- [Anna] Coming up on "Great Lakes Now", battling beach erosion on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

- Just feeling the house shake with every single wave.

It was really distressing - [Anna] Removing dams to fight the effects of climate change.

- So in this case, we could remove a dam and open up 40 miles of stream that fish moving upstream couldn't access in the past.

- [Anna] And news from around the lakes.

(upbeat music) This program is brought to you by the Fred A and Barbara M Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Richard C Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, Polk Family Fund, DTE Foundation, and contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music) Hi, I'm Anna Sysling.

Welcome to "Great Lakes Now", when powerful waves erode beaches, one response is to harden the shoreline to protect homes and other structures.

But is that the best solution?

They're wrestling with that dilemma in Ogden Dunes, Indiana.

(waves crashing) - And they were hitting the wall so hard that our entire house would shake.

Laying in bed, just feeling the house shake with every single wave, it was really distressing.

- [Narrator] Steve Coombs lives in Ogden Dunes, Indiana.

Nestled between a national park and heavy industry, the town of just over 1000 residents sits at the southern end of Lake Michigan.

On the last day of October of 2019 Halloween, huge waves began pummeling the town, ripping the beach to shreds in a matter of hours.

- And that undermined the steel wall and eventually the steel wall actually failed.

- That's when Coombs and his neighbors, like longtime resident Sandy Boyer, knew they had to take action to save their homes.

- It took it to the point where we were losing the structures that had been built to protect the town and the homes behind the town.

- And so it was an emergency.

The town declared an emergency, the county declared an emergency and we were able to get emergency permits to put in the revetment and otherwise we would've lost a lot of infrastructure and a lot of people's homes.

- [Narrator] The revetment consists of massive boulders piled about 15 feet high right on the beach.

Usually built on the slope of a shoreline, a revetment can also be made of wood or concrete.

They're designed to soften the blow of heavy waves.

- It's made a huge difference.

The house no longer shakes.

It doesn't matter how big the waves are.

That rock or revetment diffuses the force of the waves.

And hence, it protects not only the wall that remained, but it protects everything behind the wall.

- [Narrator] Completed in 2020, the revetment was paid for by Ogden Dunes residents living right on the shore.

Everyone chipped in, raising more than $5 million.

Coombs himself put in more than $200,000.

- This is expensive and homeowners are covering the cost of it because our little bitty town just doesn't have the money for it.

- [Narrator] In nature, beach sand doesn't sit still, it moves along the shoreline.

The flow is called littoral drift.

This animated video shows how waves normally hit the shore at an angle.

Waves moving up the beach or swash carries sediments up and along the beach.

The back wash carries sediments down the beach traveling in a zigzag pattern.

It's sort of like a river of sand moving along the shore, replenishing the beaches as it moves.

But interrupting that natural flow of sand to the beach at Ogden Dunes is the port of Indiana at Burns Harbor.

Built in the mid 1960s, the breakwater protecting the port juts way out into Lake Michigan more than half a mile.

Roger Howell has lived in Ogden Dunes for more than eight years.

- [Roger] Yeah, when I moved in, there was a tremendous beach behind me here.

It had dunes and 300 yards or so, a beach.

It was huge.

And I learned at the time that the port on to the east of Ogden Dunes basically blocks all the natural sand flow.

So the town is essentially starved of sand.

- [Narrator] Professor Cary Troy runs Purdue University's Great Lakes Coastal Processes Lab.

- So I would say this is something that happens throughout the Great Lakes, along all the different coastlines.

If you look on Google Earth, you can see a lot of situations where we have different ports and you will see accumulation of sand on one side and erosion on the other.

- [Narrator] Even before the Burns Harbor breakwater was built in the 1960s, the US Army Corps of Engineers said the port complex would cause erosion of beaches to the west.

Nearly two dozen studies since then have confirmed that the port is blocking the flow of sand to Ogden Dunes.

But the director of communications for the Port of Indiana Burns Harbor says that is factually inaccurate and that multiple studies say the large harbor breakwater is not blocking the littoral drift of sand to Ogden Dunes.

As far as Ogden Dunes residents are concerned, it's a manmade problem that requires a manmade solution.

So building a revetment they say makes the most sense.

- There's no other alternative.

I mean, otherwise, I would've lost the the single largest investment that I own.

- [Narrator] But revetments themselves are controversial.

Betsy Maher is executive director of "Save the Dunes", an environmental group that opposes the use of revetments to control erosion.

- It is a really challenging problem for the city and we are sympathetic to the town that they are in this situation.

But there are alternatives out there that are more nature based.

Putting revetments onto the beaches and into the water directly in some cases, it restricts people's access to the beach.

It also creates erosion issues downstream of where the revetment is placed.

- They do disrupt the natural flow of sand.

When you cover the land with the rocks, with the revetment, you basically inhibit that flow of sand between the lake and the beach.

- [Narrator] But Steve Coombs stands by the revetment protecting his house.

- It's simply not the case.

I mean, if you spun around the camera, this is the end of the revetment on the west end right here.

And if you look westward, there's absolutely no change in the beach.

And that's all National Park beach.

- [Narrator] Experts say it's too early to tell if this revetment will have an impact on beaches downstream.

Meanwhile, revetments are not the only option for controlling erosion.

The most common alternative is something called beach nourishment.

Most of the world's most beloved beaches, like the beaches in Miami, are regularly nourished with large volumes of sand that are placed on the beaches.

Beach nourishment is usually done with dredges and barges, but often a series of pipes are used to nourish a beach.

It's called sand bypassing.

Which is where you have this blockage of sand in the longshore direction and you literally continuously pump sand from one side of the structure to the other in the exact way that nature would want that sand to be flowing along that littoral conveyor belt.

Just about everyone agrees that some kind of ongoing beach nourishment is the best long-term solution for Ogden Dunes.

Even the Port of Indiana, which is insisting that the Burns Harbor breakwater is not causing the erosion says it supports beach nourishment projects along the shoreline.

But beach nourishment can get expensive and Ogden Dunes might not have enough money.

So who would pay?

The port belongs to the state of Indiana, but the breakwater belongs to the federal government.

- So we're caught in between the worlds of government, between the state of Indiana and the Army Corps of Engineers.

- [Narrator] The Port of Indiana Burns Harbor has been in operation for more than half a century.

So why is it causing such a problem at Ogden Dunes now?

There are a few factors at play.

The biggest one is climate change.

- So we are seeing stronger storms coming off of the lake that can exacerbate erosion issues.

- [Narrator] Also in the winter, ice cover called shelf ice used to provide a kind of natural revetment shielding the beach from waves.

But a warming climate means less shelf ice.

- So with ice cover going away, which is known effective climate change, we have more opportunities for these big storm to build really big waves, particularly for coasts like Indiana, where we have this big north to south reach of water.

- [Betsy] And when you don't have that ice accumulating because the temperatures are warmer in the lake, that also creates issues so that there's more erosion shed.

- [Narrator] In addition, the once reliable cycle of water levels across the Great Lakes is changing.

The frequency between highs and lows has been accelerating.

- [Professor Troy] So when you rapidly change the water levels, all of a sudden these beaches are way out of equilibrium with the new water levels and that sand will just rapidly be transported away as the beach tries to come to a new equilibrium.

- [Narrator] Professor Troy says the best solution is a holistic approach to beach erosion, rather than doing it on an emergency piecemeal basis.

- [Professor Troy] We kind of have to give the system room to work the way that it wants to work.

And sometimes like in the case of sand bypassing or beach nourishment, we have to kind of give it a little help and do what nature would want us to do.

- [Narrator] Despite tensions between the residents of Ogden Dunes, the US government, the state of Indiana, heavy industry and environmentalists over how to handle the problem of erosion, there's agreement that this is a precious resource worth saving.

- [Betsy] So I think there's opportunity with education and talking about these things and even through the litigation process to come to some understandings on what's best for everybody and why the beach is worth protecting for everyone's benefit and for future generations to come.

- We're all for everyone using the beach, and we look forward to the day where we get more sand and more people can come and share our beach and enjoy the beach just like we do every day.

- For more about shoreline erosion and climate change, visit Greatlakesnow.org.

There are thousands of dams in our region, but recently more and more have been taken down.

In our next story, we take you to Western Michigan to find out why.

This story is part of the Great Lakes News Collaboratives Project, "Refresh".

What comes Next for Great Lakes clean water.

Located on a tributary of the Kalamazoo River near Allergan, Michigan, the Swan Creek Dam helps manage water flow and provides residents with recreational opportunities such as fishing and kayaking.

But this dam is coming down because the Department of Natural Resources wants the river to be colder.

Fish biologist, Matt Diana explains why it's a necessary step.

- Cold water streams in Michigan are imperiled because of global climate change.

We've already seen in the last decade over a two degree increase in water temperatures.

When there's impoundments on the system, that just exacerbates the issues.

- [Laura] An impoundment is the artificial lake that forms behind a dam as river water backs up.

The sun can heat the water in an impoundment more than it would heat a flowing river.

And the effect can be surprisingly large.

- [Matt] They're creating water temperature warming in addition to what global climate change is causing.

Our monitoring here shows it's heats it up about 10 degrees.

- [Laura] That's enough heat to cause some major stress for certain species of the Great Lakes region, especially for trout.

- [Matt] So as the water's warm, we're starting to lose more and more trout.

We use a threshold of 68 degrees for trout survival.

Above that temperature, they don't grow well and they don't survive well.

- [Laura] And that's not the only trouble dams cause.

- [Matt] There's a number of different impacts that dams have on river systems.

The most obvious one that's fish migration.

In the Great Lakes, we have a lot of fish that rely on river migrations.

All salmon and steelhead, lake sturgeon, which are a threatened species.

We're seeing like white fish have really important migrations in the streams.

If a dam's in place that limits the migration, it limits the habitat that's available to 'em.

- [Laura] Dams also block downstream movement of sediment, which can deprive the downstream river system of an essential ingredient needed for fish habitats.

Add it all together, and this is bad for fish that we value.

On top of this, many dams around the Great Lakes region have another problem.

They're old.

In some cases, they've outlived their usefulness and they're expensive to maintain.

Swan Creek checks both of those boxes.

- [Matt] This particular dam was built in 1937.

A lot of dams were built around early 1800s, mid 1900s and then a lot of hydro dams were built associated with kind of World War II.

All of those dams are old.

The concrete used, the construction used are usually 50 year cut type construction.

So most of 'em are past their living lifespan and they're either requiring maintenance or constant kind of bandaid fixes in order to keep them in place.

- [Laura] The hefty cost of maintenance and repairs deters some from taking action, but ignoring aging dams presents enormous risks.

When older dams aren't maintained, a breach or a total failure can occur and that can spell disaster to the surrounding area.

- [Cameraman] There it goes.

There it goes.

- [Matt] Midland Michigan's a good example of a dam failure and the kind of impacts that happen when a dam fails.

- Breaking news coming from Michigan this morning.

- [Laura] The 2020 failure of the Edenville and Sanford dams in Midland resulted in over $250 million in property damage and extensive harm to the fishery.

To help prevent disasters up the scale and defend against climate change.

a wave of dam removal projects is happening right now in Michigan and across the US.

- As these dams age, they're really not serving a purpose other than creating an impoundment.

And so we're looking at opportunities when these dams age instead of repairing them, there's a lot of money out there to do things like removals through grant programs and state funded programs to try and improve fish habitat.

- [Laura] A recent influx of state and federal money allows the DNR to remove more dams than previously financially possible.

The DNR prioritizes dam removals in a number of different ways.

- One way we prioritize it is by the risk of the existing dam.

Dams are rated as high to low risk based on what would happen if they failed.

So a dam in a city might be more high risk because if it failed, it could flood houses and even cause loss of life.

So those become high priority dams from a safety aspect.

- [Laura] The DNR prioritizes low risk dams based on how big of a boost the fishery will get from removing them.

- [Matt] So one factor that we use is how many miles of stream is a dam blocking off from fish migration.

So in this case, we could remove a dam and open up 40 miles of stream that fish moving upstream couldn't access in the past - [Laura] 20 miles upstream of the Swan Creek Dam is where the Otsego Township Dam was removed in 2016, returning this stretch of the Kalamazoo River to its natural state.

- [Matt] This dam was removed because it was failing and because it had contaminated sediments behind it.

So if it failed, we would've had contaminated sediments go downstream.

- [Laura] Since removal of the dam, researchers from Western Michigan University routinely monitor the area.

Today, Dr. Tiffany Schriever and her team of grad students gear up to get a closeup look at the recovering system.

- We are out here collecting fish and macro invertebrates, doing water quality sampling for a food web study that we have going up to look at influences restoration and dam removal on the ecosystem.

- I'm a PhD student in Tiffany's lab at Dr. Schriever's lab.

I'm trying to understand how the sites with and without dams differ in terms of their fish, macro invertebrate community.

- [Laura] Though their field work isn't complete, the team has seen a clear shift in the types of species present in the water since the dam was removed.

- We see a lot more species we typically see in a river.

They're more adapted to rivering conditions, whereas where the dams are in place, we see species that more adapted to lake like conditions and where the dams have been taken out, we see more sensitive species that are intolerant to pollution.

But where the dam is still in place, we see species that are more pollution tolerant.

- We've seen a shift from lake like fish populations, so things like common carp, largemouth bass, blue gill to more rivering or what we call lodic systems, where it's smallmouth bass as pike, which are native and more appropriate for a river ecosystem.

- [Laura] And that's good news for the fishery.

- [Matt] The kind of information that Western Michigan's collecting here is really valuable to us Fisheries managers.

We take this kind of information and we use it in order to evaluate these projects and see if there's any need for additional restoration.

My ultimate goal with these projects is to see the river look as natural as it did before the dam was here, restore the fish habitat and really create better fisheries for the public in Michigan.

- For more about dams and fish populations in the Great Lakes, visit Greatlakesnow.org.

And now it's time for the catch where we bring you news stories and events from around the Great Lakes.

Experts say water from greenhouses in southern Ontario could be harming Lake Erie.

Journalist and farmer, Matt McIntosh recently reported on the issue for the Narwhal.

- The greenhouse sector, which comprises both vegetables and more recently cannabis, because it's expanded so much in recent years, what it's done is it's caused a notable jump and sustained jump in nutrient loading levels in local waterways.

- [Anna] These nutrients, especially phosphorus, can fuel harmful algae blooms that threaten the ecosystem and sometimes the drinking water.

- [McIntosh] And this has been highlighted by experts both previously by the Ministry of Environment here in Ontario, and then our local conservation authorities, water quality researchers as a particularly significant threat to the health of the lake.

- [Anna] According to a 2022 Statistics Canada Report, Ontario is home to more than 200 million square feet of greenhouse area.

Predictably, there's disagreement about what's causing the blooms and nobody's taking responsibility.

- [McIntosh] You map data that clearly shows that there are nutrient pollution problems in greenhouse heavy waterways, and that problem does not exist in adjacent waterways that don't have that greenhouse industry.

That's a fact.

But despite that, there still is not consensus from some stakeholders involved.

- [Anna] While the reasons are debated, one thing is certain.

Despite existing regulations, lake Erie's harmful blooms are as bad as ever.

- [McIntosh] So there's something happening there.

And one of the criticisms in terms of the local municipalities and local researchers is that the ministry of the environment who is responsible for enforcing these regulations appears to be largely absent.

- [Anna] The largest project ever funded under a Great Lakes cleanup program will remove contaminated sediment from a polluted hotspot in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin Public Radio's, Danielle Kaeding has the story.

- Federal environmental regulators announced roughly $450 million for this cleanup effort, and that would remove around 2 million cubic yards of contaminated sediments, which the EPA says is about the equivalent of 610 Olympic sized swimming pools.

- [Anna] The sediments will be dredged from the Milwaukee Harbor and three rivers in the surrounding area according to the EPA.

Funding comes from federal, state, county and municipal sources.

And Danielle says that's a significant step toward cleaning up the Milwaukee estuary area of concern, which includes parts of the Milwaukee Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers.

- What we've seen in the past is really that there hasn't been dedicated funding streams until the passage of the Great Lakes Legacy Act in 2002 and also, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2010.

And with those pots of funding, billions of dollars have been invested in restoration and cleanup of contaminated sites around the Great Lakes.

- [Anna] The goal is to improve water quality, both for recreation and for fish and wildlife habitat.

Construction of a new facility to hold the contaminated sediment is set to begin in 2024, and dredging is expected to start in 2026.

And now an excerpt from our new digital series called, "Waves of Change", where we spotlight the diverse spaces and perspectives shaping the environmental justice movement throughout the Great Lakes.

This time we talk with Alicia Smith, Executive Director of the Junction Coalition, a community nonprofit based in Toledo, Ohio.

- Junction Coalition is a community based organization made up of four pillars of justice.

Those four pillars are social justice, environmental justice, economic justice, and peace education.

And so Junction Coalition has worked since 2012 around these concerns, particularly if we look at the algal bloom in 2014, which caused many over 500,000 people to be without their water.

Don't touch the water, don't drink the water, don't bathe in the water.

- In terms of policy and solutions, I wonder if there are any particular efforts in that area that the Junction Coalition is working on that you can tell me about.

- You see a lot within the policy procedures talk about disadvantaged communities, but there's no definition.

So we are working to give a definition to what is a disadvantaged community.

You hear a lot of people talk about equity, but there are no equity matrix, no way of checking and making sure people are doing the work, whether it's distribution of funds from an equitable process, whether it's equity as it relates to work and workflow, or our public servants attending to their citizens.

So Junction is working to put together an equity matrix that we can all use.

- Thanks for watching.

For the full interview with Alicia Smith, or for more about any of our stories, 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.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) This program is brought to you by the Fred A and Barbara M Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Richard C Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, Polk Family Fund, DTE Foundation and contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

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