The Northeast-Midwest Institute last week hosted a webinar focusing on Great Lakes resiliency efforts at both the federal and state levels. The Great Lakes region is experiencing record flooding events which have adversely impacted the region's economy and quality of life. With continued record high water levels due to increased rain events across the region, the region continues to focus on new strategies to make communities more resilient. These record high water levels, and associated chronic erosion, have taxed existing aging infrastructure, some of which were designed almost a hundred years ago. Roads, bridges, wastewater and drinking water systems throughout the Great Lakes continue to be pushed beyond their original design purposes. With changing water patterns, warming lake temperatures, and other climate trends, extreme high and low lake levels look to be the norm for the foreseeable future.

More specifically, the webinar focused on the future of the Great Lakes Resiliency Study, a study that looks to develop a coordinated strategy to manage and protect the Great Lakes and its coastlines. The study, which would be spearheaded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and is supported by a diverse group of Great Lakes states, was initially authorized by the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, and was just enhanced through the recently passed Water Resources Development Act of 2020.

The webinar included presentations from federal, state, and non-governmental views on how to make the region more resilient with greater changing water variables in the future. Along with NEMWI, these perspectives included: David F. Bucaro, P.E., Chief, Project Management Section, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District; Mike Molnar, Deputy Director, Coastal States Organization; and Mr. Eric Brown, Senior Advisor for External Relations, Great Lakes Commission. A recording of the webinar and the materials that were shared can be viewed here.

• $46.5 million for the Soo Lock project on top of $123.2 million that was included in the FY 2021 omnibus bill (for a total of $169.8 million in FY 2021) - to complete upstream approach walls construction and construction oversight.

• $14.3 million for the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Fish Dispersal Barrier on top of the $14.3 million that was included in the FY 2021 omnibus bill (for a total of $28.6 million in FY 2021) - to install equipment for the second electrode array for Permanent Barrier 1.