U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins has announced $480,000 will go to Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper. The funds will be used for programs and efforts to keep and protect Lake Erie’s shoreline and water quality. Read the full story by WGRZ-TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-buffalo-niagara-waterkeeper
Two new innovative trash collectors, the BeBot and PixeDrone, will be joining in the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup event throughout the summer, collecting trash in Lake Erie and along the shoreline. Read the full story by WKYC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-plastic-cleanup
River connectivity and biodiversity are the focus of Michigan’s share of a federal grant-making program call “America the Beautiful.” Michigan will use the influx of federal dollars to help pay for removal of 27 dams or other stream barriers to restore natural pathways for native fish and other aquatic species in 14 counties. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-river-restoration
Lake Superior’s water level rose significantly last month, and continues a larger than average rise this month. There is a scenario that could put Lake Superior very near a record water level sometime this summer. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-lake-superior-water-level
A current loophole in the Coal Combustion Residuals Rule allows waste created before 2015 to remain untouched. A proposed rule change could force a Michigan City power plant to clean up tons of toxic ash along Lake Michigan. Read the full story by WSBT-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-ash-cleanup
According to the U.S. Coast Guard in Alexandria Bay, recent high waters and spring snowmelt, large pieces of debris, such as trees and floating docks have been spotted in the area. Cold water poses additional danger as temperatures in the St. Lawrence have only warmed to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-st-lawrence-river
Folks are gearing up for the Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe’s 11th annual Run, Smelt, Run! Parade and Party on May 28, which honors the end of winter and the spawning season of the small, silver smelt that swim in Lake Superior. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-smelt-run
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Bureau of Fisheries Chief, Lake Ontario Unit Leader, and respective regional fisheries managers will hold two upcoming public meetings in Rochester and Mexico, New York to discuss the current state of the Lake Ontario sport fisheries and take questions on a wide array of management actions and research taking place on the lake and tributaries. Read the full story by Oswego County Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230522-dec
U.S. District Judge William Conley said May 18 he is unlikely to force Enbridge to shut down Line 5 in northern Wisconsin, despite arguments from the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa that the line is at immediate risk of being exposed by erosion and rupturing on reservation land. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-judge-pipeline-decision
The M/V Mark W. Barker, a 639-foot Great Lakes freighter, was carrying 21,000 tons of salt and headed for Milwaukee when it got stuck for more than four hours in the Detroit River on Wednesday after running aground just feet from the Belle Isle shoreline. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-freighter-grounded
Recent fluctuations in temperature in the Great Lakes can result in stronger thunderstorms, adjustments in our agriculture, and changes to our fishing industry. The warmer water temperatures have resulted in greater biological activity, providing the fish with more food to eat and creating ideal fishing conditions. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-fishing-impacts
The historic S.S. Badger, the last coal-powered passenger steamer operating in the United States, set sail for its first voyage of the 2023 season today. The car ferry offers cross-lake service between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, from May to October. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-ferry-voyage
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has weighed in on a Wisconsin federal court dispute over a portion of Enbridge’s Line 5, backing the pursuit by the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation for an emergency shutdown of the pipeline. Nessel filed an amicus brief in support of the effort on Wednesday. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-pipeline-brief
Ice coverage over Lake Michigan was below average this past year, meaning it experienced less ice and warmer lake temperatures. Taking the 5-season average of the highest ice coverage from 1989 to 1993 and the lowest ice coverage from 2003 to 2007, we can draw a pretty strong conclusion that less ice coverage leads to more severe weather. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-lake-ice
Lake Zurich, Illinois, leaders this week approved an “engagement proposal” with the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency, committing the village to partner with the agency that connects municipalities to Lake Michigan water. Read the full story by the Daily Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-drinking-water-partnership
President Joe Biden’s administration took the first step Thursday toward designating the Pennsylvania-owned section of Lake Erie as the state’s first national marine sanctuary. The designation would apply to an approximately 740-square-mile area of water off Pennsylvania’s 75 mile-long shoreline and would attract federal funding to help find and preserve shipwrecks in the lake and boost education and outreach around the area’s history. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-erie-sanctuary
The River Institute has been recognized with the John R (Jack) Vallentyne Award, presented by the International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Board of Directors. It was chosen for its valuable education and outreach efforts that engage and excite researchers, communities, and educators about many aspects of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Seaway News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230519-iaglr-award
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has named the Great Lakes the first and only freshwater Hope Spot – special places across the globe, championed by local organizations and conservationists, that are scientifically recognized as critical to the health of the ocean. Championing the nomination and application effort was Chicago’s John G. Shedd Aquarium with support from more than 24 Great Lakes organizations across the region. Read the full story by the Chicago Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-hope-spot-recognition
There are 17 species of invasive fish that Michigan officials are monitoring. Read the full story by WDIV – TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-invasive-fish
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service has begun ridding Great Lakes tributaries of invasive sea lamprey by applying lampricide. These treatments happen every two to three years, with the most recent being in 2021. Read the full story by Midland Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-lamprey
The “Beach Closings” Beneficial Use Impairment, used by the Remedial Action Plan program to indicate water quality issues in parts of the Niagara River caused by human sources of bacterial pollution, has officially been declared “not impaired.” Read the full story by the Niagara On The Lake Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-niagara-river
Steel production dipped by 3,000 tons in the Great Lakes region last week, the second straight weekly decrease. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-steel
Canada is “extremely concerned” about the potential fate of the Line 5 pipeline, emissaries warned Tuesday in advance of a Wisconsin court hearing that threatens to shut down what they call a vital cross-border oil and gas corridor. Read the full story by The Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-line5
The Superior National Forest and three northeastern Minnesota Chippewa tribes have made a first-of-its-kind agreement, one that gives the tribes a stronger voice in managing national forest and federal trust land that was ceded to the federal government nearly 170 years ago. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-superior-forest
A project to bring drinking water from Lake Michigan to Waukesha, Wisconsin is now 90% complete. Read and listen to the full story by WISN-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-waukesha
Deforestation, contaminated air, polluted water and the loss of wetlands are a growing concern, Ontario’s auditor general concluded in a “state of the environment report” released Tuesday. Read the full story by The Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-water-quality
A 639-foot Great Lakes freighter ran aground Wednesday morning on the east end of Belle Isle, just feet from the shoreline. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-freighter
After three decades of decline, the charter industry in Lake Erie is starting to rebound. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230517-charter-industry
The city of Chicago trumpeted a deal with the Illinois city of Joliet to divert treated drinking water from Lake Michigan, starting in 2030. But how and why Illinois can divert that much water inland underscores risky concessions the other seven Great Lakes states had to make when they negotiated the 2008 Great Lakes Compact. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-joliet-diversion
Partners working to clean up a polluted hotspot on Lake Superior are now looking to monitor emerging threats from harmful algal blooms. A team of scientists is now deploying sensors to collect more than 300 water samples from the St. Louis River Estuary to track emerging water quality issues. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-estuary-monitoring
New York state water officials are keeping an eye on the Lake Ontario shoreline as the water is higher but still below flooding levels. The lake is seeing more water flow in from seasonal snowmelt up north, and less water flow out a dam on the New York-Canadian water border. Read the full story by WAER – Syracuse, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-lake-ontario-levels
In a move to tackle an acute mariner shortage accentuated by the rapid retirement of boomers, Canada has signed an unprecedented agreement with the Philippines, allowing Filipino merchant mariners to serve on Canadian-flagged vessels. This marks a significant shift in international labor arrangements, opening new doors for the robust Filipino seafarer population, but causing worry among Canadian Merchant Mariners that wages could fall. Read the full story by gCaptain.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-filipino-mariners
Michigan remains the only state without a septic code, with recent efforts failing to gain traction within the Legislature. As the state contends with flooding and sewer backups, addressing individual septic systems is yet another element in addressing aging infrastructure and water quality issues for both inland waters and the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-septic-code
Local officials have been pursuing a public marina off the Belle River, citing a lack of docking space for boaters around the mid-point along the St. Clair River waterfront between Algonac, Michigan and the city of St. Clair. Read the full story by the Port Huron Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-marine-city-marina
On a windy, Saturday morning, the UAL Fortitude arrived under the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota. The Fortitude’s arrival is significant because she’s the first of a regular liner service from overseas. Read the full story by WDIO-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-fortitude-duluth
In Michigan’s Port Huron Township, fifth graders released 65 chinook salmon into the Black River as part of an education program with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. An aquatic education coordinator for the DNR said the program teaches students the importance of Great Lakes ecology. Read the full story by the Port Huron Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-student-salmon
In Michigan, the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center recently partnered with Alpena Public Schools to host the first-ever “3rd grade Get Into Your Sanctuary Program”, a multi-visit field trip that culminated with the students taking a boat ride to explore the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-sanctuary-program
The village of Geneva-on-the-Lake in Ohio has joined the Lake County Communities Shoreline Special Improvement District, which will provide an additional funding option for the village to deal with erosion issues harming Lake Erie. Read the full story by the Star Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230515-shoreline-improvement
An eco-friendly beach robot known as BeBot made its debut Thursday as it cleaned microplastics from Pere Marquette Beach in Muskegon, MI. The remote-controlled technology can clear debris that is as small as 3 cm. Microplastics are often overlooked during beach cleanups, but they contribute to the pollution of the country’s waterways. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-beachcleanup-robot-microplastics
The Michigan DNR is asking Michiganders for help in reporting marked splake when fishing on Lake Superior. Splake are a hybrid cross between lake trout and brook trout. Splake have been stocked in Lake Superior most years since 1971. The data collected from anglers assists the DNR in making decisions on how to best manage Michigan’s fisheries. Read the full story by WW-J-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-dnr-report-splake-lakesuperior
Sturgeon are native to Lake Michigan and historically made spawning migrations up the Milwaukee River and other tributaries. However, dams, pollution and overfishing combined to wipe out the local sturgeon population by the late 1800s. Since 2003, sturgeon have been stocked in the Milwaukee River or harbor as part of “Return the Sturgeon,” a joint effort of the DNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg, WI. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-upperpeninsula-cruiseport
The City of Houghton, Michigan has a new $5 million pier that’s equipped to dock cruise ships, which are becoming increasingly popular on the Great Lakes. Opened in the fall of 2022, the new pier serves as the city’s town square and event space but with its size, deep water and a few extra elements, it has the added function of being a cruise ship dock. Read the full story by MLive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-upperpeninsula-cruiseport
The Township of Archipelago, ON is a municipality of 979 people located 200 kilometres north of Toronto on the eastern shoreline of Georgian Bay, part of the Lake Huron watershed. Its residents are concerned about the impacts of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Bill 23 on the Great Lakes ecosystem. Read the full story The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-ontario-seeksprotection-greatlakesbill
The City of Cleveland held its final Community Visioning Workshop Thursday to get feedback on its proposed North Coast Connector project to connect Lake Erie to Downtown Cleveland. Read and listen to the full story by WVIZ-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-cleveland-connectingdowntowntolakefront
A number of Canadian cities have exceeded acceptable chloride levels in watersheds in recent years, raising concerns about the impact on freshwater wildlife and other species. The problem largely stems from road salt and saline solutions, which have a chemical compound of chloride to keep roadways safe during winter weather. Chloride has both long- and short-term impacts on wildlife, and some experts believe it is adversely affecting fish, frogs and aquatic ecosystems across Canada. Read the full story by CTV News-TV – Toronto, Canada.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-wintermaintenance-effects-freshwater
The Great Lakes cruising season is now well underway and Ports Toronto said this year is once again setting another record. Fifty-four ships are scheduled to visit the city of Toronto between May and October, bringing more than 22,000 passengers to the city. Read the full story by CityNews Toronto.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-cruiseships-toronto-recordyear
As the two-year anniversary approaches since Canadian oil company Enbridge began defying a state shutdown order, environmental groups this week are renewing their call for the Biden administration to take immediate action to protect the Great Lakes from a controversial 70-year-old crude oil pipeline. Read the full story by Energy News Network.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-enbridge-line5-shutdown-bidenadministration
Snowmelt and recent rain have brought Great Lakes water levels up. This spring rise is normal – and water levels are projected to increase even more this month. Water levels for the Great Lakes are still lower than their record high from a couple of years ago. However, all the lakes are up from their long-term average, by between six and 13 inches, as of May 5. Read the full story by WKAR – East Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230512-greatlakeswaterlevels-up-historicalaverage
U.S. representatives Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, are leading a bipartisan group of 15 House members from Ohio and Michigan urging U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to support a proposal for the Great Lakes Clean Hydrogen Hub. Read the full story by the Sentinel Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230510-hyrdogen-hub
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a moderate algal bloom with a severity level of 2-6 on a scale of 1-10 for western Lake Erie this summer. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230510-algal-bloom
