WEEKLY UPDATE June 17, 2014

In This Issue

NEMWI Hosts Briefings on 21st Century Monitoring Technology and the Future of the GLRI

NEMWI's Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative Delivers Call-to-Action at DC Meeting for the River

Great Lakes Region Leads on Addressing Microplastics; First State in Nation Passes Ban

COMING SOON

NEMWI Briefing: Wastewater Infrastructure in the Great Lakes
Mon., June 23, 2014
1:00 pm
Capitol Visitor Center SVC-214

NEMWI Briefing: Asian Carp Monitoring Framework 2014
Tues., June 24, 2014
1:30 pm
Capitol Visitor Center SVC-200

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Northeast-Midwest Institute

Mississippi River Basin Blog

News

NEMWI Hosts Briefings on 21st Century Monitoring Technology and the Future of the GLRI

Last week, NEMWI's Great Lakes Washington Program hosted two Capitol Hill briefings. Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs, Sens. Carl Levin (MI) and Mark Kirk (IL) and Reps. Candice Miller (MI-10), John Dingell (MI-12), Sean Duffy (WI-07), and Louise Slaughter (NY-25), were honorary co-sponsors of the briefings.

The first briefing, entitled "21st Century Innovation in Great Lakes Monitoring: Fisheries Science and Technology," took place on Tuesday, June 10. Speakers from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center, and Michigan Tech University's Great Lakes Research Center highlighted the many partners-federal, state, local, tribal, and academia-involved in monitoring the Great Lakes ecosystem, which supports a $7 billion fishery industry. The speakers focused on new technology implemented in the Great Lakes, such as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative-funded acoustic telemetry network, which brings new information, like fish movement and behavior, to managers despite more and complex ecosystem stressors. Additionally, the speakers noted that winter weather currently prevents critical observations. A binational Great Lakes wide, year-round hybrid-observatory system could address this "scientific blindness."

The second briefing, entitled "GLRI Draft FY2015-19 Action Plan," held on Wednesday, June 11, featured speakers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They discussed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Program (GLRI), including past successes and the recently-released draft FY2015-19 Action Plan. The next Action Plan will direct the priorities and efforts for the coming five years. Highlights of the draft plan include:

Incorporation of Government Accountability Office recommendations to refine the Measures of Progress to more fully encompass success of all GLRI-funded projects and begin the steps to incorporate climate resiliency into projects to prevent climate change from undermining success;
A continued emphasis on Asian carp control measures, among controls on other invasive species like the wetland plant Phragmites, sea lamprey, and zebra mussels; and
Assumption of an annual base level of funding of $275 million over the Action Plan (down from $475 million assumed during the previous Action Plan and lower than recent appropriations of $300 million).

NEMWI's short summary and side-by-side of the Draft Action Plan is available here.

For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director, Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

NEMWI's Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative Delivers Call-to-Action at
DC Meeting for the River

On June 11, America's Wetland Foundation hosted the Big River Works meeting in Washington, DC. Mayor Hyram Copeland of Vidalia, LA gave an impassioned address on behalf of the NEMWI Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) to a wide array of Mississippi River stakeholders including the Lieutenant Governors of Illinois and Louisiana as well as Senator Mary Landrieu (LA). The Mayor emphasized the "gravity of climate disruption" and called on attendees to take heed of the National Climate Assessment. Mayor Copeland stated that climate change is affecting the way people live and do business on the River and that it is imperative that policies embrace climate resiliency. Mayor Copeland listed five things the MRCTI mayors are working on to make their communities more resilient to climate change:

Increasing the capacity of waterfront areas to absorb storm events;
Shoring-up infrastructure for water intake and distribution systems;
Engaging in climate resiliency planning;
Securing climate resiliency technical assistance resources to help cities become carbon- neutral and greenhouse gas negative;
Creating reliable inventories of ecological services and critical River-related infrastructure.

Mayor Copeland concluded his remarks with a challenge: "What if the Mississippi River Valley worked to go carbon neutral by 2030? What will that do? It will show the nation that place-based agenda setting captures not just greenhouse gases, but people's hearts and minds. People care about their home. They care about what's in their back yard. I'm a mayor; I have some experience with this. Attaching climate disruption to polar bears and the arctic doesn't motivate me to do anything. We have to show people how climate change is coming to a town near them."

For more information, contact Colin Wellenkamp, Director,
Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

Great Lakes Region Leads on Addressing Microplastics; First State in Nation Passes Ban

Microplastics, also known as microbeads, are present in waters throughout the U.S. Manufacturers add these microbeads as abrasives in toothpastes, facewashes, and other consumer products. As reported in The New York Times, pollutants may attach to microplastics and be carried up through the food chain as fish and other aquatic life eat the microscopic bits of plastic. Some companies, like Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble, have already begun to phase out the use of microplastics in favor of natural products, though the process is expected to take years.

According to the NEMWI's Great Lakes Washington Program, which is tracking the introduction and movement of state-level legislation, the Great Lakes states have been more active in introducing and considering legislation to manage this problem than any other region of the country. Five Great Lakes states have bills under consideration, and on June 8, Illinois was the first state in the nation to sign into law a ban on the manufacture and sale of products with added microbeads. The ban will be phased in, starting in 2017 and finalizing by the end of 2019.

For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director, Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

The Northeast-Midwest Institute:

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