The U.S. EPA has been utilizing two research vessels to collect data on Lake Ontario in order to properly address issues of nutrient pollution, chemical contaminants, habitats and invasive species. Read the full story by WIVB-TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-lake-ontario-research
Volunteers in Ellisburg, New York, are trying to make South Sandy Creek more resilient by increasing biodiversity. In just a few days, the team introduced 6,000 plants, including 25 different native species to the region. Read the full story by WWNY-TV – Carthage, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-invasive-resilience
One of Metro Detroit’s most well-known historic estates is getting a $7 million federal grant to restore Ford Cove on Lake St. Clair, improve habitats for local species and make it more accessible. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-restoration-grant
A survey of lake sturgeon, a species that dates back to the time of dinosaurs, will count juveniles in Northern Michigan’s Black Lake for the first time since 2013. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-sturgeon-survey
In New York, SUNY Cortland and SUNY Oswego are collaborating with the federal Tunison Lake Ontario Biological Station and several other groups to determine the best ways to transport, raise and reintroduce the coregonine subfamily of freshwater fish. Read the full story by WXHC – Homer, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-fish-restoration
Swimming is currently restricted on Beach 8 at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, because of high E. coli levels. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-beach-restriction
The H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego, New York, is hosting a new exhibit featuring twenty-five 3D printed and hand painted scale models of shipwrecks located beneath the waters of Lake Ontario and Central New York. Read the full story by Oswego County Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-shipwreck-exhibit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking comment on the next phase of an Obama-era Great Lakes program that has become one of the region’s largest for environmental cleanups and wildlife restoration over the past 13 years. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-restoration-input
Captain Paul Berger Jr., of the Interlake Steamship Company, said he is “at home” this shipping season aboard the M/V Mesabi Miner—an iron ore freighter dedicated to the Men and Women of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. Read the full story by the Mesabi Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230628-shipping-home
American Queen Voyages has announced that it will no longer offer Great Lakes cruises after this year. AQV President Cindy D’Aoust said the Midwest’s winters don’t make fiscal sense for the company and it plans to plans to sell the two vessels it operates on the Lakes, Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager. Read the full story by WOOD-TV Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-cruise
Monarch Point Conservation Reserve will protect 1,600 hectares along south shore of Prince Edward County. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-ontario-reserve
Wisconsin state regulators say they’re making progress on an environmental review of Enbridge’s plans to relocate Line 5 as a federal judge has ordered a partial shutdown of the oil and gas pipeline on the Bad River reservation. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-line-5
Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of many U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and a host of consumer products, the company said Thursday. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-3m-settlement
The U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced a first-ever $575 million competitive funding opportunity to help coastal and Great Lake communities increase their resilience to extreme weather and rising sea levels. Read the full story by American City & County.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-climate-funding
A photo posted by the Interlake Steamship Company shows mayflies swarming a freighter in Toledo. Read the full story by WXYZ – TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-mayflies
Criminal charges are being brought by the Michigan attorney general against the owner of an industrial barge authorities said remains abandoned in Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Huron Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-abandoned-barge
The television show Expedition Unknown discovered an uncatalogued tugboat in their most recent episode. Read and listen to the full story by WRKR – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-tugboat-shipwreck
A new study proposes reducing the reliance on trucking in transporting goods between the U.S. and Canada by increasing short-sea shipping on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Maritime Executive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-shipping
NOAA is now in the process of seeking public comment about the proposed Lake Erie Quadrangle National Marine Sanctuary. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230626-marine-sanctuary
Though forecasts are projecting a mild bloom, scientists are learning more about how the toxin found in western Lake Erie algal blooms has the ability to become airborne and travel long distances, potentially miles. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-algal-forecast
Potentially record numbers of lake herring born last spring seem to have survived their first year of life, according to state and federal biologists. The boom will help sustain both the ecosystem and Minnesota’s commercial fishing industry for years to come. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-herring
Newly proposed federal regulations would affect coal ash ponds situated around the Great Lakes shoreline, many in communities of color. Read the full story by Grist Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-coal-ash
Researchers from SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland in New York will work with the U.S. Geological Survey and other entities on a conservation and restoration project focused on native fish species in the Great Lakes, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Read the full story by The Citizen.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-suny-students
In New York, a high school teacher is about to embark on a Great Lakes journey as she was selected nationally among 15 other teachers from Great Lakes states to participate in the Federal EPA’s research vessel on Lake Ontario for a workshop on board the Lake Guardian ship. Read the full story by WKBW-TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-biology-teacher
Steel production ticked up by 4,000 tons in the Great Lakes region last week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Read the full story by the Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-steel-production
For the past few months the city has been entertaining the idea making Buffalo, New York, a port city for Great Lakes cruises and has commissioned a study to determine whether that option is viable. Read the full story by WGRZ-TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-buffalo-cruises
The Ohio Division of Wildlife’s brand-new fish cleaning stations in Marblehead, Huron and Avon Lake are up and running, and so is one constructed by the Cleveland Metroparks at Cleveland Lakefront State Park in Cleveland Harbor. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-fish-cleaning
Although there is no schedule for the traffic through the Soo Locks, which connects Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes, there are several ways to find out which freighters will pass through the Poe and MacArthur locks, traversing between lakes Superior and Huron. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-soo-locks
For the past two years, a multi-institutional collaborative research team has worked on developing new technology to collect data and make discoveries in the ocean and the Great Lakes. The researchers will present that work as part of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Lecture Series. Read the full story by the Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230623-sonar-data
An emerging Indigenous leader aims to compile the Indigenous knowledge of climate change adaptation throughout the country, and share it with tribal and non-tribal people to create the next Status of Tribes and Climate Change Report. Read the full story by WUWM – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-indigenousknowledge-climatechange
In a project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ocean Exploration Program, three universities have teamed up to explore the depths of Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay near Alpena, Michigan. Their goal is to develop methods to deploy autonomous underwater robots to search for shipwrecks, and then survey shipwrecks with their sensors. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-autonomousvessels-thunderbay
Michigan’s drought conditions have put increased demand on water providers, stressed vegetation and sharply increased the risk of wildfire. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-drought-wildfires
Residents of Paradise, Michigan, say a legacy dump site has been ignored for decades. The site is slowly releasing toxic chemicals into Lake Superior, and there doesn’t appear to be a plan to stop it. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-contaminatedsite-lakesuperior
Today marks the summer solstice and the official start to summer, but scientists warn Lake Erie beachgoers to beware of harmful algae blooms that grow extremely fast this time of year. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-summer-lakeerie-habs
Those in Michigan who want the Line 5 oil and gas pipeline shut down believe a recent ruling from a federal judge in Wisconsin could impact a pending legal case against Enbridge and disrupt company plans. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-wisconsin-line5-shutdown-disruptpipelinefight
There is a lot of dredging work to be done in Lake Michigan harbors after an uptick in severe storms and a drop in shoreline ice during winter. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers currently is overseeing 24-hour dredging in Grand Haven, Michigan, when weather is favorable to remove sand shoaling that blocks the harbor from commercial vessels. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-strongstorms-lakemichigan
It’s finally starting to feel like summer in Michigan, but officials are reminding residents and visitors that it will still be a bit before water temperatures are considered safe. U.S. Coast Guard officials took to social media to remind the public about the risks of cold water, including hypothermia and “cold shock.” Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-greatlakes-coldshock-summer
Summertime means beach time, and in Michigan that means the freshwater beaches of the Great Lakes. But which kind of beach is better: lakeside or oceanside? Read and listen to the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230621-greatlakesbeaches-oceanbeaches
U.S. District Judge William Conley has ordered Canadian energy company Enbridge to shutter portions of an oil pipeline that runs through Bad River Band land in Wisconsin within three years and to pay the tribe nearly $5.2 million for trespassing plus a portion of its profits until the shutdown is completed. Read the full story by Reuters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-pipeline-ruling
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling to significantly reduce Clean Water Act wetlands protections has caused alarm among environmental advocates who fear it will endanger crucial habitats and human health and safety. Michigan’s wetlands may fare better than other states because of strong state regulations, including part 303 of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act that regulates wetlands not covered by federal law. Read the full story by Planet Detroit.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-wetland-protections
On Friday, Drew Gronewald, an associate professor with the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, delivered his annual presentation on the current state of Great Lakes water levels. After a couple years of record highs, followed by a marked dip, Lake Michigan-Huron in 2023 is relatively unchanged from 2022; however, two factors that influence lake levels, evaporation and precipitation, are increasing in intensity. Read the full story by WTTW-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-water-levels
The Lincoln Township Beach on Lake Michigan in Stevensville, Michigan, has been closed for almost three years after high water levels in 2019 made for unfit parking conditions and eroded half of the parking lot and pavilion. In an effort to save one of its only public beaches, Stevensville city officials say they’re putting together plans to revive it. Read the full story by WNDU-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-beach-restoration
After years of leasing Lady Michigan to the Friends of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary for the shipwreck excursions, the owner of the boat decided not to lease it any longer and intended to move it to another location or sell it. On Thursday, Alpena developer Jeff Konczak announced that he and his wife, Tina, purchased the Lady Michigan, ensuring its long-term future in Alpena. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-shipwreck-boat-sale
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has made awards ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 available for local communities to restore and protect water quality in the Finger Lakes watershed. The grants are supported by the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and administered through the DEC’s Finger Lakes Watershed Grant Program. Read the full story by Finger Lakes Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-water-quality-grants
On May 18, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the Lake Erie Quadrangle was officially under consideration for designation as a National Marine Sanctuary. This nomination has been in the works since 2015 and has the potential to transform Erie, Pennsylvania, economically and environmentally. Read the full story by The Erie Reader.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-sanctuary-designation
The Viking Polaris arrived Friday in Algoma, Wisconsin, making its only stop in the state on the ship’s 15-day Great Lakes excursion tour between Duluth and Toronto. Since last fall, the community has been preparing for passengers on the city’s first cruise ship and those that will come on the eight other ships of the summer. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-cruise-stop
The Front Range Lighthouse in downtown Cheboygan, Michigan, has been an active aid to navigation since it was built in 1880. Now owned by the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association (GLLKA), the lighthouse is being restored to the 1940s time period, when bright red daymarks were added to the tower. Read the full story by Cheboygan Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-lighthouse-restoration
An iconic fixture on the Welland Canal in Port Colborne’s north end, the former Robin Hood Multifoods flour mill has a new owner who has plans to keep the existing workforce and expand the facility. London Agricultural Commodities (LAC) recently announced the purchase of Ceres Global Ag’s Port Colborne terminal (formerly Robin Hood) for $4 million (U.S.). Read the full story by the St. Catharines Standard.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230619-grain-elevator-ownership
Teachers in the Lake Ontario region have a chance to board an EPA research vessel for a week on the lake. Read the full story by WWNY – TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230616-great-lakes-education
Great Lakes shipping is down slightly through the end of May as compared to the same time last year. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230616-shipping
