Great Lakes Blogger

Great Lakes restoration begins at home

It is critically important to the Great Lakes region, where economies struggle, to hang on to a natural resource that could mean everything to regional recovery and a better future. Wednesday’s House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearings brought testimony and congressional commentary on the value of clean water in a world that is running out of that necessity as climate changes and water demands increase. But the strong arguments for funding water-quality cleanups in the lakes region also emphasize the need for the region to get its own act together.

http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/260125.html

Almost four years after serious efforts began to enact a multi-billion package of federal aid to restore the Great Lakes, it's time to rethink the strategy. If all or most of the eight Great Lakes states first committed to offering up some of their own money, and began appropriating it, Congress might take the issue more seriously. The 'gaping' or 'yawning' federal deficit is not going to make it any easier to convince Washingtonians to cough up big additional chunks of Great Lakes money -- especially if the states continue to shun their own fiscal commitment to the Lakes.

this is climate progress, some say

Tougher emissions standards for new cars, a return of nuclear energy and even lower speed limits could be part of Minnesota's future under a package of recommendations endorsed Thursday by a state climate change panel.

After nine months of analysis, the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group approved policies, incentives and studies of long-range options that could reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by 2025.

That would put Minnesota well down the road toward the goal of an 80 percent reduction by 2050, which was established by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature last year.

The group's work will go to Pawlenty next week, and he will forward possible bills to the Legislature.

However, the group's recommendations will not include stringent emissions standards for two proposed coal-burning power plants, a move that prompted one key legislator to say the findings simply "rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic."

The members of the panel worked diligently, but this is far from the visionary plan a true conservationist would embrace. If the problem is serious, stop making it worse now with two new coal-using, CO2-belching, power plants; and don't make nuclear energy and its wastes, lethal for hundreds of thousands of years, a big part of the 'solution.'

http://www.startribune.com/local/14299286.html

a view from the other side

Not just of the lake, but also the aisle.

I'm willing to bet that description didn't mention the real and justified suspicion that the pact -- which supposedly sets down hard guidelines under which Milwaukee suburbs can use and return lake water -- is really a tool for more readily vetoing any suburban growth...

In short, maybe the poll should have asked another question: Do you think anyone west of Moorland Road should be told to go suck radium before they're given so much as a drop of Lake Michigan? I'd like to see that result broken down by geography, please.

http://blogs.jsonline.com/mcilheran/archive/2008/01/23/97-think-water-is-nice.aspx

It's comical to think that the Great Lakes compact is 'really a tool for more readily vetoing any suburban growth.' To an extraordinary and perhaps unwarranted degree, the authors of the compact bent over backwards to make diversions of water to suburban areas just outside the Basin lawful. But only if fairly strong preconditions, including a demonstration of water conservation, are met.

The idea that cheap water is an entitlement for the out-of-Great Lakes Basin burbs, rather than an inherent asset and advantage for in-Basin Milwaukee and other core cities, belongs to the 'greed is good' 80s.

Toledo reaction to ballast flushing proposal

AN ICE floe at sea moves faster than Congress is proceeding on pending legislation to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species and viruses that arrive in the ballast water of foreign ships.

For that reason, we welcome an interim measure that would require salt-water freighters to sanitize their ballast tanks with seawater before they reach American waters. It's better than nothing and better than waiting for Congress to pass a new law.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/OPINION02/801240310

sulfide mining hearing in MN

Let us hope Minnesota and Michigan do not authorize the plunder of their majesty with this destructive mining technique.

Divisive debate on mining copper gets legislative hearing
Supporters, skeptics on northern mining square off

 
ST.PAUL--What promises to be a contentious debate throughout 2008 will kick off Friday, Jan. 25 during a joint Legislative hearing by environmental, work force and economic development committees over proposed metallic sulfide mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Two Canadian mining companies are vigorously pursuing state permits to mine copper, nickel, gold and other precious metals from sulfide-bearing rock in northeastern Minnesota. Polymet Corp. is expected to release its draft environmental impact statement on its proposed operation in the spring.

Metallic sulfide mining is different from taconite mining and much more hazardous to the environment. Once exposed to air and water, excavated rock produces sulfuric acid that drains into rivers, lakes and even ground water, killing fish, birds and other wildlife. Often the drainage carries toxic metals as well. States are usually left with millions of dollars of clean-up when the mine companies leave, a chore that can go on virtually forever.

Two of the expert witnesses Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy is bringing to the hearing will detail the damage done throughout the country by sulfide mining, explain that the Iron Range’s economy has rebounded from the taconite bust of the 1980s and show how sulfide mining could hurt, rather than help, the area’s economy.

 

           WHEN: 12:30 p.m. Friday Jan. 25

           WHERE: Room 200 State Office Building

           WHO: Joint meeting of House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Divisions, Senate Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Budget Division, House Higher Education and Work Force Development Policy and Finance Division, and Senate Economic Development Budget Division. The chairs of the committees are Rep. Jean Wagenius, Sen. Ellen Anderson, Rep. Tom Rukavina and Sen. David Tomassoni.

          

MN polluted waters top 1,400

If all Great Lakes states were doing as good a job as Minnesota is in testing waters and identifying pollution problems, what would the Basin-wide total be?

Extensive testing has pushed the number of Minnesota lakes and streams known to be polluted to a record 1,400.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Tuesday it wants to add nearly 300 "impairments" to the list, which is updated every two years.

[snip]

The number could grow in coming years. Only about 18 percent of Minnesota's lakes and 14 percent of its rivers have been assessed so far. Of those tested, about 40 percent fail and are listed for at least one pollutant.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/23/pollutedwaters/

low GL levels: part of the cycle or warning sign?

Let's not forget that 20 years ago, there was a popular cry among Great Lakes coastal landowners to 'pull the plug' and let more water out of the system. There were conspiracy theories that government agencies were keeping water levels high for nefarious reasons. It's still too early to tell whether the recent low water period is other than a normal part of the cycle -- but it's not too early to take prudent public policy and personal steps to reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions. These have other benefits that can stand on their own.

The No. 1 story in Leelanau County for 1986 was weather, as reported in the Jan. 2, 1987, edition of the Enterprise. The reason was record high water levels in the Lake Huron/Lake Michigan basin that had shoreline communities scrambling for state and federal grants to stop erosion.

A Feb. 19, 1987, Enterprise article under the headline “Only ‘years of normal rainfall’ will drop Lake Michigan” was followed by coverage of low-interest loans administered by the state Department of Natural Resources to aid homeowners. Village marinas in Suttons Bay and Northport were threatened with water lapping over their docks.

Some 22 years later, Leelanau’s marinas and homeowners are again threatened — with near-record low water levels in the Lake Huron/Lake Michigan basin.

http://www.leelanaunews.com/blog/2008/01/23/steady-decline-in-lake-levels-sad-fact-of-life/

wisconsin compact opponents: you're out of touch

Eighty percent of those surveyed support ratification by Wisconsin of the Great Lakes Compact. There was even greater support for specific parts of the Compact, including limits on selling and diverting Great Lakes water, and the need for water conservation in cities.

http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/19716/4129_2

surf's up (?)

Brave souls, these.

More than 2,000 miles from Southern California, the sun doesn't shine through the gray sky. Ice coats the water's edge. Not a single person walks the beach. Sand grass and leafless trees bend south as a bitter wind blows more than 25 mph.

It's a near-perfect day to go surfing.

Burton Hathaway, 31, a transplanted Californian, and two wetsuit-clad friends didn't flinch Thursday as they ran through a snowstorm into Lake Michigan, paddling out 30 yards to wait for the wickedest waves before riding them to shore.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/752117,CST-NWS-surf22.article

GL shipping down in '07

Shipping on the Great Lakes was off in 2007.

The Lake Carriers’ Association, which represents U.S. companies that ship iron ore, limestone, coal and other commodities on the Great Lakes, reports that cargo movement slid 5.2% in 2007 from levels of 2006.

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20080121/FREE/954314496/1073&Profile=1073