Echo

How connected do you feel to the Lakes?

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One of my sources, a scientist at the Annis Water Resources Institute in Muskegon, Mich., recently chided me for writing about the Great Lakes from the middle of Michigan here in East Lansing.  How could we properly relate to the Lakes when we are so far away, he wondered. It got me thinking.  Does he have point? The Great Lakes Echo is hardly on the beach.  According to Daft Logic’s handy Google Maps distance calculator, the Echo newsroom is 71 miles from Lake Huron, 82 miles from Lake Erie, 88 miles from Lake Michigan, 236 miles from Lake Ontario and 258 miles from Lake Superior as the crow flies.   And as long we we’re being honest, in the six years I’ve lived here, I’ve only been to two of the Great Lakes. But do you have to be on a Lake to feel connected to it?  They influence state policies, provide research opportunities for our universities, influence our weather patterns, draw tourists and their cash, and make this region of North America just a little more unique.  I don’t have to be on the beach to remember that I’m surrounded by massive freshwater seas. But Michigan is unique.  We have more Great Lake shoreline than any other state.  How connected do the folks in Indiana feel to their tip of Lake Michigan?  What about Minnesota, with a side-swipe of Lake Superior?  Or Pennsylvania, the state with the least amount of Lake shoreline?  We’re all in the same basin, we share invasive species and federal policies, but does everyone feel a connection to the Lakes?

Water

Ont. must update rules to stop pollution of Great Lakes

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(ON) Winnepeg Free Press – Environmentalists are calling on the Ontario government to update its regulations in order to stop the pollution of the Great Lakes. Ecojustice, Great Lakes United and Environmental Defence are asking the Environment Ministry to review and amend nine regulations that they claim have become stagnant and ineffective. The groups say some 140 major industries that were supposed to be regulated are still dumping wastewater into municipal sewers, and allowing toxic pollution to enter Ontario’s sewage treatment facilities. More

Water

10 Lake County suburbs look to tap Lake Michigan water

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – In what could be the state’s largest collective gulp of Lake Michigan water in nearly two decades, 10 suburbs are seeking approval to tap the vast but closely guarded natural resource. With groundwater supplies drying up and vulnerable to contamination, the Lake County communities that now rely on wells are casting envious eyes on that tantalizingly close supply — the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world. They propose spending $250 million to lay about 57 miles of pipe and take other steps that would bring Lake Michigan water to the western part of Lake County. More

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

Echo

Sanctuary snapshot

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(MI) The Alpena News – By the end of this year, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary staff hope to have a completed document that will provide a snapshot of the state of the sanctuary’s resources. About a month ago staff began work on the sanctuary’s first condition report, a document they are required to do. Thunder Bay had not completed one before because it was younger than other sanctuaries and didn’t have enough data for a report. This year was a good time to do one with the completion of the sanctuary’s management plan in late 2009, said Deputy Superintendent Russ Green. More

Echo

Panel approves plan for discounted water

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Milwaukee economic development officials would use discounted water rates to help recruit companies from Atlanta and other cities with water supply problems, under a plan endorsed Wednesday. The city would offer reduced rates to Milwaukee’s 100 largest water users that create at least 25 jobs by either moving to the city, or expanding current operations, said Carrie Lewis, Water Works superintendent. More

Echo

Grant Will Help Educate About The Great Lakes

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(MI) Up North Live – The community will have new opportunities to learn about the importance of the Great Lakes with the help of a grant. The Grand Traverse Conservation District was awarded $200,000 from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust for a grant under the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. More