Alliance for the Great Lakes Lake Michigan lake bottom by the Illinois legislature to a prominent Chicago university, despite disagreement about the move from other environmental organizations. Decades later, the case "Lake Michigan Federation v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" is a seminal decision under the Public Trust Doctrine, which prohibits the sale of public Great Lakes resources to private entities. In 2002 and again in 2008, the Alliance helped write and partner with business interests to pass the Great Lakes Legacy Act to fund Area of Concern cleanups. It helped write and pass the Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact to set water conservation
Great Lakes U.S. side highlight five large municipal systems (those of Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Gary) as being the largest current periodic sources of untreated discharges into the Great Lakes. Algae such as diatoms, along with other phytoplankton, are photosynthetic primary producers supporting the food web of The Great Lakes. The changes in the size or in the function of the primary producers may have a direct or an indirect impact on the food web. Photosynthesis carried out by diatoms comprises about one fifth of the total photosynthesis. By taking CO2 out of the water, to photosynthesize, diatoms help to stabilize