The pavilion at Orchard Beach State Park in Manistee, Michigan, is expected to be moved to a picnic area within the park this fall due to threat from Lake Michigan erosion at a cost of about $1.5 million. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-historic-building-erosion
On Tuesday, a joint Michigan senate committee heard from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about its role with the dams that failed in Midland County and caused catastrophic flooding. Read the full story by WEYI – TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-senate-dam-failure
$850,000 in provincial funding was allotted to the Invasive Species Centre in Sault Ste. Marie for developing new measures to prevent and manage invasive species infiltrating Canada’s natural ecosystems Read the full story by Northern Ontario Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-invasives-ontario
An Ontario nuclear power generating company has officially dropped its pursuit of a deep underground storage facility for low- to intermediate-level radioactive waste within a half-mile of Lake Huron. Read the full story by Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-radioactive-huron
The ceremony was jointly held by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and The Interlake Steamship Company and recognized the first U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier to be built in more than 35 years. Read the full story by WLUK – TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-new-freighter
Michigan regulators are encouraged by preliminary test results that show low pollutant levels in sediments deposited in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw river floodplains downstream of the Dow Chemical Co. in MIdland, MI following historic flooding. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-dioxin-dow
North Olmsted, OH codes require stormwater to be maintained entirely on the property where development is proposed; the undeveloped condition of the property is the benchmark for new developments, meaning that the property cannot release more stormwater off their property than if the property was completely undeveloped. Read the full story by Cleveland.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-stormwater-development
The restoration work is re-establishing natural and ecological function to approximately 1,700 feet of stream in Mentor, OH due to the Chagrin River Watershed Partners, Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District, and funding from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; the city recently learned that the Ohio EPA has recommended a second grant toward the next phase of the project. Read the full story by The News-Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200624-stream-restoration
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/06/24/gloom-doom-and-ruin-draw-visitors-to-detroit-study-says/
MACKINAW CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s attorney general on Monday asked a judge to shut down a pipeline in the Great Lakes after an energy company discovered that an anchor support had shifted deep below the surface.
Enbridge Inc. insists the Line 5 pipeline itself was not damaged, and the company resumed the flow of oil and natural gas liquids in the west leg of the twin system Saturday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/ap-michigan-judge-shut-enbridge-pipeline/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F52F813D0.SpecialWeatherStatement.125F52F889C8WI.GRBSPSGRB.cdc1ff113f80474f83c6e7685b61e187
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has completed its second of seven tunnels to store combined sewer overflows and keep sewage from polluting Lake Erie. Read the full story by The Plain-Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-sewer-district
Independent experts are questioning the adequacy of plans to examine how much fluorochemical pollution is entering Michigan’s Rogue River from Wolverine World Wide contamination sites and subsequently washing downstream toward Lake Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-PFAS-rogue
In March, COVID-19 brought the Great Lakes economy and society in general to a grinding halt. Three months later, it’s not yet business as usual and challenges remain. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-covid
After more than a century in which Cleveland, Ohio, has hardened its shoreline with concrete, steel and boulders to defend against storms, the city and four other agencies are looking at a softer, greener and more natural solution to climate change and rising lake levels. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-recycled-river-sediment
There have been more than a dozen significant rollbacks of water-related protections that affect the Great Lakes area. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-regulatory-rollbacks
Michigan’s attorney general on Monday asked a judge to shut down the Line 5 pipeline in the Great Lakes after Enbridge discovered that an anchor support had shifted deep below the surface. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-shut-down-pipeline
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has issued a safety notice for paddlers along a popular stretch of the Boardman River in Traverse City due to high water. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-dnr-issues-caution
Following flooding that caused the failure of two dams on the Tittabawassee River, officials say hundreds of residents in Gladwin and Midland counties are experiencing issues with their water wells. Some of the wells aren’t working properly, others are dry. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-water-issues
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is holding a series of webinars to introduce a “Total Maximum Daily Loads for Total Phosphorus and Total Suspended Solids in the Northeast Lakeshore Basin” (TMDL) study. Watch the full story by The Kewaunee County Comet.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-tmdl-webinar
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer demanded that Enbridge Energy provide proof that the damage to one of its dual oil pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac will not pose a threat to the area. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-pipeline-answers
A new culvert may replace the existing one that drains South Bar Lake into Lake Michigan. The current culvert is failing, with high water, winds and waves clogging it with sand about once a week. Read the full story by Traverse City Record Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-culvert
Port of Monroe received the Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award, a recognition given to domestic shipping industry leaders by the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. Read the full story by The Monroe News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-port-award
Three months after Ontario declared its COVID-19 emergency, nixing crowds and shutting down many public spaces, Southwestern Ontario’s two biggest beach enclaves – Grand Bend and Port Stanley – threw open their lakeside stretches of sand for the first time Monday since the pandemic began. Read the full story by The London Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-ontario-beaches-open
“The Forever Chemicals” examined the impact of PFAS contamination in west Michigan communities: private wells that tapped into groundwater near industrial dump sites were delivering PFAS-laden drinking water to unsuspecting residents for years until the contamination was detected and reported. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-forever-chemical
Conditions across the Lake Superior were drier than average in May and the water level rose less than it typically does. Nonetheless, an exceptional volume of water remains in the system and all of the Great Lakes remain near or above record-high water levels for this time of year. Read the full story by Sault Online.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200623-superior-water-levels
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/06/23/michigan-attorney-general-wants-line-5-shut-down-until-damage-is-investigated/
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/06/23/michigan-attorney-general-wants-line-5-shut-down-until-damage-is-investigated/
Megan Hoff recently completed her graduate research assistantship in Green Bay, working for Sea Grant Staffer Julia Noordyk. This was the first time such an opportunity has been offered at one of our field offices. Hoff’s work for Noordyk and for her master’s degree in environmental science and policy at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay involved working with the community to develop a watershed management plan for Mahon and Wequiock creeks, which flow through the campus.
Megan Hoff on the Oregon Coast. Image by Austin Yantes
I caught up with Hoff recently, just after she finished a drive across the country to Oregon, where she is starting a new job in Newport as a shellfish assessment biologist. Yes, she’ll be working with clams.
You may wonder how that relates to all the community work she did for her assistantship post. Never fear, Hoff will not abandon her people skills entirely for the company of mollusks.
True, she will be working to document where different species of clams are found along the bays of the Oregon coast, but she will also be on the beach surrounded by beachgoers and people who like to clam recreationally.
Hoff described it like this: “My graduate research assistantship enabled me to not only graduate with my master’s degree debt-free, but I also graduated armed with a suite of new and improved technical and personal skills. Julia and the rest of the Sea Grant folks inspired me and prepared me to address coastal and watershed-based community management and planning challenges. Although the shellfish management challenges are not exactly the same, they still require similar ways to think about how to tackle them.”
Hoff credits her community science communication work with Sea Grant for giving her a leg up on her competition for this full-time permanent job.
“The folks here in Oregon thought my interdisciplinary skills were something unique that I could contribute to their program. My skills in interacting with community members will be really useful and valuable in transitioning to my new life in Oregon,” Hoff said.
Although she is thrilled by this new opportunity, leaving Wisconsin was hard for Hoff.
“I was sad to leave, especially since I didn’t get to say any proper in-person goodbyes to any of the folks I worked with because of social distancing and COVID-19. But I felt so supported and appreciated. Julia and the UW-GB Cofrin Center for Biodiversity staff gave me so much of their time, effort, energy, words of praise and encouragement over the last two years. Without that, I wouldn’t have been as successful.”
Given Hoff’s strong skill set from her academic and Sea Grant experiences, I somehow suspect her success will continue.
Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/field-office-graduate-research-assistant-jumps-from-watershed-planning-to-clams/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/pfas-amazon-lawsuit-epa-michigan-wisconsin/
In March, COVID-19 brought the Great Lakes economy and society in general to a grinding halt.
Three months later, it’s not yet business as usual and challenges remain.
That’s the consensus of a group of Great Lakes industries and scientific researchers Great Lakes Now first spoke with in April.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/covid-19-great-lakes-shipping-charter-boats-research/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI125F52F5F410.SpecialWeatherStatement.125F52F66CC4WI.GRBSPSGRB.6e531d1a6a7226481fdabd9f691e869c
The Trump administration has made a habit of rolling back federal environmental protections over the past few years.
According to The New York Times, 100 environmental rules have been reversed since President Donald Trump took office. Among those rules are thirteen changes or proposed changes that directly impact the Great Lakes, other regional waterways and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/regulatory-rollbacks-federal-water-protections-great-lakes-region/
It’s still a pandemic, so we didn’t get to attend a gala – in fact I was still in filthy workout clothes when I got the news on Saturday night.
But I can’t imagine it was any less thrilling for any of us on the Great Lakes Now team that produced “The Forever Chemicals” when we all learned we won a Michigan Emmy in the Health/Science – Program/Special category for “The Forever Chemicals,” which premiered 15 months ago on Detroit Public TV.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/emmy-pfas-forever-chemicals-documentary-prize/
2020 All About Water Virtual Series – Click here to visit our 6-session agenda, resources, and speaker information.
Blog – Freshwater Future
https://freshwaterfuture.org/uncategorized/2020-all-about-water-webinar-series/
Enbridge Energy shut down part of the Line 5 oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac following “significant damage” to an anchor support on the lake bottom. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer demanded that Enbridge cease all oil transport in the pipeline, including the undamaged segment, until they could provide the pipeline’s integrity. Read the full story by Bridge Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-line5
The new H2Ohio initiative will fund voluntary conservation efforts by Ohio farmers to improve soil quality and reduce runoff from crop fields that contributes to harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. Proponents support the collaborative, science-based approach of the initiative, but some environmentalists remain skeptical that it will achieve the intended outcomes. Read the full story by Civil Eats.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-h2ohio
As Chicagoans return to the lakefront following easing coronavirus restrictions, they will find a transformed shoreline with flooded pathways and disappearing beaches. High-lake levels along the lakes are forcing cities to spend money on repairing and reinforcing damaged shoreline to keep city residents and municipal infrastructure safe. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-lakefront
The U.S.’s first freshwater wind farm is in limbo after regulators in Ohio told wind developers that they must do more to understand how their turbines will impact migrating birds. Environmentalists critical of the windfarm say that the stipulations to monitor bird and bat activity at the sites prior to installation is a critical step that should be the precedent for any wind turbines going on Lake Erie. Read the full story by Washington Post.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-erie-wind
Michigan’s Muskegon County has applied for a $10 million state grant to buy a former sand mining site on Lake Michigan and convert it to a public park that would include space for camping, hiking, fishing and kayaking. Read the full story by WNEM – TV – Bay City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-muskegon-park
The Joliet, Illinois City Council will convene for a workshop to study the options and understand public comments as it considers the options between building a Joliet pipeline to Lake Michigan or getting water from the city of Chicago to increase its drinking water supply. Read the full story the Herald News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-joliet-dw
Two buoys have been deployed in Green Bay to monitor weather conditions as well as the quality of the water, which will help researchers understand under what conditions toxic algal blooms form in lower Green Bay. Read the full story by WFRV-TV- Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-water-safety
During periods of high-lake levels on Lake Erie, residents and businesses along the shoreline face new realities that affect daily life and force people to either adapt or leave. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-erie-angst
A mass of vegetation and grasses was discovered floating in Muskegon Lake near Lake Michigan last week. The origin of the floating vegetation is unknown but is thought to be a consequence of high lake levels eroding dunes along the western shore of Michigan. Read the full story by the Daily Mail.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-floating-isle
Multiple law enforcement agencies used the clear weather to do dive team training in Lake Michigan to practice search and rescues, evidence collection, and salvage operations. Read the full story by WWUP – TV – Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20200622-dive-teams
Two Sea Grant-funded aquaculture studies have borne fruit with new publications. One aids the growing industry surrounding Atlantic salmon raised in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). The other looks at Wisconsin residents’ views of aquaculture (often called fish farming) and related public policy.
Both tie in with the broader goals of Wisconsin Sea Grant and the National Sea Grant Office in terms of supporting a sustainable, domestic supply of fish and seafood and closing the trade gap in this sector of the economy.
In this 2018 photo, Greg Fischer and Emma Wiermaa handle a fish at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility, located in Bayfield. (Photo: Narayan Mahon)
The Atlantic salmon paper appears in the June/July issue of Aquaculture Magazine (Vol. 46, No. 3). Its authors are Greg Fischer, Emma Wiermaa, Chris Good, John Davidson and Steve Summerfelt. Fischer and Wiermaa are based at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF). Located in Bayfield, NADF is a frequent partner with Wisconsin Sea Grant and Wiermaa’s position as an aquaculture outreach specialist and research associate is co-supported by Sea Grant.
The Aquaculture Magazine article looks at some of the issues affecting the growing of the land-based salmon industry in the U.S., such as saprolegniasis (commonly called “fungus”), which can affect both farm-raised and wild fish. (For more information, see our previous story here.)
The piece also looks at methods for preventing “off flavor” in the fish. Often described as a musty or earthy taste, it can be off-putting for consumers.
Fischer, Wiermaa and their collaborators are also participants in a broader initiative funded by the National Sea Grant Office called RAS-N, for Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network. A large-scale effort between three Sea Grant programs—Wisconsin, Maryland and Maine—and numerous private and nonprofit research entities, RAS-N aims to support the growth of sustainable, land-based salmon production in the United States. That collaboration kicked off with a December 2019 meeting in northern Wisconsin.
The second paper hot off the digital press, so to speak, springs from social science research conducted by Bret Shaw, Kristin Runge, Laura Witzling, Shiyu Yang, Chris Hartleb and Deidre Peroff. On June 16, it was published online in the journal Environmental Communication.
The paper focuses on insights gleaned from a survey of 3,000 randomly selected Wisconsin households. While consumer views on aquaculture have been widely studied in Europe, the topic has received less attention in the U.S. The team looked at emotions and opinions about Wisconsin aquaculture—which, they found, were generally favorable among those surveyed.
The team also looked at predictors of support for environmental policy in nuanced situations: individuals may want policy to help an industry grow, to regulate it, or both at the same time.
The paper, “Predictors of Environmental Policy Support: The Case of Inland Aquaculture in Wisconsin,” may be found online.
Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/findings-from-aquaculture-projects-published/
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer demanded Friday that Enbridge Energy provide proof that the damage to one of its dual oil pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac will not pose a threat to the area.
The Alberta, Canada-based company closed its Line 5 pipeline under the straits on Thursday after discovering that the anchor support had shifted from its original position, company spokesman Ryan Duffy said Friday in a statement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/ap-michigan-whitmer-enbridge-pipeline-damage/
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/06/22/__trashed/
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/06/22/podcast-a-slow-explosion-of-damaging-forest-insects/
Green Bay, WI
https://www.weather.gov/grb/062020_tornado_flooding
