Great Lakes Blogger

Lake Superior climate mission

A group of researchers will embark on a voyage next week to drop off measurement equipment in Lake Superior. Professor Jay Austin and other researchers at the University of Minnesota in Duluth plan to collect data on temperature and circulation to determine whether the lake is changing.

Full story here.

consistently inconsistent

In a Michigan Business Review piece republished this week, Russell Harding lauded the proposal by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to repeal the state's wetland law and dump the protection of that resource on the federal government. He also said:

It is curious that state environmental groups are now lobbying to keep the state in the business of issuing federal wetland permits. The Michigan Environmental Council in 1997 petitioned the EPA to take the wetland delegation back from the state, claiming the Corps would do a better job.

The reason MEC filed that petition in 1997 is that Russell Harding was then the Michigan DEQ director and doing his best to undermine wetland protection. He doesn't have that DEQ job now.

And, while the environmental position may seem inconsistent, Harding fails to note his own inconsistency: in 1997 he opposed returning wetland protection authority from Michigan to the federal government.

Diversity of opinion

...in the Great Lakes environmental community over leasing the Milwaukee city water works to a private company for cash.

"Why would we spend one penny on appraising a system that could put us on a track that may be completely counter to what the public wants?" said Melissa Scanlan of Midwest Environmental Advocates.

Scanlan frets that such a deal would cripple the city's ability to make its own decisions about water management for the rest of the century - a century in which everyone agrees water is going to grow in value, both economically and politically.

"Committing the city to a 100-year lease seems absolutely ridiculous with all the unknowns out there," she said. "Take the uncertainties of climate change alone. What is the value of water going to be 20 years from now, 50 years from now? How can you plan out 100 years, and to try to put a value on that at this point? It seems just like an impossible proposition."

and --

Noah Hall, a Wayne State University law professor who helped draft the language in the compact, sees no inherent problem with turning a public water system over to private operators.

"It is not an environmental issue one way or the other, but really an issue of ensuring good management and accountability, which can be accomplished through either public or private operational management," he said.

Hall said he actually sees a potential advantage to privatizing the system, because a for-profit company may be more likely to implement rate structures that will force customers to limit how much water they use.

"The lakes don't care whether it's public or private employees who are treating the wastewater and running the water systems," he said. "From the lakes' perspective, what matters are the results."

an artist in residence

Quote du jour regarding an artist's experience of Lake Michigan:

"As the sun moved on its path, as the winds died and rose, as clouds assembled and cleared, the expanse of the lake changed immeasurably," she recalled. "I became very engaged in watching and capturing the changes in my paintings."

Milliken State Forest

Thanks to Glen Sheppard, editor of the North Woods Call.

Milliken State Forest? Yes!

A conservation leader has come up with a sensational proposal – Name a state forest or designated natural area after Michigan’s ‘conservation governor,” Bill Milliken and his wife Helen.

Now in their 80s, the Millikens championed conservation in the state. They made conservation a hallmark of their agenda, buffering state bureaucrats from political quagmires.

And they are still at it, ready to lead the charge when the state’s environment come under anti-conservation attack.

“There would be no more fitting recognition of their contribution to the state than the naming of one of the state’s great forests after William and Helen Milliken,” the leader, correctly, declares.

So let’s do it!

North Woods Call, May 7, 2009

Please sign here.

Clearing skies over Lake Superior

Always nice to see.

Michigan water withdrawal request

A debate took place yesterday on an e-mail list over whether a major water withdrawal request made by Genesee County, Michigan is a 'test' of the Great Lakes Compact or Michigan's new water withdrawal law. One of the most interesting comments was from an observer who said she "failed to see what this has to do with the Compact given that all of Michigan's water comes from the Great Lakes Basin." But the Compact says that within 5 years all proposed consumptive uses of 5 million gallons per day or more are subject to prior notice and regional review. There is no exception for Michigan. The Genesee County proposal is for 8.5 million gallons per day. Whether it's a consumptive use is another matter. Ultimately, some large water withdrawal proposals in Michigan will be covered by some of the Compact's provisions.

Morning headlines: good news and bad news

Good news: the U.S. and Canada have agreed to joint Great Lakes water patrols in the interest of national and international security.

Bad news: the U.S. and Canada are still not committed to joint Great Lakes water protection through a revised Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Good news: the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin says it won't need to divert as much Great Lakes water as originally thought.

Bad news: the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin will, if it gets the water, be subsidized by the Great Lakes for runaway urban sprawl.

EPA, Dow, dioxin and reaction

Arguably the most contaminated region of the Great Lakes is the Saginaw Bay and tributary waters and adjacent lands. For 30 years now, Michigan state government has ineffectively fumbled with the party responsible for much of the contamination, Dow Chemical Company, to get a cleanup going. Today's announcement by the Obama EPA of its approach to this massive problem is heartening -- although government officials have been promising transparency and not delivering it for quite some time. Give EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson credit for making the first step in the right direction. The 30-year journey, however, undoubtedly has a long way yet to go.

Statement of the Lone Tree Council and the Ecology Center
on today's announcement by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson related to a plan to address the dioxin contaminated watershed in the Saginaw Bay. 

Our groups are cautiously optimistic based on the commitments made in the letter released today by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. Our groups are particularly cheered to hear that transparency will be a pillar principle for the Agency moving forward.  We are also heartened that the Administration has again committed to a timely completion of the dioxin reassessment and interim cleanup numbers for the site.  We also believe the intention to create timelines and benchmarks will be critical to achieving a timely cleanup, and we look forward to participating in that process.  The plan released today is an outline and we will continue to evaluate it as the details unfold.  We look forward to the June 17 meeting in which more details will be made available.  This will allow us to more fully evaluate the plan.  While optimistic, we remain guarded given the history of this site.

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