Alliance For The Great Lakes

Education & action: education & action is the alliance's initiative to provide action-oriented information and programs to communities interested in protecting the lakes. This year, our constituents sent more than 13,000 messages to local, state, and federal decision-makers to take action on measures protecting the great lakes and those who rely on them. Nearly 10,000 volunteers helped remove litter from beaches on all five great lakes and allowed us to surpass more than 10 million pieces of litter removed throughout the history of the adopt-a-beach program. Through our facilitation, the state revolving fund advocates forum has grown to more than 200 members, providing valuable information and resources to communities in critical need of safe drinking water and protection from flooding and sewage overflows.

Research & analysis: research & analysis enables the alliance to leverage the wealth of data and scientific research about the lakes to drive protection and cleanup action. In april of 2024, we released a report titled 20 years of great lakes litter data, which analyzed the litter dataset the alliance has maintained through its adopt-a-beach program and dramatically boosted our advocacy to reduce the sources of plastic pollution. Also in 2024, we launched a 5-year project conducting innovative water testing to better understand the impact of agricultural pollution in western lake erie. We believe this data will influence decision makers to increase funding and targeting to reduce agricultural runoff and will act as a model for other states to conduct similar programs. The alliance also began a 2-year project with community organizations on the south side of chicago to develop a flooding vulnerability tool and infrastructure improvement roadmap to improve drinking water quality, reduce flooding, and enhance public health outcomes.