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Great Lakes
Michigan
(+) The state announced it would spend nearly $120,000 of Clean Michigan Initiative funds during summer 2006 to help local health agencies monitor water quality at 79 Great Lakes, state park and local beaches.
(+) The state Supreme Court ruled in July 2005 that the public has the right to walk anywhere between the water's edge and the ordinary high water mark along Michigan's 3,200 miles of Great Lakes shoreline.
(+) There are 118 designated Environmental Areas along the Great Lakes coastline to protect fish and wildlife habitats and approximately 300 miles of shoreline zoned as high risk erosion areas. All areas limit possible degradation by requiring a permit.
(+) The legislature has found that Critical Dune areas of the state are unique, irreplaceable, and fragile resources that provide significant recreational, economic, scientific, geological, scenic, botanical, educational, agricultural, and ecological benefits to the people of Michigan.
(+) $90 million has been allocated to the Clean Water Fund to implement a comprehensive statewide water quality-monitoring program.
(+) Michigan law requires that the MDEQ conduct erosion studies to document the long-term rate of shoreline movement.
(0) With coasts on four Great Lakes, Michigan has the world's largest freshwater coastline.
(-) Wastewater treatment plants in Bay City and Saginaw dumped more than 333 million gallons of sewage into the Saginaw River in March 2006. Perhaps because of the season, no health advisories were issued by the Bay County Health Department.
(-) Michigan law recommends that bathing-beach water be sampled and monitored, but it does not require local health departments to do it.
(-) 70% of the shoreline is privately owned.
Wisconsin
(+) Wisconsin has a clear and organized Hazard Mitigation Plan.
(+) A great new online coastal access resource is University of Wisconsin Sea Grant's Wisconsin Coastal Guide. From this site you can click on "Beaches" and then a particular beach to get a map and for many locations a 360 degree panorama. It has been updated to include oblique photos all along Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan and Lake Superior coasts.
(+) WDNR staff drove the entire coast of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, identifying 173 public beaches using global positioning system (GPS) and geographic information system (GIS) technologies to geo-locate each beach. County maps show the location of each beach, coastal recreation waters, points of access by the public, length of beach, and possible sources of pollution.
(+) Nearly 90% of the respondents to a coastal constituents survey feel that the issue of non-point pollution is moderately to very important, and support education for citizens and local officials.
(+) In 2003, water-quality data from about 117 new beach locations were added to the Beach Health Web site. Maps of beaches by county are available along with other information describing the 2003 Wisconsin Great Lake monitoring efforts. As a result, many beaches that have never been tested are now tested, and the data is available in near-real time to the public.
(0) About 80% of Wisconsin's Great Lakes shoreline suffers from bluff erosion and recession problems. The 185 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline from the Illinois state line to the Sturgeon Bay Canal is particularly vulnerable to shore erosion.
(-) Inflexibility by the Wisconsin Department of Commerce Plumbing Program made it very difficult for the Milwaukee Urban Ecology Center to implement a sensible program to use collected rainwater in toilets and will likely discourage others from installing similar systems.
(-) The biennial budget ending in FY2007 included cuts to state agencies totaling $300 million, and cuts in the state agency workforce of 3,900 positions since FY2003. Coastal management has been affected directly by cuts to DNR programs that manage water resources, and overall reductions in the state government workforce. Two positions have been eliminated in the Coastal Management program since 2001.
(-) The state has no formal programs for monitoring shoreline recession or bluff erosion.
(-) The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) reported an estimated 346,000-gallon sewage spill into the Milwaukee River and Fish Creek in early April 2006. Both flow into Lake Michigan. During the period from 2000 to 2006, MMSD dumped 6.4 billion gallons of sewage or sewage diluted with stormwater runoff into the lake or into streams that drain to the lake.
Illinois
(+) The President's FY2007 budget for beach fill and related projects included $10,000,000 construction funding for the Chicago shoreline.
(+) Chicago is tightening limits on industrial water pollution for the first time in more than a decade. Until the new restrictions were enacted in April 2006, the city had no limits on how much arsenic, molybdenum and chlorine could be discharged into its wastewater treatment system.
(+) Due to improvements to the level of sewage treatment and to completion of portions of the Deep Tunnel project, more than 60 species of fish can now be found swimming in the Chicago River, compared to five in 1970.
(0) For the 2006 swimming season, Chicago instituted a new warning system for beach health advisories and beach closures. Formerly, beaches were closed when the E. coli bacteria level reached 235/100 ml for two days in a row. With the new system, beaches remain open with a yellow warning flag if the levels are above 235 and are only closed with a red flag if levels are above 1,000.
(-) Illinois is the last of the 35 eligible coastline states to join the Coastal Zone Management Program administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
(-) Chicago released an estimated 34.5 billion gallons of rain-diluted sewage into local streams during the period from 2000 to 2006. Although these streams drain away from Lake Michigan into the Mississippi River, during a few severe storms since 2000 about 2.9 billion gallons of river water with and unknown volume of sewage mixed in was released into Lake Michigan.
Minnesota
(+) With funding from Minnesota's Lake Superior Coastal Management Program, Grand Marais was able to develop a storm water management plan to address erosion, flooding and water quality concerns.
(+) The Minnesota Lake Superior Beach Monitoring Program Web site has maps of Lake Superior Beaches, a description of their beach monitoring programs, and the capability of viewing local beach advisories using satellite map imagery. Data can also be accessed with the beach bacteria data viewer.
(+) The Minnesota Coastal Area supports various types of public access including beaches, boating, parks and natural areas, historical and cultural areas, and an extensive network of trails. Approximately 1,504 square miles of Lake Superior is held in public trust for the citizens of Minnesota. A wide variety of public access opportunities are provided by public and private entities in Minnesota’s Coastal Area.
(+) The brochure Management of Bluffs and Slopes provides information regarding ways to prevent on minimize shoreline erosion problems. These include zoning for compatible land uses, implementing appropriate bluff setbacks for structures, and requiring modern erosion-control and stormwater measures that are necessary to preserve the integrity of steep slopes and bluffs. The Department of Natural Resources' Lakescaping and shoreland restoration Web page emphasizes the importance and benefits of maintaining natural buffer zones for shoreland properties.
(0) The availability of public access to the 206 miles of Minnesota shoreline is largely dependent on the ownership above the Ordinary High Watermark (OHW).
(-) Most local governments do not have the technical capability to develop appropriate authorities to adequately mange the lakeshore resources.
(-) Much of the existing lakeshore is inaccessible by roads or has insufficient parking available to accommodate the demand for shoreline use.
(-) Landowners and developers often challenge local ordinances and building setback requirements. Low priority funding for permit compliance monitoring, and development in remote areas provide an environment for a shoot first ask questions later mentality to development. Large condominium and town home development are replacing single-family dwellings. As impervious surfaces increase on the coastline, storm water damage is replacing damage created by wave action and higher lake levels.
(-) Approximately 60 miles of unstable clay embankment areas exist along the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior. Approximately 70,000 tons of soil erode each year from the Minnesota Lake Superior shoreline alone, causing economic and environmental losses and damages. Despite these known shoreline erosion problems, erosion data is not readily available to the public or to government planners and officials.
(-) DNR's brochure Natural Shorelines states: "As native trees and shrubs decline, diverse species like warblers, loons, and hummingbirds are replaced by common birds like house sparrows, blue jays, and grackles. Loons, ducks, and other birds will not likely nest on a groomed and manicured shore or beach. Even small areas of native grass can attract nesting ducks and other wildlife. Green frogs are also disappearing with development. Removal of aquatic plants alters the spawning habitat, food supply, and protective cover that fish need. As we “clean up” our shores, we are removing inlake vegetation, logs, and other parts of the lake’s ecosystem. We are removing the place where turtles and ducks sun and the habitat in which fish and frogs lay eggs. We are removing the turtles, ducks, fish, and frogs."
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