Helping People Protect Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron...
Watershed by Watershed

featured shoreline photo

Click the image above to view it at full size, then right-click to save it to your desktop. These images are from our Lake Superior Coastal Viewer for Marquette County and make great desktop wallpaper!

The Superior Watershed Partnership...

BECOME A MEMBER!! - We need your help - it's YOUR water. ...

DRUGGING OUR WATERS - See the Partnership's very own Natasha Koss in a TV interview with Commissioner Frank Avila, from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District ...

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE - Click here for local solutions. ...

LANDOWNER AND REALTOR OUTREACH PROJECT - View the DRAFT Landowner and Realtor Outreach Binder here..... ...

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND ASSISTANCE - Learn how the Joyce Foundation is helping to make a difference in the U.P. ...

RIPARIAN BUFFERS - We are working with a host of partners to establish riparian buffers on the U.P. waterways. ...

THE WATERSHED VIEWER - This database of the UP watersheds is slowly growing, check it out! ...

YOUTH IN THE ENVIRONMENT - See how the SWP is impacting youth across the U.P. ...

Natasha Koss (pictured at right), SWP's Membership Coordinator, recently traveled to Chicago for the EPA CARE conference. CARE stands for Community Action for a Renewed Environment. The SWP has become an EPA model organization for community action in the Upper Peninsula through implementation of various pollution prevention projects, including the mercury reduction project with local dentists.

Did you know that waste from your tooth filling contains trace amounts of mercury? They do and over 30 area dentists with the Superior District Dental Association have taken important steps to keep that mercury out of Lake Superior. These water stewards have installed mercury amalgam separators. This is a device that actually separate the mercury from the waste water before it goes into the drain!

Dr. Gary Asano, DDS (on the left) also attended the conference to talk about this program. Dr. Asano talked to a crowd of nearly 200 about how the program has helped Marquette Waste Water Treatment Plant realize a nearly 38% decrease in mercury from effluent going directly to Lake Superior!

Want to learn more? Go to Pollution Prevention.