DIRTY, DIRTY

Yes, the Great Lakes waters look blue and pristine in the sunshine.
But be careful. But very careful.
Recent Associated Press reports tell of garbage -- including medical waste -- washing up along a 10-mile stretch of Lake Michigan's shoreline between Manistee and Ludington, Mich. and also 100 miles south at Holland.
On the other side of the state, The Detroit Free Press reports that record levels of E. coli have been found in Macomb County, Mich. waterways and are being swept into Lake St. Clair causing beach closures.
Two beaches on Lake St. Clair, which sits between Lakes Huron and Erie, have been closed 50 times this season because of fouled water.
This too is invasive species -- although not from blue-water ships.
Syringes and candy wrappers
As of Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard had yet to determine the source of the garbage that had floated onto Lake Michigan shores -- although some of the items had Wisconsin addresses.
The garbage, measured eight inches high on a Manistee beach, consisted mostly of household castoffs -- candy wrappers, plastic forks, knives and spoons, cigarette packages -- but also medical throwaways including drug bottles and hypodermic syringes.
Officials think the garbage came from a single source.
As of Tuesday, the Manistee beach had been cleaned up.
S--t in the water
At Lake St. Clair, officials blamed the high E. coli counts and beach closures on suburban sprawl and heavy rains in June that washed animal feces into storm drains.
Also, the area's sewer systems are aging badly and ill-equipped to handle the Macomb County's growing population. As a result, the officials said human feces also are slopping into the storm sewers.
To make matters worse, the future bodes ill that we will even know how bad the E.Coli is.
Up through this year, 13 grant-funded workers have been on the job to monitor Macomb County's E.Coli levels and identity the sources. Cut come 2009. the grants expire. The county will be left with only two monitors to do the job.
So watch where you swim.

Catching Up With Gerry

NEW SHOW, NEW RAP, NEW PHOTOS,

NEW SHOW. Get an up close and personal look at my new photo show opening Monday, July 21 at The Side Door Gallery in Dexter, Michigan (about seven miles west of Ann Arbor).
The Side Door Gallery is a part of the Dexter Frame Shop that opened this year on Main Street just a couple of doors from the ever popular Dairy Queen.
The show will feature images of the Great Lakes as well as many from around the world that have not appeared in previous shows. These world photos -- Thailand, Vietnam and now Nepal.

NEW RAP. Stories about explorers, imaginary islands, Indian legends that are absolutely true and modern death-defying scuba dives on sunken ships.
All this will be part of a talk I'll be doing at between 6 and 8 p.m. (not anywhere near the whole time certainly) Friday, August 1 at The Side Door Gallery.
Wine and noshes will be served.

NEW PHOTOS ON THE WEB SITE. Images of Nepal from Kathmandu to the high Himalayas are now on display along with a new addition to photos of Isle Royale in the Lake Superior section. All can be found at Pen and Compass.

IN AND OUT FOR THE GREAT LAKES

Michigan's in.
It was the last of the eight Great Lakes state to sign on, but this week Michigan formally approved a compact to protect the lakes' waters from being diverted out of the region.
With Gov. Jennifer Granholm's signature, the pact now moves to the U.S. Congress. Advocates for the compact hope that it will be ratified by Congress and signed by the president before the end of the year.
The agreement allows any of the state governors to veto a diversion of waters outside the Great Lakes basin, with some exceptions.
So Arizona can forget about watering its lawns with waters from Lake Michigan.

Plans for building a massive new oil refinery on the St. Clair River are out.
Shell Canada said this week that it had cancelled plans to develop a five-mile strip along the Canadian side of the river across from Marine City and St. Clair in Michigan.
The reason, according to the Shell Canada web site: strong protests from the Americans, inflation and market conditions . The Canadians basically were for the construction, seeing an opportunity for new jobs.
U.S. and Michigan environmental agencies voiced worries about possible chemical discharges into the river and dangers to drinking water intakes down stream.

LET'S SEE, IRAQ IS OVER BY ...

War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.

FILL' ER UP WITH POND SCUM

Gas prices got you down?
How about a tank full of pond scum?
Bob Truxell, chief executive of a Sequest LLC, believes that algae can be converted into biofuels, something like ethanol.
Right now, it's only his dream.
He is hoping the State of Michigan will give him a $7 million grant to prove his scheme.
Although he is considering three other sites, Truxell hopes are to locate his operation at Holland, Michigan's waste water and coal plant.
His plan is to grow algae (while the rest of us are trying to get rid of it) by diverting carbon dioxide from the power plant and then combine it with treated waste water.
Of course the post-scum chemical process after that is not at all simple.
Finally we might say such is the stuff of dreams. One man's pond scum is another man's ... well who knows?
At this point however, OPEC feels no threat.

IT'S OUR WATER, DARN IT

For decades, people in the Great Lakes states have fretted that sun-parched places as Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California would slake their unquenchable thirst by installing a big pipe to suck away our northern waters.
So Phoenix would have emerald golf courses; San Diego shopping malls with fountains and Albuquerque, grass in its lawns instead of cactus.
Meanwhile in the Great Lakes, ore boats would drag on lake bottoms, algae would grow like crazy and people's docks would be an even longer hike to the water.
But over the last year or so, the Great Lakes States and the Canadian provinces have agreed: Just say no.
No water diversions. At least no big ones.
In December, 2005, the governors of the Great Lakes states signed a compact agreeing to ban any large scale water withdrawals -- either by pipe or shipping -- to any place outside the Great Lakes drainage basin.
The two Canadian provinces -- Ontario and Quebec -- did not sign the compact, but set up equivalent protections.
But in order to go into law, the eight state legislatures had to agree.
Signing in quick order were Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and New York. After much legislative haggling, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan now are pretty much on board.
In late June, the Michigan legislature passed new water laws and agreed to the compact. In part, it banned no Great Lakes withdrawals of more than 1 million gallons a day. Governor Jennifer Granholm was expected to sign the bill.
That leaves Pennsylvania where the House agreed to the compact in January, but the State Senate is still haggling over details.
Next step?
Soon. That is very soon. The compact will have to be approved by the U.S. Congress and the president. The outlook at this point is positive.
One loophole in the compact. It allows bottled water to be shipped from the region.