edited by: Chris Liebenthal,
Wisconsin Editor
There's plenty of Great Lakes news, but the news media fixation on the threat of Asian carp is understandable.
The problem is that it should never have come to this. The potential invasion was known almost a decade ago, and was preventable. There needs to be accountability for the [...]
This plea applies in the U.S, too.
All levels of government should act now to protect Canada's water resources as they continue to come under threat by privatization and the bottled-water industry, public advocacy groups said Sunday.
A declaration backed by the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees stressed [...]
Eight Minnesota environmental and conservation
organizations are urging the U.S. Coast Guard to adopt tougher
ballast-water standards for ships on the Great Lakes to stop the
introduction and spread of harmful invasive aquatic species.
Given that this problem first became serious more than 20 years ago, further delay is incomprehensible -- [...]
Asian Carp Rapid Response Task Force.
It's a little for a rapid response when the threat was identified nearly a decade ago.
[...]Apparently there is a misunderstanding over whether a property owner also "owns" the groundwater flowing beneath his or her land. He or she does not, but Russell Harding, former Michigan DEQ Director, thinks so. With his usual perspicuity. If he were right, there wouldn't have been a Nestle water heist [...]
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative RFP expressly rules out funding for land conservancy projects, aka vital habitat conservation. That's unwise, to say the least.
Ineligible Activities. Under this RFP, EPA will not fund: water infrastructure projects that are addressed under the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund; [...]
What's going on in the Great Lakes this morning?
Asian carp threat is a "monumental government screwup." This piece contains the best short history of how it all began.
Mysterious PCBs in Chicago from paint?
Congressman Stupak goes after phosphorus.
[...]
I dunno. This graphic from the National Climatic Data Center must be part of Al Gore's conspiracy.
[...]Friday's much publicized revelation of DNA traces of Asian carp on the wrong side of the electric barrier designed to keep them out of Lake Michigan is not just appalling on its face, but raises a question that needs soon to be faced: how can we restore the Great Lakes [...]
Those following the merger of the DNR and DEQ in Michigan may know that the reorganization's architects are proposing to anchor the new agency in centers of excellence, despite budgets of mediocrity. Not surprisingly, some employees and other observers are a bit skeptical.
A copy of the latest reorganization memo is [...]
More on the downstream suggestions of Asian carp one bus stop before the big lake.
The idea that the carp will get into Lake Michigan “is not a foregone conclusion,” said Cameron Davis, Great Lakes adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency. “This DNA evidence is the best we have, and we believe it’s [...]
In the Department of Facetious Rumination, this one could win an award.
There are plenty of existing engineering 'improvements' to the Lakes, including two diversions into them.
Now here's a truly scary (hypothetical) idea.
It's much sneakier to divert the Lakes one bottle at a time.
[...]A visit to the DuPage Water Commission in the western Chicago suburbs yesterday was worth the time. The utility, which has an allocation for part of the Lake Michigan diversion, is launching a pretty impressive water conservation initiative without any real prompting from on high. It's done in good [...]
New paper out of the U-W and University of Minnesota-Duluth.
A wide temperature differential between water and air makes for a more stable atmosphere with calmer winds over the relatively cold water. However, as warming water closes the gap, as in Lake Superior's case, the atmosphere gets more turbulent.
"You get more powerful winds," [...]
A good idea.
In addition, we also expect that funds in fiscal year 2011 will be further targeted on fewer programs and in the most critical ecological areas. This year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was able to use the strategy from the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration to help in a [...]
Michigan landfill operators suddenly care about fighting climate change.
A more tangible impact in Michigan’s climate — of job hunger — might be the harm done to the composting industry. About 150 facilities in the state, many small businesses that could lose business, or shut down altogether. Meanwhile, landfills would [...]
Worth reading closely...
Concentrations of several major pesticides mostly declined or stayed the same in “Corn Belt” rivers and streams from 1996 to 2006, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.
The declines in pesticide concentrations closely followed declines in their annual applications, indicating that reducing pesticide use is an effective and reliable strategy [...]
A lot of noise has been made in recent weeks about President Barack Obama's $5 billion Great Lakes restoration plan, but nobody in the federal government right now is willing to spend a penny so necessary maintenance can be done on the Asian carp barrier built to keep the jumbo jumping fish from spilling [...]
Is the ocean task force of any value to the Great Lakes? This writer thinks maybe. He interviewed a representative of the NRDC who is hopeful.
"For the first time ever, we have the chance to have an ecosystem-based management policy, so that makes sense from an environmental perspective," Cmar said.
He [...]
The government of Canada is all for clean transboundary air; unless the shipping industry complains.
[...]The government of Canada is all for clean transboundary air; unless the shipping industry complains.
[...]The same federal legislation that approved $475 million in new funding for the Great Lakes included this little feature:
To the extent there are sufficient eligible project applications, not less than 20 percent of the funds made available under this title to each State for Clean Water State Revolving Fund capitalization grants and not [...]
The wetland law was weakened but saved, but the Legislature at last check had not OK'd the money to enforce it for 2010. (The fiscal year began October 1). Layoff notices are still pending for wetlands staff but the effective date has been delayed.
As the implications of Gov. Granholm's executive [...]
Ace reporter Tom Henry has it:
What the new federal Great Lakes money might mean locally.
What Ohio businesses are saying and thinking about the proposed Waukesha, WI diversion of Great Lakes water.
[...]...on Friday. Here is the relevant text from H.R. 2996.
The Administrator is authorized to transfer up to $475,000,000 from the `Environmental Programs and Management' account to the head of any other Federal department or agency (including but not limited to the Departments of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Health [...]
The headline on this article says a compromise was reached on legislation negating clean air rules for some Great Lakes ships, allowing "older, more polluting" vessels to continue operating in the Great Lakes at least until 2020. What exactly did the shipping industry give up as part of the [...]
The good news first, the questions second.
Most everyone agrees the Great Lakes are in sore need of more federal attention, but some have criticized the restoration movement's focus on dollars without a parallel focus on laws and regulations to protect the world's largest freshwater system from ongoing pollution problems.
[...]When our Great Lakes-loving Congressional delegation pandered to the shipping industry and its polluting ways this week.
Those are some tough words, but they reflect what a lot of people are thinking after Great Lakes shippers sailed through a loophole that allows them to avoid complying with new air pollution standards. Navigating the [...]
When our Great Lakes-loving Congressional delegation pandered to the shipping industry and its polluting ways this week.
Those are some tough words, but they reflect what a lot of people are thinking after Great Lakes shippers sailed through a loophole that allows them to avoid complying with new air pollution standards. Navigating the [...]
Here's another illustration of how the Great Lakes shipping industry, in a little more than two weeks, completely stole the public framing of the clean air rule fight. Environmental objections and just plain countering facts have merited a paragraph in most stories.
And so much for industry-environmental partnerships. They [...]
Interesting thoughts from federal Great Lakes 'czar' Cam Davis.
"I look at the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as a climate change adaptation effort," Davis said in Cleveland this afternoon at a press briefing at the Great Lakes Science Center prior to the final public hearing of the a federal task [...]
Ugh, what reporting. It's based on exaggerated or false claims by shippers; just trot out the word "job-killer" and there's a knee jerk reaction among politicians without fact checking.
One obvious misleading assertion in the story is that "the rule was to take effect in mid-December." Yes, but ships had [...]
"Is the Left Now Wary of EPA's Power?" No -- read the first line of the article you're quoting..."several moderate Democrats expressed concerns that the EPA is jumping the gun..."
Is marketing about substance? No, says an official of the company that has contaminated wide portions of Midland, [...]
Why? See photo below.
The Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance needs your immediate help.
I'm writing to ask you for your support and immediate action on the R-4 zoning issue facing Saugatuck Township this coming week.
On Wednesday, October 28 at five o'clock [...]
First to e-mail the correct answer gets one copy of Great Lakes for Sale and a small bag of Cheez-Its.
ANSWER: Five: MN, WI, IL, IN, OH. Minnesota borders Michigan over Lake Superior and Illinois touches Michigan over Lake Michigan.
[...]Gary Wilson at Great Lakes Town Hall.
With money coming in the pipeline now is the time to show resolve. It is time to demonstrate that while we can compromise and collaborate, we also know where to draw the line and take a stand.
We need to challenge those special interests who will [...]
Terry Swier tells off Nestle at a Maine meeting.
Michigan wetland reform -- the good and the (mostly) bad.
Mercury in Indiana mill waste -- less than 500 feet from Lake Michigan.
[...]Courtesy of Pat Lindemann, drain commissioner of Ingham County, Michigan, two photos from the same location on the Red Cedar River in East Lansing, 1966 and 2001. Pollution control worked.
1966
[...]Not when the State of Wisconsin says they aren't necessary before consideration of Great Lakes water diversion proposals. This is the fail-safe Great Lakes Compact with its "ironclad" protections? Not when politicos decide to blow holes in the iron.
Watchdog Jim Rowen's take.
[...]The "talks" between environmental regulators have been going on for more than a generation. Will action follow this time?
Money quote:
"We thought it was a wonderland. Now the only people who go back there are testing for dioxins," Alice Buchalter said. "There is an awful lot of hostility directed toward anybody who [...]
The battle over new EPA air quality rules and their effect on the Great Lakes shipping industry reveals a couple of things. First, that industry's claim that it supports sustainable shipping is unsustainable. Every proposed cleanup standard meets with the same tired arguments -- it will devastate the industry [...]
