Water

Herb Gray departs IJC frustrated by inaction on Great Lakes

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(ON) Canada.com – Nearly seven months ago, Herb Gray watched as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Lawrence Cannon, met halfway across the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls and – amid considerable fanfare – pledged to redraft and bolster a decades-old treaty aimed at protecting the Great Lakes from environmental harm.  

This week, on the eve of Gray’s departure after eight years as Canadian chairman of the International Joint Commission that oversees transboundary waters, he expressed frustration that the “very fine words” spoken by Clinton and Cannon at the bridge ceremony in June had not yet led to the launch of formal negotiations between the two countries to modernize and strengthen the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. More

Water

Waukesha sets Jan. 28 meeting on bid for Lake Michigan water

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – City officials later this month will unveil a draft application to pump Lake Michigan water to Waukesha for its residents and businesses, Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said Tuesday. Switching Waukesha’s supply from groundwater wells to the lake – if approved by the governors of Wisconsin and the other seven Great Lakes states – would cost an estimated $78 million in construction costs, officials said. The price includes building a pipeline to discharge the city’s treated wastewater to Underwood Creek in Wauwatosa so the water would flow back to Lake Michigan, as required by a Great Lakes protection compact. More

Water

Dam removal ready — on paper

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(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – Local officials approved plans to remove three former hydroelectric dams on the river — Brown Bridge Dam owned by Traverse City, and Sabin and Boardman dams owned by Grand Traverse County. The decisions came early this year after a multi-year public study by the Boardman River Dams Committee wrapped at the end of 2008. The committee offered two primary and opposing recommendations that paralleled community opinions: Some wanted the dams removed and touted a free-flowing river with improved fishery and recreational opportunities, while others wanted the structures left intact to preserve water impoundments and perhaps return the dams to use as power generators. More

Water

Full steam ahead

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – A Milwaukee Common Council committee took a welcome step forward this week when it recommended that the city declare an interest in selling Lake Michigan water to the city of Waukesha. That doesn’t mean the city will sell the water, but – if the full council follows suit Dec. 22 – declaring its interest in a letter to Waukesha allows discussion and the process to move ahead, and that is a good thing. The letter is a necessary part of Waukesha’s application for lake water under the Great Lakes compact, which would require, among other things, the approval of the eight Great Lakes states governors. There is still a long road ahead for Waukesha and many details to be worked out.

Water

Highland Park project aims to curb sewage flow

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – A plan is under way in Highland Park to help keep at least a small amount of raw sewage out of Lake Michigan — the source of drinking water and recreation for millions of people across the region. In a project that will eventually cost millions of dollars, the North Shore Sanitary District recently approved $150,000 to design the replacement of a mile-long stretch of concrete pipe, three feet in diameter, from a sewage pumping station at Highland Park’s Rosewood Beach to the Clavey Road treatment plant, also in the city. More

Water

Book tells tale of tragic Lake Huron freighter sinking

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By Eric Freedman
Nov. 30, 2009

LANSING — The Edmund Fitzgerald is the best-known of the Great Lakes’ doomed ships, but the freighter’s demise with its entire crew off Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula is by no means the state’s only such maritime disaster. Andrew Kantar, a Ferris State University professor, tells another such story, that of the ill-fated freighter Daniel J. Morrell. It sank in 1966 off the tip of the Thumb in Lake Huron, northwest of Harbor Beach. “Each of the Great Lakes has its own tragic history, and Lake Huron’s violent moods have become legendary,” Kantar writes in “Deadly Voyage: The S.S. Daniel J. Morrell Tragedy” (Michigan State University Press, $16.95).

Water

Lawmakers want to lift pesticide ban to battle bedbug blast; Ohio, Michigan among hardbitten

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By Emily Lawler
Nov. 28, 2009
LANSING, Mich. — Forget letting the bedbugs bite – even having them in your home is a danger. The entire United States is dealing with a resurgence of these pesky parasites, which feed on human blood. “They can cause red itchy lesions,” said Kim Signs, a zoonotic disease epidemiologist with Michigan’s Department of Community Health.

Water

Sewage work should be the No. 1 priority for the Great Lakes

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(MI) Bay City Times – To think we are receiving $475 million to help repair our precious Great Lakes, but not being able to use the money to clean up the sewage that is dumped into those same Great Lakes every time we get a heavy rain is ridiculous.I cannot believe in good conscience why this problem isn’t a No. 1 priority. I don’t care about the cost! More

Water

Feds cut cheque for Great Lakes clean-up

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(ON) The Standard – Niagara’s portion of the Great Lakes got just a bit greater Saturday. The federal government gave a $326,000 financial boost for seven ‘areas of concern’ in Niagara as part of Environment Canada’s Great Lakes Sustainability Fund. The money will go towards habitat improvement, cleaner water, and other issues identified by biologists, technicians and trained volunteers. “We can’t forget the Great Lakes,” said Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson during the announcement at Table Rock. “They are a crucial eco system that contains 20 percent of the world’s fresh water supply.” More

Nearshore

Marina bill helps cash-strapped Michigan agency focus on environmental protection

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By Mehak Bansil
Oct. 25, 2009
LANSING–A bill awaiting Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s signature would change permit requirements for those who already own a dock, pier or other anchoring structure and those looking to build one in an inland lake or stream. Renewals would no longer be necessary to maintain and operate such facilities, but boaters who don’t already have a permit would still need one. If a boater wants to build or add to a structure, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) would have to analyze the project to ensure it wouldn’t disrupt natural resources. Martin Jannereth, DEQ’s chief of lakes, streams and shorelands, said eliminating renewals probably won’t harm inland waters.