Echo

Environment agencies in Great Lakes states reorganize, downsize

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 3, 2009

Some cash-strapped state agencies charged with protecting the Great Lakes environment are merging and reorganizing to do more with less. Michigan’s Senate could vote next week to combine that state’s Department of Environmental Quality with the Department of Natural Resources. The House of Representatives approved a similar measure recently. Other states are considering similar moves. Ironically, the functions of both of Michigan’s agencies had once been combined.

Echo

St. Lawrence Seaway at 50: A bypass for Buffalo’s port

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(NY) The Buffalo News – In the shadow of Bethlehem Steel’s empty coke ovens and the new towering windmills generating electricity, the crew of the Port of Buffalo was busy loading limestone onto a ship last week. The freighter was one of the 25 to 30 vessels that dock each year at the privately owned port, which handles about 600,000 tons of bulk material a year. More

Echo

Book excerpt: Death of a Great Lakes icon

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It was the beauty and symbolism of these birds that made it so disturbing to see them washed up, dead, on Great Lakes beaches. In November 2007, I went looking for birds I did not want to see. Dead loons were washing up on the eastern shores of Lake Ontario. More

Echo

Quagga mussels overtaking zebra mussels in Great Lakes

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(WI) The Capital Times – Zebra mussels are being muscled out of the Great Lakes by cousin quagga. Research done by a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate showed the quagga mussel to have become the dominant of the two species in the calm waters of the Great Lakes while the zebra mussel covers the bottoms of faster-moving waters in rivers and streams, UW-Madison announced in a news release. The reason? Grip. More

Echo

Genesee may face fight in bid to tap Lake Huron

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(MI) The Detroit News – Genesee County’s proposal to draw 85 million gallons of water per day from Lake Huron is likely to face a legal challenge from at least one other Michigan county. Genesee buys its water from the city of Flint, which buys it from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. County officials say they are looking for other options in the hope of securing better prices and reliability for its customers, and they are negotiating with Detroit Water and Sewerage for a possible long-term deal. Last month, the county’s drain commission applied to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for permission to build a pipe system and withdraw water from Lake Huron. More

Echo

Environmental group’s leader named Great Lakes czar

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Cameron Davis, leader of a Chicago-based environmentalist group, has been appointed to oversee President Barack Obama’s initiative to clean up the Great Lakes. Davis is president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, one of many organizations that have pushed for a restoration program expected to cost more than $20 billion. He was appointed by Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. More

Echo

Water watchers call for new rules to ensure protection in coming century

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(ON) The Hamilton Spectator – As Canada and the United States prepare to mark the centennial of the Boundary Waters Treaty, key thinkers and organization leaders from both countries are calling for a new, 21st-century vision to protect and prevent further degradation of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system over the next 100 years. They’re frustrated that neither Canada nor the U.S. has responded to the International Joint Commission’s call to rewrite the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972. More

Wildlife

Great Lakes bats threatened by mysterious disease

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By Jeff Gillies, gilliesj@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 1, 2009

A mysterious ailment that’s already wiped out more than a million North American bats is headed to critical Great Lakes hibernation sites. White-nose Syndrome, named for the tufts of fungus growing on the faces and wings of afflicted bats, was first spotted in New York in February 2006. The disease has since spread through New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Conservationists worry it could spread as far as Mexico. “As quick as it has spread, it’s most likely going to hit the Great Lakes region within one to two years, potentially wiping out 90 percent of bats that hibernate in the region,” said Rob Mies, director of the Michigan-based Organization for Bat Conservation.

Echo

Waukesha prepares reply to queries on Lake Michigan water plan

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – After nearly five months, environmental groups monitoring the Water Utility’s bid for Lake Michigan water should get further details this week on the proposal to annually pipe billions of gallons to this city. On Jan. 7, six environmental agencies submitted several dozen questions to the utility seeking details of how it plans to replace its well water with water from Lake Michigan. The groups say the answers have been slow in coming, while city officials say it takes time to answer the detailed questions the groups have posed. Some environmentalists claim the utility has more interest in self-promotion than revealing details of its plans.