NWF: State Dept. Keystone XL Analysis Fatally Flawed

March 1 – The U.S. State Department, which is overseeing the permit application for TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline issued a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) today. The SEIS release wraps up another stage of the highly controversial environmental review and kicks off a round of public comment that will eventually lead to a final decision from President Obama within several months. National Wildlife Federation has several major concerns with the analysis, but most objectionable is the claim that “approval or denial of the proposed Project is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands.”

“This analysis fails in its review of climate impacts, threats to endangered wildlife like whooping cranes and woodland caribou, and the concerns of tribal communities,” said Jim Lyon, vice president for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation.

• For more, read our latest blog post on this issue: “Will Obama Go Back to 1984 on Keystone XL?“

Oil Spill Case: BP Needs to Be Held Accountable

February 25 - BP is facing tens of billions of dollars in penalties as the U.S. Department of Justice and the British oil giant get ready to start trial Monday over civil charges stemming from the 2010 Gulf oil disaster. However, a report in the Wall Street Journal today suggests that the Department of Justice may be considering proposing a settlement.

“The Gulf of Mexico is more than just a place where oil companies make enormous profits—it’s a public jewel where our children swim, where wildlife live, and where we get the food we eat,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

• For more check out the latest BP blog:  ”BP’s Gulf Oil Spill Trial 101: A Primer“

New NWF Report Raises Questions on Need for Lake Michigan Diversion

February 25 – A new National Wildlife Federation report raises questions on whether a Wisconsin community needs to divert water from the Great Lakes to meet its water needs. The City of Waukesha is applying to divert Lake Michigan water. The application is the first since the passage of the Great Lakes Compact which bans diversions of Great Lakes water and promotes wise water use within the eight states and two Canadian provinces bordering the lakes. Many conservation groups view Waukesha’s application as precedent-setting.

“Our analysis finds that Waukesha might not need to divert Great Lakes water to meet its water needs,” said Marc Smith, Senior Policy Manger with National Wildlife Federation. “The city has options on the table that may satisfy their water needs. In short, they have not justified their need for a Lake Michigan diversion.”

• Download the full report: An Analysis of the City of Waukesha Diversion Application (pdf)

And now here are highlights from NWF in the news:

• The Washington Post: Blocking Keystone XL won’t save the climate, State Department analysis says
• Wall Street Journal: Accusations Fly as Trial Over Gulf Oil Spill Begins (subscription required)
• NPR: Witnesses To Take The Stand In BP Trial
• UPI: Green groups want BP held accountable
• Times-Picayune: Environmental leaders weigh in on the start of BP oil spill trial
• Mother Jones: Top 4 Reasons the US Still Doesn’t Have a Single Offshore Wind Turbine
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: National Wildlife Federation questions Waukesha water request
• Detroit Free Press: Warmer winters bedevil moose in Minnesota
• CBC News: Warming Lake Superior stresses wildlife, observers say

For more visit www.nwf.org/news

Lake Michigan, March 2012. Source: Flickr (farlane)

Skiing on Lake Michigan

When I was 10, we rented a house along the shores of Lake Michigan for a winter weekend. Growing up in Chicago, I had spent many hours playing on the beach in the summertime. But, this was my first visit to the lake during winter. And it was magical, like something out of an actual winter wonderland. We spent hours cross-country skiing through forests frosted with icicles.

Most amazing of all was the lake. In contrast to the summer waves lapping the shore, there was ice extending probably hundreds of yards out into the lake. The ice was more than thick enough for us to ski right out on the lake! I still remember how thrilling this felt!

After a winter like 2011-2012, these sorts of memories feel distant, almost archaic. With this year’s warm winter weather, the lakes have had very little ice. Satellite images indicate that only 5 percent of the lakes froze over, much less than the around 50 percent ice cover that was typical when I was a child.

Great Lakes Are Losing Ice

It’s not just this year. The annual mean lake ice area observed on Lake Michigan has declined by 77 percent from 1973 to 2010, according to a recent paper published by Jia Wang and other researchers at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the University of Michigan. In fact, all of the lakes have seen a long term decline in ice cover, with an average loss of 71 percent.

The authors point to increasing winter air temperatures as an explanation. Over the same time period, winter temperatures increased by 2.7 – 4.0 degrees Fahrenheit on average in the Great Lakes region. Water temperatures are increasing even more. With less ice cover to reflect the Sun’s rays back to space, the lakes can absorb more heat each year.

Of course, the decline in ice cover isn’t a steady downward march. The year-to-year variability caused by natural cycles is still an important factor in how much ice will form in any particular year. This new paper also sheds light on the roles of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation in controlling the short-term variability.

More than Ice at Stake

The loss of winter-time ice in the Great Lakes has ripple effects for wildlife and outdoor activities alike.  NWF staffer Melinda Koslow summarizes some potential impacts of lost ice: dangerous algal blooms, the loss of protection for fish eggs and near-shore wetland habitats, and increased evaporation leading to lower lake water levels. Meanwhile ice fishing activities have been curtailed across the Midwest and in other northern states this year.

Take Action

The last few months serve as a window into what winter will usually look like in a warmer world. Let’s also use this winter as a wake-up call to start taking actions to preserve the outdoor winter traditions that we each treasure.

Email officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to let them know you support limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The reason: The Great Lakes Commission on Tuesday released its long-awaited study of how to separate Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System and the Mississippi River basin. (Go here for more details)

The Chicago Waterway System, built in the late 1800s, is a network of canals that created an unnatural link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin; it is also the pipeline through which Asian carp and other invasive species move between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins.

The study by the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative — which cost $2 million and was completed in just 14 months — provided three options for separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.  Most importantly, the study showed that separating the two basins could be achieved without causing flooding in Chicago or harming the regional economy.

The Great Lakes Commission study provided three options for separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.

Keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes will take a Herculean effort by many government agencies. But it is clearly a war worth fighting. Allowing Asian carp to invade the Great Lakes would cost far more than preventing this ecological disaster.

Scientists have concluded that separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin is the only permanent solution to the invasive species crisis that is wreaking havoc on both of these massive ecosystems.

It’s important to note that the Great Lakes Commission produced its study in 14 months. The U.S. Army Corps Engineer’s study of how best to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers from invading Lake Michigan won’t be completed until late 2015, at the earliest. The timeline for the Army Corps study is simply unacceptable.

It took the United States four years to win World War II and a decade to put a man on the moon. At its current pace, the Army Corps will take at least eight years — from the time Congress authorized the Asian carp study — to propose solutions; implementing a solution will take several more years.

Asian carp could be spreading throughout the Great Lakes by the time the Army Corps proposes a permanent solution.

The Chicago Waterway System created an unnatural link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.

Much of the information in this timeline was culled from a series of articles written by Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Egan’s outstanding work brought the Asian carp crisis to the nation’s attention and he continues to break news about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers questionable handling of this looming ecological disaster.

ASIAN CARP TIMELINE

1963: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imports grass carp from Malaysia to a federal research facility in Arkansas.

1966: First believed escape of Asian carp into U.S. waters, in Arkansas.

1970: State of Arkansas begins stocking grass carp in weed-choked waters throughout the state.

1973: An Arkansas fish farmer who ordered the first commercial import of grass carp from Taiwan unintentionally receives the nation’s first shipment of bighead, silver and black carp.

1974: The Arkansas Fish and Game Commission agrees to take the bighead, silver and black carp from the fish farmer who mistakenly received the fish from Taiwan. The state begins breeding the fish and reports it stocked more than 380,000 grass carp in Arkansas waters.

1979: Arkansas Game and Fish, with a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, begins using silver and bighead carp in sewage treatment experiments.

1980: The first report of silver carp swimming in the wild.

Early 1990s: Flooding allows silver and bighead carp in Arkansas fish farms to escape into the Mississippi River.

2002: Electric fish barrier is installed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, about 25 miles from where the Chicago River connects with Lake Michigan. The barrier was originally built to prevent round gobies in Lake Michigan from migrating into the Mississippi River basin via the Chicago canal system. Gobies breached the barrier before it was completed, so government officials opted to use it to stop the northerly migration of Asian carp.

Late 2002: Biologists find Asian carp 21 miles downstream of the experimental fish barrier, roughly 45 miles from the Lake Michigan shoreline in Chicago.

2003: After a common carp is tracked swimming through the electric fish barrier, operators increase the voltage. The barrier then fails for 25 hours, but government officials doubt that any Asian carp passed through it during the power outage.

2007: Congress directs the Army Corps of Engineers to find ways to halt the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins. Three years passes before the Army Corps begins the study.

November 2008: A study commissioned by the Alliance for the Great Lakes concludes that hydrologic separation of Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System and Mississippi River basin is technically feasible.

November 2009: The Army Corps of Engineers discloses that 32 positive samples of Asian carp DNA were found beyond the electric fish barrier; some were found within nine miles of Lake Michigan. In response to those findings, National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups call for permanent separation of Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.

January 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Michigan’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the closure of locks in the Chicago Waterway System to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. Hours later, the Corps of Engineers announces it has found Asian carp DNA in waters connected to Lake Michigan.

June 2010: Federal officials rule out closing locks in the Chicago Waterway System to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. That same month, one live bighead carp was found in Lake Calumet, which is several miles south of Lake Michigan but directly connected to it.

February 2010: President Obama pledges $78 million to prevent Asian carp in the Mississippi River and Chicago Waterway System from invading the Great Lakes.

April 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a request to permanently separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River to prevent the movement of Asian carp and other harmful aquatic invasive species between the two basins. The attorneys general of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and New York filed the case.

July 2010: Asian carp are found in Indiana’s Wabash River, a few miles from where the Wabash often floods and flows into the Maumee River, a major tributary of Lake Erie.

December 2010: The Corps of Engineers launches its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, known as GLMRIS. The agency announces that the study of how to keep Asian carp and other invasive species from moving between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins will be completed in 2015. Conservation groups and some members of Congress call on the Army Corps to complete the study within 18 months, but the agency refuses to alter its timeline.

March 2011: The Corps of Engineers acknowledges that the electric barrier in the Chicago Waterway system doesn’t repel all sizes of Asian carp.

June 2011: A group of prominent scientists, after concluding that an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes is imminent, calls for the hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

July 2011: For the third time in 2011, the Corps of Engineers finds Asian carp DNA in Lake Calumet, which is directly connected to Lake Michigan.

December 2011: A Corps of Engineers study reveals that the volume of cargo hauled on the Chicago Waterway System decreased by nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 2009. The study discredits the claim that separating the Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System — to halt the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins — will devastate Chicago’s economy. Go here for more study details.

January 2012: The U.S. Geological Survey concludes that three of Ohio’s largest rivers — the Maumee, Sandusky and Grand — provide suitable habitat for Asian carp, which could allow the fish to establish a reproducing population in western Lake Erie.

January 2012: The study by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative provides three options for creating a permanent hydrologic barrier between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Building the barriers would cost between $3 billion and $9 billion and take at least a decade to complete, according to the study.

Out-compete native fish and attack boaters as an Asian carp in Invasion!! (Screen capture)

Invasion!! , a video game by the MacArthur Foundation, lets gamers play as a villainous Asian carp infesting the Great Lakes. As a member of this invasive species, players steal food from native fish like perch, jump in the air and knock screaming boaters and birds into the water.

Work as the Carp Czar to stop Asian carp in Invasion!! (Screen capture)

You can help fight these destructive flying fish on screen and off. Click here to protect the Great Lakes from the real Asian carp invasion.

Asian carp/ Photo courtesy United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Finally.

The invasive fish could be part of the U.S. Senate’s 2012 budget vote. The Senate may vote as early as this week on a budget amendment that would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up its study of how best to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi River basin from reaching the Great Lakes.

For that we can thank U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. She introduced the Stop Asian Carp amendment to the budget bill.

Stabenow’s amendment would direct the Army Corps to complete its study of how best to separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin within 18 months. As it stands now, the Corps won’t complete its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) until 2015. That’s far too long — Asian carp are on the verge of invading Lake Michigan.

Four species of Asian carp were imported to commercial fish farms in Arkansas in the 1960s; they later escaped into the Mississippi River. The gluttonous invaders now dominate vast areas of the Mississippi River basin. If allowed to reach the Great Lakes, the fish would pose potentially deadly threats to boaters and could devastate the region’s $7 billion fishery.

The Army Corps is currently relying on three electric fences in the Chicago Waterway System to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers from reaching Lake Michigan. But those electric fences don’t repel all sizes of Asian carp, according to the Army Corps’ own studies.

Researchers have already found Asian carp DNA, and one live Asian carp, in waters near Chicago that are connected to Lake Michigan. Despite the imminent threat of these menacing fish invading the Great Lakes, the Army Corps is content to study the problem for another four years.

The Stabenow amendment would ensure that agencies charged with protecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins have the information needed to re-imagine the Chicago Waterway System to protect U.S. waters that provide drinking water, jobs and recreational opportunities to millions of Americans.

Please take a moment today to call or e-mail your U.S. senators and urge them to vote for the Stop Asian Carp amendment. It is our best hope of keeping these invasive fish from laying siege to the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem.

Sleeping Bear Dunes | Credit: Jennifer Janssen, NWF

“Before we eat,” the host will announce, “I’d like to go around the table and have everyone say what they are thankful for this year.”

The collective gulp is almost audible.

I know this to be true because I’ve been guilty in the past of subjecting my Thanksgiving Dinner guests to this unique form of torture.

The first person facing the question gets off easy.

“I’m thankful for my family,” he or she will say. Everyone will nod in agreement.

Others will express gratitude for having a job, devoted friends or an adoring pet.

Before long, hungry guests desperate for an answer that won’t offend friends or relatives are offering thanks for such trivial things as the weather.

Great Lakes Thanks for Thanksgiving

In anticipation of the Thanksgiving Dinner interrogation, I’m offering up a list of things I am thankful for in 2011. This list focuses on the Great Lakes because I live in the Great Lakes basin and I write about issues facing the lakes.

Besides, I’m pretty sure none of my relatives will beat me to the punch with any of these offerings. (Feel free to use any of these to shock or awe your friends and relatives).

With all due respect to family, friends and employers, here are three things I am thankful for in 2011.

• The Great Lakes and, more specifically, Lake Michigan.These wondrous lakes slake my thirst, offer countless recreational opportunities and provide respite from the grind of life.

• Ongoing efforts to restore the Great Lakes, which are yielding tremendous benefits. Congress and President Obama over the past two years have approved $775 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The GLRI, along with other Great Lakes programs, are cleaning up toxic hot spots, reducing polluted storm water runoff, restoring wetlands and bolstering fish and wildlife populations. One of the most dramatic examples is in Lake Ontario, where wild Atlantic salmon are spawning naturally again in rivers. The salmon, which are native to Lake Ontario and its tributaries, were sustained for years by hatcheries. The Wall Street Journal recently published a fine article about the lake’s Atlantic salmon recovery.

• A filthy coal-fired power plant near Chicago will be shut down in 2012, two years ahead of schedule. The Chicago Tribune reported that Dominion Resources would close its State Line Power Plant, which is visible from the Chicago Skyway, instead of making the huge investment needed to reduce air pollution at the facility. The power plant is one of the nation’s worst air polluters, according to the Tribune. Closing the facility will mean cleaner air for everyone downwind; it will also be another step toward reducing America’s reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming and cause asthma and other lung ailments for millions of Americans. Clean air — it’s as American as Mom and apple pie.

So there you have it. I’m off to visit family for a day of food, fellowship and football.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The GOP-led House passed a Coast Guard authorization bill that contained two bad amendments: Weak ballast water regulations, which will allow ocean freighters to carry more invasive species into the Great Lakes; and an exemption that will allow the coal-powered SS Badger ferry to continue dumping 500 tons of toxic coal ash into Lake Michigan every summer.

It’s bad enough that House members from outside of the Great Lakes basin supported legislation that would harm the world’s largest source of surface freshwater. For GOP lawmakers from the Great Lakes region to support the legislation was just shameful.

And yet, some lawmakers boasted about sponsoring amendments that authorize the SS Badger’s use of Lake Michigan as a landfill for coal ash containing lead, mercury and other toxins. This is the same Lake Michigan that is home to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which was recently voted The Most Beautiful Place in America.

Legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives will allow the SS Badger to continue dumping tons of toxic coal ash into Lake Michigan.

The pollution-permitting exemption for the SS Badger was cosponsored by Republican Congressmen Tom Petri, of Wisconsin and Bill Huizenga of Michigan.

Huizenga, whose district includes a large stretch of the Lake Michigan coast, said the federal rules requiring the Badger to stop dumping its coal ash into the lake by 2012 were “an example of how federal government regulations threaten small businesses.” Read his statement here.

His claim doesn’t hold water.

The Badger’s owners agreed in 2008 to install a cleaner fuel system and end the coal ash dumping in 2012. But when the company didn’t get a $14 million federal grant to pay for a new propulsion system, it hired lobbyists to secure an exemption to the federal regulations.

Huizenga said the Badger exemption would protect a ship that is vital to the economy of the communities where it docks.

Here’s a news flash: A healthy Lake Michigan is far more valuable to those communities — and the entire region — than one antiquated, polluting ferry.

The House bill now goes to the Senate for its consideration. Hopefully, the Senate or President Obama will sink this bad legislation.

It’s ironic that Rep. Huizenga’s Web page features a scenic photo of Lake Michigan waves crashing against the lighthouse in Grand Haven.

The photo implies that Huizenga cherishes the Great Lakes. I just can’t comprehend how someone who treasures the lakes would support the SS Badger’s cynical, wanton pollution of Lake Michigan.

The site of a bluff collapse at the We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant in Oak Creek, Wis. is shown on Oct. 31. A section of cliff the size of a football field gave way, creating a mudslide that sent a pickup truck and other equipment tumbling into Lake Michigan and swept several construction trailers toward the beach. (AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Mark Hoffman)

A massive coal ash spill in Lake Michigan on Halloween was further proof that coal-fired power plants are anything but clean, as the industry claims.

It’s bad enough that coal-fired power plants contribute to global warming, kill millions of fish while inhaling huge quantities of water and spew mercury into the atmosphere that poisons fish across the Great Lakes region. It’s now becoming clear that the huge quantities of toxic coal ash stockpiled at coal-fired power plants around the Great Lakes and across the U.S. could be environmental nightmares waiting to happen.

That became painfully evident on Monday, when a large section of bluff at the We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant near Milwaukee collapsed, sending a torrent of coal ash, mud and other debris into Lake Michigan.

The incident left an oily sheen and a large black plume on the surface of Lake   Michigan. Coal ash isn’t just dirty — it contains numerous heavy metals and other toxins. Crews are trying to clean up the mess and government agencies are investigating possible effects on Lake Michigan.

Ironically, the spill at the We Energies facility came as Congress is debating stricter regulations on the use and disposal of coal ash. Go here to read a summary of the proposed regulations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got serious about regulating coal ash in 2009, after a spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant sent more than 5-million cubic yards of coal ash cascading down a mountain valley. The Tennessee spill polluted a river, killed fish and flooded homes; it turned more than 300 acres of land into a polluted moonscape.

Coal ash landfills like the ones that ruptured in Tennessee and Wisconsin are common in the U.S. Many are located along rivers and lakes, where power plants get their cooling water.

Leaking coal ash landfills are potentially a huge and costly problem. Coal ash contains a variety of toxins that can cause health problems, including mercury, cadmium, chromium and arsenic.

The EPA concluded in 2010 that contaminants in coal ash, if not properly managed, could leach into groundwater, poison drinking water sources and threaten public health. Based on those concerns, and the known toxins in coal ash, the EPA proposed regulating coal ash as a hazardous substance.

But Congress is balking.  The House of Representatives blocked the measure recently and the Senate is considering a similar move.

That was disappointing but not surprising: The coal lobby is enormously powerful in Washington and has played a key role in derailing efforts to reduce air pollution from coal-fired power plants that contributes to global warming, causes asthma in humans and poisons fish with mercury.

Whether coal ash poses an acute public health threat may still be subject to debate. But this much is clear: The federal government needs stronger regulations on how and where utilities dispose of coal ash.

The coal industry would like Americans to believe that coal is a clean source of energy. That, of course, is a ludicrous claim — coal-fired power plants rank among the nation’s worst air polluters.

One can only wonder if the coal ash spills in Tennessee and Wisconsin could have been prevented if the energy industry spent less time and money on the misleading “clean coal” advertising campaign and focused more on safely managing its toxic byproducts.

Danielle Korpalski 2011.

In honor of May bike month Danielle Korpalski and I tuned up our bikes to partake in a “blue hour” of epic proportions.

We participated in the Zoo-de-Mackinac bike ride, a ride that starts near Petoskey Michigan and follows Lakes Michigan and Huron to Mackinac City. Over 3,000 people did the same.

For us this ride serves as a 51- mile reminder of the serene yet threatened Great Lakes ecosystems we seek to protect.

This ride covers only a small piece of a very large and important coastline ecosystem, however. The Great Lakes coastline habitat spans about 10,000 miles. At the rate Danielle and I traveled, 51 miles a day, it would take us about 6 and a half months to bike its entirety!

Danielle Korpalski 2011.

Our route followed one of the most scenic roads in the United States. One could also travel this route by car but at the expense of missing sounds of bird chirps, wildlife scattering in the grass and wind howling, smells of fresh pine and budding flowers and visual images of true greens and intense blues of nature. …not to mention the expense of increasing carbon emissions.

This ride inspired many to venture out-of-car-doors including Ronald whom I met on the tour:

I started biking last August and am continuing to bike as much as possible. The experience is so much more complete on a bike than in a car. – Ronald K., Kalamazoo, Michigan

Danielle Korpalski 2011.

To connect with nature you don’t have to ride 51 miles on a bike. There are many ways to enjoy your green or “blue” hour that include walking, fishing, gardening or reading underneath a tree. May is also Garden for Wildlife month.

See National Wildlife Federation’s Get Outside page for more information and share your nature stories with friends.

Also take an opportunity to support the wildlife of the Great Lakes coasts. Perhaps you may someday experience a “blue hour” yourself!

“Well, I wrote a book about the Great Lakes,” I said. “And I work for the National Wildlife Federation, an organization that works hard as any to protect and restore the Great Lakes.”

He wasn’t satisfied. He wanted tangible examples.

“People need to wake up: The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of all the freshwater on the planet and we treat them like (crap),” he said. “Cities dump raw sewage into the lakes, industry pollutes and now we’ve got Asian carp at our doorstep. This is the Saudi Arabia of freshwater and we’re screwing it up.”

Initially, I was put off by the aggressive nature of his questions. But I quickly realized that what I perceived as hostility toward me was nothing more than one man’s frustration at our collective failure to treat the Great Lakes like the natural treasure they are.

Much has been done over the past three decades to reduce the amount of pollution discharged into the lakes, clean up toxic hot spots and restore fish and wildlife habitat. But serious problems remain.

In honor of Earth Day, I’ve taken a crack at compiling Earth Day Commandments for the Great Lakes. I offer these not to make light of the Bible or to be environmentally pious. (Lord knows I can do more to be a better steward of His creation).

There are many things that individuals, communities and businesses can and should do to protect and restore the lakes. Here are 10 to get you started:

1. Conserve water: Residents of the Great Lakes basin rank among the world’s worst water wasters. The lakes contain a phenomenal amount of water but it is not an endless supply. Excessive consumption and global warming are already causing water shortages in some areas. Are you a water hog?
2. Conserve energy: Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the Great Lakes. Water levels in some areas are at or near record lows, a change that threatens fish and wildlife and disrupts recreational boating and commercial shipping. You can combat climate change by conserving energy.
3. Keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes: Ocean freighters and artificial canals have allowed numerous foreign species to invade the lakes, but anglers and household aquariums also contribute to the problem. Learn how to help.
4. Fight Asian carp: These foreign fish could devastate the $7 billion Great Lakes fishery and the federal government isn’t doing enough, or working quickly enough, to head off this looming environmental disaster.
5. Stop sewage overflows: Each year, cities discharge more than 40 billion gallons of untreated sewage mixed with storm water into the Great Lakes. Learn more about the problem and how to help solve it here.
6. Take a child to the beach. The Digital Age has given an alarming number of American children a case of Nature Deficit Disorder. Sadly, many children who live within a few miles of the Great Lakes have never seen these wondrous bodies of water.  How can we expect children to care about lakes they’ve never seen?
7. Help restore fish and wildlife habitat: A growing legion of individuals and groups are working to restore critical natural features. You can help.
8. Keep Great Lakes beaches clean: Don’t litter and, whenever possible, pick up after slobs who do. Last year, volunteers removed 31,000 pounds of trash from Great Lakes beaches. That’s appalling.
9. Fight sloppy, greedy oil companies: Get involved in efforts to prevent pipeline accidents and keep dangerous new oil pipelines from being built around and under the Great Lakes.
10. Be a voice for the Great Lakes: We are blessed to live amid the world’s largest assemblage of surface freshwater resources and we have a responsibility to protect them.

As a native of California who moved to Michigan 30 years ago, I am often asked why I remain in a state that offers brutally long winters and endless economic challenges.

I answer that question with a question of my own: Have you experienced the Great Lakes?

Happy Earth Day!