SECOND LMILO ANNUAL MEETING.OCTOBER 6 - 7, 2006
WISCONSIN

As a part of the two-day conference and meeting the attendees had an opportunity to tour the Milwaukee Sewage Plant, the Great Lakes WATER Institute and the recently opened Pier Wisconsin plus enjoy an afternoon picnic in Veterans Park on Lake Michigan shore.

Our hosts at Great Lakes Water Institute demonstrate Quagga mussels (or are they Zebras?

One of the featured speakers, Dr. Rebecca Klaper, Scientist from the UW-Milwaukee Great Lakes Water Institute, spoke on her recent research with "emerging contaminants," pharmaceuticals that were identified in fish from waters of the local rivers and Lake Michigan.

Her controlled laboratory studies with fat-head minnows indicate that the pharmaceuticals found in the Lake Michigan fish, particularly estrogen and Prozac, decreased the sexual responses of the fish. Further studies are needed to establish what affect eating fish or drinking the water containing these pharmaceuticals will have on us.

Another featured speaker was Mr. Kevin Shafer, Executive Director, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD). Mr. Shafer reviewed the history of MMSD and discussed the issues:
1. storm-water run-off
2. profitability of waste
3. limiting contaminants by controlling and removing them at the source point, before their entry into the sewer system.

Members were able to attend a most interesting site visit to the MMSD Jones Island facility.

The Deep Tunnel System has successfully controlled storm-water runoff by over 90 per cent. The production of Milogranite^®, a biofertilizer made from the sewage, produces over five million dollars of income yearly. MMSD with cooperation of FDA, police department, Aurora Health Care recently conducted a "Medicine Collection Day" where customers of MMSD could take unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs for proper disposal and keep them out of the sewage system. The program was very successful will be repeated in the spring of 2007.

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MICHIGAN: FIRST LMILO ANNUAL MEETING—OCTOBER 21 - 22, 2005

The  first annual meeting as Lake Michigan InterLeague Organization was held October 21 and 22 in Spring Lake, Michigan. (It was the 37th, counting from the beginnings of LMIL Group.)

Members and guests toured the Muskegon facility, the Annis Water Research Institute of Grand Valley State University Friday afternoon. On Saturday, the "go-see" program included a trip to the impressive  Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center at PJ Hoffmaster State Park

Friday evening dinner featured speeches on various bills, legislation and proposal that are being considered to protect and restore the Great Lakes. Patti Birkholz, state senator from Holland shared information about a new Michigan law requiring ocean-going vessels to treat ballast water before it is discharged into Michigan Waters. (Ballast water from foreign seas carried in empty or partially empty ships is the source of 85% of the Great Lakes’ invasive species.)

Great Lakes Collaboration: Source of Proposals for Restoration

Chris Grubb of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Office shared information about the Great Lakes Collaboration. This group, which includes federal, state and local elected officials has been working for a year at the request of President Bush to develop a consensus report that would specify areas of concern and propose corrective actions at all levels of government. Major environmental organizations also are part of the Collaboration.

Mr. Grubb shared a problem that recently surfaced when a federal government task force reported to the President that they would not recommend any additional monies be spent by the federal government to restore the Great Lakes. There is a need for citizens throughout the country to let the President and their congressional delegation know how important it is for the federal government to allocate the necessary new money to restore and preserve the Great Lakes. All the Great Lakes state leagues are supportive of this endeavor.

Great Lakes Compact and Annex 2001 (Diversion)

Staff members of the Great Lakes Alliance (formerly, Lake Michigan Federation) Cheryl Mendoza and Jamie Morton also educated the delegates on the need to support the Compact and Annex 2001 Revised Agreement that would limit diversion of water from the Great Lakes out of the basin.

The Saturday morning business meeting dealt with procedural and organizational matters.

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October 2004 marked the final meeting under the old structure as the LMIL Group.  The group began Indiana's time in the the two-day meeting with a trip to the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center for a demonstration of the RiverWatch program. The group hiked to the Little Calumet River where the Learning Center staff conducted a demonstration of water sampling.

Rep Peter Visclosky (D, IN 1st.) was the featured speaker -- discussing his newly established "Marquette Greenway Plan."  Since taking office in 1985, Visclosky has envisioned a process to reclaim the Lake Michigan shoreline for public use.

He first proposed that 75 percent of Northwest Indiana’s lakeshore be made available for public use in a paper titled "The Marquette Project" which he wrote in June, 1985.  Rep. Visclosky spearheaded an effort that resulted in the mayors of FIVE lakefront cities signing an agreement to establish a master plan for lakeshore reclamation. The agreement was signed October 26, 2004 by mayors of East Chicago, Gary, Hammond, Portage, and Whiting. The Indiana governor and both U.S. Senators have pledged support for the project.

JUDY BECK Lake Michigan Manager, Great Lakes National Program Office, US EPA and a member of LWV-Glenview discussed some of the current problems on the Great Lakes:
Hot Spots: Each state LWV should work on the "Hot Spots" in their state
Legacy Problems: How to deal with toxics from twenty years ago
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Act:  due for renewal in 2006.

"Watersheds" were the other  topic of the day.  A panel of experts from various Indiana agencies discussed Watershed Restoration:

The program concluded with a Go-See Tour of Chesterton's Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy District.  This is a residential and commercial development with environmentally sensitive features designed around the Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy

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ILLINOIS: 36^th ANNUAL MEETING — OCTOBER 2003

From the base at the Oak Lawn Hilton, Leaguers explored the Lake Calumet/Grand Calumet River area of northern Illinois to get an overview of a massive natural wetland and lake that has become an industrial backwater.

On the plus side was the meandering ride through the “town” of Pullman, the residential area that Eugene Pullman, industrial railroad builder, built to house the rail car workers and to situate the Pullman factories.  Again, some sign of life that Pullman was being “pulled” up by its boot straps, with the industrialist’s elegant brick home coming to life as a sizable bed and breakfast and the crumbling factories getting attention as well.In the business meeting, after extensive discussion, re-working and re-wording, a new set of By-laws was completed.   By-laws Chair Judy Johnston (IL) will send them to the four state LWV  boards for approval.  The new set of By-laws will also have to be approved by LWV-US, and then LMILG will “become” LMILO -- the Lake Michigan Inter-League Organization.

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At the Audubon Inn in Mayville, Wisconsin,  LMILG Steering Committee discussed new guidelines  LWVUS.  A multi-league group can no longer take action in its own name, on its own positions, independently, as LMILG had always done in the past.  Consultant Mary  Woodland, PhD, who had been active in LMILG ever since its origin, described how the founding of LMILG in 1967was enthusiastically endorsed by LWV-US, so that we could be active guardians of the waters and the watershed of Lake Michigan in llinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Had the "Steering Committee" or Board known what a difficult and lengthy journey they faced -- taking three years, they would have been tempted to let the InterLeague expire!

Horicon Marsh

Wisconsin offered a delightful diversion,  however, in the Horicon Marsh and DNR Flyway Center.  There, we were treated to a history of the marsh, its problems and management,  by Bill Volkest, wildlife educator/naturalist.  Gradually small farms on the hills surrounding the marsh have been taken over by large, commercial farms. The runoff from chemical fertilizers and pesticides have created new problems.  Then, we braved the wind remnants of hurricane “Lili” to walk around one of the ponds of the marsh to see ducks, geese, and green terns feeding as their fall migration begins.  We learned much about the beautiful and bountiful resource.

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