Large tires once used as shoreline armor are among items the Lake Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) hopes to remove with a NOAA marine debris cleanup grant. Courtesy photo | SWP

From mlive.com- September 23, 2021

Lake Superior debris cleanup is getting “supercharged” with an influx of grant funding to help remove plastic and other trash from the shoreline.

The Lake Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy, a nonprofit group based in Marquette, received $122,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this year to remove marine debris from Upper Peninsula beaches and harbors.

The group is the only Michigan organization to receive the grant, which is part of $7.3 million in federal funds awarded to 25 agencies, universities and nonprofits working mostly along the ocean coasts to research, prevent and remove debris.

The Council of the Great Lakes Region, a binational nonprofit based in Ontario and Ohio focused on economic development and environmental protection, also received $371,729 for debris prevention and removal from the program.

Carl Lindquist, director of the Lake Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP), said the grant will expand the group’s regular beach cleanup efforts and larger debris removals from shorelines and harbor areas where divers are sometimes needed to help pull junk from the water.

The group will use the NOAA grant to implement cleanups in 2022 and 2023 with coastal communities, tribes and other partners through its Great Lakes Climate Corps (GLCC) and its public Lake Superior Volunteer Corps (LSVC).

“We’ve always done beach cleanups, but we’ll be doing a lot more of them with this grant,” said Lindquist.

Around Lake Superior, the debris problem is “better than most of the other Great Lakes because we don’t have the large population centers, but it’s a growing problem. We’re glad to get this grant to reduce the impact,” Lindquist said.

“We’re the headwaters,” he said. “We take that seriously.”

The debris largely comes from illegal dumping, stormwater runoff, littering, industry and unregulated constructed sites.

Large tires once used as shoreline armor, entire vehicles, broken boats and appliances are some of the larger debris items the group has encountered, he said. Large items can interfere with navigation and pose a safety hazard for boaters.

Beach cleanups remove a lot of small litter like single-use plastic food and beverage packaging, cigarette butts and other consumer trash. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has seen increased tourism in recent years, which has corresponded with increases in litter and trash.

“A lot of it is plastic,” Lindquist said.

Plastic waste is a growing problem in the Great Lakes, which researchers estimate receive about 22 million pounds of plastic annually across the system. Of that, Lake Superior fares the best, getting about 70,000 pounds on average each year.

Over time, natural wear and abrasion, sunlight and ultraviolet radiation break larger plastic items down into smaller fragments. Eventually, they become microplastic, which studies show is entering the base of the food web when consumed by fish and aquatic creatures.

Communities, tribes and coastal property owners are encouraged to contact the group with information on large debris locations, potential beach cleanup sites or related debris removal sites.

To see the original story and related reporting, follow this link to the mlive.com website.  https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/09/noaa-grant-will-supercharge-lake-superior-beach-cleanu...