Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge

The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge is a binational sanctuary created in 2001 to preserve ecosystems in the river and on the western edge of Lake Erie. The achievement is the result of the combined efforts of Canada and the U.S., the only such international reserve on the continent.

“The [original] refuge [consisted] of nearly 6,000 acres of unique habitat, including islands, coastal wetlands, marshes, shoals, and waterfront lands within an authorized boundary extending along 48 miles of shoreline.” The 400 acre Humbug Marsh was added in 2004.

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Detroit_River/about.html

Canada greatly expanded the boundaries of the sanctuary in 2012 by creating the adjoining Western Lake Erie Watersheds Priority Natural Area, another first of its kind.

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/detroit_river/what_we_do/partnerships/priority_natural_area.html

U.S. area, left; Canadian, right

The Detroit River and Lake Erie watersheds “...lie fully within the Carolinian Zone, which supports the greatest diversity of plant and animal species of any region in Canada.”

https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Canadian%20PNA%20News%20Release%20October%202012.pdf

Rare and endangered fish species in the Detroit River include the Northern Madtom (a small catfish) and the Mooneye. “There are only three known populations of Northern Madtom in Michigan, and they are rare or critically imperiled throughout their range.” Mooneye of the family Hiodontidae resemble shad. “Although historically found in Lakes Michigan and Huron, recent accounts suggest that Mooneye only persist in the St. Clair-Detroit River System.”

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/04_wap_stclair_detroit_river_system_500064_7.pdf

Pelican Numbers Increasing in Southeastern Michigan

Brian Sullivan - Cornell

In recent years, increasing numbers of pelicans have been sighted in southeast Michigan at the edge of Lake Erie. Initially they were thought to be migrating to and from summer breeding grounds far to the west. Lately, however, as many as 60 of the birds have been seen throughout the summer at Michigan’s Pointe Mouillee State Game Area.

The American White Pelican is a large bird with a nine foot wingspan. In recent decades, their population has been increasing. They feed by simultaneously swimming and skimming the water with their large lower beak pouches, often in coordination with one another, to catch fish.

Most of these pelicans winter along the U.S and Mexican Gulf coast or on the southern California coast and along the Baja Peninsula. In the spring, most migrate to nesting areas near or on Canadian inland waters in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, some in the Dakotas in the U.S.

Pointe Mouillee State Game Area is just south of the convergence of the Detroit River and Huron River at the western end of Lake Erie

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/05/26/pelican-sightings-rise-michigan-lake-erie/637363002/

Water Quality Enforcement in the Scott Pruitt Era

The appointment of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was an abomination. His hostility toward environmental protection has been clear, as has his intent to dismantle protections long ago enacted into law.

Negotiation with Pruitt and his subordinates is a waste of time. As concerns water quality, U.S. subsidies to agriculture that push expansion of cultivation into marginal lands, requiring heavy fertilization, has resulted in massive amounts of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to run off into lakes and streams, generating algal blooms, oxygen depletion and dead zones. This is particularly evident in the Maumee River watershed and the western basin of Lake Erie.

In order to compel Pruitt’s EPA to restrict nutrient runoff, we need to study the elements and procedures, get organized and head to court.

The fastest, most concise way for the serious student to become acquainted with the struggle for water quality in the U.S., including related politics, government and law, is to read the appellate decision in the Chesapeake Bay case, American Farm Bureau, et al. vs. EPA, et al. (which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review). http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/16/09/151234P.pdf

The agriculture/environment conflict appears again in a pending federal case concerning impairment by ag pollution in the western basin of Lake Erie.  http://elpc.org/newsroom/howards-blog/elpc-litigation-driving-results-ohio-epa-recognizes-reality-lake-erie-impaired-pollution-key-next-steps  

Accommodating nutrient runoff - Shutterstock

Algal bloom in western Lake Erie - NASA

Water Pollution Reduction Credits

The type of non-point source water pollution reduction project described below may be useful in the Saginaw River watershed, the Black River watershed (upstream of Port Huron and the St. Clair River) and smaller tributaries to Lake St. Clair, such as the Clinton River, Thames River and Belle River.

The Great Lakes Commission* has announced plans to implement water quality trading as a means of reducing the phosphorus overload in western Lake Erie. The principals are the states of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan and the Province of Ontario. Agricultural, environmental and business interests are participating, as well.

The plan targets farms, these days the greatest source by far of waterborne phosphorus. The concept is to permit those most successful in reducing phosphorus running off their fields to sell credits to those less successful, creating competition to be sellers of credits, rather than buyers. Presumably, sanctions more costly than the credits will be imposed on the worst polluters.

Planners hope for field trials next year. (This observer’s view: Don’t hold your breath.)

Called the “Erie P Market,” the project depends on being able to measure reductions in nutrient pollution. Trading would be limited to a portion of such reductions. Funding for the project is being provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“The two-year project also aims to develop a common approach for who can trade with whom, and how, where and when trading can occur, as well as examine ways to verify that conservation practices are working to improve water quality.”

http://glc.org/announce/2016-07-eriepmarket-launch/?platform=hootsuite

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* “The Great Lakes Commission is a United States interstate agency established in 1955 through the Great Lakes Compact, in order to ‘promote the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin,’ which includes the Saint Lawrence River. The commission provides policy development, coordination, and advocacy on issues of regional concern, as well as communication and research services.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Commission

Separate Storm and Sanitary Sewers!

Whether you live in the watershed for Lake St. Clair, Saginaw Bay or western Lake Erie, there’s a lesson for us all in the experience of people in Erie PA.

Presque Isle Bay / Erie PA

The Erie Times-News said in an August 21, 2015 editorial about algal blooms near Toledo OH the previous year:

“The city of Erie spent millions separating its storm and sanitary sewers, while many Great Lakes communities still haven't done it. The effect on [Presque Isle Bay’s] water quality has been so profound that we now have an annual swim to mark its improvement, and it has been removed from the Great Lakes Area of Concern List.”

http://www.goerie.com/article/20150821/OPINION01/308219982/our-view-algae-blooms-aptly-prompt-alert-on-lake-erie

http://www.greeneriepa.org/water/delisting-presque-isle-bay

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Editorial Condemns Ohio’s Plan for Lake Erie

***  Buffalo News Pulls No Punches  ***

Buffalo Harbor Entrance

Following are selections from an editorial in the Buffalo News, June 15, 2016 about Ohio's Western Basin of Lake Erie Collaborative Agreement Implementation Plan.

“New York has paid a price over the years for its geographic location at the receiving end of Ohio’s pollution. Acid rain pelted our lakes and forests, deadening some in the Adirondack wilderness. Agricultural runoff from Ohio poisons Lake Erie, creating toxic algae blooms that are moving ever closer to Buffalo where, without intervention, they may eventually threaten the water supplies of many municipalities. It has to stop, not just for New York’s sake, but for Ohio’s, Pennsylvania’s and Ontario’s.” [AND MICHIGAN'S - J. Lang]

“Assemblyman Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, said last week. ‘If the toxic algae blooms continue to spread, Buffalo and Western New York could be at risk. It is clear that Ohio has not gone far enough, and New York is threatened by Ohio’s inadequate plan.’ “

“That’s why Washington – or the federal courts – will have to be involved … Ohio has frequently been slow to acknowledge its role in causing environmental harm to its neighbors.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/buffalo-news-editorials/ohios-pollution-control-effort-wont-do-enough-to-reduce-the-growth-of-dangerous-algae-20160615

http://www.epa.ohio.gov/News/OnlineNewsRoom/NewsReleases/TabId/6596/ArticleId/949/language/en-US/state-of-ohio-releases-draft-plan-to-reduce-nutrients-in-lake-erie-basin.aspx

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Monroe MI Depends on Ohio Initiative

The City of Monroe, Michigan on the Lake Erie shore, 17 miles north of Toledo, Ohio, is a small town Mecca for tourism and water-related activities. Consequently, water quality in Lake Erie is a major concern.

Downtown Monroe and River Raisin

Of course, the State of Michigan has a hand in the game, but the primary responsibility for improving water quality in Lake Erie falls to the State of Ohio under an agreement between those two states and the Province of Ontario. Limiting phosphorus running off farm fields and into the lake, where it feeds algal blooms, is the first order of business.

Last month, the State of Ohio announced plans to cut the amount of phosphorus entering western Lake Erie by 20% by 2020, and by 40% by 2025, using the amount of phosphorus in 2008 as a baseline. A year ago, the governors of Ohio and Michigan and the premier of Ontario committed to those targets, the same goals agreed to by the U.S. and Canadian governments.

That’s a tall order. Some water quality experts doubt those goals can be met without drastic measures.

Ohio expects to improve monitoring at water treatment plants, identify watersheds more prone to erosion and set targets for phosphorus reduction in each county, among other steps.

Last year, Gov. Kasich signed legislation that prohibits spreading fertilizer on ground that is frozen, snow-covered or saturated, or if rain is forecast within 12 to 24 hours, depending on the type of fertilizer.

Critics say Ohio must compel compliance if the new limitations are not achieved voluntarily.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/midwest-states-target-algae-blooms-in-waterways-1465772363

Big Ag's Big Lie About Lake Erie Impairment

Spraying Manure

I support cleaning up the nutrient overload in western Lake Erie. The cleanup requires restrictions on manure and chemical fertilizers running off farm fields in the Maumee River watershed, the largest part of which is in Ohio.

The governor of Ohio, his administrators in Ohio’s environmental, agriculture and natural resources departments and their colleagues in the Farm Bureau oppose such restrictions. Tougher pollution controls will cut into the profits of big corporate farm interests which are Farm Bureau’s benefactors and major political campaign contributors.

A long time lobbyist for the Farm Bureau, now Gov. Kasich’s spokesman on the Lake Erie impairment issue, has been telling people in Toledo and elsewhere that the Clean Water Act does not apply to agriculture, so the financial burden of any USEPA enforcement would fall on municipal sewage treatment plants. Both elements of that statement are blatant falsehoods. The Farm Bureau lost that argument in the Chesapeake Bay federal lawsuit, as the governor and his spokesman know very well.

Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are unregulated or under-regulated manure factories. The operators spray millions upon millions of gallons of animal waste on farm fields in the Maumee watershed. The manure spread on fields far exceeds what is necessary as fertilizer for plant growth. The excess runs off into the Maumee and its tributaries, then into Lake Erie, fueling algal blooms.

In my view, we should determine whether Farm Bureau lobbying has morphed into ‘regulatory capture’ (see Wikipedia definition), and regulatory capture into RICO fraud. Examine it yourself. If the elements are there, the U.S. Department of Justice should act.

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Canadian Influences on Shared Waters

LAKE ST. CLAIR:  Sometimes we forget that our neighbors across the border share with us similar concerns about water quality in Lake St. Clair.

Norman DeBono of the London (Ontario) Free Press wrote earlier this spring that heavy rains caused sewage overflows at London, polluting the Thames River, which flows into Lake St. Clair. City records show 59,473 cubic meters of raw sewage and 91,171 cubic meters of partially treated sewage were discharged to the river in the first quarter of the year.

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/04/10/rainfall-fuels-raw-sewage-dumpings-into-thames

Inadequately treated sewage contains phosphorus, which feeds algal blooms in Lake St. Clair and farther downstream in Lake Erie.

Another cause for concern is suspended sediment in the Thames River, much of it erosion from Ontario farms. A sediment plume clouding Lake St. Clair, beginning at the mouth of the river, can be seen often in satellite photos.

LAKE ERIE:  As you might expect, Canada monitors water quality in the Great Lakes. Some Canadian researchers look for toxins in Great Lakes fish. Results of recent tests in Lake Erie warrant our attention.

“Since the 1970s there has been a dramatic reduction in contaminants in Great Lakes. Harmful pollutants have been phased out or banned resulting in over 90% reduction levels for some contaminants. As the ecosystem recovers, contaminant levels continue to decline at most locations, with some exceptions. For example, a slight upward trend in contaminant levels in some Lake Erie fish is occurring.”

https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-great-lakes-strategy-2016-progress-report

Anticipating 'Impaired' Lake Erie

Just trying to get my head around some generalities about an EPA ‘impaired’ designation for Lake Erie.

Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario

The entire lake is surrounded by Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and the Province of Ontario; thus, U.S.- Canadian treaties come into play, and the International Joint Commission (IJC) has a role. (By contrast, EPA’s plan to clean up Chesapeake Bay involves six states, but there is no international connection.)

If the ‘impaired’ label is applied only to the western basin of Lake Erie, then the states directly involved are Michigan and Ohio, plus Ontario, so treaties and the IJC remain pertinent.

Because a critical feature of an impaired western basin is the Maumee River watershed, Michigan, INDIANA and Ohio have to be taken into consideration for certain aspects of an EPA determination, but perhaps not Ontario (unless an indirect association is compelled by the Pakootas and Detroit Edison cases, U.S. and Canadian, respectively), nor treaties, nor IJC.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if somebody has sorted all of this out already?

(3) Lake St. Clair Delta acts as Native Mussel Sanctuary

--- third and last in a series ---

In The Voice, October 2, 2014, Jim Bloch wrote a story titled, “Written off as doomed, native mussels survive zebra mussel invasion.” Excerpts:

“The causes of the decline and extinction of fresh water mussels are among the same conditions that led the St. Clair River to be classified as an environmental area of concern in 1985: Habitat destruction, pollution, commercial exploitation and invasive species.

Lake St. Clair and delta

“In the case of the Great Lakes, invasive species in the form of zebra mussels and quagga mussels came close to wiping out native mussels, already in a perilous state when the invaders arrived in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“ ‘Come the late 1980s and early 1990s, all the native mussel populations crashed in Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie and the Great Lakes in general,’ said [Dr. David T.] Zanatta.”

“Average density of native mussels before the arrival of zebra mussels was two per square meter in Lake St. Clair. By 1990, zebra mussel density was at 1,600 per square meter.”

“By 1994, there were almost no native mussels left in the lake, with zebra now at 3,000+ per square meter.”

“ ‘But there was reason for hope,’ said Zanatta. ‘Remnant populations of native mussels were beginning to be found in coastal wetlands in western Lake Erie in the late 1990s.’ ”

"In addition, zebra mussel populations started showing dramatic declines between 1994 and 2001 in Lake St. Clair, even though their sheer numbers remained staggering."

“ ‘In my master’s work, we found that there was a large native mussel refuge in the St. Clair Delta,’ said Zanatta, referring to samplings he participated in 1999-2001.”

“...’There are 37 species known historically from Lake St. Clair. We’ve recorded 22 species actually in the lake in the last decade despite all sorts of pretty negative impacts.’ ”

“In expanded research funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Zanatta found that the St. Clair Delta and western Lake Erie ‘were the most healthy areas of the lakes in terms of native mussel abundances.’ “

http://www.voicenews.com/articles/2014/10/02/news/doc542d9541162c0893321344.txt

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From the abstract of Distribution of native mussel (unionidae) assemblages in coastal areas of Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, and connecting channels, twenty-five years after a dreissenid invasion, a journal article by David T. Zanatta, et al. published in 2015 (excerpts):

“Despite the invasion, unionids have survived in several areas in the presence of dreissenid mussels.”

Thompson Bay, Presque Isle, Pennsylvania

“We...documented species abundance and diversity in coastal areas of lakes St. Clair and Erie. The highest-quality assemblages of native mussels (densities, richness, and diversity) appear to be concentrated in the St. Clair delta, where abundance continues to decline, as well as in in [sic] Thompson Bay of Presque Isle [Pennsylvania] in Lake Erie and in just a few coastal wetlands and drowned river-mouths in the western basin of Lake Erie. The discovery of several new refuge areas suggests that unionids have a broader distribution within the region than previously thought.”

https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70160708

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From the abstract of Characteristics of a refuge for native freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) in Lake St. Clair, a journal article by D.J. McGoldrick, et al., last updated January 29, 2016 (excerpts):

“The Lake St. Clair delta ...  provides an important refuge for native freshwater mussels (Unionidae) wherein 22 of the ~35 historical species co-occur with invasive dreissenids.”

“Zebra mussel infestation of unionids in the delta appears to be mitigated by dominant offshore currents, which limit densities of zebra mussel veligers [planktonic larvae] in nearshore compared to offshore waters …”

“Glycogen concentrations in the tissues of a common and widespread species in the delta (Lampsilis siliquoidea) suggest that zebra mussels may be adversely affecting physiological condition of unionids in a portion of the Lake St. Clair delta. Physiological condition and community structure of unionids within the delta may also be influenced by differences in food quantity and quality resulting from the uneven distribution of water flowing from the St. Clair River. The delta likely supports the largest living unionid [?] includes several species that have been listed as Endangered or Threatened in Canada and/or the state of Michigan, making it an important refuge for the conservation of native unionids.”

http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/documents/publications/2009/newton_b_2009.html

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Round Goby

Why no mention, you might ask, of quagga mussels? Don’t know. Maybe Lake St. Clair and the delta are too warm and shallow for them.

And why haven’t the zebras wiped out the bottom of the food web in Lake St. Clair, as the quaggas have done in lakes Huron and Michigan? Possibly the abundance of nutrients like phosphorus in Lake St. Clair (and western Lake Erie) can produce phytoplankton such as algae faster than the zebras can devour it, leaving plenty for tiny animals that become food for an invasive fish, the round goby, now thriving and the favorite prey of some of the popular game fish in Lake St. Clair.

In any event, this saga is far from over. The balance will work out over decades, altered from time to time by further agents of change.

Lake Erie: Making Political Hay While the Sun Shines

The 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Protocol and Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP) require Canada, the U.S. and the International Joint Commission (IJC) to examine the decline of water quality in Lake Erie and arrange fixes.

One result of that effort has been a tenfold increase in political happytalk among the state and provincial authorities assigned to grapple with the problem. Is their optimism warranted? How many of them will still be in office when the results are in?


The pending Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan agreed to by leaders in Ontario, Ohio and Michigan is an ambitious, 10 year venture to eliminate 40% of the phosphorus overload by which Lake Erie is impaired. We haven’t been told yet precisely how this vision will be implemented.


A lot of residents, business people and farmers invested in the western Lake Erie watershed are heartened by such talk.


Nothing wrong with setting a very high bar as long as everybody understands the odds are long. It’s irresponsible to build great public expectations based on politically inspired pipe dreams that nobody in authority really believes will be met.

False hope is destructive.