GLIN

Two recent water-related decisions from Michigan’s state government highlight a clear and concerning disconnect between the way in which our state treats its residents and how it rewards giant corporate business. Read the full story by The Detroit News. View the full article

The award-winning documentary “Crossing Lake Huron” will be shown at the State Theatre in Traverse City, Michigan. The half-hour special documents three guys from Stand Up for Great Lakes as they make the 90-mile trip across Lake Huron on nothing but a stand-up paddle board. Read the full story by WWTV-Cadillac, MI. View the full article

Jack Lessenberry, Michigan Radio’s Senior Political Analyst, sat down with Rochelle Sturtevant, Program Manager for the Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System, and Jay Hemdal, general curator at the Toledo Zoo, to discuss the impacts of invasive species on the Great Lakes. Read the full story from Michigan Radio. View the full article

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is asking the General Assembly to expand the power of state regulators over a specific source of water pollution affecting Lake Erie. Read the full story from WOSU – Radio, Columbus, OH. View the full article

The city of Hamilton, Ontario has declared a recent storm a disaster so homeowners can access grant funds following damage caused by Lake Ontario waves crashing over break walls and flooding lakeside homes. Read the full story from the CBC. View the full article

The City of Chicago and the Surfrider Foundation sent a joint letter to the Environmental Protection Agency opposing a settlement that would see U.S. Steel pay out some $900,000 for repeated toxic chromium spills into Lake Michigan. Surfrider and the city argue the financial penalty is “insufficient to reflect [the violations’] gravity and the risk of harm to Lake Michigan, a drinking water and recreational source for millions.” Read the full story from The Inertia. View the full article

The American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air 2018 report came out Wednesday with many West Michigan communities received failing marks in specific categories. Read the full story and watch the video by WZZM – TV, Grand Rapids, MI. View the full article

U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer are supporting a study that could help lakeside communities shore up their infrastructure and better plan for future flooding by urging colleagues to authorize the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study in the upcoming Water Resources Development Act. Read the full story from the Democrat & Chronicle. View the full article

The freighter Kaye E. Barker became trapped in compressed ice near Marquette on Wednesday as she was trying to reach the area’s lower harbor, the National Weather Service said. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter was sent to break the ice and free the ship today. Read the full story from Mlive. View the full article

Late summer is when we wind up seeing blooms of cyanobacteria and algae in western Lake Erie but spring is when the late summer blooms are set up by a basic equation: fertilizer plus spring rain equals phosphorus loading. Listen to the full story from Michigan Radio. View the full article

The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes have never seen an April like this. Extreme winter conditions have refused to relent even into the month’s second half, testing the patience of local residents and setting scores of records for both snow and cold. Read the full story from The Washington Post. View the full article

A proposal to weaken protections against aquatic invaders in the Great Lakes, and across the country, failed in a procedural vote in the Senate Wednesday as most Great Lakes senators stood firm against allowing the bill to even be considered despite pressure from shipping industry interests that argued for the repeal of regulations it sees as burdensome. Read the full story from the Buffalo News. View the full article

Billions of dollars worth of commerce passes through the Great Lakes every year, and keeping those vital shipments flowing gets tricky when the lakes freeze in winter. Read the full story and watch the video by WGN-TV, Chicago, IL View the full article

Eighty-eight percent of the Maumee River’s phosphorus and 89 percent of its nitrogen comes from nonpoint sources such as agricultural runoff, according to a new Ohio Environmental Protection Agency report issued Monday night. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade. View the full article

Cleanup continues after waves from Sunday’s storms pushed debris ashore and washed out portions of East Bayshore Road in Marblehead, Ohio. Read the full story by WJW-TV – Cleveland, OH. View the full article

Sylvania, Ohio and Monroe County, Michigan are jointly investigating what it would take to connect to Detroit’s regional water system, the Great Lakes Water Authority, which would shift both areas’ water source from Lake Erie to Lake Huron. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade. View the full article

Using a complex model, a Rochester Institute of Technology researcher calculated that 10,000 tons of plastic enter the Great Lakes every year. Read the full story by the Rochester City Newspaper. View the full article

El Corazon, a sculpture made almost entirely of driftwood sourced from Lake Ontario, no longer adorns the shore of Humber Bay, Ontario after it was washed away by high winds and waves from last weekend’s ice storm. Read the full story by CBC News. View the full article

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder canceled a Friday meeting of the Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee after Mayor Karen Weaver threatened to sue the state over free bottled water. Read the full story by the Associated Press. View the full article

Michigan’s Great Lakes water resources are irreplaceable, and quantifiably valuable; a recent study conservatively estimates that the Huron River Water Trail alone draws at least 2.6 million annual visitors, many who are repeat visitors, resulting in a collective annual economic impact of $53.5 million per year. Read the full story by the Bridge. View the full article

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette plans to sue an Escanaba-based company whose tug/barge allegedly dropped an anchor that ruptured a pair of power cables and dented Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac earlier this month. Read the full story by the Detroit News. View the full article

Road salt is fast becoming the new phosphorous, according to Elizabeth Hendriks, vice-president, Freshwater Program at the World Wildlife Fund, who applauded funding in the new Ontario provincial budget aimed at getting ahead of the problem. Read the full story by the Manitoulin Expositor. View the full article

A new campaign spearheaded by a non-profit in Traverse City, Michigan is urging people to help protect the Great Lakes, and it could be as simple as saying no to bottled water. Read the full story by WWTV – Cadillac, MI. View the full article

Conservation groups are ramping up their pressure on U.S. senators to pull a piece of pending legislation they fret will be disastrous for the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters. Read the full story by WFMY-TV – Milwaukee, WI. View the full article

Oil is flowing again through side-by-side pipelines beneath the waterway that connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Associated Press. View the full article