The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy is asking the City of Ludington to figure out a different way to move water out of the splash pad after it learned that the water was being discharged directly into Pere Marquette Lake. Read the full story by the Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200921-water-discharge
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F649BC6F4.FrostAdvisory.125F649BDF90WI.GRBNPWGRB.9a4163e833933c96304820565599e747
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F649B1EFC.FrostAdvisory.125F649BDF90WI.GRBNPWGRB.9a4163e833933c96304820565599e747
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F649A3E60.FrostAdvisory.125F649BDF90WI.GRBNPWGRB.9a4163e833933c96304820565599e747
Voters like you can make sure that the Great Lakes and clean water are part of the election-year conversation.
In 2020, many federal, state, and local offices are on the ballot around the Great Lakes region. At the top of the ticket are the presidential candidates. Indiana has a gubernatorial election. Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois have U.S. Senate seats on the ballot. All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election. And, numerous state and local offices are on the ballot.
Asking candidates for any office where they stand on Great Lakes issues raises awareness, highlights the issues, and allows us as constituents to hold elected officials accountable once they take office.
When you have the opportunity to connect with candidates for office, whether on social media or at a virtual candidate forum, you can ask important questions about their platforms and positions.
To get you started, here are five Great Lakes questions to ask candidates for elected office.
Your questions will have the biggest impact when you incorporate your own story. Here are a few suggestions on how to make these questions your own:
To learn more about how you can get involved this election season, check out our toolkit: The 2020 Election Season and the Great Lakes. You’ll find background information key Great Lakes issues and the top five ways you can get involved.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Election Season: Our Role
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Alliance for the Great Lakes cannot support or oppose candidates or political parties. However, we can, and do, educate candidates and voters on Great Lakes issues.
The post Top Five Great Lakes Questions to Ask Candidates for Elected Office appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News – Alliance for the Great Lakes
News – Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2020/09/top-five-great-lakes-questions-to-ask-candidates-for-elected-office/
Clean water issues are more important than ever. The COVID-19 crisis has shown us the critical importance of clean water to our personal health, and the health and safety of our families and our communities.
Right now, we have an opportunity to encourage candidates to stand up for clean water and the Great Lakes, and then hold them accountable once elected.
Your voice and your vote matter this election season. Here are the top five ways you can get involved.
Voting is the most important way for you to have a voice in how our elected officials protect our water. 
But unfortunately, voting today is not as simple as just showing up to mark your ballot on election day. Some states have purged voter rolls and enacted new identity verification rules, which impact many people’s ability to vote. And COVID-19 health concerns may impact Election Day with fewer polling places available.
It’s important to make a voting plan to be sure your voice is heard on Election Day. Here are a few tips for how to create your plan:
Visit our Great Lakes Voter Information Center to check your registration, find your polling location, and learn about voting by mail or absentee ballot in your area.
Elected officials set priorities that can lead to better protections for the lakes or leave them more vulnerable to pollution. They oversee agencies that implement clean water laws and regulations. And they make budget decisions that impact Great Lakes programs.
In 2020, many federal, state, and local offices are on the ballot around the Great Lakes region. The presidential election is this year. Indiana has a gubernatorial election. Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois have U.S. Senate seats on the ballot. And, all seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election.
While federal officials have significant influence on the health of the Great Lakes, your local mayor, city council members, and state house representatives can have enormous impact on local environmental issues. They oversee agencies that implement clean water laws and regulations, like those set by local environmental departments. And, agencies make budget decisions that impact your drinking water quality or your water bills.
Check out our Great Lakes Voter Information Center to learn more about candidates on your ballot.
Candidate forums are an important way for you to get your issue on the agenda by asking questions about how the candidate plans to take action if elected.
The formats can vary, but they generally allow time for participants from the virtual audience to ask questions of the candidates. Some events ask for questions to be submitted ahead of time and sometimes questions can be asked right there on the spot.
Here are three tips to help you find candidate forums and ask important questions of candidates in your area:
Voters like you can make sure that the Great Lakes and clean water are part of the election-year conversation. A great place to start is speaking out on social media.
Here are nine tips to get you started:
So, you’ve followed along, participated in events, asked questions, and stayed informed on important issues. Now what? It’s time to get out and VOTE!
Once you’ve made sure you’re registered and ready to vote, it’s equally important to make sure friends, family, and other members of your community are registered and ready, too.
Share our Great Lakes Voter Information Center with family, friends and your community. They can use the Center to check the status of their registration and find early voting information and polling locations. The Voter Center is bilingual, available in English and Spanish.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Election Season: Our Role
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Alliance for the Great Lakes cannot support or oppose candidates or political parties. However, we can, and do, educate candidates and voters on Great Lakes issues.
The post Top Five Ways You Can Get Involved in the 2020 Election Season appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News – Alliance for the Great Lakes
News – Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2020/09/top-five-ways-you-can-get-involved-in-the-2020-election-season/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F648D716C.FrostAdvisory.125F649BDF90WI.GRBNPWGRB.9a4163e833933c96304820565599e747
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Wisconsin Public Service Commission extends utility shutoff moratorium, ruling that could undo Lake Erie wind farm project stands, and PolyMet copper-nickel mine gets critical legal win in Minnesota.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/great-lakes-energy-mining-utility-line-5-lake-erie/
All welcome at this free, virtual event
The first Sea Grant Great Lakes Aquaculture Day will be held Saturday, October 10. The online event will showcase the region’s potential for fish and seafood production and include a culinary competition.
The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Activities begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. central time with the cooking challenge, in which culinary students will test their creativity and flair.
The day will feature a variety of panel discussions and presentations on aquaculture. Those presentations will be targeted at a variety of audiences, from beginning and current farmers to consumers interested in learning more about preparing and cooking seafood.
The event is hosted by the Sea Grant Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative, a project of Sea Grant programs across the region—including Wisconsin Sea Grant—that are working to share resources and promote best practices in the aquaculture industry.
Emma Wiermaa of Wisconsin Sea Grant and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF) will be one of the presenters at Great Lakes Aquaculture Day. She is pictured with NADF Assistant Director and Research Program Manager Greg Fischer. (Photo: Narayan Mahon)
Wisconsin Sea Grant outreach specialists Emma Wiermaa—who holds a joint position with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility in Bayfield, where she is based—and Titus Seilheimer, a fisheries specialist, will participate in the event.
The day will conclude with a cooking demonstration featuring Chef Jeff Igel of the Wisconsin Technical College System, followed by a competition between three culinary students from the Great Lakes region. Each student will be required to use a key ingredient and local aquaculture products in his or her dish.
The Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative is currently accepting applications from post-secondary students for the competition. The three students selected will each receive a $250 stipend to cover ingredients costs and time.
All Great Lakes Aquaculture Day attendees will be able to interact with other participants throughout the event and during breakout lunch gatherings.
As the fastest-growing sector of agriculture worldwide, aquaculture now accounts for more than 50% of world seafood production, surpassing that from wild-caught fisheries. However, aquaculture growth in the U.S. has been stagnant, and seafood supply from U.S.-based, wild-caught fisheries is not enough to meet nationwide demand. One result of that is a $14 billion seafood trade deficit.
The U.S. aquaculture industry has potential for growth, particularly in the Great Lakes region, where abundant inland freshwater resources have enabled a handful of state-based aquaculture operations to employ a local workforce and produce sustainable, healthy and tasty fish.
For more information about the Sea Grant Great Lakes Aquaculture Day 2020 event and registration, visit the Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative website or contact Michigan Sea Grant Extension Educator Elliot Nelson. For information about the Sea Grant Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative, contact Minnesota Sea Grant Extension Educator Amy Schrank.
News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/great-lakes-aquaculture-day-announced/
A shoreline restoration project years in the making will soon come to fruition along Anchor Bay in Chesterfield Township, Michigan. When the project is finished, roughly 740 linear feet of failing steel seawall will be replaced with natural shoreline, along with 1.5 acres of nearshore habitat. Read the full story by The Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-shoreline-restoration
Freshwater Future applauds WaterLegacy as they continue to defend Minnesota water quality standards from industry rollbacks to protect the environment and people within the community from a controversial mine project. WaterLegacy has developed a cohort of partners from indigenious tribes and food gatherers to health professionals and environmental groups, who stand in unity to protect the waters and lands for fishing, hunting, and growing wild rice located near the proposed copper-nickel sulfide mine.
In June 12, 2019, WaterLegacy sought out EPA comments that would play a critical role in allowing PolyMet the permit prepared and issued by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Due to the nature of PolyMet’s business, WaterLegacy knew the approval of the permit would be a direct violation of the Clean Water Act and demanded to view the public comments made by MPCA. After a year of unwavering persistence, WaterLegacy secured the comments by suing the EPA under a Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit as MPCA continued to delay and suppress the information requested by WaterLegacy. The very next day, the EPA Inspector General initiated an investigation due to the allegations toward the EPA and their process for the PolyMet water pollution permit. With WaterLegacy suspecting a breach in protocol, the issue caught the attention of Representative Rick Hansen, who sat as the chairman for the Legislative Audit Commission and Environment and Natural Resource Division, who commenced an audit on MPCA handling of the PolyMet mine permit process.
As the investigation was underway, WaterLegacy procured a substantial amount of evidence of procedural irregularities, which were submitted for comparison to determine if MPCA’s procedure for PolyMet presented irregularities. Furthermore, WaterLegacy attorney Paula MacCabee carried the story nationally to make known this ongoing investigation was needed to ensure the permitting process was executed with integrity. Due to the sizable amount of evidence, Chief Judge Edward Cleary of the district court postponed the permitting process until the investigation was finished, which is a highly unusual act of the courts.
On September 09, 2020, the Minnesota Court of Appeals decided to take their own look at the case after district courts declared there were no irregularities in the procedure by MPCA, indicating to WaterLegacy and the Minnesota Court of Appeals that the case was not reviewed by a neutral administrative law judge. Paula MacCabee, legal counsel for WaterLegacy, appealed the decision of the district courts with documents proving the authorization of a PolyMet mine water pollution permit would be in direct conflict with the Clean Water Act. WaterLegacy and other groups also suggest MPCA skewed the rules in their favor to suppress criticism by hiding evidence or deleting it all together. The case will now wait until the court of appeals reaches their conclusion, and may go well into 2021.
Advocates claim PolyMet’s nickel-copper sulfide mining operations will produce toxic waste and runoff that will elevate mercury levels in fish and animals and decimate the wild rice fields, which in turn, compromise the health of the community members and their families living off the land. WaterLegacy has accomplished a long list of successes to secure basic human rights necessary for living by upholding drinking water quality for residents and businesses along with protecting the environment for wildlife to flourish.
Freshwater Future stands as an ally to supply grassroots organizations in the Great Lakes region the needed resources to relish in the wins that change lives. Standing by the work of organizations like WateLegacy to aid those who push to sustain the quality of living we all deserve is important to Freshwater Future. If your organization needs resources to further water protection work, apply for our Fall Grant, deadline September 30th! We are here to ensure the safety of our waters, contact us for more information on grants: laurie@freshwaterfuture.org or 231.348.8200.
Blog – Freshwater Future
https://freshwaterfuture.org/uncategorized/freshwater-future-applauds-waterlegacys-defense-for-clean-water/
It’s mid-September and the annual fall salmon spawning run is sputtering a little, continuing on as it does every fall — despite low water levels and warm temperatures on Lake Ontario tributaries along the lake’s southern shore. Read the full story by New York Upstate.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-salmon-run
The Cleveland Water Alliance, a nonprofit advocate for Lake Erie, has received a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration to test innovations in water technology. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-CWA
Plans to build Icebreaker Wind, the nation’s first freshwater wind farm, in Lake Erie cleared a major hurdle Thursday, as the Ohio Power Siting Board unexpectedly voted to lift restrictions on nighttime operation that threatened to doom the project. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-wind-farm
The 2020 walleye and yellow perch hatches in the western basin of Lake Erie this year are both above average, continuing an exceptional fishing era, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-walleye-hatch
EPA inspectors in 2017 found contaminated water leaking out of a mining operation in northern Minnesota and started pursuing a federal enforcement action. That would likely have meant a multimillion-dollar fine for U.S. Steel Corp., which owns the giant Minntac iron ore mine, and strict requirements for a cleanup. But three years later, the case is going nowhere and the pollution continues. Read the full story by E&E News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-EPA-mining
Nova Chemicals, an Ontario based plastics manufacturer, is providing $200,000 to keep plastic out of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Sarnia This Week.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-plastic
International cargo volumes through the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes have fallen 8.4% to about 19.3 million tons so far this year in a shipping season that’s been described as “pandemic-plagued.” Read the full story by the Northwest Indiana Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-cargo
A crusading researcher who first identified the corrosiveness of Flint water and elevated levels of lead in city water now says residents’ exposure to the poison was “not as bad as first feared.” Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-Flint
Commercial fishers in the Great Lakes have been left out of federal aid for fisheries nationwide, to the tune of $300 million. (The Great Lakes got zero.) A fettered market cost the regional fishery $50 million this spring, according to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-fisheries
Michigan regulators are ordering the owners of the Edenville dam in Midland to make critically needed repairs to the structure. The dam cracked on May 19, after days of heavy rain. Now four months later, there’s still a gaping hole in the dam. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-Edenville-dam
Prior Lake, Minnesota kayaker and Great Lakes veteran Mike Stout pushed aside any trepidation and paddled alone across Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200918-kayaker
From now until Election Day on Nov. 3, every newspaper, newscast, news website and posts on social media platforms will be swelled to bursting with political polls, tracking races at every level of government. In addition to the so-called horse race polls there are plenty of polls on issues. One such issues poll recently caught my eye because of one point—overwhelming bipartisan support on the right to clean air and water.
In a society riven by differences based on whether you align as an R or a D, the right to clean air and clean water was considered important by 93% of the respondents to a poll led by the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School, with support from the school’s Institute of Politics. The poll is part of an initiative analyzing the condition of rights in the United States and American attitudes toward rights and responsibilities.
Since Sea Grant is in the business of conservation of our Great Lakes (check out our strategic plan for some specifics), it was a welcome poll to pluck out of the plethora of polls. Likewise, our sister organization, the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute, is committed to the goal of research on the quantity and quality of water.
Going a bit deeper into the poll numbers and breaking out by political party affiliation, 95% of Republicans, 94% of Democrats and 92% of independents want pollution-free and healthy air and water.
The larger context of this assessment—which also includes focus groups in Phoenix, Atlanta and in the Great Lakes Basin, Detroit—that the initiative is gauging what Americans feel they have rights to beyond what is enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Others raised were: 93% protection of personal data, 92% a quality education, 89% affordable health care and 85% a job.
One of the most uplifting findings from the poll in this deeply polarized time is this: more than two-thirds of Americans agree that they “have more in common with each other than many people think.” This can be broken out—78% of Republicans, 74% of Democrats and 66% of independents.
The nationwide poll reached 2,039 adults from July 6-28. It was conducted by NORC, an independent research arm at the University of Chicago. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.76 percent.
Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/clean-air-and-water-valued-in-recent-national-poll/
This month, the U.S. Senate approved funding to appropriate $8 million to the Department of Natural Resources for Michigan’s contribution to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to rebuild the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Illinois. Read the full story by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-brandon-road-carp-lock-dam
Dream Hub CEO discusses an event hosted by Dream Hall where Asian carp was served to people in need as a product from their incubator kitchens for the Illinois Kane County food hub. Listen to the full story by WGN Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-eat-asian-carp
The Great Lakes are warming faster than the oceans. And Lake Superior, which is the largest, deepest Great Lake, … is one of the five fastest-warming lakes in the world,” says Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Listen to the full story by Yale Climate Connections.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-great-lakes-climate-change
A report authored by Mackinac Center for Public Policy Environmental Policy and the Minnesota-based Center for the American Experiment challenges the shut down and new construction for the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, citing projected exorbitant costs for Michigan UP homeowners. Read the full story by The Center Square.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-michigan-line-5
On Sept. 16th Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer announced a new initiative in partnership with The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) called the Catalyst Communities program. Read the full story by WSMH-TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-michigan-climate-change
According to a new report from the long-running wolf study conducted by Michigan Technological University and the National Park Service, the newly released wolves transported to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior seem to be making themselves at home. Read and listen to the full story by Lake Superior News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-isle-royale
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports that phase one construction of the new lock has shifted to around-the-clock operations, as of Sept. 8; the new lock will provide a safeguard against a potential breakdown of the adjacent Poe Lock, the largest lock in the Seaway chain, which opened to navigation in 1969. Read the full story by Sootoday.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-soo-lock-construction
Earlier this summer the government of Ontario said it had received many complaints about the growing number of double-crested cormorants. After an announcement in July, an annual harvest season has started Sept. 15th and will continue until December 31st. Read the full story by Radio Canada International.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-cormorant-cull-ontario
The project is part of an effort by Lakewood, Ohio to adhere to the EPA’s Clean Water Act requiring communities to identify, control and either permit or eliminate stormwater; the issue is the city’s 100-year-old sewer system wasn’t designed to handle large storm events. Read the full story by Cleveland.com
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-stormwater-sewer
The Chamber of Marine Commerce says that demand for wheat, canola and soybeans is pushing grain shipments up by 20 per cent in some of Ontario ports, though shipments in the Great Lakes Seaway are still down eight per cent overall compared to this time last year. Read the full story by Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200917-shipping-boost
It’s not every day you see a giant barge slip through the locks, but September 15 was that day. Occasionally, Radtke Contractors asks for a special lockage to transport their equipment via barge. The locks are just large enough to accommodate this barge and you can see the tight fit in this video:
Blog – Fox Locks
http://foxlocks.org/2020/09/16/barge-travels-through-appleton-locks/
NCEI News Feed
http://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news//news/noaa-assists-getting-back-learning
The Ohio Power Siting Board is preparing to rule that it will not revisit its decision to allow the construction of Icebreaker Wind, the nation’s first freshwater offshore wind farm, in Lake Erie, with restrictions that backers say would doom the project. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-wind
Strong winds in the forecast over the next few days has prompted the local conservation authority to issue a flood watch for areas of Chatham-Kent in Ontario. Read the full story by Blackburn News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-shorelines
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is warning people not to eat deer livers if the animal was harvested in the Marinette area due to PFAS concerns. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-PFAS-deer
High water Lake Michigan water levels are disturbing and eroding centuries old burial grounds. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-rising-lake
While the province of Ontario says it’s a necessary step, the widespread double-crested cormorant cull that began this week is drawing some pointed criticism. Read the full story by the Sudbury News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-record-high
As expected, the level of Lake Michigan declined slightly in August, though it’s no surprise to anyone who lives on or visits the shoreline that it remains extremely high. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-record-high
Bridge Michigan invites readers to join our team Sept. 29 for our monthly Lunch Break discussion, this time focused on a critical environmental issue facing communities along the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Bridge Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-water-levels
If you’re paddling anywhere in Michigan, a statewide program called MI Paddle Stewards will train you to spy on and report invasive species, like plants, fish, snails, viruses or other organisms that threaten the health of ecosystems, farms and even ourselves. Read the full story by the South Bend Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200916-invasive
When Great Lakes Now Host Ward Detwiler isn’t introducing PBS audiences to the joys and troubles of the Great Lakes on our monthly program, he’s busy running a software company that’s revolutionizing MRI technology.
That work recently landed him on DBusiness Magazine‘s 2020 “30 in Their Thirties” list.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/dbusiness-crains-list-ward-detwiler/
Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) announced that it will award $1.55 million in grants to reduce the runoff of sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants into the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program.
Each year, the program provides competitive grants to local, state and tribal governments and nonprofit organizations to install erosion and nutrient control practices in the Great Lakes basin. The program supports projects not typically funded by other federal cost-share programs, allowing it to fund innovative and unique approaches. The 2020 projects generally focus on three approaches: long-term sediment and nutrient management through engagement with the agricultural community, streambank restoration, and green infrastructure.
“Bringing together national, state, and local partners is key to protecting the Great Lakes and the economies they support,” said Sharon M. Jackson, chair of the Great Lakes Commission and deputy general counsel to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. “The Great Lakes Commission is proud to provide these grants to help organizations improve water quality in their communities.”
Funding for the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Over the past ten years the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program has awarded 126 grants totaling more than $21 million through the GLRI.
The following grants have been awarded:
More information about the projects is available at www.nutrientreduction.org.
The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Sharon M. Jackson, Deputy General Counsel for Governor Eric J. Holcomb of Indiana, is an interstate compact agency established under the Great Lakes Basin Compact of 1955. The Commission is authorized by state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin and its residents. The Commission consists of governors’ appointees, state legislators, industry and nonprofit leaders and agency officials from eight states and two provinces. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.” The Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional interests. The Commission office is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more at www.glc.org.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/news/GLSNRP-091620
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State environmental and health officials warned people Tuesday to avoid eating the livers of deer harvested around the Marinette area to avoid exposure to PFAS chemicals.
PFAS are man-made chemicals that research suggests can cause a range of health problems in humans. The chemicals have been used for decades in a range of products, including nonstick cookware, fast-food wrappers and firefighting foam.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-dnr-pfas-deer-livers-wisconsin-marinette/
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
http://www.wibeaches.us/apex/f?p=181:27
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
http://www.wibeaches.us/apex/f?p=181:27
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
http://www.wibeaches.us/apex/f?p=181:27
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
Wisconsin Beach Health - Brown County
http://www.wibeaches.us/apex/f?p=181:27
