Echo

Canada Announces Funding for Great Lakes Clean-Up Projects

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(ON) Benzinga – On behalf of Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice, Jeff Watson, Member of Parliament for Essex, today announced $410,000 in funding from the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund for four projects to clean up the Detroit River Area of Concern. Thirty-seven projects throughout the Great Lakes are receiving $2.2 million in funding this year. “The Government of Canada is using the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund to support partnered projects to restore water quality in the Canadian Areas of Concern,” said M.P. Watson. “Locally, the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund is supporting projects like the LaSalle Riverfront Park Habitat Restoration. These types of projects represent real action to ensure that Canada’s communities and families can thrive in a healthy environment.”

Echo

Great Lakes: Protecting Michigan’s Treasure

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(MI) The Michigan News – Michigan is defined by the Great Lakes. Our two peninsulas border four of the five Great Lakes and we are
the only state completely within the Great Lakes watershed. As Attorney General, one of Mike Cox’s
primary environmental priorities has been protecting our Great Lakes. Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes, “great” because they contain approximately 20% of the Earth’s –
and 95% of the United States’ — fresh water. More than 40,000 square miles of Michigan’s surface area is
water.

Echo

Erie and Ottawa counties to benefit from lake funding

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(OH) Sandusky Register – Erie and Ottawa counties are slated to receive millions of dollars of new federal funds from a measure just signed by President Barack Obama that seeks to restore the health of the Great Lakes. Obama signed the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative measure Oct. 30. More

Waste

Michigan landfill fees lowest in Great Lakes; state lawmakers propose hike to boost recycling

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By Hyonhee Shin
Nov. 7, 2009

LANSING — Some Michigan lawmakers are seeking an increase in solid waste disposal fees to help reduce landfills and incineration. The current fee is 21 cents per ton. Most other Great Lakes states charge more — 50 cents in Indiana, $2.22 in Illinois, $4.75 in Ohio, $7.25 in Pennsylvania and $13 in Wisconsin, the highest in the nation. A proposal by state Rep. Daniel Scripps, D-Leland, would establish a $7.50 per ton state tipping fee on solid waste dumped at Michigan landfills and municipal incinerators.

Echo

Film on invasive species premieres in Grand Rapids

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(MI) The Detroit News – The film, titled “Lake Invaders: The Fight for Lake Huron,” was produced by faculty and students at Grand Valley State University in Allendale. A screening is scheduled tonight at the DeVos Center. The film was two years in the making and explores the threat invasive species have posed to the lake. It features state Department of Natural Resourcesnstaff from Alpena and the DNR’s Chinook research vessel. More

Echo

Maintenance on carp barrier at standstill

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – At the same time nearly a half billion dollars is headed toward the Great Lakes as part of President Barack Obama’s ambitious ecosystem restoration program, nobody at the moment appears to have the dollars to allow the U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers to do regular maintenance on the new $9 million Asian carp barrier. That maintenance is needed about every six months and it requires shutting down the barrier for a day or two. The barrier, which is about 20 miles downstream from Lake Michigan on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, was first turned on in April. More

Echo

Clean Water Action announces Great Lakes awards

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(MI) The Saginaw News – Clean Water Action, billed as the state’s largest environmental organization, plans to honor eight Michiganders at a Great Lakes Awards Celebration tonight in East Lansing. “Clean Water Action has chosen this year’s award recipients because they are leading the way in renewing Michigan’s economy, protecting its natural resources and reducing public exposures to toxic chemicals,” Cyndi Roper, Michigan director of Clean Water Action, said in a statement. More

Echo

New Great Lakes quiz

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Echo’s quiz matching you with a Great Lake went so well that we’re developing another. The twist:

It’s about Great Lakes invasive species, a group that few people ascribe characteristics with which they associate themselves. So we’re trying another tack:
Which Great Lakes invasive species is your former significant other? There is some low-hanging fruit – people who continue to cling to their exes like zebra mussels or suck the life out of them like sea lampreys. But you’re more creative than that.

Wildlife

Great Lakes wolf stars in political drama

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By Alice Rossignol
Nov. 3, 2009

As a boy, David Radaich’s father shot wolves that wandered onto the family cattle farm in northeast Minnesota. Now a beef cattle producer himself, Radaich tries to deal with wolves in a legal and ethical way. But it’s not easy. “The challenge seems to be increasing in the last couple of years,” Radaich said.

Echo

Congress OKs $475M for Great Lakes

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(MI) The Detroit News – Congress approved legislation Thursday that includes $475 million to restore the Great Lakes by combating invasive species, cleaning up highly polluted sites and expanding wetlands. The bill also includes $131 million to finance wastewater and drinking water projects in Michigan, $11.2 million for 14 projects in the state, and $1 million for mass marking of hatchery fish in the Great Lakes. “This legislation provides a significant boost to protect and clean up the Great Lakes, improve Michigan’s parks and lands, provide communities with safe drinking water and improved wastewater infrastructure, and preserve key facets of Michigan’s heritage,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit. More