Great Lakes Blogger

To merge or not to merge?

Different people have different perspectives on whether Michigan needs one or two agencies in conservation and environmental protection.

To the public, whether Michigan has a DEQ and DNR, or a single Department of Whatever means little.  What does matter is the funding and moral support the Governor and Legislature give to the agency charged with protecting air, water, land and habitat, providing outdoor recreation, safeguarding human health and supervising the cleanup of old messes. To my knowledge no bill traveling through the Michigan Legislature guarantees that.

Paul Douglas on why we need a climate bill

Longtime, trusted Minnesota meteorologist Paul Douglas describes a trip to Washington, D.C. last week in support of climate change legislation.

I was invited by the Union of Concerned Scientists, my trip coinciding with a new, alarming report on climate change currently underway in the U.S., released by the USGCP, the United States Global Change Research Program. The bottom line of their report: climate change isn’t some esoteric, futuristic daydream. It’s happening right now, subtle and troubling changes are already showing up in the national and international data – today.

MIchigan billboard

Spotted near the Mackinac Bridge heading northbound at Mackinaw City:

"Sulfide mining kills rivers."

Congressman Stupak on his GL resolution

U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) has introduced a resolution, H. Res. 551, in the U.S. House of Representatives clarifying that in ratifying the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact last fall, Congress expressly prohibited Great Lakes water from being sold, diverted or exported outside of the Great Lakes basin.

The Cuyahoga then and now

When speaking of a seminal event in Great Lakes and water pollution history, the 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River (whose 40th anniversary was yesterday), it's important to remember the role of public perception and media reaction. The Cuyahoga had caught several times before 1969, reaching back to the 1940s, and some of those blazes were larger than that of June 22, 1969, but the general reaction was ho-hum.

By 1969 an awakened America was no longer willing to accept burning rivers as the price of progress. Time magazine treated the fire that year as a symbol of a national disgrace. Behaviors changed and elected officials responded.

Today's threats to the Great Lakes are generally slow-motion disasters:  a new invasive species every six to eight months;  gradually worsening algae blooms;  acre by acre, the loss of wetland habitat.  The "fires" are almost invisible.

what a renegotiated GL Water Quality Agreement might mean

Climate change, funky ballast water, new invasive species, airborne pollutants from Asia — these are among a lengthy list of environmental problems facing the Great Lakes that will be getting more attention soon.

More here.

Eric Sharp on Great Lakes restoration

We've wasted too much time and money on compromises that have merely slowed the rate at which we are destroying our environment. It's time for environmentalists to admit that the so-called management efforts for the Great Lakes have been a disastrous failure, and we need to dig in our heels for changes that might turn things around.

More here.

This column is far more coherent than his previous one on the same subject.  I object to his singling out "environmentalists" in the last sentence -- it's time for bureaucrats, politicians and industry to do the same -- but the point is sound. We need more money to protect the Great Lakes, but we need officials willing to make hard choices that protect the Lakes even more.

I do support restoring lake sturgeon, however -- an iconic species that we are restoring at relatively little cost and with a lot of loving volunteer help.

Fixing the Great Lakes Compact

Although it's received little fanfare so far, a resolution introduced last week by Michigan U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak is bound to get some attention soon.  If adopted by Congress, it would help reduce the potential for commercial control of Great Lakes water.

To read the resolution, click: Download H. Res. 551

News release (mostly) below the fold.

Great Lakes Coalition Applauds Effort to Close Compact Loophole
U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak’s House Resolution- 551 entrusts water to public, not private control

Traverse City—A coalition of Midwestern citizen groups dedicated to protecting the Great Lakes Basin from water withdrawals is praising this week’s introduction of House Resolution 551 by Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI).

More on new federal GL coordinator Cam Davis

Chicago Tribune here.

A Michigan perspective here.

Do you think he can make a difference?

Good news on clean water from D.C.

The Clean Water Restoration Act cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works committee today, 12-7. A successful amendment from Sens. Baucus, Klobuchar and Boxer addressed many of the concerns of opponents while maintaining the purpose of the Act to restore protections of the Clean Water Act to historic levels. The opponents offered a number of amendments to weaken the bill. None passed.