For many years, state and federal wildlife officials have considered the cougar extinct in the Great Lakes region. However, many people claim to have seen the large predatory cat long after it supposedly disappeared. Conservationists debate whether these sightings are real and if they are, they wonder whether the cougars are wild or merely escaped pets. Investigations are underway in many states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and in Canada. Now, a wildlife biologist in Michigan says he has proof that a breeding population of wild cougars is living in the Upper Peninsula. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Gretchen Millich reports:
Tag: lake michigan
The End of Fishtown?
Jim Carlson’s family has been fishing the waters of Lake Michigan for more than a century. While there used to be thousands of fishing operations like Carlson’s in the Great Lakes, that number has dwindled over the years. It’s estimated there may be only a few hundred left. Carlson says he could soon join that trend, if a year-old fishing treaty between the State of Michigan and five Native American tribes brings his family business to ruin. And that has his neighbors worried, too. That’s because on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, fishing and tourism rely on each other for survival. And the demise of Carlson’s business could have a profound impact on the local economy. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta has the story:
New Bottling Plant Stirs Water Debate
A test well being dug in preparation for the construction of the Ice Mountain bottling plant. Perrier hopes to have the plant up and running by next spring. Photo by Patrick Owen/MLUI.
Is Great Lakes water for sale? That’s the issue on the table in Michigan right now, where the Perrier Group of America has begun construction on a 100 million dollar water bottling operation. Last year, government officials in Wisconsin rejected a similar proposal from Perrier. The Michigan plan has sparked local opposition and more. The start of the plant’s construction has given birth to concerns about whether groundwater in Great Lakes states should be considered part of the Great Lakes water basin. And if it is, some question whether it should be for sale. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Matt Shafer Powell reports:
Transcript
Is Great Lakes water for sale? That’s the issue on the table in Michigan right now, where the Perrier Group of America has begun construction on a 100 million dollar water bottling operation. Last year, government officials in Wisconsin rejected a similar proposal from Perrier. The Michigan plan has sparked local opposition and more. The start of the plant’s construction has given birth to concerns about whether groundwater in Great Lakes states should be considered part of the Great Lakes water basin. And if it is, some question whether it should be for sale. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Matt Shafer Powell reports.
Eight Mile Road in rural Mecosta County, Michigan is one of the area’s busier roads, one of the few ways to get to the interstate. It’s surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland. And at its peak, you can see the Little Muskegon River Valley as it stretches for miles across this point where Michigan becomes Northern Michigan.
(sound of construction)
When Perrier Group Project Manager Brendan O’Rourke saw this stretch of Eight Mile Road, he knew that it would be the perfect place for Perrier’s new Ice Mountain spring water bottling operation.
“Clearly, it’s a beautiful place to live and work, it has abundant natural spring water, the highway system allows for easy access to the marketplace, there’s an available work force and there’s high quality spring water.”
But local resident Terry Swier rarely uses Eight Mile Road anymore. She says it upsets her too much to see the walls of the Perrier plant rising out of what was once a cornfield. Swier is president of the group Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, a group that formed out of citizen opposition to the plant. Since December, Swier says her group has attracted more than 12-hundred local residents. Most of them are concerned about how local streams, rivers and lakes will be affected by an operation that plans to pump more than 700-thousand gallons of water a day from the ground. But despite her efforts to stop the plant’s construction, work has continued and the plant should be ready to begin operation next Spring.
“It’s just very frustrating how they have the arrogance to say that ‘we can proceed.’ It’s like not even paying attention to the people who are here in the area.”
Perrier officials insist the company has made every effort to listen to local residents and address their concerns. They say they’ve done studies that show the environmental impact will be minimal. And they say the extra 600-thousand dollars a year in tax revenue the plant will generate will go a long way in Mecosta County. Local government officials agree. But Mecosta Township Supervisor John Boyd says he’s more excited by the possibility that Perrier may bring up to 200 new jobs to the area.
“I’ve been to meetings and they say ‘Well, what’s the tax base, what’d you gain on the tax base?’ and I say ‘Hell, I ain’t even looked at it’, because basically, we’re looking for good jobs that sustain people, that will let our kids stay here, stay in the community, and last, we’re looking for a business that will be here tomorrow when we’re gone.”
But construction of the plant and local opposition to it are only the starting points for an issue that has reached far beyond the farmlands of Mecosta County. That’s because the natural springs that lie beneath the ground there feed into the Little Muskegon River, which in turn, feeds into Lake Michigan. Of primary concern to critics is a federal law that requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors for any water diversion from the Great Lakes basin. In September, Michigan’s attorney general concluded that the groundwater in Mecosta County should indeed be considered Great Lakes water, and its sale should be approved by the governors. Michigan’s Governor John Engler, though, disagrees on both points and has even offered Perrier nearly ten million dollars in tax breaks. That’s something that frustrates Keith Schneider, of the Michigan Land Use Institute.
“If states are approving diversions of Great Lakes water, they need to consult each other. And the reason they need to consult each other is because we sit on the largest source of fresh water on the planet and this resource is getting ever more valuable. I mean we’re essentially the Saudi Arabia of water here.”
If it’s proven nothing else, the controversy over the Perrier plant has exposed the lack of solid, enforceable groundwater policy throughout the Great Lakes. But in Michigan, that may be changing. In the state capitol of Lansing, various legislative and environmental groups have already begun to unveil their own water control packages—they include everything from the abolishment of tax breaks for companies that bottle water to mandatory assurances that local water quality won’t be sacrificed by those companies. And some groups are calling for a law that would require companies that sell water to pay royalties in the same way that oil and gas companies do now. If it’s ever passed, such a royalty would put a definitive value on water as a natural resource. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Matt Shafer Powell in Mecosta County, Michigan.
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Hope for Great Lakes Water Levels
Long term climate projections predict conditions will be right to at least temporarily stop the decline in Great Lakes water levels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory is looking at how this winter’s climate might affect the lakes’ water levels.
Transcript
Long-term climate projections predict conditions will be to at least temporarily stop the decline in Great Lakes water levels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.
Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie are all at their lowest levels in 35 years. But, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -or NOAA– say its climate outlooks for this winter indicate there’ll be a normal amount of precipitation and well below normal temperatures. Cold weather means more ice cover on the lakes, and that prevents some evaporation. Cynthia Sellinger is a hydrologist at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab.
“So NOAA’s forecast, saying that we’ll have below normal temperatures means that we may have a decent ice cover and we may not have winter evaporation. So, if that happens and if we get a decent snow pack, we may not decline anymore.”
But, the experts say it’s still too early to say whether climate will change enough to reverse the lower water level trend on the Great Lakes. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lester Graham.
Ijc to Monitor Lake Flows
A commission that oversees water bodies shared by the U.S. and Canada is expanding its study of water levels in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly has more:
Transcript
A commission that oversees water bodies shared by the U.S. and Canada is expanding its study of water levels in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports.
The International Joint Commission recently announced it would review its regulation of water flowing in and out of Lake Superior. Any changes to Superior’s water flow could affect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, as well. The commission is already studying similar changes in the regulation of Lake Ontario’s water. Officials say the studies were prompted by residents’ complaints about low water levels as well as the expected onset of climate change. Scientists predict this could also affect lake levels.
Peter Yee is the manager of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence regulation office for Environment Canada.
“We have the opportunity to dialogue with the public so that we have a mutual understanding and appreciation of everybody’s needs and concerns, the benefits of regulation and also the limitations of regulation.”
Public hearings are scheduled to begin this fall.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.
RECORD YEAR FOR BEACH CLOSINGS (Version 1)
Lake Michigan had a record number of beach closings this year. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl has more:
Transcript
Lake Michigan had a record number of beach closings last year. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports.
The Lake Michigan Federation is reporting almost six hundred beach closings on Lake Michigan in 2001. That’s up from just over four hundred last year. Federation director Cameron Davis says most of the closings are due to wastewater carrying bacteria to the lakes when treatment plants are at capacity. He says the solution is to cut back on development near the lakes:
“We need to try to limit the amount of pavement that’s being laid down all across the region, so that rainwater naturally filters through the ground rather than getting shuttled off into a sewage treatment plant.”
Davis says the number of beach closings on Lake Michigan should actually be higher than his report shows. He says Michigan does a poor job testing for bacteria near beaches, and says Wisconsin’s numbers are excluding Sheboygan County where there have been problems in the past. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.
RECORD YEAR FOR BEACH CLOSINGS (Version 2)
Lake Michigan beaches were closed more often this summer than ever before. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports, beach closings can translate into significant economic loss:
Transcript
Lake Michigan beaches were closed more often this summer than ever before. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports.
A report from the Lake Michigan Federation shows an all-time high of 600 beach closings in 2001. High levels of bacteria found in the water caused most of the closings. Federation director Cameron Davis says in addition to the environmental problems, the closings have an economic impact on the region:
“Take a look at a place like Chicago that gets 60 million visitors a year to the lakefront. And you get a beach closing Labor Day weekend or a fourth of July weekend. You’re looking at millions of people, some from around the world, that can’t visit the beaches here.”
Davis says the bacteria is getting into the water when heavy rains force wastewater and sewage carrying human and animal waste past treatment plants and into the lake. The Lake Michigan Federation is setting up a center to help citizens and community groups solve bacteria problems at beaches. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.
Sediment Plume Carries Life to Lakes
The USEPA research ship Lake Guardian. (Photo courtesy USEPA Great Lakes Program Office)
For the second year in row, government scientists plan to be onboard a ship
chasing a natural phenomenon on Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports a sediment plume might be the key to all
life in the lake:
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Modern Day Pirates Raid Shipwrecks
If you think pirates are a thing of the past, think again. It’s estimated there are more than six-thousand shipwrecks in the Great Lakes…and modern day pirates are preying on them. They strip the ships of anchors, portholes and other underwater souvenirs, and sell them at a huge profit. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson has more:
Mass Balance Study Underway
For the past four years, scientists have been hard at work around Lake Michigan, taking hundreds of water, sediment, and air samples and analyzing the data. It’s part of a study like no other—the largest of it’s kind. And the results are expected to have world-wide applications. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports: