Feds & Great Lakes States Sign Wind Energy MOU

Mar 30: A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on offshore wind in the Great Lakes was signed by the heads of 10 Federal agencies and the governors of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania. The purpose of the MOU is to promote the efficient, orderly and responsible evaluation of offshore wind proposals for the Great Lakes. The agreement was modeled after a similar MOU signed between 10 east coast states and the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2010. The Great Lakes MOU, however, carries additional significance because states own the bottomlands of the Great Lakes and ultimately have the primary authority about what can and cannot occur in those state waters.
 
    Numerous Federal laws and interests are also at play in the Great Lakes. For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has Federal authority to approve or deny placement of structures in navigable waters. Nine other Federal agencies who signed the MOU also have regulatory roles or Federal interest in whether and how offshore wind gets permitted in the Great Lakes. The MOU establishes a Great Lakes Offshore Wind Energy Consortium (GLOWEC) that will make the regulatory and permit review processes transparent and provide insight into potential improvements to ensure that proposal reviews are clear and expeditious. With so many agencies involved, there is high potential for duplication and protracted review times that can be unnecessarily costly to both prospective developers and relevant state and federal government agencies.
 
    The MOU does not create any new laws¸ call for new regulations or change existing authorities. Rather, it empowers the state and Federal agency signatories to coordinate and share information concerning how offshore wind proposals are reviewed and evaluated with the goal of improving coordination among all of the relevant agencies and ultimately the efficiency of such reviews.
The cooperation produced by the MOU is aimed at improving efficiencies in the review of proposed offshore wind projects by enabling simultaneous and complementary reviews, and avoiding duplicative reviews. The MOU will send a market signal to prospective developers and investors that the Great Lakes region is ready to consider offshore wind proposals and that the regulatory process will be timely and efficient. The concentrated efforts made possible by the MOU will also shore up existing investments in offshore wind technologies by ensuring a regulatory environment that inspires innovation and helps to bring clean energy solutions to market.

 

    Tim Ryan, president of Apex Offshore Wind, noted that his company is excited to see the commitment to cooperation among the states and Federal agencies. "It is a good sign for the future of offshore wind in the Great Lakes. The MOU should yield lower costs and improve processing of permit applications, as each government unit learns from others' experiences." Mark Clevey, manager of the Michigan Energy Office and co-chair of the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative (GLWC), said he hopes that the agreement will lead to greater innovations related to sustainable development of windpower in the binational Great Lakes region. Victoria Pebbles, Great Lakes Commission (GLC) program director and staff liaison for GLWC said, "It's gratifying to see cooperation among our state and Federal partners that will hopefully improve the regulatory process and benefit all involved." 
 
    Access a release from GLC (click here). Access more on the specific MOU including a fact sheet and multiple releases (click here). Access more information on the GLWC (click here).

 

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$125,000 For Two Great Lakes Protection Fund Grants

Mar 30: The Great Lakes Protection Fund announces grant awards totaling $125,000 made to project teams working to improve the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. At its March, 2012 meeting, the Board of Directors awarded two grants that further the Fund's mission to identify, demonstrate, and promote regional action to enhance the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The Great Lakes Protection Fund is a private, nonprofit corporation formed in 1989 by the Governors of the Great Lakes states. To date, the Fund had made 243 grants and program related investments representing more than $62.6 million in regional projects to improve the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The latest grants include:

    Improving Water Management in the Great Lakes Basin: A grant of up to $75,000 was awarded to a team (comprised of 10 organizations) led by the Great Lakes United to complete a planning and design phase for a project to identify the ecological benefits and explore the financial rationale for pursuing water conservation and green infrastructure practices, and test how this information -- when combined with effective knowledge transfer techniques—can drive better water management throughout the Great Lakes basin. The award furthers the Great Lakes Governors' priority of adopting sustainable use practices that protect environmental resources and may enhance the recreational and commercial value of our Great Lakes.

    Founders Film: A Look Back to Go Forward: A grant of up to $50,000 was awarded to Ravenswood Media to produce a short-format film documenting the Fund's founding governors, their vision for the Great Lakes, and the steps they took to put that vision into action.

    Access a release from the Great Lakes Protection Fund with links more information on the grants and related information (click here).

 

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Great Lakes Senators Urge Funding Support In FY 2013

Mar 27: U.S. Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Carl Levin (D-MI), co-chairs of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, sent letters recently signed by fellow Great Lakes Senators to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of key Appropriations Subcommittees urging their continued support for Great Lakes initiatives through fiscal year 2013. Co-chairs Kirk and Levin's priorities include:

• Support for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Fish and Wildlife Services' Great Lakes Restoration, programs which develop solutions to address invasive species, contamination and pollution and encourage inter-agency cooperative conservation and management for the habitats in the Great Lakes Basin;
• Continued support for the Army Corps of Engineers' emergency authority to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species by any hydrological connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin;
• Support for the International Joint Commission, which monitors and supports transboundary environmental needs of the Great Lakes between the U.S. and Canada, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which works to prevent the spread of the aggressive, invasive species sea lamprey; and
• Support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Zone Management Program, which gives states grant opportunities to work with the Federal government to preserve, protect and restore coastal zone areas across the nation, including the Great Lakes region.

    A spokesperson for Senator Kirk said, "There have been great strides in the last few years to enhance the restoration of natural habitat, reduce pollution and combat invasive species, but it is clear that we still have a long way to go. Senator Kirk looks forward to working with his colleagues to achieve these shared, mutually-beneficial goals to ensure the long-term health of the Great Lakes region." Senator Levin said, "The Great Lakes are a driver of the nation's economy, and they provide drinking water to millions of Americans. We are stewards of these jewels, and that's why it is so important that we support efforts to prevent damage from invasive species, to preserve fisheries and other important habitats, and to restore and preserve the world's most important source of fresh water."

    Access a release from the Senators (click here).

IUGLS Completes 5-Year Lake Superior Outflow Regulation Plan

Mar 28: The International Upper Great Study (IUGLS) announced they have recommended an improved regulation plan for outflows from Lake Superior. According to a release, the new plan -- Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 -- is more robust than the existing plan and provides important benefits, especially to the environment. Made up of a panel of experts from Canada and the U.S., the recommendation is the highlight of their final, peer-reviewed report to the International Joint Commission (IJC), marking the end of the $14.6 million ($17.6 million Cdn.) five-year study.  
 
    The report provides cutting edge scientific information regarding the impacts of climate change on the upper Great Lakes. In particular, the Study found that changes in lake levels may not be as extreme over the next 30 years as previous studies have predicted. The finding reflects a trend of increasing evaporation, likely due to lack of ice cover, and increasing water temperatures and wind speeds, with the resulting reduction in water supplies largely offset by increased precipitation. Projections suggest that lake levels will remain within a relatively narrow historical range with lower levels likely though higher levels are possible at times.
 
    The release indicates that based on a shared vision planning process, the Study identified a regulation plan that is superior to the current plan, which has been in place since 1990, especially under conditions of lower water supplies. For example, if conditions are significantly drier, the new plan does a better job of preserving Lake Superior water levels while taking into account downstream lakes. In addition, under dry conditions, the new plan avoids the serious adverse effects on the spawning habitat of lake sturgeon in the St. Marys River. 
 
    The report also predicts more natural river flows. Compared to the existing plan, month-to-month changes will generally be smaller under the new plan, giving the St. Marys River a more natural flow relationship to Lake Superior levels. This is an important factor in sustaining ecosystem health in the river. 
 
    The report also identifies benefits to other key interests. Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 will provide modest additional benefits for commercial navigation, hydroelectric generation and coastal interests, under both wetter and drier water supply conditions. Most importantly, under very dry conditions, commercial navigation through the Soo Locks and power generation would be threatened with closure under the current plan but not under the improved plan.

 

    According to the report, the rules for operating Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 will be much less complex than rules for the existing plan, making it easier to manage, maintain and adapt to a changing climate. The researchers found that restoration structures (such as "speed bumps" in the St. Clair River) designed to raise Lake Michigan-Huron water levels would result in adverse effects on certain key interests.  Moreover, the potential for multi-lake regulation (additional control points on the St. Clair and Niagara rivers) to address extreme water levels is limited by uncertainty of future water supplies, environmental concerns and institutional requirements.
 
Public concerns about water levels.  Not surprisingly, public concerns about water levels in the upper Great Lakes differ considerably depending on geographic location.  For example, many residents of the Georgian Bay region of Ontario supported construction of new structures to provide for restoration or multi-lake regulation.  In contrast, many residents of Lake Michigan (and other areas) expressed concern about potential damages of higher water levels and those living on the St. Clair River and downstream opposed new structures because of the possibility of negative environmental impacts, among other reasons.
 
    The Study Board made the following key recommendations:

• the IJC should approve Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 as the new plan for regulating Lake Superior outflow;
• the IJC should seek to improve scientific understanding of hydroclimatic processes and impacts on future Great Lakes water levels as part of a continuous, coordinated bi-national effort that includes strengthened modeling and enhanced data collection;
• an adaptive management strategy should be applied to address future extreme water levels and a Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Levels Advisory Board should be established to help administer the strategy; and,
• further study of multi-lake regulation in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system should not be pursued at this time.

    The study was launched by the IJC in 2007 to review the regulation of Lake Superior outflows and to assess the need for improvements to address both changing needs and a changing climate.  Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 will determine the operation of the power dams and other control structures in the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie (MI and ON). The final report was unanimously endorsed by the 10-member binational Study Board, includes the work of more than 200 scientists and engineers, and reflects extensive, independent peer review. The Study also benefited from the advice of a 20-member Public Interest Advisory Group and input provided by the public at meetings held throughout the upper Great Lakes basin. Prior to taking action, the IJC plans to hold public hearings in July.

 

    Access a release from IUGLS (click here). Access the complete Pan (click here). Access the summary version (click here). Access the IUGLS website (click here).

 

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Final Coast Guard Regulations On Ballast Water Management

Mar 23: The U.S. Coast Guard issued its final rule [77 FR 17254-17320] amending its regulations on ballast water management by establishing a standard for the allowable concentration of living organisms in ships' ballast water discharged in waters of the United States. The Coast Guard also is amending its regulations for engineering equipment by establishing an approval process for ballast water management systems. The Coast Guard said the new regulations will aid in controlling the introduction and spread of nonindigenous species from ships' ballast water in waters of the United States. The final rule is effective June 21, 2012 except for 33 CFR 151.1513 and 151.2036 which contains information collection requirements that OMB has not approved. The Coast Guard indicated it will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date. Comments sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on collection of information must be received on or before May 22, 2012.

 

    The Coast Guard indicated that it is establishing a standard for the allowable concentration of living organisms in ballast water discharged from ships in waters of the United States. Additionally it is also amending its regulations for engineering equipment by establishing an approval process for ballast water management systems. The numerical limits set by the discharge standard in this Final Rule are supported by reports from the National Academy of Science and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board in 2011 as the most stringent that vessels can practicably implement and that the Coast Guard can enforce at this time.

 

    In a separate, but related announcement [77 FR 17082-17084] the Coast Guard announced the availability of a final programmatic environmental impact statement (FPEIS) for the rulemaking entitled, Standards for Living Organisms in Ships' Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. Waters (Docket No. USCG-2001-10486). The FPEIS provides an assessment of the potential environmental impacts associated with the establishment of a ballast water discharge standard for the allowable concentration of living organisms in ships' ballast water discharged in waters of the United States. The standard will be used to approve ballast water management methods that are effective in preventing or reducing the introduction of nonindigenous species via discharged ballast water into waters of the United States. Comments on the FPEIS and related material may be submitted on or before April 23,
2012.

 

    Access the FR announcement on the Final Rule (click here). Access the FR announcement on the FPEIS (click here). Access the Coast Guard Ballast Water Management website for details and background (click here). [#Water, GLakes]

 

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Federal Farm Bill Conservation Programs & Great Lakes Restoration

Mar 20: The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes (HOW) Coalition released a report urging Federal public officials to strengthen and support successful farm conservation programs that are vital to restoring the health of the Great Lakes. Jeff Skelding, campaign director for the HOW Coalition said, "Farm conservation programs are essential for Great Lakes restoration. Farm conservation programs are producing results, but there is more work to do. Cutting support for these successful programs now will cause problems to get worse and more costly to solve."

    The report, The Case for Federal Farm Bill Conservation Programs in the Great Lakes Region, documents how conservation measures on farms across the region are protecting natural resources, helping farmers improve productivity and providing jobs.
According to a release, the report comes as U.S. legislators embark on revising the Federal Farm Bill, the primary agriculture and food policy tool of the Federal government that includes one of the largest sources of conservation funding in the Federal budget: The Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin receive more than $500 million in conservation funding annually through the Farm Bill.

    The degree to which the new Farm Bill helps Great Lakes restoration efforts may hinge on the actions of Federal public officials from the Great Lakes region -- particularly in the U.S. Senate, which is leading the effort to update the Farm Bill. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry is chaired by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and includes members Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Richard Lugar (R-IN).

    HOW points out that in the last two Federal budgets the U.S. Congress has cut Farm Bill conservation programs by more than $1 billion. President Obama's fiscal year 2013 budget recommends further reductions of more than $400 million. The HOW Coalition is urging lawmakers to restore conservation funding in the Farm Bill. The new report offers several recommendations to get more "bang for the buck" from Federal Farm Bill programs, including: Invest more, not less, on farm conservation programs;
Support a new regional restoration program; Connect crop insurance subsidies to conservation compliance; Eliminate provisions that incentivize habitat destruction; and, Target programs on the worst problems.

    Access a lengthy release from the HOW Coalition with more details and links to related information (click here). Access the complete 24-page report (click here). [#GLakes]

 

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Interim Asian Carp Environmental DNA Calibration Study

Mar 15: Members of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) released the first interim report of the Asian Carp Environmental DNA Calibration Study (ECALS). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading the two-year study in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce the uncertainty surrounding Asian carp environmental DNA (eDNA) results. eDNA is a process in which genetic material (cells containing DNA from mucus, feces and/or urine) is extracted from water samples to detect the possible presence of Asian carp. ECALS is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

    A new ECALS page on the ACRCC's website Asiancarp.us will host interim reports and tentative release dates for upcoming interim reports and document the progress of the study. Kelly Baerwaldt, ACRCC eDNA program manager said, "At present, eDNA evidence cannot verify whether live Asian carp are present, whether the DNA may have come from a dead fish, or whether water containing Asian carp DNA may have been transported from other sources such as bilge water, storm sewers or fish-eating birds."

    ECALS will investigate alternative sources and pathways for eDNA detections beyond a live fish. The study will also examine how environmental variables such as light, temperature and water velocity impact eDNA detections; explore the correlation between the number of positive samples and the strength of the DNA source; develop more efficient eDNA markers to cut the sampling processing time in half and model eDNA transport specific to the Chicago Area Waterway System.

    The first interim report provides results to date from the study, including storm sewer experiments, fertilization analysis and alternative sampling trials to make the sampling process more efficient. For example, an initial trial on Chinatown storm sewers demonstrates that ice contaminated with Asian carp DNA and deposited into storm drains may serve as a source of eDNA and testing on two brands of fertilizer, as Asian carp are used as ingredients in some, failed to detect bighead or silver carp DNA. Moreover, the differences in sampling at different depths were investigated, and it was found that surface sampling was the most successful in detecting eDNA.

 

    Access a release and link to the interim report (click here). Access the ACRCC's website (click here).

 

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Overall Great Lakes Ice Coverage Down 71% Since 1973

Mar 12: NOAA/Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory recently published a paper in the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Journal of Climate entitled, Temporal and Spatial Variability of Great Lakes Ice Cover, 1973–2010. In this study, temporal and spatial variability of ice cover in the Great Lakes are investigated using historical satellite measurements from 1973 to 2010. The seasonal cycle of ice cover was constructed for all the lakes, including Lake St. Clair. A unique feature found in the seasonal cycle is that the standard deviations (i.e., variability) of ice cover are larger than the climatological means for each lake. This indicates that Great Lakes ice cover experiences large variability in response to predominant natural climate forcing and has poor predictability. Spectral analysis shows that lake ice has both quasi-decadal and interannual periodicities of ~8 and ~4 yr.

 

    There was a significant downward trend in ice coverage from 1973 to the present for all of the lakes, with Lake Ontario having the largest, and Lakes Erie and St. Clair having the smallest. The translated total loss in lake ice over the entire 38-yr record varies from 37% in Lake St. Clair (least) to 88% in Lake Ontario (most). The total loss for overall Great Lakes ice coverage is 71%, while Lake Superior places second with a 79% loss. An empirical orthogonal function analysis indicates that a major response of ice cover to atmospheric forcing is in phase in all six lakes, accounting for 80.8% of the total variance. The second mode shows an out-of-phase spatial variability between the upper and lower lakes, accounting for 10.7% of the total variance. The regression of the first EOF-mode time series to sea level pressure, surface air temperature, and surface wind shows that lake ice mainly responds to the combined Arctic Oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation patterns.

 

    Access an abstract and link to accessing the complete paper (click here). Access an article on the study in Marquette Mining Journal (click here).

 

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HOW RFP For Great Lakes Grant Program

Mar 9: The goal of the Healing Our Waters (HOW) GLRI/Federal Project Support grants program is to provide financial support that will aid in the development and implementation of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and other Federal proposals or projects by organizations working to directly impact the Healing Our Waters Priority Areas with awards up to $15,000. The deadline for electronic application submission on the HOW form is May 13, 2012.

 

    The HOW-Great Lakes Coalition, formed in 2005, reflects a growing public awareness about the urgent need to protect the Great Lakes. The Coalition is generously supported by the Wege Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Great Lakes Fishery Trust, the Kresge Foundation, and the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation. The Coalition seeks to secure a sustainable restoration plan and the billions of dollars of state and federal funding needed to implement it. The coalition seeks to clean up sewage and toxic sediments, to restore damaged habitat, to protect high quality habitat, and to control and prevent the introduction of invasive species, each of which is an essential component of restoring the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

    The HOW Priority Areas encompass only those watersheds listed as part of the area description, unless otherwise specified. All watersheds are listed by their name as defined by U.S. EPA as follows: St. Louis Bay and St. Louis River; including the St. Louis and Beartrap-Nemadjii watersheds; Chicago Land; including the Little CalumetGalien, Pike-Root, and Chicago watersheds; Saginaw Bay; including the Saginaw watershed, Saginaw Bay and its coastal zone; Western Lake Erie; including the Lower Maumee watershed and its coastal zone; and Eastern Lake Ontario; including the Irondequoit Ninemile watershed.

    Access the complete RFP (click here). Access the HOW application form (click here). Access more information from HOW (click here); and (click here).

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