40 hours in the water. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-ulraswimmer-lakemichigan
The remains of the 131-year-old Minnehaha shipwreck are easy to spot as they peek out of the sand along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Manistee County, Michigan. The Minnehaha ran aground and was broken apart by waves in October 1893. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-shipwrecks-lakemichigan-beach
Hydrilla, a rapidly growing invasive plant that’s prohibited in Ontario, has been discovered for the first time in Canada in the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area in Leamington, Ontario. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-invasiveplant-canada
Ludington State Park is known for its seven miles of sandy Lake Michigan beachfront, an iconic lighthouse, and a one-mile stretch of the Big Sable River, popular for fishing, paddling and tubing. It’s one of Michigan’s most popular state parks, and it’s now getting $3.2 million in upgrades. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-ludingtonstatepark-upgrades
In Detroit, Michigan, Wayne County Commissioners issued a resolution calling for an end to shipping irradiated waste into the county. A statement from the chair calls for “a common-sense solution that protects residents and the nation’s largest fresh water supply.” Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240906-radioactivewaste-waynecounty
Drownings in Michigan this summer have once again put a spotlight on water safety in a state with the nation’s longest freshwater coastline and an abundance of inland lakes. As of Thursday, the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project has tracked 77 Great Lakes drownings in 2024 compared to 85 Great Lakes drownings from last year. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-water-safety
Residents and advocacy groups are asking the federal government for a hearing to try to stop the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan on Lake Michigan, officially shut down in 2022, from reopening. No closed nuclear plant has ever reopened. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-nuclear-petition
The search and recovery team that found a crash victim and airplane lost 17 years ago in Lake Huron said it’s hoping to help even more people find their lost loved ones. Great Lakes Search and Recovery, a nonprofit that searches for people lost in the water, tries to bring closure to families. Read the full story by CBS News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-search-and-recovery
The Lake Michigan yellow perch population remains very low, and angler catches are far below historical averages. The drops are linked to the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels in the 1990s. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-perch-population
Visitors to Lake Erie beaches have been puzzled by a flood of dead fish – particularly sheepshead, also known as freshwater drum – with thousands washing ashore in areas near Port Bruce and Port Stanley, Ontario. Experts suggest the die-offs were due to upwelling in hypoxic areas of the lake. Read the full story by the London Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-dead-fish
A Chicago water commissioner hopes to put to rest the belief that Great Lakes water, now, or at any point in the future, will be used to solve the water woes of the western United States. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-water-opinion
Several journalists recently gathered at the Ohio Sea Grant/Ohio State University Stone Laboratory research facility for an annual overview of a multitude of issues affecting the world’s 11th largest freshwater lake. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-erie-issues
If you’ve walked along the Milwaukee lakefront in the past few weeks, you might have suddenly found yourself amid a swarm of dragonflies. The insects are making their yearly migration south, which includes a several-week stretch passing through Milwaukee. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-dragonfly-swarms
Four piping Plover fledglings graduated out of captivity and made it onto a northern Michigan beach this summer, joining a record-breaking nesting season across the Great Lakes. A total of 124 wild chicks fledged, or grew wings large enough to fly. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-plovers-fledged
The Great Lakes Way is an interconnected set of greenways and water trails stretching from Port Huron, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio on western Lake Erie. Its purpose is to help reconnect people with continentally significant natural resources, promote outdoor recreation with its many benefits, and foster a stewardship ethic. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240904-great-lakes-way
This week, blue-green algae blooms were spotted in the waters of Lake Superior in St. Louis Bay and Little Sand Bay in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Those sightings followed a bloom spotted last week off Barker’s Island in Superior, Wisconsin. While common in inland rivers and ponds, the algae are fairly new to Lake Superior. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-lake-superior-habs
Great Lakes winters are trending warmer and the storm systems are wetter, according to research from the University of Michigan. Read the full story by WMUK – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-winter-trends
A Presque Isle County steel fabricator has won a $5.85 million contract to build the R/V Steelhead II, a new fisheries research boat, for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The 66-foot, steel-hulled vessel will replace the S/V Steelhead, a 56-year-old survey vessel used to gather Great Lakes fishery management data. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-research-vessel
More than 154,000 comments have been submitted on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental assessment of Enbridge’s proposed 41-mile reroute of its Line 5 around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s land. Interested parties have until Aug. 30 to submit comments. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-line5-public-comments
In Ontario, toxic blue-green algae that closed public access to the water along Beach Boulevard this week is the first such discovery along Hamilton’s stretch of Lake Ontario in at least a decade, if not longer. Read the full story by The Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-rare-algae
The volunteer lead Great Lakes piping plover monitor at Chicago’s Montrose Beach was recognized by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as one of 11 outstanding volunteers of the year. Read the full story by WTTW – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-plover-volunteer
The Ohio Department of Health reported on Thursday that multiple Lake Erie beaches in northeast Ohio were put under a bacteria contamination advisory. Read the full story by WJW-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-beach-advisories
Approximately 72 hectares of land formerly occupied by a coal-fired power plant in Mississauga will soon be home to the longest Canadian pier in the Great Lakes. The pier will jut 600 meters into Lake Ontario and is part of the Lakeview Village, which is currently being built along its shores. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240830-longest-pier
