Top 10 Great Lakes stories of 2009

Dec. 31, 2009

Here’s Echo’s pick of 2009’s top Great Lakes environmental stories. How’d we do? Click the headline above to see the entire list of stories or to leave a comment.

#1  Climate change

Perhaps it’s no surprise to see a global issue top a list of regional environmental stories of the year.  It’s Echo’s top choice not for its worldwide breadth but for its particular impact on the Great Lakes region.  The stakes are high for a region with nearly 20 percent of world’s fresh surface water. While many worry about sea rise from melting polar ice, the Great Lakes may shrink from increased evaporation. The inland lakes prided by so many face the challenges of increased harsh rainstorms. The threats are linked to issues as diverse as the fate of national parks, low oxygen levels in the lakes, agricultural markets, vulnerability to yet more invasive species or the explosive growth of native ones. Still, many Great Lakes politicians were reluctant to take the lead on addressing climate change. Some called such moves job-killers. Great Lakes residents in general are less concerned about climate change than the national average. Who can blame them when short term weather patterns are so easily confused with longterm climatic variation? Even if you discount the threats and the science, climate change significantly affected the region’s economy in 2009. Politicians have targeted alternative energy and other green initiatives as the solution to putting the region’s manufacturers back to work. Wind projects and proposals have sprung up on both sides of the Great Lakes’ international border. And now developers are targeting the lakes themselves, an action sure to be controversial.

The rest of the list:

#2 The St. Lawrence Seaway celebrates its 50th anniversary

This technological marvel and economic engine also received a lot of attention in 2009 as an environmental nightmare. The system connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean is a route for thousands of ships carrying cargo to and from the nation’s heartland. That cargo includes invasive species pounding at the Great Lakes’ ecological door from the opposite end of the system of where the threat described in story #3 emerged. They’ve been doing it much longer and more subtly than those high-profile carp and have already brought plenty of ecological havoc.  It’s a story well-told in 2009 by Jeff Alexander in Pandora’s Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway.

#3 Asian carp breach electrical barrier at Chicago

You can’t beat this story for drama and color: Giant fish capable of leaping out of the water and smacking boaters, a slow-motion invasion and a slower response to voracious eating machines capable of fundamentally changing the Great Lakes ecology.  This story includes a high-tech device that senses the presence of the invaders’ DNA. It inspired a new sport — shooting carp out of the air with bow and arrow,  and more serious calls to sever the link between Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Michigan is suing Illinois, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reopen a century old case and order the shut down of the ship canal. And $3 million was spent to poison the canal, disappointing some commentators when the action produced only one dead carp – as if finding many thousands would have been a victory. And now $13 million of the  Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (See story #4) funding is to be spent to shore up defenses. Is it money well and strategically spent? Stay tuned to the 2010 sequel of this one. Should it be any higher than #3 for this year?

#4 Congress approves $475 million for Great Lakes restoration

President Barack Obama made a downpayment on what could become a multi-billion dollar bailout for the Great Lakes environment.  There are lots of ideas for spending it. Now scrutiny is intense to see who gets the funds and how they’re spent. So how come a fresh federal investment in Great Lakes restoration merits only #4 on a list of top Great Lakes news stories?  It may not mean much if the top 3 stories of the year are not addressed.

#5  Wisconsin approves Great Lakes diversion at New Berlin.

This was the first test of the updated Great Lakes compact. Meanwhile other Great Lakes communities like Waukesha are testing the waters of the new agreement.

#6 The return of Lake Erie blue-green algal blooms

These have puzzled researchers before 2009 but this year they seemed to get increased attention. The lake’s western basin was blanketed by one of its largest swaths of free-floating microcystis algae. Scientists even launched a blimp to study it. Stormwater runoff gets a lot of blame for blooms that can be seen from space. Other suspected causes are as diverse as global warming, the return of mayflies and resuspended sediments.

#7 The $43 million restoration of North Toledo’s Ottawa River

The dredging of Ohio’s most polluted waterway is among the largest single projects undertaken by the Great Lakes Legacy Act. Not only is it big, it is significant as an example of how cleanups at some Great Lakes Areas of Concern are getting off dead center. Credit litigation threats by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More information.

#8 Construction begins of $490 million lock in Sault Ste. Marie

This project didn’t attract stimulus funding as some had hoped. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to begin coffer dam construction is a commitment to a project supporters say is important to the region’s economy. Opponents say it is a make-work project diverting money from conservation or rebuilding the St. Lawrence Seaway.

#9 Isle Royale wolves and moose

The world’s longest study of predators and their prey faces a crossroads: Wolves on Lake Superior’s Isle Royale are threatened by the decline of the island’s moose. Should researchers let the wolves die and gamble that they’ll return? Should they intervene? What role should people play in preserving an ecosystem?

#10 Great Lakes water levels

Rarely a year passes without someone griping about the fluctuation of Great Lakes waters.  In 2009 this ongoing story received significant attention from the International Joint Commission which advanced several reasons for a drop in Lake Huron. Perhaps more controversial than the fluctuations was the study itself. Questions arose over how it was reviewed, the release of public comments and documentation and whether IJC officials constrained the results.