Groups Call For New Vision Of Seaway On 50 Anniversary

Mar 30: On the 50th anniversary of the St. Lawrence Seaway, conservation groups are highlighting what they are calling "the maritime corridor’s damaging environmental legacy" and are calling for policy and operational changes that address "decades of environmental and economic damage caused by the operation of the Seaway." Additionally, they say the navigation industry must prepare for future challenges associated with the impacts of climate change. The groups include Great Lakes United, Save The River, and National Wildlife Federation.

The St. Lawrence Seaway is a 189-mile (306-kilometer) maritime waterway between Montreal and Lake Ontario and was at one time heralded as an engineering marvel. During construction, portions of the St. Lawrence River were channelized and flooded and seven locks were built. The Seaway opened in 1959 amid forecasts that it would turn Great Lakes cities into world class ports by linking the interior of North America to global trade. The groups say history has proven otherwise and point to the fact that today, less than 7 percent of Great Lakes shipping traffic is international. The Seaway’s busiest season was its first year of operation, while total tonnage peaked in 1977 at 57.7 million tonnes and has been declining since. From 1993-2003 the waterway averaged 35 million tonnes, operating at about its half capacity.

The groups emphasize that the environmental and economic damage associated with ongoing Seaway operations are significant. Since 1959, they say international shipping has been the primary source of new non-native aquatic invasive species, such as the zebra and quagga mussels in the Great Lakes. The University of Notre Dame estimates that such species cost citizens, businesses and cities in the eight Great Lakes states alone at least $200 million per year in damages to the commercial and recreational fisheries, wildlife watching tourism, and through increased water infrastructure costs.

The groups contend that "if the Seaway wants to remain viable for another 50 years, it must ensure that the influx of invasive species is stopped, that it aggressively plans to adapt to lower water levels in ways that will not damage the Great Lakes and St. River, and in turn becomes part of restoring the Great Lakes by charting a new, truly sustainable course for future operations. Failure to do so will put the livelihoods of the people and species that rely on these waters, as well as the industry itself, at stake."

Access a release from the groups with links to additional background material (click here).

Great Lakes Beach Association 2009 Joint Conference

Mar 25: The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, U.S. EPA, and other sponsors have announced the State of Lake Michigan and Great Lakes Beach Association 2009 Joint Conference, to be held September 29-October 1, 2009, Hyatt Regency, Milwaukee, WI. The 6th biennial State of Lake Michigan and the 9th annual Great Lakes Beach Association Conference joint conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency, located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee, near the famed Riverwalk. The conference brings together elected officials, scientists, resource managers, planners, students, and citizens working to improve the lake and its beaches, as outlined in the Lake Michigan Lakewide Management Plan.

Access further details (click here).

Comments Wanted On Draft Water Use Reporting Protocols

Mar 25: The Council of Great Lakes Governors (CGLG) announced it is inviting public comment from March 25 through April 27, 2009, on draft water use information reporting protocols for the Great Lakes--St. Lawrence River Basin. The Great Lakes Governors and Premiers signed the Great Lakes--St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement on December 13, 2005. In the Agreement, the Governors and Premiers committed to gather and share water use information. The information would be used to assist the Great Lakes States and Provinces in beginning to improve scientific understanding of the waters of the Basin, the impacts of withdrawals from various locations and water sources on the basin ecosystem, understanding of the role of groundwater, and to clarify what groundwater forms part of the waters of the Basin. It will also provide the basis for adaptive management.

The draft protocols now available for public comment were jointly drafted by staff from the Great Lakes States and Provinces in order to develop recommendations for how information will be reported to the Great Lakes--St. Lawrence River Water use database. Also included are draft guidelines for water users to report water use information to the relevant State or Province. The draft protocols reflect input from Tribes and First Nations, and regional stakeholders. Comments are invited on all aspects of the draft protocols and, in particular, how water use information for intra-basin transfers should be reported. Following a review of the public comments, CGLG said revisions will be considered to the drafts.

Access the draft protocols (click here). Access further information from the CGLG website (click here).

$1 Million In FY09 Budget For Invasive Species Program

Mar 12: According to a release from the Northeast-Midwest Institute (NEMW), the FY 09 Omnibus Appropriations bill (H.R. 1105), approved by Congress and signed by the President, includes nearly $1 million in new funds toward preventing the introduction of aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes. The funds go to the Great Ships Initiative (GSI), a collaborative effort to hasten shipping free of invasive species on the Great Lakes.

Managed and implemented cooperatively by the Northeast-Midwest Institute and the University of Wisconsin Superior, GSI generates much needed independent evaluations of proposed ballast treatments performance and toxicity in fresh water. As regulatory authorities gear up to require ballast treatment prior to discharge into natural waters, the research outcomes are of keen interest regionally, domestically and internationally. As a result of this broad interest, the GSI works collaboratively with state and Federal agencies in the United States to generate important information for regulatory decision-making, and with international maritime groups to evaluate treatment effectiveness.

Meanwhile, NEMW reports that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) set deadlines for treatment systems to be operated by ships to a numeric performance standard, but there has been little or no testing in fresh water. Proposed treatment systems include ozone, ultra violet irradiation, chemical additives, deoxygenation, and filtration, usually in some combination. The new funds will help the Great Ships Initiative evaluate promising treatments during the 2009 testing season.

Access a release from NEMW (click here). Access legislative details on H.R. 1105 (click here).

$593,089 For Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Restoration

Feb 25: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced today $593,089 in federal funding for fish and wildlife restoration projects in the Great Lakes Basin. The projects will be matched by $278,810 in partner contributions, and will focus on the rehabilitation of sustainable populations of native fish and wildlife and their habitats. The grants are funded under the authority of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, which provides assistance to states, tribes and other interested entities to encourage cooperative conservation, and restoration and management of native fish and wildlife resources and their habitat in the Great Lakes Basin.

Ten projects were selected for funding with 2008 funds. Grant recipients include Ducks Unlimited, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Michigan DNR, Michigan State University, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Superior Watershed Partnership and the University of Illinois. Project proposals are developed by interested entities and sponsored each year by tribes and states in the Great Lakes in response to a request for proposals from the Service. The Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Proposal Review Committee, a 25-member body representing states and tribes in the Great Lakes Basin, reviews project proposals and develops recommendations on projects and funding for approval by the Service.

Access a release from FWS (click here). Access more information on grants under the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act (click here).

Cities Initiative Applauds Obama Great Lakes Funding

Mar 4: The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLCI) applauded the recent steps by President Obama and Congress to invest in the Great Lakes, the economic and natural resource foundation for a large part of the United States and Canada. They said these include the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) [See WIMS 2/17/09] passed by Congress and the President’s 2010 budget provisions, which include $475 million for the Great Lakes and large increases for water infrastructure [See WIMS 2/26/09].

Mayor Richard Daley, Mayor of Chicago and Founding U.S. Chair of the Cities Initiative, "We have been working hard to get Washington to understand how vital the Great Lakes are to the quality of life and economic well being of tens of millions of people. These investments will not only go a long way towards protecting and restoring this important natural resource, but will also put people back to work and spur economic development." GLCI said that the ARRA would provide $6 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure money, over 30% of which is likely to come to the Great Lakes region. This funding begins the process of reducing the $70 billion plus wastewater infrastructure deficit estimated by U.S. EPA.

The President’s Budget for FY 2010 includes $475 million for the Great Lakes specifically, and increases the funding for water infrastructure nationally to $3.9 billion. The funding for the Great Lakes would be by far the largest amount ever dedicated to the global freshwater resource. The Great Lakes funding is designed to help implement the 2005 Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy. Included would be work on invasive species, non-point source pollution, and contaminated sediments. The Cities Initiative plans to work with federal, state, and tribal representatives to steer the funding to those areas most needing attention and where it can do the most good for the resource.

In a related matter, GLCI has announce that registration is now open for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, 2009 Annual Member Meeting & Conference to be held at Trois Rivières, Québec, June 17-19, 2009.

Access a release from GLCI (click here). Access complete program and registration information for the GLCI conference (click here). Access the GLCI website for more information (click here).

Canadian Enviros Decry Lack Of Great Lakes Funding

Mar 2: Canadian environmental organizations are applauding the Obama Administration leadership on Great Lakes issues on the U.S. side of the border, while harshly criticizing the Canadian Federal government. They say the last Canadian Federal budget did not even mention the Great Lakes.To the contrary, the point out that the White House announced its proposed budget for 2010 last week, including a 34 percent increase in funding for U.S. EPA and an extra $475 million in Great Lakes restoration [See WIMS 2/26/09]. Derek Stack, Executive Director of Great Lakes United, responding to Prime Minister Harper’s recent publicity blitz of New York City said, “What we need to see from Stephen Harper is a national investment in the Great Lakes, not the Manhattan theatrics that he is passing off as Canada-U.S. relations. This is the same cycle we’ve seen for years -- the U.S. commits hundreds of millions of dollars to the Great Lakes and Ottawa does nothing.”

They said, during the presidential campaign, Obama pledged to create a $5 billion fund to jumpstart the recovery of the Great Lakes [See WIMS 9/16/08]. The budget package signals a commitment to following through on this pledge. It also comes in the wake of Great Lakes Day [See WIMS 2/26/09], an annual event that brings environmental and conservation groups to Washington DC, to press the need for renewal of the region. Aaron Freeman, Policy Director of Environmental Defence said, “This is a serious budget commitment, and one that is in stark contrast to that of our own Federal government, which has earmarked virtually nothing for Great Lakes clean up. It is clear that the Obama administration understands that environment and economy are two sides of the same coin. In Canada, our federal politicians seem mired in a totally outdated ‘environment versus economy’ mentality.”

Access a joint release from the groups (click here).