Didn't take long for high gas prices to have some thinking about exploiting the Great Lakes again.
As natural gas prices rise, a lawmaker from Stark County is proposing that Ohio open state parks and Lake Erie to drilling for natural gas.
“We have wonderful resources in Ohio that are untapped,” Rep. John Hagan, R-Marlboro Township, said Thursday. “We can benefit residents in the state by tapping those resources. The technology has come a long way since the policies against tapping resources in parks has been established.”
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=9&ID=244723&r=0
The new American Prospect:
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?name=Current+Issue§ion=root
Imagine the power that would result if conservationists (including hunters and anglers) and environmentalists (including bird-lovers) came together in a unified movement. The pollute and plunder forces have tried for years to keep us apart and we've obliged.
In the Traverse City area, there's a sign of hope. (Thanks to the Republican conservationist who pointed out this old story.)
"We need to learn how to work together instead of coming apart," said Charter, executive director of Saving Birds Thru Habitat and the driving force behind the new Alliance, whose acronym is NMCWA. "If we don't take care of the environment in the long run, then we're all in trouble."
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/aug/18nature.htm
Thoughtful paring back of unnecessary paperwork -- or what? Take it on faith from this guy:
"This sensible update will provide relief to small manufacturers and free up resources for addressing critical environmental priorities," John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers and former Michigan governor, said in a statement.
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/epa29e_20050929.htm
Wetland loss knows no boundaries. In Minnesota, the loss of wetlands is manifesting itself in a steep decline in habitat for ducks -- and duck populations. In Michigan the issue is more diffuse but equally dangerous. Loss of over 50% of the state's wetlands means more polluted runoff into rivers and the Great Lakes, declining amphibian and waterfowl populations, higher flood crests, and other effects.
The solution in both states and elsewhere is for conservationists and environmentalists to put their differences aside, get active and demand reform.
Perhaps the state's weakened duck hunting tradition that will continue Saturday -- born out of need generations ago, when sacramental numbers of birds that blackened the sky were reduced quickly to the pot -- will provide the incentive Minnesotans need, finally, to wrestle control of their lands and waters, and therefore their futures.
If so, some value might come, perversely, of the wasteland that Minnesotans have made of much of their state; a wasteland invisible to most, perhaps, but important to all, just as dikes are against a rising tide.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/533/5638815.html
In Minnesota and Michigan and the U.S. of A., it's all over the map. But maybe a sensible energy policy will come out the other end of the debate.
"We can all pitch in by using -- by being better conservers of energy," Bush said. "People just need to recognize that these storms have caused disruption and that if they're able to maybe not drive on a trip that's not essential, that would be helpful.
"The federal government can help, and I've directed the federal agencies nationwide, and here are some ways we can help. We can curtail nonessential travel. If it makes sense for the citizen out there to curtail nonessential travel, it darned sure makes sense for federal employees."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5638639.html
But saving on energy consumption is generally about as popular with Americans as putting aside money; President Ronald Reagan, a onetime General Electric spokesman, famously equated energy conservation with "freezing in the dark."
http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010451.html
The price of natural gas in Michigan will jump by nearly 50% this winter, as hurricane-damaged facilities in the gulf coast region struggle to get back to full strength.
http://www.freep.com/money/business/natgas28e_20050928.htm
Let's face it -- America's cheap gasoline days are over.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0509/28/A15-329938.htm
Slower speeds save fuel
Page A1 of the Sept. 27 Star Tribune: Minnesota raises speed limit to 60 on rural highways. Page A6: President Bush says we should drive less to save gas.
These stories just don't jibe. According to the Federal Trade Commission website (www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/autos/gasave.htm): "The faster you drive, the more fuel you use. For example, driving at 65 miles per hour (mph), rather than 55 mph, increases fuel consumption by 20 percent. Driving at 75 mph, rather than 65 mph, increases fuel consumption by another 25 percent."
President Bush should stop paying lip service to the notion of sacrifice and reimpose the 55 mph limit. Saving gas: It's the conservative thing to do.
Bruce Kvam, Minnetonka.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/563/5638640.html
Gov. Tim Pawlenty is putting his choice of an official vehicle where his mouth is. The governor, who has emerged as one of the nation's most aggressive salesmen for ethanol fuels, revealed Tuesday that he is getting a Chevrolet Suburban that will be powered by E85, gasoline with 85 percent ethanol content. Minnesota, rich in corn and soybeans, is one of the nation's biggest ethanol producers, and Pawlenty has become one of its biggest national advocates, serving as chairman of the Governors Ethanol Coalition.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5638318.html
It's always good to check in and see how reality affects the right. Apparently an unusually warm summer and two devastating hurricanes have affected columnist Tom Bray of the Detroit News -- little.
Reality keeps getting in the way of those who want to use the threat of global warming to end the age of fossil fuels.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0509/25/A23-325981.htm
Reality doesn't seem to have intruded into his world. For example, he speaks of "President Bush's insistence that the best way of dealing with such [long-term threats] is to subsidize the development of energy technologies, such as hydrogen." But like Bush, Bray doesn't even concede there is a problem known as global warming. To both men it's still just a liberal myth.
This is a local story, no matter where you live. As local as your bloodstream.
Despite pretrial rulings that could make it harder to obtain class-action status, a lawsuit claiming that 3M Co. chemicals contaminated water in Washington County is still shaping up as a pivotal case.
...Scientific studies have found that nearly all people have PFCs in their blood, where the chemicals remain for many years. PFCs have been found in wildlife around the globe, including polar bears, eagles and fish.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/12741333.htm
Good morning, Muskegon.
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/webcams/lmfs/lmfs-webcam1.html
And Duluth.
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/minnesota/duluth/
And Toronto.
http://www.toronto.com/feature/238
While the world is focusing elsewhere -- on hurricane relief, for example -- Congress is busy rolling the clock back to the 1800s.
The Endangered Species Act has serious flaws, but anyone who thinks the far right in the U.S. House is going to fix them with this "reform" bill is in error. The bill is about weakening the act without repealing it -- to repeal it would risk a huge public outcry.
In the Great Lakes region, there are dozens of officially listed or candidate endangered species. In Minnesota, 18. In Michigan, 25. Among them are the piping plover (now in recovery thanks to the Act), the gray wolf, and many world-class rare plants.
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/
Representative Pombo's Extinction bill, H.R. 3824 is on a fast track through Congress. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on it sometime next week. We need your help to stop this bill!
The Endangered Species Act is a safety net for wildlife, fish and plants on the brink of extinction. Representative Pombo's bill will cut large holes in this safety net and significantly weaken protections for our nation's fish, plants, wildlife, and the places they call home. The bill would gut the Endangered Species Act on behalf of greedy developers, oil companies, timber companies, mining companies and extreme property rights groups.
It is critical that Members of Congress stand up for our natural heritage and the Endangered Species Act. Please call your Member of Congress and urge them to oppose Representative Pombo's Extinction bill!Thank you for your work to protect endangered species and habitat.
hhttp://www.stopextinction.org
The bill would:
Eliminate Critical Habitat Protections
The Pombo bill would repeal one of the most important parts of the Endangered Species Act's safety net-the protection of critical habitat.
Abandon the Commitment to Recovery of Endangered Species
The Pombo bill weakens recovery plans by stacking the "recovery teams" that draft them with industry representatives. It requires that the teams include representatives from each "constituency" with a direct interest in the species and its "economic and social impacts".
Repeal Protections Against Hazardous Pesticides
The Pombo bill would repeal all Endangered Species Act provisions that protect threatened and endangered species from the harmful impact of pesticides. Pesticides played a major role in contributing to the decline of our nation's symbol, the American bald eagle, in the mid-20th century.
Politicize Scientific Decision-Making
The Pombo bill would allow political appointees to manipulate science to fit their political agenda by allowing the Secretary of Interior to develop a definition the "best available science." .
Eliminate the Vital Check and Balance of Consultation
The Pombo bill would allow the Bush Administration to exempt any agency action or "categories of actions" from the requirement to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service before they take any actions that could undermine the survival or recovery of protected species.
Require Taxpayers to Pay Developers, Oil & Gas Companies, and other Industries for Complying with the Law
The Pombo bill requires the federal government to use taxpayer dollars to pay developers for complying the Endangered Species Act's prohibition on killing or injuring imperiled wildlife and sets no limits on these payments. The federal government would have to pay for profits developers hoped to gain by developing that portion of the land, including any profits lost due to mitigations asked of the landowner to protect endangered species, such as retaining riparian corridors or setting aside mitigation habitat.
Require Fish and Wildlife Service to Allow Unfettered Habitat Destruction
The Pombo bill places endangered species at risk whenever the federal government fails to meet a 180-day deadline for telling developers whether their actions would kill or harm an endangered species. If the government misses the deadline, no matter what the reason, developers are permanently exempted from the law.
But Carl Hiassen and his sardonic take on environmentalists and developers is always worth reading, in whatever form.
Carl Hiaasen is hopelessly steeped in his native Florida, a love/hate relationship that gives his bestselling, award-winning novels for young adults and grownups (not to mention his columns for the Miami Herald) their color, humor and bite. In them, he freely lambastes what he considers to be the state's worst excesses (Disney World) and sings of its sublime wonders (sunsets at sea, flocks of pelicans floating overhead, a gently rocking bonefish skiff).
He continues this mission in "Flush," (Knopf, 246 pages, $16.95; ages 10 and up), featuring Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, whose dad, an environmental activist, occasionally "loses a wing-nut" in his drive to stop the "ruthless greedheads." Dad is bent on sinking (literally and figuratively) a casino boat that is flushing its "ca-ca" directly into the Keys. The kids must save their father from himself -- and save the beaches from being slimed.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/5631614.html
There's some hope here. The draft agreement bans the shipment of huge tankers of water out of the Great Lakes -- unless they're in bottles. Maybe the states and provinces will awaken to the absurdity.
Senate Democrats Call on Great Lakes States to Close Loophole for Bottled Water Diversion
LANSING- Democratic State Senators Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) and Ray Basham
(D-Taylor) called on the Council of Great Lakes Governors today to close a
loophole in the 2001 Annex that would allow bottled water companies to divert
resources from the region. The annex is an agreement among eight Governors and two Canadian premiers to protect Great Lakes resources.
The Democratic members of the Senate Natural Resources committee wrote to the Council expressing their concern over a provision in the agreement that would exclude "water captured in containers up to 5.7 gallons from being treated as a diversion." Democrats also plan to introduce a Senate resolution next week calling for the closure of the loophole.
"Since there are already provisions in the agreement for short-term emergency
and humanitarian purposes, there is no reason to include further exemptions for
the bottled water industry," wrote Brater. "The Great Lakes are a natural wonder
and economic engine, and we must protect them by strengthening the annex and closing this loophole."
The letter comes on the heels of a speech last week by former Republican Speakerof the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) in which he commented that Michigan was "out of touch" with our efforts to protect water resources. News outlets reported that the Chamber of Commerce members in attendance laughed and applauded at Gingrich's remarks.
"Republicans like Newt Gingrich may take water diversion lightly, but Democrats
sure don't think it is a laughing matter," said Basham. "Governor Granholm and
Democrats in the Legislature are committed to protecting our natural resources
and closing this loophole is a good first step."
With talk this morning of $5 per gallon gas if Hurricane Rita strikes the heart of the nation's oil refinery capacity, it's timely that Ford Motor announces a change of direction.
In a move that might help him reclaim his environmentalist title and simultaneously put his company back on track, Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford laid out a bold plan Wednesday to reposition Ford as a leader in innovation and cutting-edge energy policies.
http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/ford22e_20050922.htm
Good for Bill Ford. He does care. He's been harshly and to a large extent unfairly slammed by enviros for taking too long to turn around the bureaucratic behemoth known as FMC. He sees the future.
But his predecessors at Ford should have gone this way 10 years ago. Nothing that is happening now -- gas price spikes, declining oil supplies, strengthening evidence of a link between carbon emissions and climate change -- none of this was unforeseen a decade ago. Precious time has been lost. Time to catch up, quick.
Recent conversations have disclosed that in several Great Lakes states there is intense interest in wind energy development in the Lakes, not just on their shores. Michigan and Ohio are among the states looking into this. Other recent conversations have revealed that there is a visceral dislike for many of the idea of looking out over formerly unbroken horizon and seeing wind turbines. This is the same issue that has aroused controversy off Cape Cod (see below). Is the value of renewable energy worth developing wind resources in the Lakes, using the publicly-owned waters and lands beneath them as a wind farm?
http://www.grist.org/news/powers/2002/12/19/griscom-windmill/
The question is, which way will the Great Lakes states and provinces, and the millions of people who run them, turn?
The Great Lakes stand at a crossroad. By some indicators -- like fish populations in Lake Erie which have rebounded in recent decades -- water quality has improved since the 1970's. But the fish aren't safe to eat. The beaches are increasingly contaminated with sewage. The water is generally deemed safe to drink, but we know that it is laced with at least 40 gender-bending and cancer causing chemicals.[1]
Today the region faces unprecedented impacts from suburban sprawl, agriculture, industry, sewage, non-native invasive species and global climate change. It was coordinated region-wide citizen action and protest[2] that sparked a major clean-up of the Great Lakes starting in the early 1970s and more of the same is sorely needed now. As anthropologist Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."[3]
The health of the lakes seems to be declining. Emily Green, the Sierra Club's Great Lakes Program director says, "There is a growing consensus among Great Lakes scientists that the ecosystem is reaching a tipping point." In July the Detroit News reported that although fish populations in Lake Erie have largely rebounded from their near demise in the 1970's, phosphate levels in that lake are once again on the rise and no one is sure why.[4]
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1
Last decade, the widespread discovery of deformities in amphibians prompted Minnesota (and other states) to devote time and effort to pinpointing causes. Among possibilities were pesticides, other chemicals, ultraviolet radiation, parasites, or a combination of the above.
Now governments have moved on to the next fad without really determining what's going on. See below:
This summer, my husband and I brought our two daughters to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for a peaceful, pristine retreat from busy city life. Several days after setting up camp on the South Kawishiwi River, in one of Minnesota's most protected areas of water, my 7-year-old daughter discovered a six-legged frog.
A biologist we contacted at the National Forest Service wanted to know all the details we could provide about the frog and where we had been camped. She said this may be the first reported malformed frog from that region of Minnesota.
I returned home eager to report the frog and share the photos with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. I was startled to discover that, following severe budget cuts in 2001, it no longer collects data about malformed amphibians in Minnesota.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5619487.html
Perhaps the agencies agree with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts that all amphibians are just hapless toads in the end.
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/4974211/12203291.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
But assuming what happens to amphibians can't happen to us is a risky business. Dividing humans from the "environment" often brings serious problems.
Canaries in a coal mine are hapless, too.
IF THERE was any doubt that a majority of the U.S. Congress is in the pocket of this nation's electric utility polluters it was erased by the Senate vote the other day to preserve the Bush Administration's grossly inadequate rules on mercury emissions.
By a 51-47 vote, the Senate rejected a resolution that would have repealed mercury regulations adopted in March by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/OPINION02/509180313
Michigan Governor Granholm and state legislative Republicans have squared off over control of the Mackinac Bridge. For decades the Bridge has nominally been under the supervision of an independent authority. When the Granholm Administration recently made moves to rein it in, Republicans responded quickly with criticism and bills to reaffirm the autonomy of the Mighty Mac.
"The interests of the bridge and the people of Michigan will continue to be best served by a body focused solely on those five miles of road. That agency is and always should be the Mackinac Bridge Authority."
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2005/09/14/news/local_regional/news02.txt
From 1921-1991, Michigan had an autonomous Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In the 1990s, after a Republican governor smashed the autonomy of the DNR by putting it under his personal control, and then broke it into two pieces and created a Department of Environmental Quality (otherwise known as 'Permits 'R 'Us'), legislative Republicans were mute when environmental and conservation leaders said the people of Michigan would be best served by an autonomous body (the Natural Resources Commission) focused solely on those five lakes known as the Great Lakes (and the fish, wildlife, and other resources associated with them).
Apparently the works of engineers command more respect from some politicos than the works of the divine.
It was nutty, too, when "doomsayers" said Michigan's white pine would run out in less than 50 years.
You could also do a lot of harm to the Great Lakes before they would run dry. Just lower 'em 3-5 feet, as climate change is predicted to do to Lakes Huron and Michigan in this century, and see how many vessels can pass.
But Newt, like others, is mistaking the issue of how much water bottlers might remove, and their claim to own the water. It doesn't belong to them. It belongs to the public. And only the public should profit from it.
Gingrich says Michigan regulators out of touch
September 16, 2005, 5:44 PM
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, ridiculed Michigan environmental regulators Friday as out-of-control bureaucrats peddling a "nutty" notion that the Great Lakes could run dry.
"Do you know how hard it is to be ideologically so out of touch with reality that you've concluded that Michigan could run out of water?" Gingrich said during a state Chamber of Commerce forum, drawing laughter and applause from the audience.
"Think about it. You've got lakes on three sides. I've seen the map. This is like suggesting that the Upper Peninsula in February will run out of snow. This is nutty."
Gingrich, often mentioned as a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said in an interview his remarks were directed at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's crackdown on bottled water exports.
The DEQ this year granted a permit for Nestle Waters North America Inc. to buy water from the city of Evart for bottling at its Ice Mountain Spring Water plant. But the department said the water could be sold only within the Great Lakes basin, drawing a lawsuit from the company.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm in May banned new or expanded bottled water operations until the Legislature enacts a water withdrawal law.
Bottled water has become a focal point in the debate over preventing diversions of Great Lakes water outside the basin and regulating large-scale withdrawals from the lakes and other sources such as underground aquifers.
Gingrich said there would be reason to worry if, for example, Nevada served notice it wanted to pipe one-third of Lake Michigan's water to the Southwest. But he said by targeting bottled water, the DEQ had reached "a level of bureaucratic micromanagement that's silly."
"There are times and places you have to have water use regulation," he said. "I want it to be effective, I want it to be done in a way that is science-based, and I want where possible to use incentives rather than use regulatory control."
DEQ spokesman Bob McCann said the department had never claimed the Great Lakes were in danger of drying up.
"Our concern is that we use our water resources in an intelligent manner to make sure they remain abundant," he said.
Gingrich isn't the first national politician to weigh in on Great Lakes issues. President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, both claimed during the 2004 campaign they would do a better job of preventing water diversions to arid regions.
State Rep. Chris Kolb, House sponsor of Granholm's water regulation plan, said Gingrich's attitude reflected a common misunderstanding about the Great Lakes.
"It looks like there's a lot of water, but only 1 percent is renewable," the Ann Arbor Democrat said.
Sen. Patricia Birkholz, R-Saugatuck, whose Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee is developing groundwater legislation, said Gingrich was correct that the Great Lakes are a rich water source.
"But the bottom line is, we need to protect that resource so we can use it for the vitality of this state," she said.
The federal government is trying to find evidence of any past efforts by
environmental groups to block work on New Orleans' levees, according to a
published report.
The Clarion-Ledger said Friday it obtained an internal Justice Department
e-mail sent out this week to U.S. attorneys that asks: "Has your district
defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against
claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede
the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe
the case and the outcome of the litigation." [...]
Shown a copy of the email, David Bookbinder, senior attorney for Sierra
Club, said: "Why are they (Bush administration officials) trying to smear us
like this?"
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups had nothing to do with the
flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina that killed hundreds, he said.
"It's unfortunate that the Bush administration is trying to shift the blame
to environmental groups," he said. "It doesn't surprise me at all."
"We are only one exotic species away from a fisheries disaster in the Great Lakes," he told participants attending a Great Lakes Press Day at Bay City State Recreation Area here last month. "And it could happen very, very quickly."
Yet the strongest plan coming out of Washington so far gives the shipping industry over 5 more years to come up with effective ballast water control to stop the invasives.
http://www.michiganoutdoornews.com/articles/2005/09/15//news/news4.txt
As the International Joint Commission announces a round of hearings to be held this autumn on its review of the 33-year-old Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Michigan State University Press is publishing a timely book by longtime Great Lakes champion Lee Botts and the Canadian Environmental Law Association's Paul Muldoon. Citizens who care deeply about the Great Lakes and want to understand the importance of the Agreement in the history of Great Lakes cleanup should arm themselves with this excellent volume, "Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement."
For information on the book, or to preorder, please go to the MSU Press website:
http://www.msupress.msu.edu/bookTemplate.php?bookID=2821
A site worth linking to, with plenty of information and visuals on currente Great Lakes issues:
http://www.greatlakesforever.org/
At last week's Healing Our Waters conference in Grand Rapids, local Congressman (and longtime environmental champion) Vern Ehlers injected reality into the discussion of a $20 billion Great Lakes rescue plan. He challenged the plan's supporters to do the following before the plan is made final in December:
Make the plan specific. The final plan’s recommendations must clearly point to which program authorizations are adequate, which are not and what needs to be created or changed and how.
Set priorities. The final plan should identify what should be accomplished first and what can wait until later.
Make the results measurable. A baseline should be created. Success in meeting the recommendations should be based on the improvement of developed indicators.
Put people in charge. The final plan must describe how restoration activities will be coordinated and assign leadership roles to the appropriate agencies.
Identify funding. The plan should clearly identify current sources of funding (including state, municipal and private sources) and where new sources (i.e., authorizations) are required.
These common sense suggestions -- which would give the plan a fighting chance in Washington -- will not be easy to accomplish. Given that other national needs are likely to result in a drain on federal dollars for some time to come, it's also unclear whether more than a dribble of new money will flow toward the plan. There is some talk that existing funding will be consolidated and put under a "czar" of some kind.
The feeling of Great Lakes community and support for restoration are growing, but these are tough times for major new federal/state initiatives.
It's refreshing to see this on a national website --
Luxury cruise ships, nearly absent from the Great Lakes since the rise of the automobile, are returning to the country's inland seas. Midwestern port towns have never looked so exotic.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8714386/
Dozens and perhaps hundreds of migrating songbirds met their doom in Lake Superior last week, apparently succumbing to a brief high wind that pushed them over and into the big lake.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/12631420.htm
Michigan native Mark Van Putten, former president of the National Wildlife Federation, is at the forefront of those rethinking how the environmental movement can grow and contribute in the wake of recent major setbacks on many issues.
Citing his admiration for, among others, former Michigan Governor William Mililken as a model of a Republican who supported environmental protection, Mark says of today's national political situation:
"The decline of pro-environment Republicans in Congress and in the party is one of the main reasons for the diminished influence of environmental groups on national policy. Today, generally speaking, Republicans don't listen to those groups and Democrats take them for granted."
Mark has a lot more to say and he spares not environmentalists, Democrats or Republicans in his critique. He ends with a hopeful vision.
It's not available readily on the Internet, but a copy will be e-mailed to anyone who requests one.
This news from Great Lakes United --
The Chinese mitten crab has been found in the St. Lawrence River. It is one of the “100 most invasive and undesirable species in the world.” There is the concern that it will establish in lower portions of the River, as the crab requires salty conditions in order to reproduce. The crab has been found in the Great Lakes, but it has not been able to establish populations in the freshwater environment.
Ballast water discharge from transoceanic shipping is reported as the likely mode of introduction. The paper concludes that “the observation of a new invasive species in the St. Lawrence River has provided further evidence that introduction via maritime shipping continues to be a persistent and unresolved problem, and points to the clear and urgent need for better management of strategies of ship ballast vectors.”
Citation:
de Lafountaine, Y. (2005) “First Record of the Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinenis) in the St. Lawrence River, Canada” Journal of Great Lakes Research, 31: 367-370
Glyphosate herbicides, such as Monsanto’s popular Roundup, have an environmentally friendly reputation because their active ingredients are relatively nontoxic and degrade rapidly in the environment. But University of Pittsburgh biologist Rick Relyea is challenging this view. He has found that Roundup at environmentally relevant concentrations kills or harms tadpoles because of the presence of the surfactant POEA , an ingredient that is defined as inert and doesn’t appear on the label (Ecol. Appl. 2005, 15, 618–627; 1118–1124).
Relyea’s work is one of several studies that shed light on the behavior of “inerts” in the environment, a topic largely ignored by the U.S. EPA, say many environmental toxicologists inside and outside the agency. In 1995, EPA changed the listing of POEA (polyethoxylated tallow amine) from an inert of “unknown toxicity” to one that is of “minimal concern”. According to the agency, “the current use pattern in pesticide products will not adversely affect public health or the environment”. The agency presently does not have plans to further revise the classification, say EPA officials interviewed for this story.
“The inerts evaluation for environmental effects is EPA’s dirty little secret,” says one agency scientist who requested anonymity. “POEA is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, but we don’t know because we don’t have data. The agency assures us that everything’s okay. On the basis of what? Not data. Then, to make matters worse, the inerts aren’t even listed on the label.”
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/sep/science/rr_inerts.html
"It was a cougar," Dunlap said of the wild cat that weighs 100-200 pounds and is also called a mountain lion or puma. "We've had a number of people call in to report cougar sightings, and I have to admit that we were skeptical, because whenever we'd go out to investigate, we couldn't find anything. But there's really no question on this one."
http://www.freep.com/sports/outdoors/outcol10e_20050910.htm
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - (KRT) - Rallying Congress to spend billions of dollars on a Great Lakes cleanup patterned after restoration programs under way in the Florida Everglades and the East Coast's Chesapeake Bay won't be easy, Rep. Vernon Ehlers told a group of conservationists Friday.
The Michigan Republican said it is a daunting challenge to get lawmakers from outside the region to appreciate the magnificence of the world's largest freshwater system, let alone care about the sewage spills, toxic sediments and invasive species that plague it.
Ehlers pointed to one Congressional committee debate several years back about funding for zebra mussel research as an example of how irrelevant Great Lakes issues are for many members of Congress.
"I am adamantly opposed to this," Ehlers recalled one West Coast lawmaker grumbling. "I see no reason in the world why we should spend taxpayer money studying the muscles of zebras!"
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/12604899.htm
This is encouraging stuff. The test comes December 12 in Chicago, when the federal government will announce a final restoration plan, and next year, when Congress begins taking up the plan. But the momentum is there.
Activists step up pressure for Great Lakes cleanup funding
September 8, 2005, 7:05 PM
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- Tight budgets and competition for scarce dollars are no reason to shortchange a wide-ranging cleanup program for the Great Lakes, activists said Thursday.
Representatives of environmentalist groups, government agencies, industry and American Indian tribes opened a two-day strategy session on how to win approval of a restoration plan for the troubled waters.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other officeholders responded with encouraging words but said much depends on ordinary citizens making clear at the ballot box that the lakes are a top priority.
"I urge you, wherever you are from, to elect people ... who will follow your instructions," Granholm told the group of about 240 from across the Great Lakes region. "Because if you have people in your legislatures that don't care about it, it is not going to happen."
The conference was sponsored by a coalition formed by philanthropist and conservation activist Peter Wege, which developed a Great Lakes restoration blueprint last year.
An interagency government task force appointed by President Bush released a draft of another cleanup package in July. A final version of that plan, expected to carry a $20 billion price tag, is expected by December.
The various proposals identify common problems: invasive species wreaking havoc with the lakes' food web, contaminated sediments from long-ago toxic discharges, sewer overflows, and runoff from farms and urban parking lots.
The problems have been festering for years. But conference organizers said prospects for serious action were improving as more people learn about the lakes' dire situation. Bush's appointment of the task force and introduction of bills in Congress to fund Great Lakes cleanup are among the hopeful signs, they said.
"The stars are just beginning to align," said Tom Kiernan, co-chairman of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.
A Senate bill seeks $6 billion for the lakes over a decade; separate House measures propose $4 billion in five years.
Supporters said lawmakers in Congress and the states should recognize Great Lakes cleanup as an economic stimulus that would create new businesses and jobs.
"There's going to be a clear return on it. There's going to be a clear financial gain," said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Natural Resource Center.
But supporters acknowledged that despite the numerous studies and hearings devoted to the issue in recent years, many people -- including residents of the Great Lakes region -- don't understand the ecosystem's dire condition.
State Sen. Patricia Birkholz, chairwoman of the Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, said most of her colleagues in the Michigan Legislature were focused on issues other than Great Lakes restoration.
"In fact, I've been surprised that there are some who don't know anything about it," said the Republican from Allegan County's Saugatuck Township. She is planning hearings this fall on groundwater withdrawal legislation.
Even those who support a Great Lakes rescue disagree on what needs to be done.
Granholm urged support for her Water Legacy Act to regulate large-scale water withdrawals, which remains stalled in the Legislature. Birkholz doesn't support it, saying it would impose excessive rules on business and industry.
George Kuper, president of the Council of Great Lakes Industries, said the cleanup plans are too vague and need a clear set of priorities.
"We don't know where the money's going to come from," Kuper said. "That makes us nervous."
A minor debate rages in Michigan's community of environmental advocates and corporate lobbyists and attorneys over Gov. Granholm's temporary waiver permitting bottled water to be sent out of Michigan and the Great Lakes Basin to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
It all began with a posting on the statewide Enviro-Mich e-mail list by MSU fisheries and wildlife professor Tracy Dobson questioning the Governor's waiver. A former environmental advocate who now practices corporate environmental law jumped all over Tracy, whose commitment to both humanitarianism and the Great Lakes is unquestionable.
Here's part of the exchange:
Tracy:
Is anyone else horrified by what I believe was an announcement by Governor Granholm to send GL water to the southern disaster area? Just as the public comment period ends on Annex 2001, a policy which seeks to protect the lakes by limiting diversions, seemingly without any consultation, this announcement. There are many ways we can help, but this makes NO sense!
Grant Trigger:
You cannot seriously believe there is any credibility in objecting to
sending water IN ANY FORM to the disaster area - you must be kidding -
honestly..................
This kind of irrational reaction is an embarrassment to decent people
and totally undermines the good any environmental organization can
expect to achieve. And my reply is constrained ...................
Tracy:
I couldn't be more in favor of Michigan participating in assisting our fellow citizens so badly hurt by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. And, providing water is a very useful, appropriate, and much needed activity. We should all be very pleased that our governor has responded to this situation quickly and forcefully. My concern was about the water source. I believe we have others available that are already filtered, etc., that would be more appropriate than drawing from the Great Lakes.
The ad hominen attack strategy on Tracy may not be by accident. Apparently, just before the Governor issued the waiver, Michigan business lobbyists started spreading the word that the Governor's bottled water export moratorium signed May 26 was standing in the way of hurricane relief. They were wrong.
The moratorium applied to "new or increased" water exports not those that predated the moratorium. Specifically:
This Directive applies prospectively only and does not apply to existing bottled water operations or those facilities with permits pending before the Department of Environmental Quality.
http://michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-36898-118987--,00.html
The water that will go to the Gulf Coast is from already permitted sources. Still, the Governor's action sends a clear signal that her anti-export policy will never interfere with humanitarian relief, and disarms the opponents of yet another false argument they were beginning to advance to give Nestle and other water exploiters carte blanche to export Great Lakes water for commercial profit at public expense.
Similarly, the proposed Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact would exempt humanitarian relief from its anti-water export policy.
Both the original false claim against the moratorium, and the attack on Tracy, are efforts designed to portray a strong Great Lakes water protection policy and environmental advocates as unreasonable and inhumane.
Here's the text of the Governor's waiver.
http://michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-36898-125751--,00.html
It's now two days before the final deadline for public comment on the Great Lakes rescue plan, a $20 billion package put forth by a collaborative group in July. The Bush Administration will announce the final package in December.
Although the benefits of conserving Great Lakes wetlands are less dramatic than the benefits of conserving Louisiana wetlands, Great Lakes wetlands also provide flood water storage and retention services. The increased frequency of major storms and loss of wetlands are major factors in urban and small stream flooding. (Wetlands also provide water quality benefits, habitat, and other services.)
One good feature of the proposed plan that is timely for citizens to praise is a preliminary goal of restoring and protecting 550,000 acres of wetlands in the Basin by 2010. If this is done, lives and property will be saved.
http://glrc.us/documents/Nonpoint_Source.pdf
Some called them environmental extremists, scaremongers and kooks. But for 30 years they warned that the New Orleans area and the entire Gulf Coast were ripe for disaster.
They were the people who said that thoughtless oceanfront development and the concomitant destruction of wetlands and barrier dunes had left that coast terribly vulnerable to a big hurricane. When they demanded better environmental enforcement and regulations and remediation of the damage, they were derided as tree-hugging nuts.
It took only one day to prove they were right.
Now it's up to outdoors people to join the rest of the nation's environmentalists and demand that plans to rebuild the shattered Gulf Coast will include regulations to stop developers from building on vulnerable coastal plains.
http://www.freep.com/sports/outdoors/outcol6e_20050906.htm
A commenter on this blog said Friday:
Today a convoy of trucks, miles long, entered Louisiana carrying a precious cargo upon which lives depended. The cargo was not blood plasma or vaccines, but bottled water. After all that has been said about the "evils" of bottled water, perhaps we should now stop and think of the consequences that would have been if that bottled, prepackaged water had not been so readily available for consumption and mercy shipments. Proving once again that there is good and bad in everything - two sides to every issue - a balance. Perhaps reconciling both sides of the bottled water issue is not such a 'false balancing act' after all.
Provocative comment, at first glance. Is there anyone in the U.S. who is not relieved and heartened to see the drinking water-starved, often dehydrated hurricane victims of the Gulf Coast get bottles of water and a chance for life?
But what does this have to do with the unregulated withdrawal and private ownership of Great Lakes Basin water for consumer convenience?
The draft Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact which was up for public comment this summer has a strong anti-diversion policy -- and a humanitarian exemption.
Withdrawals from the Basin for the following purposes are exempt from Article 4:
...
(b) To use in a non-commercial project on a short-term basis for firefighting or humanitarian purposes.
No one objects to this. No environmental advocate would oppose providing bottled water to the suffering in the South. But most would suggest that the water come from a supply regulated to meet public health standards and publicly owned -- that is, water from a public water system which must meet stringent health standards and whose revenues go back to the public.
The issue is not bottled water per se -- it's the bottling of water that the public owns for private profit and consumer convenience, when there are plenty of cheaper, safe, satisfactory alternatives. The issue is private ownership of public water, be it in bottles, pipelines or tankers.
Nothing associated with the tragedy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has changed that.
Excellent essay by a meteorologist on how the Bush Administration's new battle cry -- no one saw a storm of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina coming -- is utter nonsense.
http://www.wunderground.com/education/katrina.asp
Warnings of such a storm go back decades. We need public officials who will plan prudently for the likelihood of more such storms, and the other results of dramatic climate change.
New Crustacean Invader Found In The Great Lakes
Ann Arbor, Mich. — The Great Lakes are home to yet another invasive organism - the sideswimmer Gammarus tigrinus. The eventual arrival of this species was predicted by Igor A. Grigorovich and fellow researchers a few years ago. The shrimp-like crustacean, native to the Atlantic coast of North America, is a notorious invader in European waters where it has been aggressively eliminating native crustacean species. H.B. Noel Hynes of the University of Liverpool believes that Gammarus tigrinus was first "… introduced into Northern Ireland from North America during WWI by American troops, whence it crossed the Irish Sea as ballast, to the Liverpool/Chester area."
First identified in samples collected from Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron in 2003, Gammarus tigrinus was subsequently identified in samples collected from other shallow, coastline habitats in all five of the Great Lakes dating back to 2001.
http://www.iaglr.org/jglr/release/31/31_3_333-342.php
The Gulf Coast crisis reminds us of the most critical resource we have -- fresh water for drinking.
"Clean drinking water shouldn't be that big of a problem in a developed country like the United States," said Dr. Eric A. Weiss, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. "This is not like places in Africa where water is always rare and something you have to struggle for. We should be able to get fresh drinking water to these individuals in a timely fashion."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/02/MNGA9EHBKS1.DTL&feed=rss.news
Great way to comfort those afflicted by Hurricane Katrina.
http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate/
These comments from the Council of Canadians on the proposed agreements to limit Great Lakes water exports and diversions are worth reading. Although criticized by some for being unrealistic, the Council was a major force in driving the Ontario government to reject a previous draft last year on the grounds that it sanctioned rather than limited exports and diversions. The Council again differs from the prevailing view that the new agreements are largely hunky-dory.
http://www.davedempsey.org/submission.pdf
In the last 72 hours, Hurricane Katrina has introduced us to human tragedy in the U.S. on an unthinkable level. It has also spawned commentary of all kinds and from all perspectives, left and right, on who is to blame for what. One prominent commentator pointed out that the governor of hard-hit Mississippi was a key figure in the resistance to a national climate change policy. Whatever the facts there, it is tasteless to be pointing fingers when people are suffering and many dying. There is time for environmental, political and social critique and reform later -- right now the urgency is to comfort the afflicted.