Great Lakes of the lakes: Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, and Michigan does not border Lake Ontario. New York and Wisconsin's jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and each of the remaining states into one of the lakes. As the surfaces of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie are all approximately the same elevation above sea level, while Lake Ontario is significantly lower, and because the Niagara Escarpment precludes all natural navigation, the four upper lakes are commonly called the "upper great lakes". This designation, however, is not universal. Those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the
Alliance for the Great Lakes Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition named Brammeier a co-chair of the 120-plus organization consortium, which among other efforts, campaigned for the establishment of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Brammeier has been a leading advocate for re-separating the Chicago Area Waterway System to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species such as Asian carp. The Alliance's reach has extended to Washington, D.C., where in 1974, based on PCBs' devastating impact in the Great Lakes, the organization led efforts for Congress to ban the chemical through the Toxic Substances Control Act. In 1989, it initiated a lawsuit to prevent the illegal sale of