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by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

The fish have migrated to within 15 miles of the new barrier. The only defense for the Great Lakes for the past several years has been a smaller, weaker “experimental” barrier that has a history of failing and that biologists believe is not strong enough to repel juvenile carp, which, because of their size, are less affected by electrified water.

Some Great Lakes advocates are beyond frustrated with the way the Army Corps of Engineers has handled the project, noting that the ravenous filter-feeders, disparagingly dubbed the “100-pound zebra mussel,” could destroy what’s left of the lakes’ ecological integrity and multibillion-dollar fishing and tourist industries.

“They are not looking out for the public’s interest,” charges Tom Marks of the New York chapter of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council. “They’re looking out for the barge operators.”

To date nearly $1 million has been spent to examine such things as what would happen if someone tumbles off a barge and into the electrified water in the barrier zone, which covers a half-mile of canal.

According to documents the Journal Sentinel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Navy’s Experimental Diving Unit was hired to do that job. It took $100,000 and more than a year of computer modeling and analysis, but the Navy has finally reached a conclusion: Similar to falling into icy water, you might be incapacitated and die. Or, you might not.

Read the full story, concerns, quotes and many more details at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>

Source: GreenBuildIndiana

The partnership between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club (did you ever imagine these two groups would unite behind a common cause?) means to accelerate green job growth in NW Indiana.  The coalition wants to make it clear that “the choice between jobs and the environment is a phony choice…We can have both,” says Jim Robinson, Director of USW District 7.

Read the full entry at Green Build Indiana >>

by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

President Bush signed the Great Lakes compact into law Friday morning, culminating a decade-long push to pass sweeping protections for the world’s largest freshwater system.

The two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes have signed a parallel agreement.

Read the full story at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>

Source: RedOrbit

A new rule requiring all ships to flush their ballast tanks in the Atlantic Ocean before entering the Saint Lawrence Seaway should be enough to save the Great Lakes, an expert says.

Collister Johnson, administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation said the rule solves the issue of protecting the five lakes from invasive species carried by incoming ships.

“I just wonder sometimes if (environmental groups) appreciate that they’ve won the battle. And whether we ought to move on to other things like sewage runoff, and infrastructure, and other things that are problems for the Great Lakes,” Johnson said.

Read the full story at RedOrbit >>

Source: International Lake Superior Board of Control

The International Lake Superior Board of Control, under authority granted to it by the International Joint Commission, has set the Lake Superior outflow to 2,050 cubic metres per second (m3/s) (72.4thousand cubic feet per second (tcfs)) for the month of October. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Express India

Sault Ste. Marie (Canada), October 2: Essar Steel is pumping in USD 160 million (nearly Rs 740 crore) into its Canadian operations to ramp up production to 3.6 million tonnes per annum to feed demand in North America, set up a captive power plant and clean up the environment.

… The company would spend USD 160 million to further increase production by 1 MT in the 12 months to March 31, 2009.

A chunk of the investment would go towards setting up a co-generation power plant that would cut the steel plant’s energy requirements by half. The captive power plant would use waste fuel from the steel plant to produce electricity and is expected to be commissioned by January next year.

Essar Steel Algoma also hopes to achieve greater synergies once its sister concern Essar Steel Minnesota, an integrated plant with its own iron ore reserves in the US, starts feeding it with the key raw material.

The Algoma plant currently sources ore from Cleveland Cliffs and coal from Massey in West Virginia in the US. The company last month announced an USD 1.6 billion investment in its Minnesota operations, where it would be setting up a 2.5 MTPA steel plant.

Read more etails about N.A. steel market, Essar Algoma’s local environmental efforts and planned Sault operations at Express India >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

Minnesota and eight other states are suing the Bush administration over what New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says is an illegal administrative ruling that could hurt fisheries and contaminate drinking water.

The states contend the federal government has created a loophole that could allow the transfer of polluted or contaminated water by ship from one water body to another where it would do harm.

Full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

by Jeff Kart | Source: Bay City Times (photos)

A plastic pipe is spewing black water onto a man-made island in Saginaw Bay.

The stinky stuff is coming from a dredging barge in the distance that’s sucking up silt and pumping the contents into the Saginaw Bay Confined Disposal Facility.

When the Corps finished constructing the island in October 1978, it was designed to last about 10 years, and hold 10 million cubic yards of dredged material from the Lower Saginaw River and Bay, said Ken Drum, an engineering technician for the Corps in Detroit.

With modifications made since then, the CDF now has about 800,000 cubic yards, or eight years, of capacity left, said Angie Mundell, project manager for the Corps in Detroit.

Duerod said she thinks the Corps is about two years away from facing a “crucial need” to address the island’s capacity. That could mean raising the dikes or, less likely, looking for space for a new dredging disposal site, she said.

Last fall, MCM Marine Inc. of Sault Ste. Marie began dredging about two miles of the bay channel under a $1.3 million contract.

The company expects to pipe more than 300,000 cubic yards of dredgings to Channel Island before the work is finished in October, said Ferguson, construction representative from the Corps’ Detroit office.

“It’s like a super vacuum cleaner,” he said of the hydraulic dredging being done by MCM.

The dredgings - about 80 percent water and 20 percent sediment - take years before they turn from black gunk to what looks like fresh beach sand.

But “wash your hands,” Ferguson cautions after a visitor scoops up a bit of the dried dredgings.

Read the full story, see photos at the Bay City Times >>

Related: Michigan could find energy windfall just off its shores - Detroit Free Press

By TINA LAM | Source: Detroit Free Press

Michigan has far greater potential for wind energy than anyone previously thought — offshore in the Great Lakes that surround it, according to a new report.

The report by Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute said Michigan could produce as much as 321,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind, if turbines could be erected at any depth, without regard to shipping lanes or aesthetic concerns.

That’s more than 10 times the amount of electricity generated now statewide, at its peak, from all sources, including coal and nuclear plants, the report said.

Read the full story at the Detroit Free Press >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: The Muskegon Chronicle

Freighters may continue to wash unlimited quantities of coal, limestone and other dry cargo residues into the Great Lakes under a new federal policy.

The U.S. Coast Guard Monday finalized an interim policy that allows the long-standing but controversial — and possibly illegal — practice of washing dry cargo residues into the lakes to continue indefinitely. The policy enacted Monday replaces a 1998 interim policy.

The new policy requires shippers to keep records of where and when they wash cargo residuals into the lakes and the quantities involved. It also banned the practice, known as washdown or dry cargo sweeping, in 11 ecologically sensitive areas on the lakes.

Read the for/against reactions from many stakeholders >>

Source: Great Lakes Environment

Sep 29: The U.S. Coast Guard announced in the Federal Register [73 FR 56492-56501] that it is amending its regulations to allow the discharge of bulk dry cargo residue (DCR) in limited areas of the Great Lakes by self-propelled vessels and by any barge that is part of an integrated tug and barge unit.

DCR is the residue of non-toxic and non-hazardous bulk dry cargo like limestone, iron ore, and coal.

The regulations also add new recordkeeping and reporting requirements and encourage carriers to adopt voluntary control measures for reducing discharges. Discharges are now prohibited in certain protected and sensitive areas where, previously, they were allowed.

The Coast Guard also requests public comments on the need for and feasibility of additional conditions that might be imposed on discharges in the future, such as mandatory use of control measures, or further adjustments to the areas where discharges are allowed or prohibited.

…Comments and related material submitted in response to the request for comments must be received before January 15, 2009.

Find out where dumping is prohibited, how you can still participate in the process, at Great Lakes Environment >>

CATHY DOBSON | Source: Sarnia Observer

[The] underwater videography is now complete and its suggests the riverbed near the bridge hasn’t changed, says John Nevin, communications advisor for the International Upper Great Lakes Study.

That flies in the face of assertions made by Georgian Bay homeowners, who claimed in 2005 that ongoing erosion in the riverbed is causing low lake levels. According to the bathtub theory the riverbed is eroding as a result of past dredging, making the channel deeper. With a larger drain-hole at Sarnia, lakes Michigan and Huron are falling.

… Instead, the study has found that the St. Clair’s riverbed south of the Black River appears to have “significantly” changed in size.

“It might be a result of maintenance dredging or perhaps it’s prop wash from propellers. It’s really too early to say,” said Nevin.

Read the full story at the Sarnia Observer >>

Source: Coast Guard News

The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that the interim rule for dry cargo residue discharges on the Great Lakes is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.

The interim rule requires Great Lakes bulk dry cargo carriers to keep records of loading, unloading and discharges of dry cargo residues and encourages lake carriers to use control measures to reduce the amount of dry cargo residue entering the waters of the Great Lakes. The rule continues to allow the discharge of non-toxic and non-hazardous bulk dry cargo residues in certain areas of the Great Lakes. Discharges are now prohibited in certain protected and sensitive areas where previously, they were allowed.

Great Lakes ships have operated under a Coast Guard “interim enforcement policy” since 1993, that has allowed “incidental discharges” of non-toxic and non-hazardous dry cargo residues such as limestone, iron ore and coal on the Great Lakes. The interim enforcement policy also specified where dry cargo residue discharges could and could not occur. Congressional legislation has extended the interim enforcement policy since 1998. The current extension, granted by Congress in 2004, expires Sept. 30, 2008.

The Coast Guard also requests public comments on the need for and feasibility of additional conditions that might be imposed on future dry cargo residue discharges, such as mandatory use of control measures or further adjustments to areas where discharges are prohibited or allowed. Comments can be submitted online at …  Read the rest of this entry »

by Elizabeth Dunbar | Source: Forbes

ST. PAUL - The state pollution control agency approved strict standards for ships that discharge ballast water into Lake Superior, hoping they will cut down on the spread of harmful invasive species.

Unlike federal proposals pending in Congress, the new permit process will cover both oceangoing vessels and ships that stay within the Great Lakes.

…. by 2016, ships will be required to treat their ballast water before dumping it into Minnesota waters.

Details of interim and longer-range management, enforcement at Forbes >>

James Rowen | Source: The Political Environment

The Great Lakes Compact won overwhelming approval in the US House of Representatives today, and moves to the White House for the president’s promised signature.

On balance, this is an important advancement for Great Lakes preservation, and hats off to the many activists and public officials who spent years getting this document created and approved.

Several issues remain.

The first is the need for …

Read the full article at the Political Environment >>

by Tom Meersman | Source: Star Tribune

Weary of waiting for federal action, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is scheduled to vote on a precedent-setting rule today that will prohibit ships from dumping untreated ballast water into Duluth-Superior harbor and other state waters.

State officials say they have to act because Duluth receives far more ballast water than any other Great Lakes port, making it more at risk from invasive species.

The state’s proposal would require all large ships to begin treating their ballast water before dumping it, beginning in 2016. Possible treatment includes filtering through extremely fine screens or sand; using chemicals such as chlorine or ozone; or applying methods such as ultraviolet radiation or heat.

New ships would have to have the treatment technology working by 2012.

Ship owners and trade associations agree that invasive species are a problem, but object to Minnesota’s plan.

Read the full story at the Star Tribune >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

After months of quagmire, a compromise may be emerging. Under a new Senate “discussion’’ bill, the criteria for killing organisms (how small and how many are allowed in the ballast water after treatment) would increase to 1,000-times greater than the IMO standard. That would bring the federal legislation in line with California’s law and was expected to spur Boxer to allow the ballast bill to advance.

Some issues remain, however. Boxer and California environmental groups want the Clean Water Act to apply to ballast discharges in addition to the new law. That would allow citizens to sue if they felt the ballast laws weren’t working to protect waterways. Industry officials and many Senators say that amounts to double jeopardy, putting the shipping industry under two separate sets of rules.

Another problem for some Minnesota groups, including the PCA, is that the federal legislation still doesn’t include Great Lakes freighters.

More issues, full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

by Carol Martin | Source: SooToday.com

At 9 p.m. on Friday, Essar Steel Algoma Inc.’s recording station on Wallace Terrace was indicating a fine particulate matter reading of 60 micrograms per cubic metre over 24 hours.

That’s 20 percent above the provincial limit.

… The previous day, Thursday, Essar Steel Algoma reported three incidents at its coke-making ovens.

Two of the incidents involved emergency ‘pushing’ of coke ovens for safety reasons and to ensure structural integrity.

No visible emissions occurred from any of the pushed ovens, the company said.

The third incident was a stack emission resulting from charging coke ovens 9 to 14.

This was resolved by cutting heat to the oven walls.

…When Essar took over Algoma Steel just over a year ago, it announced that it intends to significantly ramp up production at the century-old steelmaker over the next few years.

Freeman said the company looked at ways it could reduce emissions across its operations, not just in the blast furnaces, when it applied for a certificate to restart No. 6.

“Our goal is to achieve a net reduction in emissions overall,” Freeman said.

Read the full story at SooToday.com >>

R.G. Edmonson | Source: Journal of Commerce Online

WASHINGTON — A stalemate in the Senate over the regulation of ships’ ballast water has led a coalition of carriers to urge lawmakers to make sure any ballast water standards are consistent throughout the United States.

The letter expresses concern that under the Clean Water Act, states are encouraged to regulate pollution sources within their boundaries. Ships that call at ports in many states could face “a patchwork of overlapping, inconsistent federal and state requirements.”

…Carriers are pessimistic that senators can reach an agreement in time to stop a court-ordered EPA general permit system under the Clean Water Act on Oct. 15.

In addition to World Shipping, the letter was sent by the Chamber of Shipping of America, American Waterways Operators, and Intertanko, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners based in Oslo.

Read the full story, parts of the letter at the Journal of Commerce Online >>

Source: Canadian Press

Senator Barack Obama will propose a $5-billion trust fund for Great Lakes cleanup and restoration if elected president, his campaign said Tuesday.

The fund, to be phased in over 10 years, would be the centrepiece of a plan that also includes designating a co-ordinator to oversee Greats Lakes programs and a stepped-up fight against invasive species.

… The trust fund would be paid for by rolling back tax breaks for oil companies, Obama’s campaign said. It would support a variety of projects including sewage system repairs, cleanup of polluted sediments and restoration of wetlands and wildlife habitat.

The Great Lakes co-ordinator, based in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, would help develop a priority list for federal, state and local initiatives.

Obama’s program also pledges a “zero toxics” policy for the lakes, which make up nearly one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. It calls for measuring pollution already entering the lakes, determining the sources and reducing future deposits.

Another priority would be strengthening federal standards against mercury, a leading Great Lakes pollutant, the campaign said.

The plan also promises a more aggressive effort to prevent additional exotic species from reaching the lakes, particularly the Asian carp, which has infested the Mississippi River and is moving toward Lake Michigan.

It says Obama would work with the eight Great Lakes states to stop freighters from bringing exotics to the region in their ballast water.

Full story, quotes, and McCain camp reply at Canadian Press >>