 | | The Great Lakes Ready or Not project is produced by the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a partnership between Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at DPTV and Michigan Radio that explores an essential question: Are Great Lakes residents and leaders ready for the stirred and shaken conditions that climatologists say we can expect? |
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 | | Warmer global temperatures cause more water to evaporate from Earth’s surface and oceans, meaning that there is more fuel for storms. Photo © Notorious4life / Wikimedia Commons |
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| Detroit Flooding Previews Risks from a Warming Climate
Six inches of rain battered the Detroit metro area last weekend, a deluge that overwhelmed the region’s drainage system. Hundreds of basements flooded, cars floated on freeways, and the usually-packed Interstate 94 looked more like a river than a roadway. While the worst of that storm system is likely over, the city is still bracing for more rain later this week.
The Detroit cloudburst was the result of a nasty weather combination—a cold front sweeping across the Midwest, plus a mass of humidity hanging over the city—which promises to be all the more powerful as the climate continues to warm.
It’s hard to pin individual storms on climate change, but the science is clear that atmospheric warming leads to more events like last weekend’s rainfall. This has serious effects for stormwater infrastructure, as drainage systems are developed based on precise risk assessments. City leaders build systems that can handle a certain range of rainfall, accepting the risk that extreme events might occasionally exceed that threshold. But because of climate change, the risk assessments that were used to build these structures might not hold for much longer.
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 | | Just one or two inches of rain can overwhelm Chicago’s water infrastructure. If there’s too much strain on the system, the city pours its contaminated runoff into local rivers and Lake Michigan, which is also Chicago’s main source of drinking water. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue |
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| In Chicago, Flooding Overwhelmingly Strikes Communities of Color
Chicago’s Tunnel and Reservoir Project was conceived as a solution to a perennial problem in the city. Chicago has a combined sewer system that carries both toilet flushes and street runoff in the same pipes. Just one or two inches of rainfall can overwhelm this network, forcing sewage back through the pipes to where it came. When this happens, sewage flows into city streets or residents’ basements in what’s known as urban flooding. If there is still too much strain on the system, the city opens its floodgates, pouring the mix of sewage and street runoff into local rivers and Lake Michigan, which is also the city’s main drinking water source.
Forty-eight years, nine mayors, and more than $4 billion after the Deep Tunnel was commissioned, urban flooding continues to plague residents–particularly in Chicago’s communities of color—and some experts say it is time for a fresh approach. |
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In northern Minnesota, the new Line 3 corridor, proposed by the Canadian oil company Enbridge, cuts directly through wetlands and waterways that are already struggling in unusually dry conditions. The pipeline also infringes upon centuries-old tribal treaty rights, and runs near, and sometimes through, reservation lines, water crossings, and state forests.
For the Anishinaabe who live in northern Minnesota, Line 3 is a cultural and ecological transgression. They say an oil spill would threaten the health of wild rice, a crop that grows in watersheds the pipeline would cross. Known as “that food which grows on water,” wild rice is what drew the tribe from the east coast to the Midwest many years ago. Their cultural existence here, and subsistence, is founded upon it. |
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For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week's episode of What's Up With Water looks at: - In Mexico, the body of Indigenous activist Tomás Rojo Valencia was recovered last week in the border state of Sonora.
- In the United States, farmers in Arkansas continue to deplete their groundwater reserves.
This week, Circle of Blue reports on the widespread consequences of drought. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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 | | Warming winters, ample reserves of fresh water, and forests not prone to wildfire are ecological benefits that could attract millions of new residents to the Great Lakes and reverse decades of slow population growth. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue |
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More than three decades after a first-of-its-kind analysis on animal migration, a 1989 study from the University of Michigan now serves as a presient preview to wuestions gaining relevance for human migration: will fierce meteorological turbulence cause people to move — away from danger and toward safety? Will people stay or go?
It turns out that Michigan is at the forefront of research and expectation. Available evidence indicates that as an end-of-century destination, the Great Lakes will be among the most ecologically attractive North American destinations.
Then comes the next big question. If climate disruption influences human migration, how will receiving communities respond? The science of adaptation is in its infancy. Answers will take years to develop. But the scientists involved insist that their work will provide governments and businesses trustworthy details on who’s coming, and suggest how to prepare for their arrival.
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