Great Lakes Blogger

Minnesota's weak ballast water rules upheld

“The court didn’t say the PCA did it right and it didn’t say our most outstanding resources,  like Lake Superior, will be protected, “ said MCEA lawyer Matt Norton who argued the case in May. “The court said that under the law, it has to defer to the PCA unless they do something completely irrational. Last November, 1.6 million Minnesotans voted yes to protect our water. These regulations are not protecting Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams.”

Full info here.

Beach report

The Natural Resources Defense Council released its annual beach quality report today. The Detroit Free Press is making the Michigan results sound awful. Hold off a little. Michigan's numbers aren't spectacular, but comparing year to year closures and advisories is not wise. Weather (the number of heavy rainstorms, for example) can dramatically influence those numbers. Further, as the Free Press itself reports, "Testing of beaches is done by local health departments and is not required by law." So it's not a scientific sample because there isn't enough data. There should be. Why don't the Great Lakes states require by law regular testing at all major public bathing beaches?

How the GL money may be divided

The U.S. EPA has just posted a very helpful chart showing preliminary allocations of the proposed $475 million in new Great Lakes funding.

In past presentations I have provided a joking slide that is supposed to represent the convoluted Great Lakes policy decisionmaking process.

Here's the EPA chart.

Download Preliminary allocations

Here's the joking slide.

There's a slight resemblance.

EPA's Michigan meeting

The fact that the Great Lakes state gets only one meeting to comment on the EPA's proposed $475 restoration plan for the Great Lakes is interesting. The fact that the one meeting is as far as you can be from the Great Lakes (the Lansing area) is also interesting. The fact that the Lansing area is where agencies seeking grants from the initiative are largely headquartered gives you a clue what the meetings are mostly about. This time of year especially, meetings in Marquette and Traverse City or Alpena, on the shores of the Lakes, would have made sense as well.

The Lake Superior barrels

The mystery of the Defense Department barrels under the surface of Lake Superior may be one step closer to an answer.

Great Lakes: liquid gold?

That's what the Detroit News thinks, and they're correct, if not in the way the editorial writers intended. Keep the liquid gold in the Lakes Basin to attract and retain jobs and improve quality of life for all. Turning it into private property for export to benefit a few -- not so smart. More on this soon.

Are wind farms beautiful or ugly?

As debates over the aesthetics of wind farm development loom literally on the horizon for the Great Lakes, Macalester University professor Roopali Phadke has created an informative web site on the topic, including case studies.

Deriding Saginaw Bay

The Saginaw News' "Mudpuppy" tries to whip up aquatic xenophobia by criticizing a new documentary called Waterlife.  The film apparently undercuts the tourism hopes of the so-called Great Lakes Bay region. I haven't seen Waterlife and intend to, but from interviews with the director that I've read, there may be errors of fact indeed in it. (Boils on your legs from walking in the bay?)  But warning of pollution problems in Saginaw Bay and comparing it unfavorably to Grand Traverse Bay is entirely appropriate. Thanks to sewage, fertilizers and legacy toxins, Sag Bay is among the biggest pollution hotspots in the Great Lakes.

17,370 tons of tainted soil removed

PIeces of the Dow Chemical cleanup in Michigan are starting to happen.  A public park is a nice place to begin.

Eco-chic rain barrels

The latest thing in good stormwater management. Nice pictures.