Wolves on Isle Royale, a remote island in Lake Superior, appear to be thriving, but they’re making deep dents in the moose population that they rely on as a leading food source. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260427-isle-royale
The S.S. City of Milwaukee near Manistee, Michigan, is a historic car ferry that moonlights as a haunted attraction every fall. But some people want to know, are there real ghosts onboard? Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260427-ghost-boat
On Kelleys Island, Tom and Paula Bartlett are on a mission to band 100,000 birds. When winter hits, it’s up to icebreakers and tugboats to keep the lakes moving. Can your yard become a national park?
For years, scientists believed that many migrating birds would avoid crossing the Great Lakes. But thanks to bird banders like Tom and Paula Bartlett, we know know that many birds do cross the lakes, stopping on small islands. On Kelley’s Island in Ohio, Tom and Paula are on a mission to band 100,000 birds.
When winter descends, traveling the lakes becomes a dangerous proposition for freighters. Ice can trap even the largest ships in place, and it’s up to a small fleet of U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers and tugboats working in tandem to keep vital shipping routes moving.
What if your yard were part of a national park? That’s the idea behind the Homegrown National Park Movement, an effort to get property owners to see their land as part of a larger ecosystem. GLN’s Lisa John Rogers spoke with the movement’s co-founder Doug Tallamy to find out more.
The post Banding Birds and Breaking Ice appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/27/banding-birds-and-breaking-ice/
Check out @SciNC’s video about the Crush Truck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpDRtKC92DU
And the full Earth Month playlist from PBS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1F8ofFm4H9UTrHxqU8zngK4
For years, scientists believed that many migrating birds would avoid crossing the Great Lakes. But thanks to bird banders like Tom and Paula Bartlett, we know know that many birds do cross the lakes, stopping on small islands. On Kelley’s Island in Ohio, Tom and Paula are on a mission to band 100,000 birds.
#Birds #Birding #Nature #Wildlife #EarthMonth #GreatLakes #Ohio
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“A Bird in the Hand” was produced by Christy Frank Photography LLC and @RunningWildTVSeries in partnership with Great Lakes Now/Detroit PBS
Produced, Shot, Written, and Edited by
Christy Frank and Alex Goetz
Narrated by
Rob Green
Featuring original music by
Steve Madewell and Bill Lestock
The post Tracking the Birds of the Great Lakes appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/27/tracking-the-birds-of-the-great-lakes/
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Michigan in ruling that the state’s lawsuit seeking to shut down a section of an aging pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel will stay in state court. Read the full story by PBS News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-scotus-pipeline
By James Bruggers, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Belching smoke from a new plastic waste processing plant in central Ohio has stirred opposition to an even larger “chemical recycling” factory planned for Arizona by the same company.
The Freepoint Eco-Systems plant near Hebron, Ohio, fired up its processing kilns for the first time in 2024. Since then, it’s faced multiple citizen complaints about sooty emissions, from black clouds of smoke to flames. Dozens of times, plant operators have bypassed normal pollution controls to vent gases through a flare after upsets in their manufacturing processes, including emergency shutdowns, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The state regulator has issued four notices of violation to the company, according to an agency database, and launched an enforcement case after the latest one in December.
The Ohio plant’s troubled track record should be a red flag to officials who oversee permitting for the company’s plans for Eloy, Arizona, about 60 miles south of Phoenix on Interstate 10, said Kevin Greene, a pollution-prevention expert who lives in nearby Tucson and retired from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Another warning should be the industry’s “troubling” underperformance when attempting to use chemical processes to turn mixed plastic waste into fuels or new plastic feedstocks, said Greene.
“How about a six-month pause on this project while they investigate what’s going on in Hebron and take another look at the industry in general?” Greene suggested in an interview with Inside Climate News.
At least one Eloy city councilmember, Josephine “JoAnne” Galindo, said she’s concerned enough to want to be part of a potential Eloy delegation to visit Ohio, tour the Freepoint plant there and meet with local government and company officials.
“I would want to know more,” Galindo said. “I’m always concerned about the safety of my community.”
Freepoint officials declined a request for an interview on either their Ohio plant’s environmental performance or their proposed Arizona facility.
In a written statement, the company said it has “invited officials from Arizona to tour our Ohio facility to see the sophistication of our operations and the scale of the plastic waste we are working to process. We’re currently scheduling this visit.”
In Ohio, the company is working with environmental and occupational safety and health officials and the local fire department “to ensure compliance with health, safety and environmental requirements,” the statement said. Freepoint officials, the statement added, “have implemented a number of operational improvements.”
In February, at public meetings in Arizona, a Freepoint representative put a positive spin on the situation.
“You get the benefit of being the second mover,” Geof Storey, the company’s chief development officer, told the Pinal County Board of Supervisors. “We are only going to build this one if the first one works. You are going to get all [the] learnings and all the benefits of that [Ohio] project.”
To the Eloy City Council the same week, he added, “We are still working out some of the kinks.”
The Ohio plant, located about 30 miles east of Columbus near Interstate 70, is designed to process up to 175 million pounds of plastic waste annually. The waste is sourced from plastic packaging companies and community recycling programs throughout the region, including as far away as Louisville, Kentucky.
Freepoint Eco-Systems, a subsidiary of global trading and finance firm Freepoint Commodities, envisions at least a half-dozen facilities in the United States, Storey told Arizona officials. The Eloy facility would collect waste plastic from as far away as California and Colorado, as well as from Phoenix and Tucson, he added. A company PowerPoint presentation said its capacity would be more than twice the Ohio plant’s.
That would make the Eloy plant one of the largest in the world, said Rita O’Connell, a national organizer with the environmental group Beyond Plastics. But O’Connell also noted that the company’s PowerPoint contains a disclaimer that “there can be no assurances that information relied upon in preparing this presentation will prove accurate or any of the projections will be realized.”
Industry officials have advocated for chemical recycling of plastics for years—often under the umbrella term of “advanced recycling”—as a solution to the global plastic waste crisis.
Typically, that’s done with a technology called pyrolysis, the process of decomposing materials at very high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment. Traditional uses range from making tar from timber for wooden ships to transforming coal into coke for steelmaking.
More recently, major oil companies and small startups alike have sought to develop the technology as an alternative for recycling a wide variety of plastic waste. So far, they’ve been met with limited success and serious pushback from environmental groups viewing it as akin to incineration.
But one of the biggest criticisms is the paucity of plastic waste that pyrolysis actually turns into new plastic.
For example, a 2024 lawsuit by California Attorney General Rob Bonta—against ExxonMobil’s pyrolysis-based chemical recycling operation at its Baytown complex near Houston—claimed decades of recycling deception contributed to a plastics crisis in California and around the world. In the lawsuit, which is still pending, Bonta asserted that no more than 8 percent of the incoming plastic waste to ExxonMobil’s plant is converted to feedstocks for new plastic.
The lawsuit claimed the remaining waste becomes fuel, which is subsequently burned.
After the lawsuit was filed, ExxonMobil responded that “advanced recycling works. To date, we’ve processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills.”
The United Nations estimates that the world produces roughly 882 billion pounds of plastic waste each year.
Freepoint, which also uses pyrolysis, declined to say how much of the waste plastic it takes in becomes new plastic.
Storey told Arizona officials its plants divert waste from landfills and offset in-the-ground oil demand.
Company officials said 70 percent of incoming plastic waste is converted into something called pyrolysis oil, or pyoil, which is used as a feedstock to create new products. About 25 percent is converted into gas used to heat the kilns. The rest becomes something called char, what Storey described as “black carbon.”
Storey said the pyoil gets sent to petrochemical customers on the Gulf Coast. There, company officials said, it serves as a “substitute for crude oil to create new plastics and other products.”
“What products our customers manufacture and where they distribute them,” the company said, “is up to our customers.”
The chemical industry has already worked to ease regulations on advanced recycling in dozens of states, including Arizona and Ohio. And in March, after groups of chemical and plastics industry lobbyists visited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, the EPA took an initial step to exempt pyrolysis from federal Clean Air Act regulations.
Beyond Plastics’ O’Connell, who is based in New Mexico, said the chemical industry seems to have accelerated its push for chemical recycling as the Trump administration rolls back a wide range of environmental rules. At least three recycling and chemical regulation bills pending in Congress aim to boost chemical recycling of plastic waste, she said.
Fewer than 10 chemical recycling plants are operating in the United States, often in a limited capacity, said O’Connell, whose group follows the industry’s performance.
But Oil and Gas Watch, a petrochemical tracker created by the Environmental Integrity Project, identifies about 40 potential new chemical recycling facilities in the works. Some are proposed, some are in the permitting process and some are approved for construction.
“Given the national atmosphere, it’s possible we’re about to see the lights go on on a bunch of these proposals that haven’t moved in a while, because there seems to be a lot of energy in this direction,” O’Connell said. “It all points to a huge industry push to leverage this Congress and EPA to get chemical recycling rolling nationally.”
It was a little more than a year ago when Amanda Rowoldt, an Ohio organizer with the environmental group Moms Clean Air Force, was driving by the Freepoint facility near Hebron and saw black smoke billowing out of the stacks. She took a video and filed a complaint with the Ohio EPA.
“Long story short, they were found in violation of exceeding their particulate limits,” Rowoldt.
Numerous pollution incidents followed. A local nonprofit newsroom covering Licking County, The Reporting Project, affiliated with Denison University’s journalism program, took notice.
Denison is a small private liberal arts college located about 10 miles away in Granville. Doug Swift, who teaches at Denison and is an advisor of The Reporting Project, said a plastics recycling theme in an investigative reporting track resulted in a series of articles.
One of the stories, published Feb. 26, revealed the citizen complaints, the state’s violation notices and a 911 call last May from a resident a quarter-mile away reporting “a factory on fire.”
“It was a great series to push out into the community, and it did alert some of our most engaged and knowledgeable citizens to the plant and to a technology most didn’t know anything about,” Swift said. He described the Hebron area as something of a local news desert, often ignored by commercial news outlets in the region.
Hebron Mayor Valerie Mockus said her municipality has no jurisdiction over the plant because it’s located just outside city limits, in an industrial park in Union Township. Still, she said she’s been concerned about environmental incidents there, though she is working to keep an open mind.
“I am very interested in finding ways to address problems with novel solutions,” Mockus said. “We have a problem with too much plastic. Is this a way to address that? But I was disappointed to hear about the negative side effects.”
She described her community as working class, its residents familiar with plumes of evaporated vapor coming from industrial stacks. “When it comes out black,” she added, “everybody pauses.”
According to the company’s air-quality permit from the Ohio EPA, the plant is allowed to emit certain levels of toxic fine particles, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, hydrochloric acid, and dioxins—pollutants that collectively can damage lungs, cause cancer and create havoc with other bodily systems.
Ohio EPA’s most recent notice in mid-December alleges air-permit violations including excess emissions of particulates, a toxic mix that can include soot, smoke and a variety of chemicals. Since then, the agency has opened an enforcement case against the company, said Max Moore, a spokesman for the Ohio EPA.
The state agency required the company to conduct emissions testing to get a clearer picture of what’s being released into the air, Moore said. Visible particulate emissions exceeded an opacity limit 18 times from Feb. 1 through March 31, he said. Nitrogen oxides from a test in February also exceeded a permit limit, he added.
On April 3, an Ohio EPA official chastised Freepoint for repeatedly failing to quickly notify the agency of plant malfunctions, according to an email that Inside Climate News obtained through a public-records request.
“This issue has been beaten to death at this point, but we still are not receiving immediate notifications of malfunctions,” the state official wrote, citing an example of a late afternoon March 30 notice to regulators of an early morning March 27 malfunction.
“If it helps, think of it like calling the fire department when there’s a fire,” the official told the company representatives. “That’s immediate. You wouldn’t wait eight hours or until the next day.”
A company representative said that afterward, “we promptly changed our reporting process to ensure it’s in line with their requirements.”
The Ohio EPA’s Moore said the goal “is to get the facility back into compliance.”
Cat Adams, a Columbus-based organizer with the Buckeye Environmental Network, said several workers have sought her out to describe unsafe working conditions, including dust, chemical spills and fire hazards. She hears from area residents about the plant, too.
“There’s a group of people in the community who are worried about it, and they want something done,” Adams said.
Shawn Jones is one of them. He was an eyewitness to the May 27 fire and took a video of it. In subsequent months, he’s kept a close eye, documenting other incidents of billowing smoke. “I’ve probably seen that 15 times,” Jones said, adding that he’s concerned about the health and safety of both people in the community and workers inside the plant.
He said he’s not sure what, if anything, Ohio EPA officials will do to force the company to comply with environmental regulations.
“I’d like them to shut the whole place down,” Jones said. “It’s such a new process. They clearly don’t have it figured out yet.”
He said it feels like Freepoint is “doing sandbox experiments in the backyards of thousands of people. They can, because of the lack of zoning here.”
In Arizona, Greene, the former Illinois environmental official, said he and an Eloy resident, Ralph Atchue, are asking Pinal County air quality officials to strengthen a permit they issued the company three years ago. The reason they’re citing: the company’s pollution record in Ohio.
Greene also suggests that the city of Eloy should ask for fenceline air-quality monitoring to give the community real-time data on any leaks and equipment failures.
Noting that the company has essentially described its Ohio plant as a test case, Greene added: “I’d like to know what’s going to be redesigned [for Eloy], or what’s going to be improved. But I also want to make sure there will be the appropriate safeguards in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen in Eloy—and that it doesn’t recur in Hebron.”
The post Ohio Plastic Waste Plant to Expand Nationally appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/24/ohio-plastic-waste-plant-to-expand-nationally/
Michigan and parts of Wisconsin are in the midst of a historic flooding event in spring 2026. Days of heavy rainfall on top of snow have sent lakes and rivers over their banks and threatened several dams in both states. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-extreme-precipitation
The Viking Polaris, the biggest Great Lakes cruise ship, arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday. The Polaris is the first of 64 cruise ships that will visit Milwaukee between April and October, nearly the triple the 23 vessels from 2025. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-cruise-season
In the deepest part of Lake Superior, a quarter mile below the surface, researchers are discovering a growing number of extraordinarily thin lake trout that weigh about half their typical, healthy body weight. Scientists have dubbed them “zombie fish.” Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-superior-zombie-fish
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held a public information hearing on four permit applications by Enbridge for streambank erosion control on the 41-mile reroute of Line 5, a light crude oil and natural gas pipeline. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Examiner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-enbridge-permits-erosion
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, along with conservation partners Ducks Unlimited and the National Audubon Society, recently completed a project to improve 50 acres of Lake Ontario marsh habitat. Read the full story by Syracuse.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-ontario-marsh-restoration
In Wisconsin, the lake sturgeon detected in Ozaukee County — 20 river miles upstream of Lake Michigan — is part of a wider effort to restore sturgeon to the Milwaukee River through the Return the Sturgeon Project. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-sturgeon
Personnel with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Fisheries and Oceans Canada will be taking measures to reduce the sea lamprey population in the Great Lakes, applying pesticides to kill invasive sea lamprey in streams and tributaries. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-lamprey
Almost 500 thousand Castalia Hatchery-raised steelhead trout smolts are being poured into the Lake Erie tributaries of northeastern Ohio this week. Anglers should help them to acclimate to swimming in open waters before the year-old trout head for the big lake to feed and grow all summer. Read the full story by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-erie-steelhead
The Lake Erie – Niagara River ice boom, spanning the eastern end of Lake Erie, is nearly removed after a few days of high winds caused delays. Read the full story by The Niagara Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260424-erie-ice-boom
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Sonja Krohn, Great Lakes EchoGray wolf. Credit: Department of Natural Resources
Even though the grey wolf is classified as an endangered species, a new study found that the majority of Michigan’s recorded wolf deaths are caused by humans.
Researchers from Michigan State University and their collaborators used GPS collar and mortality data from 608 wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan between 2010 and 2023 to assess their specific cause of death.
The study found that humans caused 65% of them.
In addition to categories like vehicle collisions (10%) and legal kills (14%), illegal kills represented 38% of cases, making it the leading cause of wolf deaths.
Apart from legal kills, which included depredation control and legal hunting, illegal kills included confirmed and suspected poaching through poisoning, shootings and accidental trapping.
“Despite changes in legislation and public attitudes towards large predators, human-caused mortality continues to impact survival and conservation of carnivore species,” the study said.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, wolves are native to the state, and research suggests that they were once present in all of its counties.
“Wolves were first added to the federal endangered species list in 1974 after being [wiped out] from the Lower Peninsula by the 1930s and nearly disappearing from the Upper Peninsula by 1960,” the department says on its website.
But since then, there has been a back-and-forth approach. Federal protections for wolves were lifted and reinstated on several occasions through political action and court rulings.
Most recently, a 2022 federal court ruling reinstated gray wolves onto the federal list of threatened and endangered species in the contiguous 48 states.
Based on that classification, “they can only be killed if they are a direct and immediate threat to human life,” the department says.
According to the recent study in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, illegal kills as a leading cause of death have “the potential to influence population dynamics, affecting population growth and recolonization potential.”
Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University, said the results are consistent with smaller-scale studies.
Deer are the primary food source of wolves, and illegal kills – especially during deer-hunting season – dominate the population dynamics of wolves in the upper Midwest, he said.
“Yet wolf populations have persisted in what I would characterize as an uneasy peace,” Peterson said, adding that the coexistence of wolves and people in the U.P. – where wolves live – has required adjustments for both species.
At this point, Brian Roell, a DNR wildlife biologist, said illegal takes don’t appear to be harming Michigan’s population, as wolves can survive fairly high death rates.
“The important thing to point back to is that our population has been stable – it’s not decreasing,” he said.
According to Roell, Michigan’s wolf population has been stable since 2011. The department’s last population estimate in 2024 counted 768 wolves. In Michigan, they “have saturated their suitable habitat,” he said.
While the DNR is currently wrapping up a 2026 population estimate, he said, “I fully expect we’re going to be statistically stable again” based on preliminary data.
The post Michigan’s main cause of wolf mortality? People appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/24/michigans-main-cause-of-wolf-mortality-people/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.
The US Supreme Court has unanimously sided with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in a dispute over which court — state or federal — should oversee Nessel’s lawsuit to shut down the Line 5 pipeline.
The court’s nine justices ruled that Enbridge cannot move the state court case Nessel filed seven years ago to federal court, because the company missed a 30-day deadline to do so.
Jurisdiction matters because federal courts are considered more likely to sympathize with Enbridge’s argument that the pipeline should stay open, while state courts are more likely to sympathize with Nessel’s argument that it should close.
The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong dispute over the fate of the 72-year-old oil pipeline owned by Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy, which crosses through the open water of the Straits of Mackinac as it transports petroleum products from Wisconsin to Ontario.
The aging pipeline has sustained damage multiple times in recent years, sparking fears that it could rupture and cause an oil spill in the Great Lakes.
Citing those fears, Nessel in 2019 filed a lawsuit in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County seeking to shut down the pipeline’s lakebottom segment. But two years into deliberations, Enbridge attempted to move the case into federal court — missing a 30-day statutory deadline to do so.
In a dispute that made its way to the nation’s highest court, the company argued it qualified for an exception to the deadline, while state lawyers accused the company of seeking “an atextual escape hatch.”
In an opinion authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the justices concluded that Congress authorized limited exceptions to the 30-day deadline, none of which apply to the circumstances of this case.
“Enbridge’s counterarguments are not persuasive,” Sotomayor wrote.
The procedural ruling doesn’t settle the question of the pipeline’s fate. But it remands the case back to Ingham County, where deliberations are paused pending the outcome of a separate case.
In a statement, Nessel said the ruling “makes emphatically clear” that the case belongs in state court.
“For far too long, following years of Enbridge’s delay tactics, the fear of a catastrophic spill from Line 5 has haunted our state, threatening to turn our most vital natural resource into a man-made disaster,” Nessel said.
Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy expressed confidence that the company will prevail in arguing that the line should remain open.
“The fact remains that the safety of Line 5 is regulated exclusively by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration,” Duffy wrote. That agency is part of the US Department of Transportation.
In a ruling tied to a separate shutdown dispute between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Enbridge, US District Court Judge Robert Jonker ruled in December that federal pipeline safety laws preempt state laws, leaving Michigan with no “power to interfere” in Line 5 operations. The state is appealing the decision and Nessel’s state court case is paused pending the outcome of that appeal.
For years, fans and foes of the pipeline have been battling in Michigan and Wisconsin over fears that the pipeline could cause a catastrophic oil spill. Enbridge also owns the line 6B pipeline, which spilled into the Kalamazoo River causing among the worst inland oil spills in US history. Line 5 has been repeatedly struck by ships’ anchors, further heightening pipeline safety concerns.
In 2018, Enbridge pitched a plan to move the Straits section of the pipeline into a concrete-lined tunnel deep beneath the lakebed to alleviate spill concerns. But that plan, too, has been controversial, with some contending the best solution is to remove the pipeline entirely.
It’s a debate that revolves not only around spill risks, but concerns about land disturbances from tunnel construction, infringement on Native American treaty rights in the Straits and the climate implications of building infrastructure that would lock in decades of additional fossil fuel use.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy are both preparing to issue key permitting decisions tied to the tunnel plan.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Supreme Court is deliberating over a lawsuit challenging a separate tunnel permit the state already granted.
The post Supreme Court sides with Nessel in Line 5 jurisdiction dispute appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/24/supreme-court-sides-with-nessel-in-line-5-jurisdiction-dispute/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.
The US Supreme Court has unanimously sided with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in a dispute over which court — state or federal — should oversee Nessel’s lawsuit to shut down the Line 5 pipeline.
The court’s nine justices ruled that Enbridge cannot move the state court case Nessel filed seven years ago to federal court, because the company missed a 30-day deadline to do so.
Jurisdiction matters because federal courts are considered more likely to sympathize with Enbridge’s argument that the pipeline should stay open, while state courts are more likely to sympathize with Nessel’s argument that it should close.
The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong dispute over the fate of the 72-year-old oil pipeline owned by Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy, which crosses through the open water of the Straits of Mackinac as it transports petroleum products from Wisconsin to Ontario.
The aging pipeline has sustained damage multiple times in recent years, sparking fears that it could rupture and cause an oil spill in the Great Lakes.
Citing those fears, Nessel in 2019 filed a lawsuit in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County seeking to shut down the pipeline’s lakebottom segment. But two years into deliberations, Enbridge attempted to move the case into federal court — missing a 30-day statutory deadline to do so.
In a dispute that made its way to the nation’s highest court, the company argued it qualified for an exception to the deadline, while state lawyers accused the company of seeking “an atextual escape hatch.”
In an opinion authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the justices concluded that Congress authorized limited exceptions to the 30-day deadline, none of which apply to the circumstances of this case.
“Enbridge’s counterarguments are not persuasive,” Sotomayor wrote.
The procedural ruling doesn’t settle the question of the pipeline’s fate. But it remands the case back to Ingham County, where deliberations are paused pending the outcome of a separate case.
In a statement, Nessel said the ruling “makes emphatically clear” that the case belongs in state court.
“For far too long, following years of Enbridge’s delay tactics, the fear of a catastrophic spill from Line 5 has haunted our state, threatening to turn our most vital natural resource into a man-made disaster,” Nessel said.
Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy expressed confidence that the company will prevail in arguing that the line should remain open.
“The fact remains that the safety of Line 5 is regulated exclusively by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration,” Duffy wrote. That agency is part of the US Department of Transportation.
In a ruling tied to a separate shutdown dispute between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Enbridge, US District Court Judge Robert Jonker ruled in December that federal pipeline safety laws preempt state laws, leaving Michigan with no “power to interfere” in Line 5 operations. The state is appealing the decision and Nessel’s state court case is paused pending the outcome of that appeal.
For years, fans and foes of the pipeline have been battling in Michigan and Wisconsin over fears that the pipeline could cause a catastrophic oil spill. Enbridge also owns the line 6B pipeline, which spilled into the Kalamazoo River causing among the worst inland oil spills in US history. Line 5 has been repeatedly struck by ships’ anchors, further heightening pipeline safety concerns.
In 2018, Enbridge pitched a plan to move the Straits section of the pipeline into a concrete-lined tunnel deep beneath the lakebed to alleviate spill concerns. But that plan, too, has been controversial, with some contending the best solution is to remove the pipeline entirely.
It’s a debate that revolves not only around spill risks, but concerns about land disturbances from tunnel construction, infringement on Native American treaty rights in the Straits and the climate implications of building infrastructure that would lock in decades of additional fossil fuel use.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy are both preparing to issue key permitting decisions tied to the tunnel plan.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Supreme Court is deliberating over a lawsuit challenging a separate tunnel permit the state already granted.
The post Supreme Court sides with Nessel in Line 5 jurisdiction dispute appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/24/supreme-court-sides-with-nessel-in-line-5-jurisdiction-dispute/
Large data centers are being proposed and built across the Great Lakes region, including Illinois. Without comprehensive protective planning, pollution prevention, and water use reporting, they could irreversibly drain huge amounts of water that Illinoisans rely on every day for drinking water, agriculture, and business purposes. Without stronger guardrails, they could expel wastewater that’s contaminated with pollutants, putting local communities at risk and damaging our lakes and rivers.
Illinois communities are raising concerns about the pace and lack of transparency as data center plans rapidly expand across the state. In fact, a recent poll of Illinois voters found that 96% agreed that the state should “ensure data centers pay their fair share of water infrastructure costs,” while 92% support requiring “an analysis that a data center won’t increase harmful health, water, and environmental impacts on vulnerable communities before a project moves forward.”
The Alliance for the Great Lakes supports the POWER Act, an Illinois bill that establishes transparent reporting and consumer protection requirements for data centers to help ensure Illinois’ water resources are used responsibly.
At a recent hearing on the bill, Helena Volzer, Senior Source Water Policy Manager, testified about data centers’ water impacts and how the POWER Act would support sustainable growth while ensuring thoughtful stewardship of Illinois’ water.
The testimony below was submitted to the Illinois House Executive Committee on SB4016/HB5513, the POWER Act, on April 22, 2026, on behalf of the Alliance for the Great Lakes:
Chairperson Ann M Williams, Vice Chairman Robert Rita, Republican Spokesperson Ryan Spain, and esteemed members of the House Executive Committee, my name is Helena Volzer, and I am the Senior Source Water Policy Manager at the Alliance for the Great Lakes. On behalf of the Alliance, thank you for the opportunity to provide subject matter testimony on data center impacts and in support of SB4016/HB5513, the POWER Act. For over fifty years, the Alliance for the Great Lakes has been working to protect our region’s most precious resource: the fresh, clean, natural waters of the Great Lakes for today and generations to come.
We would like to thank Majority Leader Robyn Gabel and Senator Ram Villivalam for sponsoring this critically important legislation SB4016/HB5513, the POWER Act, will establish a framework and common-sense guardrails that will support sustainable growth while ensuring thoughtful stewardship of Illinois water, transparency, accountability, and protection for communities and ecosystems from water overuse and preventable pollution. The Alliance for the Great Lakes urges support and the swift passage of the POWER Act as a critical and timely framework to address quickly evolving challenges and protect our region’s water for generations to come.
As you may know, the Great Lakes are a globally significant, finite, and precious resource. They hold 22% of the world’s fresh surface water and provide drinking water to over 40 million people in the US and Canada. Perhaps less well known is the Lakes’ essential connection to groundwater. Between 20 and 40% of the water flowing into and out of the Great Lakes system originates as groundwater. In Illinois, 40% of residents rely on groundwater for their drinking water.
Yet as I speak, groundwater is becoming increasingly vulnerable to overextraction, especially during peak summer months that are growing hotter and drier due to climate change. The connection between groundwater and surface water means surface water resources can become stressed if groundwater becomes depleted. With simultaneously competing demand for water from agriculture, industry, data centers, and residential use, communities in Illinois are facing complex trade-offs in managing finite water supplies.
Nevertheless, large water users such as data centers are being proposed and sited in Illinois before there has been any comprehensive evaluation of whether the watershed can handle it. Currently, factors such as groundwater recharge rates, whether existing supplies can meet demand, including the data center’s water use at peak capacity, potential impacts to ratepayers, and the cumulative effects of increased water use are not being factored into the decision-making process and they should be.
What happens when water supplies aren’t sustainably and responsibly managed?
How does the POWER Act help? The POWER Act helps establish a framework for more sustainable data center water use. It does so by creating transparent water use reporting, a permitting system to manage water resources sustainably and accountably to reduce the potential for groundwater conflict, and consumer protection requirements to ensure that data centers pay their fair share of water and wastewater infrastructure.
Technology changes quickly – just a few years ago, we had no AI and no hyperscale data centers. But right now, the Great Lakes region hosts nearly one-fifth of all U.S. data centers, with growth expected to exceed national averages through the end of the decade. Illinois needs a state-level framework that adapts to the times and provides a comprehensive way to ensure water is available right now and for future generations. Consistent rules that monitor water use, ensure transparency, and prevent pollution are necessary to equip the state with the tools it needs to make sure that clean, fresh, water is available for all. Because if there is no clean safe water, there won’t be any data centers or economic development either.
Protecting the Great Lakes requires aligning economic development strategies with hydrologic reality and preventing future pollution. The POWER Act provides a critically important framework that supports sustainable growth by ensuring managed water use, transparency, accountability, and protection for communities and ecosystems from preventable pollution or water overuse.
The POWER Act establishes an evidence-based regulatory framework and a long-term planning approach that helps prevent the disastrous consequences of unsustainable water use. At the same time, we recognize the challenging and multifaceted nature of this issue and stand ready to work with all interested parties and levels of government to ensure we build a framework that can both adapt to the rapidly changing economic landscape while preventing irreversible adverse water resource impacts.
We again wish to thank Majority Leader Robyn Gabel and Senator Ram Villivalam for protecting our state’s precious water resources and introducing this bill and thank you to the Chair and the committee for allowing us to provide testimony today.
The post Testimony in Support of POWER Act to Protect Illinois Water Resources from Data Center Impacts appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2026/04/testimony-in-support-of-power-act-to-protect-illinois-water-resources-from-data-center-impacts/
Not everyone who cares about the Great Lakes does it from a stage. A lot of work happens in meeting rooms, on beaches, in classrooms, and in communities that don’t always make the news. Each year at our Great Blue Benefit, we get to recognize the people doing that work. We call them Wavemakers – individuals and organizations who have been instrumental in conserving and protecting the Great Lakes.
We’re honored to introduce our 2026 Wavemaker Honorees:
Brenda Coley, Co-Executive Director, Milwaukee Water Commons, and water justice champion
Brenda Coley has never bought into the idea that water is a separate issue from everything else. Brenda’s work recognizes that equitable access to fresh, clean water is fundamental—sitting at the center of health, equity, community, and who gets to make decisions about where they live—and, for her, it’s all connected. As Co-Executive Director of Milwaukee Water Commons, she brings years of community organizing and public health experience to the Great Lakes and a real commitment to ensuring that the people most affected by water decisions actually have a seat at the table.
Paul Culhane, Director Emeritus, Alliance for the Great Lakes
Paul Culhane has been part of the Alliance family since 1973, when he spent a year researching and documenting the organization’s early years. He joined the board in 1981 and served for nearly four decades, taking on everything from finance and nominations committees to co-leading executive director searches. Today, he continues advocating for the Great Lakes through the Sierra Club’s Illinois chapter and his parish’s Earth Shepherds ministry. We are so grateful for his decades of support to the Alliance and the Great Lakes.
Erin Huber Rosen, Founder and Executive Director, Drink Local Drink Tap, and global water steward
Erin started Drink Local Drink Tap in 2010 because she grew up near Lake Erie and couldn’t understand why more people didn’t care about it. That question took her a lot further than she probably expected. Today, her work spans 218 Alliance beach cleanups, water education reaching more than 26,000 young people, and over 225 water and sanitation projects in rural Uganda. She has made documentary films and testified in policy rooms, and she still shows up to clean beaches. Her late father told her it’s important to speak up for those without a voice. She took that advice seriously.
2026 Lifetime Achievement Honoree
Senator Debbie Stabenow, Trailblazer, former U.S. Senator, and lifelong champion for the Great Lakes
Debbie Stabenow grew up in Clare, Michigan, driving with her family to Lake Michigan on weekends, and she spent 50 years in public service making sure those lakes were still worth the drive. She passed the first federal ban on oil and gas drilling in the lakes. She created the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which put more than $4.1 billion into over 8,100 projects across the region. She was a tireless champion for the Brandon Road project to stop invasive carp from entering the lakes. In 2025, she stepped back from elected office having built a legacy of support for our lakes. We’re proud to honor her with the Alliance’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Join Us in Celebration
We hope you’ll join us at the Great Blue Benefit on Thursday, June 11, 2026, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago—good people, a great cause, and yes, plenty of lake talk.
Supporting Our Mission
All proceeds from the Great Blue Benefit will directly support the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ ongoing initiatives to ensure our waters are clean, safe, and accessible for all generations.
The post Meet the 2026 Wavemaker Honorees appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2026/04/meet-the-2026-wavemaker-honorees/
Richard B. (Ricky) Rood, University of Michigan
Michigan and parts of Wisconsin are in the midst of a historic flooding event in spring 2026. Days of heavy rainfall on top of snow have sent lakes and rivers over their banks and threatened several dams in both states, forcing people to evacuate homes downstream. By April 20, 2026, nearly half of Michigan’s counties were under a state of emergency. In Cheboygan, Michigan, large pumps were brought in to lower pressure on a century-old dam in the city.
The region’s aging water infrastructure was never designed for the volume of water it is facing. That’s a troubling sign for the future, with flooding becoming more common as global temperatures rise.
In many areas, the damage has been exacerbated by a culture of building homes and cabins on the shores of inland lakes and along riverine lakes behind small, often privately owned dams. Many of these dams were built over 100 years ago, with some long forgotten.
I am a professor emeritus of meteorology at the University of Michigan whose work focuses on helping communities adapt to climate change. The warming climate is worsening the flood risk, and disasters like the one Michigan is experiencing are setting higher benchmarks for safety as communities plan future infrastructure.
For much of Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as northern Illinois, 2026 has been the wettest March and April on record.
In March, much of that precipitation fell as snow, including in an enormous blizzard that brought 3 feet of snow to parts of Michigan. In mid-April, persistent rains began. The rain, on top of all that snow, sent floodwaters running into rivers, streets and homes. The water carries large amounts of ice that damages shores, infrastructure and homes.
The moisture for much of these storms has been funneled northward from the warm Gulf of Mexico, thanks in part to a high pressure system sitting over the southeastern U.S.
The kind of flooding Michigan and Wisconsin are experiencing in 2026 is what forecasters expect to see more of as global temperatures rise.
Winters have been warming faster than other seasons across the U.S. In Michigan and Wisconsin, winter months used to be reliably below freezing, but that’s changing. In the Cheboygan area, near the tip of Lower Michigan, March temperatures used to be below freezing on all but a few days. By the 1991-2020 period, the region averaged 10 days above or close to the freezing point – about twice as many as the 1951-1980 period.
The air coming in from the south is also warmer than in the past. Nationally, 2026 was the warmest March on record in 132 years of record-keeping in the contiguous U.S., with an average temperature more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) higher than the 30-year average. So, in addition to snowmelt starting earlier, melting is happening faster.
Michigan’s average wintertime temperature rose by more than 4 F (2.3 C) from 1951 to 2023. Though winter 2026 in Michigan was colder than the 1991-2020 average, the Gulf of Mexico, where the moisture originated, was warmer than average, accelerating the snowmelt.
A few aspects of a warming climate can lead to flooding.
First, temperatures are increasing. In higher temperatures, moisture evaporates faster from the ground, plants and surface water. That moisture, once in the atmosphere, eventually falls again as precipitation. However, for each degree Celsius that temperatures increase, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture, resulting in more heavy downpours.
A warmer winter also means more melting snow and more rain-on-snow events that can quickly increase the amount of runoff into rivers.
The Great Lakes region and much of the Northeast already experience more precipitation than in the past. Winters with more persistent wetness – not just snow but also rain – prime the region for floods. With continued warming in the coming decades, 2026 might be among the least disruptive in the future.
Data shows that a scenario of persistent wetness, changes in winter and seasonal runoff is part of the future for Michigan and the other states and Canadian provinces along the Great Lakes Basin, as well as New England.
All of this means communities across the region will have to pay closer attention to the growing risks facing their vital infrastructure – particularly dams.
Even prior to the 2026 floods, Michigan had a well-documented problem with its aging inventory of 2,600 dams. In May 2020, an intense storm system that stalled over the region brought so much rain that the Edenville and Sanford dams both failed near Midland, Michigan, forcing 10,000 people to evacuate and causing an estimated US$200 million in damage.
After that disaster, a state task force issued recommendations for fixing the state’s water control infrastructure to meet the growing risks. But a member of the task force told The Detroit News in April 2026 that little had been done to address those recommendations.
Michigan and parts of Wisconsin are in the midst of a historic flooding event in spring 2026. Days of heavy rainfall on top of snow have sent lakes and rivers over their banks and threatened several dams in both states, forcing people to evacuate homes downstream. By April 20, 2026, nearly half of Michigan’s counties were under a state of emergency. In Cheboygan, Michigan, large pumps were brought in to lower pressure on a century-old dam in the city.
The region’s aging water infrastructure was never designed for the volume of water it is facing. That’s a troubling sign for the future, with flooding becoming more common as global temperatures rise.
In many areas, the damage has been exacerbated by a culture of building homes and cabins on the shores of inland lakes and along riverine lakes behind small, often privately owned dams. Many of these dams were built over 100 years ago, with some long forgotten.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ik4S2Kgn9ak?wmode=transparent&start=0 Michigan State Police captured scenes of stressed dams and flooding across Cheboygan County, near the tip of the Lower Peninsula, including the century-old dam in the city of Cheboygan that was nearly overwhelmed by flood water.
I am a professor emeritus of meteorology at the University of Michigan whose work focuses on helping communities adapt to climate change. The warming climate is worsening the flood risk, and disasters like the one Michigan is experiencing are setting higher benchmarks for safety as communities plan future infrastructure.
For much of Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as northern Illinois, 2026 has been the wettest March and April on record.
In March, much of that precipitation fell as snow, including in an enormous blizzard that brought 3 feet of snow to parts of Michigan. In mid-April, persistent rains began. The rain, on top of all that snow, sent floodwaters running into rivers, streets and homes. The water carries large amounts of ice that damages shores, infrastructure and homes.
The moisture for much of these storms has been funneled northward from the warm Gulf of Mexico, thanks in part to a high pressure system sitting over the southeastern U.S.
The kind of flooding Michigan and Wisconsin are experiencing in 2026 is what forecasters expect to see more of as global temperatures rise.
Winters have been warming faster than other seasons across the U.S. In Michigan and Wisconsin, winter months used to be reliably below freezing, but that’s changing. In the Cheboygan area, near the tip of Lower Michigan, March temperatures used to be below freezing on all but a few days. By the 1991-2020 period, the region averaged 10 days above or close to the freezing point – about twice as many as the 1951-1980 period.
The air coming in from the south is also warmer than in the past. Nationally, 2026 was the warmest March on record in 132 years of record-keeping in the contiguous U.S., with an average temperature more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) higher than the 30-year average. So, in addition to snowmelt starting earlier, melting is happening faster.
Michigan’s average wintertime temperature rose by more than 4 F (2.3 C) from 1951 to 2023. Though winter 2026 in Michigan was colder than the 1991-2020 average, the Gulf of Mexico, where the moisture originated, was warmer than average, accelerating the snowmelt.
A few aspects of a warming climate can lead to flooding.
First, temperatures are increasing. In higher temperatures, moisture evaporates faster from the ground, plants and surface water. That moisture, once in the atmosphere, eventually falls again as precipitation. However, for each degree Celsius that temperatures increase, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture, resulting in more heavy downpours.
A warmer winter also means more melting snow and more rain-on-snow events that can quickly increase the amount of runoff into rivers.
The Great Lakes region and much of the Northeast already experience more precipitation than in the past. Winters with more persistent wetness – not just snow but also rain – prime the region for floods. With continued warming in the coming decades, 2026 might be among the least disruptive in the future.
Data shows that a scenario of persistent wetness, changes in winter and seasonal runoff is part of the future for Michigan and the other states and Canadian provinces along the Great Lakes Basin, as well as New England.
All of this means communities across the region will have to pay closer attention to the growing risks facing their vital infrastructure – particularly dams.
Even prior to the 2026 floods, Michigan had a well-documented problem with its aging inventory of 2,600 dams. In May 2020, an intense storm system that stalled over the region brought so much rain that the Edenville and Sanford dams both failed near Midland, Michigan, forcing 10,000 people to evacuate and causing an estimated US$200 million in damage.
After that disaster, a state task force issued recommendations for fixing the state’s water control infrastructure to meet the growing risks. But a member of the task force told The Detroit News in April 2026 that little had been done to address those recommendations.
Because warming will continue for the coming decades, the 2026 flooding should be considered at the lower end of capacity for stormwater infrastructure and dams. Rather than relying on the statistics that described floods in the past, planners will have to anticipate the floods of the future.
Michigan is often touted as a climate haven because it is relatively cool and has plenty of water. The state is not, however, immune to the amped-up weather of a warming climate. Environmental security in the future requires improved and more adaptive infrastructure.
The post Extreme rain on snow is testing aging dams across Michigan and Wisconsin — this is the future in a warming world appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/22/extreme-rain-on-snow-is-testing-aging-dams-across-michigan-and-wisconsin-this-is-the-future-in-a-warming-world/
For Patrick G. Rodriguez Sr., it started with a newspaper article. A new member of the Indiana Harbor–East Chicago Lions Club brought information about Adopt-a-Beach to a meeting. The club voted to take on an environmental service project. They voted Patrick to lead it. He has been organizing cleanups ever since.
What surprised him most that first year was the unknown. His club lacked a blueprint. They did not know where to stand, what to measure, or how to begin. What steadied them was the Adopt-a-Beach program. Experienced hands guiding new ones.
Years later, when Lion Carlos Godinez, the member who first suggested the project, passed away from cancer, the club renamed their effort in his honor. The Carlos Godinez Adopt-a-Beach Memorial Cleanup is now part of the shoreline’s story. His idea still gathers people at the water’s edge.
Patrick speaks often about teachable moments. About measuring longshore currents at Jeorse Park Beach and discovering irregular water flow caused by construction decisions along the lakefront. About how volunteer-collected data can surface issues larger than any one cleanup day.
“Every cleanup is more than picking up trash. It is about educating the public, building friendships, and strengthening our communities,” says Patrick.
At the end of each cleanup, Patrick feels relief and pride. Pride that neighbors, city leaders, and volunteers stood shoulder to shoulder with a shared purpose. Pride that what began as a club vote became a community tradition.
Further north at Montrose Beach, for Raymund C. Torralba, PhD, it began for a different reason.
He wanted his students to feel connected to something real. To be civically engaged. To know that citizenship is not abstract.
At his first cleanup, the volume of plastic and cigarette butts shocked everyone. What surprised him more was how quickly students claimed the space. They were not just collecting litter. They were protecting something.
One afternoon, a parishioner from his church arrived to volunteer and was delighted to see Ray leading the event. Shared faith met shared responsibility. That moment stayed with him.
Both leaders understand that this work lands differently now.
In 2025 alone, Adopt-a-Beach volunteers removed more than 23,000 pounds of litter from Great Lakes shorelines and contributed critical data about plastic pollution. That data is helping shape conversations about freshwater protection and policy decisions as we move into 2026.
“Cleanups might look simple, but they open people’s eyes and remind us that caring for our lakes is work we must keep doing,” says Raymund.
Cleanups may look simple from the outside. A bag. Gloves. A clipboard. But something deeper is happening.
Ownership is forming. Awareness is shifting. Community is knitting itself tighter.
Patrick will tell you to learn the history of your shoreline. Arrive early. Ask questions. Seek mentorship. Ray will tell you to go for it and trust that support is available.
Because every cleanup is more than picking up trash.
It is a reminder that water connects us and that stewardship is shared.
That showing up still matters.
And in 2026, we are showing up again.
If you have ever considered becoming a Team Leader, this is your invitation. Gather your students. Your coworkers. Your congregation. Your friends. Learn your shoreline. Protect it. Leave it better than you found it. The lakes are waiting.
The post At the Edge of the Water: Two Leaders, One Shoreline, One Shared Responsibility appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2026/04/at-the-edge-of-the-water-two-leaders-one-shoreline-one-shared-responsibility/
For Patrick G. Rodriguez Sr., it started with a newspaper article. A new member of the Indiana Harbor–East Chicago Lions Club brought information about Adopt-a-Beach to a meeting. The club voted to take on an environmental service project. They voted Patrick to lead it. He has been organizing cleanups ever since.
What surprised him most that first year was the unknown. His club lacked a blueprint. They did not know where to stand, what to measure, or how to begin. What steadied them was the Adopt-a-Beach program. Experienced hands guiding new ones.
Years later, when Lion Carlos Godinez, the member who first suggested the project, passed away from cancer, the club renamed their effort in his honor. The Carlos Godinez Adopt-a-Beach Memorial Cleanup is now part of the shoreline’s story. His idea still gathers people at the water’s edge.
Patrick speaks often about teachable moments. About measuring longshore currents at Jeorse Park Beach and discovering irregular water flow caused by construction decisions along the lakefront. About how volunteer-collected data can surface issues larger than any one cleanup day.
“Every cleanup is more than picking up trash. It is about educating the public, building friendships, and strengthening our communities,” says Patrick.
At the end of each cleanup, Patrick feels relief and pride. Pride that neighbors, city leaders, and volunteers stood shoulder to shoulder with a shared purpose. Pride that what began as a club vote became a community tradition.
Further north at Montrose Beach, for Raymund C. Torralba, PhD, it began for a different reason.
He wanted his students to feel connected to something real. To be civically engaged. To know that citizenship is not abstract.
At his first cleanup, the volume of plastic and cigarette butts shocked everyone. What surprised him more was how quickly students claimed the space. They were not just collecting litter. They were protecting something.
One afternoon, a parishioner from his church arrived to volunteer and was delighted to see Ray leading the event. Shared faith met shared responsibility. That moment stayed with him.
Both leaders understand that this work lands differently now.
In 2025 alone, Adopt-a-Beach volunteers removed more than 23,000 pounds of litter from Great Lakes shorelines and contributed critical data about plastic pollution. That data is helping shape conversations about freshwater protection and policy decisions as we move into 2026.
“Cleanups might look simple, but they open people’s eyes and remind us that caring for our lakes is work we must keep doing,” says Raymund.
Cleanups may look simple from the outside. A bag. Gloves. A clipboard. But something deeper is happening.
Ownership is forming. Awareness is shifting. Community is knitting itself tighter.
Patrick will tell you to learn the history of your shoreline. Arrive early. Ask questions. Seek mentorship. Ray will tell you to go for it and trust that support is available.
Because every cleanup is more than picking up trash.
It is a reminder that water connects us and that stewardship is shared.
That showing up still matters.
And in 2026, we are showing up again.
If you have ever considered becoming a Team Leader, this is your invitation. Gather your students. Your coworkers. Your congregation. Your friends. Learn your shoreline. Protect it. Leave it better than you found it. The lakes are waiting.
The post At the Edge of the Water: Two Leaders, One Shoreline, One Shared Responsibility appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2026/04/at-the-edge-of-the-water-two-leaders-one-shoreline-one-shared-responsibility/
Hello Volunteers! We are still looking for volunteers for the site circled in red on the map for the 2026 season! Do you enjoy being out on the water? Are you interested in seeing how the work we are doing affects water quality? We have an opportunity for you! We are [...]
The post Help us monitor water quality in Lake Winnebago this summer! appeared first on Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance.
Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance
https://fwwa.org/2026/04/22/ww-wq-volunteers-2026/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ww-wq-volunteers-2026
This Earth Day, Detroit PBS programming is focusing on turning land back into something wild. Better known as “rewilding,” a large-scale conservation effort that usually involves reintroducing keystone plant or animal species to reestablish the health of a local ecosystem.
In the Great Lakes region, Illinois recently made history by being the first state in the nation to make rewilding part of its official strategy. As of January 1, 2026, the “Illinois Rewilding Law” is now in effect. According to the Chicago Tribune, the law empowers the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to go after projects that restore land to its natural state.
“The law could encompass the reintroduction of keystone species that improve ecosystems, like beavers and bison. But officials and environmentalists say closing the federal gaps in wetland protection is their focus right now,” wrote Christiana Freitag at the Chicago Tribune.
After the Supreme Court case Sackett v. EPA rolled back federal wetland protections, Illinois became especially vulnerable considering it already lost 90% of its swamps. Chicago was built on wetlands, which are important when considering water quality and flood prevention — this is especially significant, as Chicago has dealt with severe flooding.
British author and conservationist Isabella Tree joins our Detroit PBS colleagues to discuss her non-fiction book “Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm.” On April 29, be sure to check out their live event with PBS Books Readers Club, from 8 to 9 p.m. ET.
Tree’s book details her process of rewilding her 3,500 acre estate in Sussex, England. After visiting an arborculturist to save their oak trees, Tree and her husband were inspired to change everything they were doing with their land. After it was depleted by centuries of farming, they transformed it into a healthy haven for the littlest bugs and grazing animals, all by planting native flora and fauna.
“I think the only answer to eco anxiety is to get your hands dirty and do something,” said Tree. “And the joy that can come from even transforming a window box… so that you’re now attracting night flying moths and hoverflies and all the forgotten pollinators, you’re making a difference. And that feels just so fantastic.”
Be sure to also check out the upcoming documentary, Wilding (inspired by the book) that premieres on PBS, on April 22.
For those who would like to feel more involved in helping our ecosystem, Doug Tallamy wants private property owners to know they have a role in the conservation movement. Tallamy calls this the Homegrown National Park movement.
“Most people have too much lawn,” said Tallamy.
According to the author, entomologist, biologist and conservationist we have 44 million acres of lawn in this country. When there’s a storm event, most of those pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides run off into the watershed. He said, if we’re going to put plants in our yards, why not use ones that do everything we need to conserve and protect our environment? Native plant alternatives to grass help guard our watershed, help the food web, support pollinators and are often better at sequestering carbon.
“The point is, what you’re doing is creating connectivity,” said Tallamy. “If you and a bunch of other people do it, then outside of the parks and preserves it’s not no man’s land, there is some habitat.”
For more information, watch Great Lakes Now’s latest interview:
The post Rewilding, a new way to heal the land this Earth Day appeared first on Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/22/rewilding-a-new-way-to-heal-the-land-this-earth-day/
Communities along Lake Ontario’s shoreline are being invited to help shape a new regional plan aimed at addressing the growing impacts of flooding, erosion and extreme weather. Read the full story by Niagara-on-the-Lake-Local.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260422-lake-ontario-shoreline-residents-coastal-resilience
In New York, a recent cliff collapse at Chimney Bluffs State Park highlights how the landscape is naturally shaped by ongoing erosion from waves and rainfall, but scientists say factors like heavier rain and fluctuating lake levels may be intensifying these changes. While erosion is normal, researchers note that climate change could make these events more frequent or severe, though no single collapse can be directly attributed to it. Read the full story by WXXI – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260422-chimney-bluffs-shifting-landscape-climate-change
After billions have already been spent on Cleveland’s long-running “Project Clean Lake,” construction is set to begin on the final massive tunnel designed to capture and store stormwater and sewage, preventing it from overflowing into Lake Erie during heavy rains. The project aims to dramatically reduce pollution, though it highlights the enormous cost and decades-long effort required to modernize the region’s aging sewer system. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260422-billions-dollars-tunnel-sewage-lakeerie
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NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/explore-sea-floor-ncei-modernized-portal
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/explore-sea-floor-ncei-modernized-portal
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/explore-sea-floor-ncei-modernized-portal
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/explore-sea-floor-ncei-modernized-portal
