(dramatic music) - [Ward] Coming up on "Great Lakes Now".

Two of our past stories that recently won awards.

Trying out eFoiling on Lake Huron.

- This is the latest trend, and it's an adrenaline rush, super fun - [Ward] And fixing a region's aging water infrastructure.

- I pray that this will last three years.

That is the best I can do.

- [Ward] It's a big project, and it won't be cheap.

Plus news stories from around the Great Lakes.

- [Announcer] This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Charles C. Devereaux Foundation Fund for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, Polk Family Fund, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hi, I'm Ward Detwiler.

Welcome to "Great Lakes Now".

Recently, "Great Lakes Now" has received some honors and awards.

So in this episode, we thought we'd share some of our award-winning stories of the last year before bringing you up to date with current stories from around the lakes.

First up, in October of 2022, "Great Lakes Now" contributor Ian Solomon went to Tawas City, Michigan to try his hand at eFoiling, and that story helped us take home the 2022 Best in Sports Outdoor or Recreation award from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

(upbeat music) - [Ian] For years, water sports enthusiasts have been chasing the wind on the Great Lakes, windsurfing, kiteboarding, even surfing.

But I heard about a new trend in water sports, one that doesn't depend on a strong breeze.

It still uses a board, but the board is powered by a small electric motor.

It's called eFoiling, and it's been riding a wave of popularity all along the Great Lakes.

- This is the latest trend, and it's an adrenaline rush, super fun.

- Mark Kuban has been coaching and teaching water sports for nearly 20 years.

He's a native Detroiter, and owner of Motor City Kiteboarding in Tawas City, a town in Michigan along the shores of Lake Huron.

He said he'd be willing to let me try out eFoiling, so I decided to pay him a visit.

Mark, how are you doing?

- Good, how are you doing?

Mark Kuban.

- Nice to meet you.

Ian Solomon.

- Nice to meet you.

- [Ian] Thanks for having us out here today.

- Thanks for coming.

- So this space, Tawas Bay, does this have a significance in this sport specifically?

Is there something special about it?

- [Mark] Shallow water, sandy bottom, localized wind conditions.

We get thermal winds.

Even when it's not forecasted, we usually get a nice little breeze that kicks up early afternoon, so anything hydrofoil related with a kite, doesn't require high winds.

And Tawas is incredible because any wind direction works depending on where you're coordinated.

So we're bayside here, Tawas Bay.

If you drive into the state park, you're lakeside.

So we get varying wave conditions, flat water, waves, small wave, medium wave, big waves.

It's awesome.

- [Ian] Mark teaches traditional water sports, like kiteboarding, where the wind propels a surfer on a board with a kite, a great sport in the summer, and Mark teaches snowkiting in the winter too.

But he also teaches this new thing in water sports, hydrofoiling.

So the board has a wing that extends into the water, and as the board gains speed, an upward force lifts the board, making it literally fly over the water.

It can be propelled using a kite or a wing.

- [Mark] Wing foiling, you have a wing, you hold it like a boom, kinda like a windsurf sail.

And you're on a board with a hydrofoil attached to it.

And you pop up on foil and the wing pulls you around and you surf the wave.

Kite foiling, there's a lot more gear involved.

You have a waist harness.

You have a control system.

You have four lines that are connected to a kite that's 24 meters in the sky.

Kite foiling, you need a big area to set up.

You need consistent breeze.

The wind speed has to be just right.

- [Ian] And with eFoiling, you don't need a kite or a wing, or even the wind, just that small electric motor.

- The foiling element of water sports right now, these are trending, definitely difficult to do.

But at the same time, it doesn't require wind, like what I'm gonna teach you to do today is eFoiling, electric foiling.

I think it'll be a blast.

- [Ian] Awesome.

Well, I'm excited to get into it.

- [Mark] Excellent.

- Let's do it.

I was ready to get started, so we headed outside where I could get familiar with the equipment.

- It's a personal watercraft.

You have a wireless remote like this guy.

You put that in your right hand.

And you have a motor here based on your, yep, your trigger.

- Like that?

- Yep.

- Perfect.

- Press this button.

(device beeps) There we go.

- Oh, wow, there we go.

- Go ahead and hit the... (fan whirs) How cool is that?

- I'm excited.

(Ian laughs) - Yeah.

- I'm excited.

(Ian and Mark laugh) That excitement comes at a cost.

Efoiling boards start at around $10,000 and can be customized for the rider.

Today, Mark will be giving me pointers remotely.

So there's a mic and a headphone set.

So there's a headphone set in this helmet.

- Yep.

And I'll, I can be a long distance away from you and I can coach you on the fly.

- Wow.

- And kinda tweak your skill sets, what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong.

- Okay.

(Ian and Mark laugh) Gonna need it.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

- The battery life on the board is about 90 minutes, and it'll go up to 30 miles per hour.

Now that's pretty fast, but it wasn't the speed I was concerned about.

I'm nervous.

It's about 65 degrees.

That water looks like cold water.

(chuckles) And from what Mark told me, I am going to fall.

So right now, I'm just preparing to be very cold, but equally excited because this thing is so cool.

- You can ride it on your stomach.

You can ride it on your knees.

The hard part is going from your knees to a standing position and actually going up on foil, so.

- [Ian] I'm gonna take baby steps, but mark my words, I'm gonna stand up today.

(chuckles) - I like it.

Almost out to deep enough water, but not quite.

Hello, away we go!

Here we go from our belly to our knees.

(upbeat music) - This is definitely harder than it looks.

I was worried about the water temperature when I should have been worried about staying on the board.

You have to maintain a certain speed, so taking it slow isn't much of an option.

But after a while, I got the hang of it enough to cruise around.

Standing up, not so much.

Man, that is the most fun I have ever had on a Great Lake.

That is the first time I've ever been on a motorized watercraft.

Moving on the water that way, just on your body, inexplainable feeling.

And wiping out, of course, another inexplainable feeling.

Didn't know which way was up, which way was down.

But I'm so thankful to Mark, which was an amazing lesson.

I almost got on my legs.

I wanted to stand up so bad, but I couldn't.

And I definitely wanna try that again.

- I think Ian did great.

Like in the early stages, there's nothing easy about the hydrofoil, like every little stance position, every weight shift, every, you know, you gotta keep consistent speed.

The more speed you have, the more balance you have, and I think you realized that.

- [Ian] Yeah.

- [Mark] But we got you to where you were attempting to stand.

- [Ian] Right.

- And we were only out there not even an hour probably.

- Yeah, probably not.

- So it'll get easier if you, you know, proceed from here.

- Listen, don't be surprised when I come back.

(Ian and Mark laugh) - Sounds good.

This is blowing up around along the Great Lakes.

It's just an extension of all water sports.

But this is super fun, and you do it on any lake, any body of water.

- [Ian] That was amazing and equally difficult, but I will certainly be back to give eFoiling another try.

I'm getting on my feet next time.

- For more of our award-winning recreation coverage, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

In 2022, as part of the Great Lakes News Collaborative project, "Water's True Cost", we partnered with Bridge Michigan reporter, Kelly House, for our segment, "Unpaid Bills".

In the 2022 Detroit Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards, that story took second place in the Consumer Watchdog Investigative Reporting category.

Another "Great Lakes Now" story took first place.

(pensive music) Benton Harbor is a city of about 9,000 people near the mouth of the St. Joseph River.

In October of 2021, state officials advised Benton Harbor residents to drink only bottled water because the tap water contained high levels of lead.

Kelly House reported on the city's water crisis for Bridge Michigan.

- Benton Harbor is the latest community in our state to face a water crisis that if you take it back to its beginning, stems from, in many ways, inadequate investment in the water system.

(pensive music) - [Ward] But at the root of the water crisis was a money crisis.

Elevated lead levels first showed up in the samples three years earlier, in 2018.

But solving the problem would take money, and the city didn't have any.

Benton Harbor mayor Marcus Muhammad was elected in 2015.

He says the city's been looking for financial help since the problem arose.

- We didn't know how much or how great the depth of the problem was in terms of financially.

We just knew we needed money.

We started out with $284,000 in 2018, which was a grant from the state.

We know that this is not a $284,000 problem.

- [Ward] The city also sought grant money from the EPA and applied for a low-interest loan.

But in 2021, as residents waited in line for bottled water, the mayor faced an obvious question - Why haven't you solved this problem?

And I think that out of this story, you're gonna find, and when we look across the state, that local governments cannot survive without the help of state and federal government supporting.

And at the end of the day, it takes money to solve problems.

- But many communities that have more money than Benton Harbor have, nevertheless, underfunded their water systems for years.

Now they're scrambling to head off problems like Benton Harbor had.

And like Benton Harbor, they might need financial help.

- So what happens here in Benton Harbor is going to project itself throughout the state of Michigan and from my opinion, throughout this country.

- [Ward] A short drive from Benton Harbor, north along Lake Michigan's shoreline, is South Haven.

It's a charming lakefront community, and it's been a popular vacation spot for a hundred years.

Bill Hunter is the Director of Public Works for the city of South Haven.

- We have over a hundred miles of water main, and I wanna say approximately 60 miles of sewer.

We serve over 11,000 people in the system.

- [Ward] The South Haven Area Water Sewer Authority serves several local communities.

Its water filtration plant was completed in 2011.

But while the plant is relatively new, in many cases, the pipes that carry water to South Haven customers are not.

- This is an example of our water main, first water main installed.

They made 'em out of wood.

There's some municipalities, actually, that still had this in the ground in the '80s and in the '90s.

So this was actually still used, not in this community.

- Can you give me a profile of how old South Haven's water system is?

- The age of the system, of course, depends on the community.

The oldest system is the city of South Haven.

That system ranges anywhere from 1930s to 2000s, but majority of it is in the 19, World War II era, pre-World War II era.

- [Ward] Why hasn't the aging infrastructure buried throughout our communities been replaced?

Largely because price hikes are unpopular, so elected officials in South Haven and elsewhere often chose to keep rates low, too low to cover necessary maintenance and replacement costs.

It's gone on for decades in part, Hunter thinks, because the water systems we rely on are mostly underground, invisible.

- Our infrastructure is, everything is buried.

You don't see it.

I call it sight unseen.

You can repave a road, people see roads.

It's nice, black, everything looks great.

Underneath there, the infrastructure is 40 years old.

Electrical is another.

You can see the electric poles and the lines.

Everything is existing up, out of the ground so you can see it.

Ours is, I like to say it's kind of buried in the back.

Nobody sees it, so not a problem.

It's not a problem until the spigot stops working, then it's a problem, or you can't flush your toilet, and then it's too late.

(ominous music) - [Ward] This is one place where water infrastructure is very visible.

- [Bill] That was supposed to be something to get them by.

- [Ward] It's the South Haven Area Water Sewer Authority's oldest water storage tank.

- Let's just stay away from this area.

- [Ward] It was built more than a century ago, and it's still a key part of the system despite obvious deterioration.

(pensive music) - [Kelly] It looks pretty bad.

Is this as bad as it looks?

- This is as bad as it looks.

It's probably worse.

I'm not sure what's going on in the inside of it, just watching it buckle out.

People ask me, "Well, how long will it last?"

It could, if it fails tomorrow, I would not be surprised.

- [Kelly] And what happens if it fails?

- If this fails, we're not going to meet fire flow demands, plus we're probably gonna have boiled water, meaning constantly, people are gonna have boiled water advisory.

So they're not gonna be able to consume the water.

They would be able to wash with it and bathe, but not drink it.

- [Ward] Hunter says concerns about this tank go back around 20 years.

But instead of replacing it, officials chose to put a roof on it and add an outer layer of concrete, which is now falling off.

- It should have been only something that gets you by five years, but we've pressed it over 20.

Now we're at a critical point to where they make no guarantees.

Like I said, it could fail tomorrow and I wouldn't be surprised.

- How long does this thing need to last?

- This needs to last at least the next, hopefully, the next three years.

We established the new rates, and now I'm in discussion with a bond council to start the bond process to get loans.

Once we have the loans and then we're going to start the process of getting a design together and going out for bids and taking the steps to eliminate this.

But three years, I would say, easy.

- [Ward] With problems like this literally looming, in 2018, area communities created the Water Authority, hoping its appointed board members would make smart financial decisions.

In March of 2022, the board approved four years of 4.5% annual rate increases to shore up finances and pay for much needed maintenance.

But is it already too late?

- What's the over under on this lasting three years?

- I pray that this will last three years.

That is the best I can do.

And this is just a visual of probably what a lot of infrastructure looks like in the ground, except it's elevated.

This is a prime example.

(ominous music) - [Ward] And the cost of catching up on years of deferred maintenance can be shocking.

- What are you looking at in terms of the repair tab that needs to be addressed at some point?

- $84 million.

Now that plan should be $84 million at 25 years.

We can't afford $84 million in 25 years, so I had to create a 40-year plan to make it more affordable.

It's not even something the American Waterworks Association or the state of Michigan actually recommends.

I'm dealing now where I'm pushing things out well past the time they should have been replaced.

- [Ward] In the years to come, towns like Benton Harbor, South Haven, and many other Michigan communities will get financial help from the state and federal governments.

Benton Harbor will get $45 million for infrastructure improvements, including the replacement of all the the city's lead service lines.

According to the city's online dashboard, that project is well on its way to completion.

City officials say the job will be finished by spring of 2023.

Other cities are hoping for funds to pay for their deferred maintenance.

In South Haven, Hunter is grateful but still concerned.

- It's great, actually, they're talking about now infrastructure bills.

I mean, that is a great thing, and I applaud any of our elected officials for doing that.

But it's still, and I don't wanna sound (chuckles), is it enough?

No, I don't think, not with the magnitude.

I mean, you're talking trillions and trillions of dollars.

- [Ward] In the end, the money needed to keep our water systems running will come from us, either through our water bills or our taxes.

- What should be the takeaway lesson from this standpipe that we're looking at today as it relates to the broader questions about our infrastructure?

- Well, you can only push things out so far.

And how I look at it is you're pushing it out to our grandkids.

That's what we're doing.

Right now, it's benefiting us 'cause we're having lower prices.

But eventually, our grandkids are gonna be reaping the rewards of maybe the highest water cost ever because they're gonna have to pay for this.

- For more from the "Water's True Cost" project, visit GreatLakesNow.org and look under special projects.

And now, it's time for "The Catch", which takes you around the Great Lakes to hear from reporters about the issues they're covering, bite-sized news briefs about the lakes you love.

- [Reporter] Explore shipwrecks of the Great Lakes with a glass bottom boat ride.

The seasonal tours are being offered by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan.

Emily Bingham with MLive has the story.

- There's tons of shipwrecks out there.

There are, of course, some with incredible backstories.

You won't know what you're gonna get until you're out there so I think that's part of the fun of the adventure.

- [Reporter] Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is home to an estimated 200 shipwrecks, only half of which have been located.

Depending on weather conditions, passengers can expect to see two to five shipwrecks per tour.

- And when you sign up for one of these tours, they're typically two to two and a half hours long.

And there are two decks on the boat, so you can lounge upstairs in the sunshine or downstairs.

These tours are really for all ages.

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is 4,300 miles in Lake Huron, so there's lots to see.

They're narrated, so you get the maritime history, but then you also get to enjoy the beautiful Alpina shoreline.

- [Reporter] In addition to the boat tours, visitors can learn more about the shipwrecks at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, which is free and open year round.

Emily says that Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary gives visitors an opportunity to explore the Great Lakes from a totally new perspective.

- I picked up this story just because I thought it was a really fun and different thing to do and to put on your Michigan summer bucket list.

There's just the classic summer adventures.

But going out into the bay and getting to look down at shipwrecks from up above is really unique and I think would be a great way to make memories with your friends or family.

- [Reporter] There's a rich and often overlooked collection of stories related to food and culture in the Great Lakes region.

The podcast "Eat Your Heartland Out" is dedicated to exploring just that, and so is podcast Host and "Great Lakes Now" contributor, Capri Cafaro.

- My mission has been about showing the depth and breadth of the culture of the American Midwest, and part of that certainly is the Great Lakes.

The thread and the theme is about food, drink and tourism with Great Lakes and the Great Lakes region as an anchor.

- [Reporter] And that's why "Eat Your Heartland Out" is rolling out a special five-episode series focused on food stories tied to the Great Lakes, one of which takes place on a freighter and inspired a segment on this show.

- [Capri] The first one that comes to mind has to do with galley chefs on freighters in the Great Lakes.

And they're really talking about how they're elevating food being served to crews that are out there working very hard day in and day out for sometimes 120 days in a row.

- [Reporter] Other episodes highlight Midwestern wine production and the burgeoning craft brewery industry around Thunder Bay, Ontario on the Canadian side of Lake Superior.

- They really are a growing tourism magnet, partially because of their growing craft brewery industry, some of the festivals around that, and their growing immigration population there which is bringing diverse flavors and palettes.

- [Reporter] These special episodes will be released this summer across many platforms.

- You can find them on GreatLakesNow.org.

You can also find them on the HeritageRadioNetwork.org.

And you can also find them anywhere you find your favorite podcasts, like Apple, Spotify, et cetera.

- [Reporter] Canada is dealing with one of the worst wildfire seasons in more than two decades, and the effects are being felt far and wide.

Prairies reporter for The Narwhal, Drew Anderson, tells us more about how the fire started and why officials say this year is shaping up to be the worst in recorded history.

- We saw an early start to the forest fire season this year, and it sort of started before lightning really strikes in earnest.

So human causes were a big factor early on.

And then we've seen that sort of start to level out as the season progresses and more lightning strikes hit.

In Canada, generally, it's about half and half between natural causes, lightning being the main culprit, and human causes.

- [Reporter] One factor in setting the stage for this year's enormous wildfires is decades of forest management practices that emphasized fire suppression.

- [Drew] We managed these forests not only to protect infrastructure, to protect homes, but also to protect industry.

Logging, forestry is a big industry in Canada right across the boreal forest that stretches across the whole country, and we've sort of prevented fires from happening even though they're a natural phenomenon.

The boreal forest is a fire forest.

It requires it to regenerate and to grow, and we are putting them out more.

We are letting debris and fuel build up, so the trees, the branches.

All of these things contribute to a forest that really wants to burn.

- [Reporter] With an excess of fuels to feed these fires and warmer than normal temperatures, experts predict that this pattern of wildfires may rise to an 18% increase by 2050.

- So this summer, predictions are that it will continue to be hot, that it will continue to be dry across most of Canada, which does not bode well for these fires dying off, quieting down, and the smoke dissipating.

- [Reporter] If you're concerned about air quality where you are, one source of information is AirNow.gov.

AirNow is a partnership of local, state, provincial, tribal, and federal partners in Mexico, the United States, and Canada that provides real-time air quality information, air quality forecasts, and related health information.

One way to protect yourself is to stay indoors, either at home or in an air-conditioned public place if you have access.

Air purifiers with HEPA filters can also help.

And if you do go outside, take precautions.

- If it is really bad smoke out there, that is bad for your lungs, and wearing masks with an N95 or higher categorization, that really filters out those fine particles, is really important.

Wildfire smoke can really get into the lungs and do some damage.

(upbeat music) - Thanks for watching.

For more on these stories and the Great Lakes in general, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

When you get there, you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to get updates about our work.

See you out on the lakes.

- [Announcer] This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Charles C Devereaux Foundation Fund for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, Polk Family Fund, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(serene music)