For Friday, March 26, 2021

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1 – A new report from Environment America looks at offshore wind potential. 

The nonprofit ranked states in regions across the country by their capacity to develop offshore wind projects. 

Some highlights: Michigan could provide nearly three-quarters of its future electricity needs using offshore wind.

The state also could provide 72 percent of its projected 2050 needs with offshore wind alone. 

As a region, Great Lakes states have the potential to produce almost half of the electricity they used in 2019 and about one-fifth of the electricity they’re projected to use in 2050.

2 – Michigan has a wanted poster: It’s for cisco, aka lake herring, from Lake Huron. 

Great Lakes agencies are asking for the public’s help in evaluating the success of cisco rehabilitation efforts.

If you capture a cisco in Saginaw Bay or out in the lake, you’re asked to collect a sample, record information in pencil and include the information in a sample bag. 

Include your contact information if you’d like to know the age and origin of the fish.

More on the effort is online at MichiganSeaGrant.org. 

Drop-off locations for samples include the Department of Natural Resources Bay City Customer Service Center on State Park Drive in Bangor Township. 

The wanted poster was circulated during lake committee meetings held this week by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. 

3 – Michigan is modernizing an Environmental Health and Drinking Water Information System. 

A version 2.0 will combine the state’s existing permitting, licensing and compliance systems into one web-based application. 

For the public, this means more timely exchanges of information between regulators and local water suppliers, and the availability of more data and information about drinking water supplies, officials say. 

Those who should register for an account include campground owners and septage haulers. 

Features are being rolled out to public water suppliers and swimming pool owners and operators this year. 

– Mr. Great Lakes is heard Friday mornings in Bay City, Michigan, on Delta College Public Radio 90.1 FM (listen). Follow @jeffkart on Twitter #MrGreatLakes

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