Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/great-lakes/page/22/)
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
(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
(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
(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
(MI) Bay City Times – In the midst of a crummy economy, Donald L. Buchalski has found one of Michigan’s few sweet spots — the emerging solar power industry. Two years ago, the 44-year-old was selling paper products for Bay County’s Dow Corning Corp. Today, he’s working to develop and sell new technology to improve solar panels. More
(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
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.
(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.
(MI) The Flint Journal – The much-touted water pipeline from Genesee County to Lake Huron finally seems to be on its way, and there doesn’t appear to be environmental issues stopping it from being built.
Hugh McDiarmid Jr., a spokesman with the Michigan Environmental Council, said the pipeline “should be allowed.” “I can’t imagine a municipal water supply would have an adverse impact on a water resource as big as (Lake Huron),” McDiarmid said. Genesee County currently gets its water from Lake Huron via the Detroit water authority, so there would be zero or minimal difference in the amount of water drawn from the lake. More
(ON) SooToday.com – The International Upper Great Lakes Study (IUGLS) has announced that, using web-conferencing technology, seven public meetings will be held on June 9 and 11 in communities around the Great Lakes Basin to solicit comments and answer questions on the draft report Impacts on Upper Great Lakes Water Levels: St. Clair River.For the past two years, more than 100 Canadian and U.S. scientists and engineers have worked together to address important questions, posed by the International Joint Commission, regarding the St. Clair River system that connects Lake Michigan-Huron to Lake Erie. More