- [Narrator 1] Coming up on "Great Lakes Now."

Unearthing prehistoric artifacts to expose the Great Lakes region's earliest human inhabitants.

- [Brandan] Oh, there it is.

This is our first artifact of the day.

- [Narrator 1] What do we do with water that doesn't go over Niagara Falls?

- We take water out of the Niagara River and we turn that hydropower into electricity.

- [Narrator 1] And news from around the lakes.

(bright music) This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Richard C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, Polk Family Fund, DTE Foundation, and contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hi, I am Anna Sysling, welcome to "Great Lakes Now."

The word archeology might make you think of the Egyptian pyramids, but in our own region, archeologists are uncovering evidence of human activity thousands of years before the pyramids were built.

- Tilt the head up.

- [Narrator 2] To be an archeologist, it takes a lot of precise measuring.

- [Director] Shooting.

Got it.

- A lot of scraping.

(metal scraping) And a lot of sifting.

There's a reason for all this hard work, these archeologists are looking for the tiniest bits of evidence of ancient civilizations.

(mash sifting) - [Brandan] I like to spread the rocks out so you can see, sort of see each one.

- [Narrator 2] That's Brendan Nash, a doctoral student of archeology at the University of Michigan.

- [Brandan] So what we're looking for in here are the tiniest little flakes debris from the manufacturer of stone tools.

- [Narrator 2] This dig site is in the middle of a farmer's field in southwest Michigan.

- [Brandan] You know, this was a out wash plane.

The water from the glaciers sort of poured out for thousands of years, channeled down past this area and left just innumerable little pebbles and stones, some of which are really high quality chert.

- [Narrator 2] Chert is a sedimentary rock that was key to the existence of people who occupied this land about 13,000 years ago.

It has two basic properties which make it useful for manufacturing stone tools.

It breaks with a smooth fracture to form very sharp edges and it's very durable, perfect for making sharp tools and spear points for hunting.

They were called Clovis points, the people who made them and used them for hunting are called Clovis People after Clovis, New Mexico, where artifacts like these were found in the 1930s.

- We know the site was visited at least twice by Clovis Groups, may have been as many as four or five.

- [Narrator 2] The person who discovered this site and brought it to the attention of the archeology department at the University of Michigan is a self-taught archeologist named Tom Talbott.

He grew up around here and now lives in Minden, Michigan.

- I was born, oh, probably about three miles southwest of here.

- [Narrator 2] Tom spent a lot of time on his grandparents' farm exploring the neighboring fields in St. Joseph County.

At just 11 years old, he discovered his life's passion.

- I had a friend whose father worked in soil conservation and he would collect arrowheads, and and flint knives and stuff and bring 'em home.

So at 11 years old he showed me what to look for as far as some of the signs that these people left behind.

- [Narrator 2] What young Tom found while exploring the fields around him were pieces of rock, just little chips and flakes.

- I went back and found some heat fractured rock on a little sandy hill next to this marsh, and started walking around, and I picked up like two arrow points and a couple of flint knives, some broken pieces, that was thrilling to be able to actually go out and find a village site on my own.

- [Narrator 2] Talbot lives in a house not far from the dig site.

An entire room in Tom's house has been converted into his archeology lab.

He uses a powerful microscope coupled with his cell phone to zoom in to an arrowhead made from chert for a closer look.

- [Tom] So all the constituents are here for a good view of what Attica chert looks like.

- [Narrator 2] Attica Chert is usually found about 1 50 miles southwest of this dig site near the Indiana, Illinois border.

So the question that Tom and his fellow archeologists had to grapple with was, how and why did it end up here?

It's believed that Clovis people in search of game migrated to this area about 13,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era, commonly referred to as the ice age.

They set up camp, manufactured and sharpened their hunting tools in what is now this farmer's field in St. Joseph County.

Tom uses a 3D printed copy of a Clovis Spearpoint to show the detail of how they were made.

- [Tom] Yeah, you can see the fluting here that was done and to put it on the handle or shaft.

I believe they did a dual or multipurpose half day.

So instead of putting the this point on a shaft of a spear, they would mount it on a hollowed out piece of bone.

Guy could have several of these hanging from his hunting belt, put it on the spear.

- [Narrator 2] This particular dig site is called the Belson site, named for the family that owns this farmland.

It's a significant discovery.

The Clovis culture has been studied in the southwest and southeastern United States, but the Belson site is the oldest Clovis site ever discovered in Michigan.

Talbot and archeologists from the University of Michigan have been digging at the Belson site for the past four years.

- In Clovis times, we think, you can correct me if I'm wrong, yeah, this was sort of an open grassland, sort of like a Savannah.

And at some point a mixed hardwood forest came in and put roots through essentially the entire area here.

So that's a major source of disturbance and we can see the roots in the undisturbed sediment.

- [Narrator 2] It's tedious work scraping, and then sifting through the dirt to find tiny fragments of rock that offer clues about what happened on this spot thousands of years ago.

The dig site is carefully measured out in one meter square sections.

Dr. Henry Wright anthropology professor at U of M has been leading digs like this around the world for many years.

(metal scraping) - Well, we had a large concentration of material at the surface level.

This has been mapped already and Brendan has done a really nice statistical study of the surface and the immediately subsurface level.

And so we have a continuous dense scatter of these small tiny flakes from the activities of Paleo Indians, and we're right in a very interesting part of that area.

So we're hoping to see exciting finds.

- [Narrator 2] And then a discovery.

- [Brandan] There it is.

- [Narrator 2] A tiny fragment of stone.

- [Brandan] It's our first artifact of the day.

This is a small flake from the refurbishment of the Clovis spear point.

So you can imagine when you're sharpening the stone tool, you have to shave down the edge all the way after it breaks to reform it into a point.

And when you do that, you end up with a whole bunch of little extra pieces of debris, which is what we have here.

- [Tom] I am looking to see if this chert is familiar enough to me to identify it with just the naked eye.

Almost looks like Wyandotte Chert from all the way down to the very bottom of Indiana on the Ohio River.

But I'm gonna go ahead and set up my microscope and and look at it a little further.

There's some curious aspects to it that I'd like to see.

Under further inspection under my microscope here, it's actually Muldraugh Chert - [Narrator 2] Muldraugh Chert comes from hundreds of miles away suggesting that people moved or traded over long distances in this region 13,000 years ago.

This fragment also seems to have been modified with fire to make the hard Chert easier to work.

- Chert are more useful if they heat treat it and they bring it up very slowly in sand.

They bring it up to several hundred degrees and then let it cool down naturally.

- [Narrator 2] After taking a few measurements, the Belson site crew calls it a day and covers up the site with tarps.

Next stop, the lab (indistinct chattering) - [Brandan] Well, yesterday we were out at the Belson site excavating and mapping pieces of cultural debris, and today we're analyzing and cataloging all of that material that we excavated yesterday.

Tom determines what kind of stone it is.

I determine a technologic category to put it in.

- [Narrator 2] All the data that's collected is used to create a 3D map of the Belson site.

- So what we have here is a three dimensional data map of the Belson excavation.

Each blue dot is a flake, each green dot is a C 14 sample to send off for radiocarbon, and our red dots are our formal tools and we see a strong central cluster that we believe is a dugout heating feature, maybe the first Clovis Hearth to ever be found.

And when we look at it in profile, we see a real nice line in the profile.

So this is the elevation at which they were living.

We are quite certain that these flakes have undergone no transport since deposition.

They are sharp and they will cut you.

After 13,000 years they will still cut you.

- [Narrator 2] One by one, each specimen is carefully examined.

- [Tom] Okay, what I'm looking for first is the point from which this thing was struck, and I can see a little platform right here and it's a prepared platform but appears to be ground a little bit, which is typical.

- [Narrator 2] Talbot says he's in his element working alongside professors in the lab, despite his lack of formal training in archeology, but it's out in the field working under the hot sun at the Belson site that stirs up memories of how his life's work began as a curious kid exploring his own neighborhood, - I do remember standing on a sandhill looking over a marsh, and it turned out it was just on the other side where the Belson site was discovered, thinking that someday I would make a significant contribution to the archeological history and that that happened.

- For more about the history of the Great Lakes region, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

Niagara Falls is one of the most famous sites in the Great Lakes, and the power of the Niagara River makes for more than great snapshots.

It also produces enough electricity to power millions of homes.

- [Narrator 1] Electricity powers our daily lives from our first cup of coffee in the morning to the streetlights that guide us home at night.

As society shifts away from fossil fuels and toward renewable resources, power generation from water will play a critical role alongside wind and solar.

The New York Power Authority is the largest state-run utility in the United States, providing about a fifth of all the power used in the state of New York.

Much of that power is generated on the Niagara River, which runs between New York state and Ontario.

Daniella Piper is the New York Power Authorities Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer.

- Congress authorized the Niagara Redevelopment Act in 1958 to build a Niagara Power project.

The Niagara Power Project consists of two facilities, the Robert Moses Project, which is where we're located today, and the Lewiston pump generating plant.

- [Narrator 1] In 1957, the Federal Power Commission issued a license to the New York Power Authority to develop the Niagara Falls hydroelectric power stations.

Dan Connolly is Chief mechanic at the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant.

- I like to look at this place and how they built it back in the '50s with lots of blue collar folks, lots of tradesmen.

There wasn't the fancy equipment we have nowadays.

- [Dianelle] We had over 11,000 laborers who worked on this plant, which is a pretty phenomenal fate.

- [Narrator 1] An immense amount of work had to be undertaken before construction of the actual power plant could begin.

- [Dianelle] We had to build new railroads.

Housing had to be established, schools were established to educate the children of the people who worked here, excavation of over 18,000 cubic feet of rock.

We had to basically remove over 8,000 cubic feet of soil and we poured almost 3000 cubic yards of concrete to build this plant.

- [Narrator 1] Construction of the plant, and power generating infrastructure was an astronomical fea.

At the time President Kennedy called it quote, "An example to the world of North American efficiency and determination."

- [Dan] First power was three years from shovel going in the ground to making power with unit one to power rest of the cement factories and everything else that was going on around here.

I don't think we could ever do that today.

- [Narrator 1] The Robert Moses power plant was completed in 1961, and it remains the largest hydropower project in the northeastern United States.

The plant generates enough electricity daily to power 2.6 million homes, all from the force of gravity pulling on water.

Lake Erie is about 325 feet higher than Lake Ontario and water drops that entire distance as it moves from one lake to the other.

- We take water out of the Niagara River and we turn that hydropower into electricity.

- [Narrator 1] More than 6 million cubic feet of water flows over Niagara Falls every minute.

Yet that is only half of the natural volume of the Niagara River.

The rest of the water is diverted upstream before it ever reaches the falls.

- The amount of water we can divert is dictated by a treaty that outlines how the water is shared between the US and Canada.

On average, 101,000 CFS is allowed to flow with the falls and the balance is diverted between us and the Canadians.

- [Narrator 1] The sir Adam Beck number one power generating station operates on the Canadian side of the river.

Together the two countries generate almost five million kilowatts of electricity daily.

- We divert water from the upper Niagara River in two conduits that really run under the city of Niagara Falls, and comes into an area that's called a gorebay.

- [Narrator 1] The water enters the forebay through an area known as the pant leg.

The pant leg earns its name from looking a lot like a pair of pants.

- [Dianelle] Water from the forebay can be used twice.

It powers the Robert Moses plant and it also powers the Lewiston Palm Generating Plant, where it can be stored in a reservoir or used to generate electricity.

- [Narrator 1] The reservoir acts like a battery, when more energy is needed, water is released from the reservoir and travels through the Lewiston plant and the Robert Moses plant, generating electricity twice as it travels back to the river.

Along the way, the water drops down multiple tunnels to spin the plant's turbines.

At peak times, 43 million gallons of water per minute flow through the turbines.

- You got about 800 ton of rotating equipment right there between a rotor, two shafts, and the water wheel is about 800 ton.

That's what's spinning, we've got 13 of them.

- [Narrator 1] Each spinning turbine converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.

The electrical energy travels from the turbines to the switchyard, and from there the power is sent to the grid.

- We're also a big investor in transmission and we really are focused on billing infrastructure that allows power to be moved from upstate where we have more renewables, downstate to where the load is and where power is needed as we transition to a clean energy economy.

- [Narrator 1] The plant is currently undergoing a $1.2 billion 15 year upgrade and modernization program that will significantly extend its operating life.

- The project is over 60 years old.

What that means is a lot of the assets are the end of life.

Last year we started construction on what we call our next generation Niagara project.

We're undertaking an overhaul or replacement of all of the mechanical parts at the Robert Moses Project.

- [Dan] Like now we're getting into the unit six tear down for the life expectancy program.

Everything comes out, water wheel that's out on a deck.

Everything's outta the hole so they can true the hole back up to vertical.

Nothing's light around here and if something does go bad, we're gonna be in trouble.

Somebody's gonna be in it, probably won't be alive.

So we're pretty safe when it comes to things of that, but you gotta stay on your toes.

- [Narrator 1] The Niagara Power Project is crucial for New York state to achieve its goal of a zero carbon emissions electricity sector by 2040.

- For more about energy in the Great Lakes region, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

And now it's time for the catch where we bring you new stories and events from around the Great Lake.

- [Narrator 1] In Wisconsin, utility companies are closing their coal plants, but rate payers are still saddled with the cost.

Kari Lydersen with Energy News Network has the story.

- These coal plants, not surprisingly, cost many hundreds of millions of dollars to build, and then the utilities have had to add expensive pollution controls over the years also.

So they are under law allowed to continue recouping all those costs.

- [Narrator 1] The Columbia Energy Center is co-owned by We Energy's and Alliant.

It's set to close by 2026.

Other closures include We Energy's Oak Creek plants by 2024 and 2025, and Alliance Edgewater Plant by 2025.

- Rate payers will still be stuck paying the costs for those coal plants in the hundreds of millions of dollars basically until they're paid off.

The utilities are also allowed by law to charge a profit on top of that so the utilities can make a nine or 10% profit on all these investments even after the coal plant is actually closed and not operating anymore.

- [Narrator 1] In Wisconsin, utility companies need to go before the Public Service Commission before making changes that affect rates.

- The Public Service Commission does have the power, and has criticized the utilities essentially for this cost burden, but still hasn't done what advocates would like to see them do in terms of really taking action to make sure people aren't saddled with these costs.

- [Narrator 1] Some consumer advocates argued that the utility companies should simply not seek a profit or to recoup building costs at all.

Others seek a different solution.

- There's something called securitization, which a 2004 state law did allow companies to use this process to reduce the debt on closed coal plants by issuing bonds.

It's sort of a complicated procedure, but it is something that can reduce by tens or hundreds of millions the burden on rate payers, - [Narrator 1] Utility companies have rarely opted into the securitization procedure.

So far, the measures only been used once, but advocates say that something needs to be done.

- Consumer groups are definitely demanding that the utilities do this and that the Public Service Commission require the utilities to do something so that people aren't paying so much for these coal plants after they close.

- [Narrator 1] Kari says that as more coal plants shut down, rate payers in other states may face the same problem.

- Many Great Lake states are in the same boat as Wisconsin with retiring coal plants and those stranded assets, those costs still being born by rate payers.

The Great Lakes as a whole is still fairly dependent on coal compared to some other regions of the country, but this is really something that is an issue nationwide.

- [Narrator 1] In November of 2023, the EPA announced a proposal that would remove lead pipes from America's drinking water infrastructure over the next decade, except in places where meeting that deadline would be impossible, like Chicago, which has more lead service pipes than any other city in the country.

Siri Chilikuri covered the story for Grist.

- The reason that Chicago meets that kind of loophole is because there are 400,000 pipelines, and that would mean that the city would have to replace 40,000 lead pipelines a year to meet that goal.

That would basically mean that entire swaths of the city would be unnavigable because the city would have to dig up entire parts of the street to do it.

- [Narrator 1] The EPA exception would require Chicago and other cities and towns in a similar position to remove 10,000 pipes a year until all of the lead is removed.

It could take Chicago 40 years to remove all of the lead pipes, and still be in compliance with the rule.

- There's a real catch 22 between the very expensive timely process of replacing lead pipes and people who are living with lead.

- [Narrator 1] Another roadblock comes down to funding.

The price tag to replace lead service lines in Chicago is $12 billion.

The Biden administration is designating $15 billion toward lead pipe removal, but that's for the entire country.

- I think the city is trying to do the best it can with the resources it has, but it really needs more, especially if it's going to help people who might not even know that they have lead in their water.

- [Narrator 1] So what can Chicagoans concerned about lead do in the meantime?

Siri says there are a couple of options including free water tests provided by the city.

- We'll send you a kit, it'll tell you exactly how to take a water sample, and then you'll send it back to a lab, and they'll send you the results.

And then actually, if your results come back positive, and if you qualify, you can get your lead service line replaced free of charge, but it can sometimes take months.

- [Narrator 1] Siri says that another option is to use a water filter on your tap or in a pitcher.

- The best thing to do is to try to inform yourself, try to inform your neighbors, try to see if there's any programs where you can distribute these sorts of pitchers to lower your exposure at least temporarily, while the city tries to fix at least the problem with lead pipes.

- [Narrator 1] And now an excerpt from our digital series called Waves of Change, where we spotlight the diverse faces and perspectives shaping the environmental justice movement throughout the Great Lakes.

This time we talk with Huda Alkaff an ecologist environmental educator, and the founder and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims.

Huda's work touches multiple climate issues including renewable energy.

- So we do education around solar assessment and consultations, and we connect with 19 different faith traditions and spiritualities around that.

And we help many, many do their projects, a solor project.

So that's one thing.

And then we connected with another initiative, which is Faithful Rainwater Harvesting or abbreviation comes from the name, it's Farah, which means joy.

So back again to the healing part.

And then water and and this initiative, both are interfaith initiatives and both really celebrates the sacredness of water and light.

And they have three components.

One is the social component where people learn from each other and we gather together.

We do peer learning and sharing.

And there is the financial component where we educate the community about different financial models, and what worked with others through the sharing and what incentives are out there.

And then it's the spiritual component, which really the water and light are offering.

- Thanks for watching, for the full interview with Huda Alkaff or for more about any of our stories, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

When you get there, you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to get updates about our work.

See you out on the lakes.

(bright music) - [Narrator 1] This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Richard C. Devereux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, Polk Family Fund, DTE Foundation, and contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music) (ambient music)