Seen those ads lately on the tube about the wonders of coal? They don't mention this part.
Mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants is increasing nationwide, even as the Bush administration touts an overall decline in toxic chemicals that industry has released into the environment.
Though total mercury emissions decreased less than 2 percent from 2003 to 2004, the amount blown into the air by power plants increased 4 percent, a Tribune analysis of newly released federal data shows.
Coal plants in 28 states, including Illinois, put more mercury into the air during 2004 than the year before, offsetting lower amounts of the hazardous metal from plants elsewhere.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060428mercury,1,2060670.story
Michigan's state parks system is in constant financial crisis, and now legislators propose to make it and all state lands policy even worse.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060428/SPORTS/604280329/1006
Most Michigan citizens strongly support state parks, and want more, not less public land. Legislators are out of touch on this one. Meanwhile, our public parks and forests continue to be damaged by the hemorraghing of budget cuts.
The aftermath of the 9/11 attacks continue to drive the Bush administration on an hourly basis. Now it’s taken to the five Great Lakes shared by two countries with the largest unprotected border on the planet.
"Personally, I think it’s ludicrous,’’ said Frederick Stonehouse, a Great Lakes maritime historian in Marquette, Mich. "Where’s the threat? Who are they after with this thing, a recreational boater who doesn’t have enough life jackets?’’
Ludicrous might be an understatement. When is the last time a terrorist threat took place on the Great Lakes? The next thing our neighbours will want is some type of wall running between our two countries as another form of protection - wait, there is already a U.S. politician proposing such a thing.
Osama bin Laden - remember him? - must be enjoying all of this with immense pleasure. Maybe the world’s most wanted individual will be captured while sailing somewhere on Lake Erie.
In the meantime, Canadian boaters heading to the Great Lakes should make certain they have the proper number of life jackets. And keep an eye out for Jolly Roger flags.
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/story.php?id=226235
Give the Minnesota pollution control agency points for an honest appraisal of the state's environmental health...
Minnesotans are recycling at about the same rate as a decade ago, but they're also producing more trash than ever before.
And because of a state population increase, so much more garbage is being created that Minnesota will need new landfills and incinerators sooner than expected.
That's one of several mixed grades in a state environmental report card released Tuesday by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency -- Minnesota's Environment 2005: How Are We Doing?
The report offers a general overview of the status and trends of eight environmental indicators of air quality, water quality and waste generation.
In some areas, the state's environment is managing to hang on despite a big increase in population, urban sprawl, energy use and waste. In other areas, problems continue to mount. The report uses a sliding scale, from poor to fair to good, with most grades coming in at fair.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/14430891.htm
Gail Houwman welcomed the chance to get lost in the sweeping view of Lake Superior as she sat in a newly opened medical waiting room Monday.
The 56-year-old Grand Rapids woman had done enough dwelling on the cancerous tumor recently removed from her lung.
"You've got an awful lot to think about when you're in here," she said. "It's nice just to be able to look out the window and meditate on the lake."
The facility was laid out to maximize patient views of Lake Superior. Doctors' offices and spaces for internal functions look out on Duluth's Central Hillside instead of the lake.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/14423553.htm?source=rss&channel=duluthsuperior_news
The bill comes on the heels of a $20 billion Great Lakes clean-up strategy released in December by the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.
Ehlers said it is likely Congress will agree to authorize money for restoration efforts through the legislation, but he does not expect lawmakers to deliver the $20 billion.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-29/1145686909309730.xml&coll=6
To hell with the damned parades, as Nelson might say. Let's have a nationwide grass-roots movement that demands both the environment we deserve and the visionary leadership to make it so.
http://www.startribune.com/561/story/386038.html
This guy gets it!
The problem is that the world doesn't need saving. We need saving.
Global warming might melt ice caps, create more extreme weather patterns more often, result in regional crop failures, alter ocean currents, disrupt migrations and inundate coastal cities (in fact, it's already doing much of that); loss of biodiversity might cause ecosystems to collapse, and threaten us with the loss with potentially beneficial plants and animals, but neither of those will destroy the planet.
No, these are problems we face, and that we've brought upon ourselves (mostly by ignoring them, and laughing at those who first broached them). So, when you hear someone say, "Save the planet" this weekend, what they're really saying is, "Save the people."
http://www.themorningsun.com/stories/042106/loc_eric001.shtml
Indeed, many Canadians worry that water is included in NAFTA.
While some provinces, including BC, have banned the bulk export of water, some haven't and as the federal government shirks its responsibility, a patchwork of legislation leaves Canada's waters unprotected.
In the meantime, a California company, Sun Belt, is claiming $10 billion in compensation for lost profits because BC banned water exports several years ago.
http://www.soundernews.com/fullstory/EEuVFllkFFCHoYsGlX.shtml
The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57% from the 98 billion liters consumed five years earlier.
Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing — producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy.
Although bottled water in the industrial world is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more. At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline.
The United States is the world's leading consumer of bottled water, with Americans drinking 26 billion liters in 2004, or approximately one eight-ounce glass per person every day.
http://www.globalenvision.org/library/1/1015/1/
Michigan license plates once bragged: "Water Wonderland." But in times when the state imports tons of Canadian garbage and bottlers like Coke, Pepsi and Nestle package and ship the state's water elsewhere, an up-to-date state slogan would read: "Garbage In. Water out."
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060418/OPINION03/604180353&SearchID=73241924336906
A cause that activists in other states of the region could imitate --
Oftentimes, the "average person" doesn't know how he or she can help clean up Minnesota lakes and rivers and conserve its prairies and forests.
The second Ducks, Wetlands and Clean Water Rally on Saturday on the Capitol Mall makes it easy.
Just show up.
http://www.startribune.com/533/story/372093.html
If the facts don't agree with an agency's point of view, it's becoming habitual to just sit on the facts.
In the meantime, parts of the initial boater study have been cited elsewhere; if the numbers hold up, the economic impact of recreational boaters easily exceeds that of commercial shipping. What boaters spend to enjoy their pastime (not including the boat purchase itself) is believed to support 107,000 jobs in the Great Lakes states, for example. That compares with 50,000 jobs tied to shipping, as noted in a 2002 report for the Great Lakes Navigation System Review.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060415/OPINION01/604150313/1068/OPINION
MUNISING — What is arguably the best-known landmark at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was changed forever Thursday when a large section of Miners Castle collapsed and tumbled into the waters of Lake Superior.
About 10:30 a.m. Thursday, a handful of people — including at least one hiker, sightseers and anglers — were witness to the collapse, which was described as loud and sudden.
http://www.miningjournal.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=2901
The only constant thing in nature is change.
Wisconsin's Ho-Chunk Nation is buying up land north of Green Bay where French explorer Jean Nicolet is believed to have landed in 1634 — and where the tribe believes its founders gathered long before then at an ``origin place.''
The area known as Red Banks is located along the western shore of Lake Michigan's Green Bay.
http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2006/04/13/wi/tribe.txt
Nicolet arrived wearing bright-colored robes that day, thinking he was landing in or near China rather than what would someday become Wisconsin. At least he was aware that people were here, not just an "untamed wilderness" as some older history books would describe the continent.
Paying vending machine prices, Northlanders spend about $8 a gallon on bottled water -- more than three times the cost of unleaded gasoline.
So why are we buying so much bottled water -- about 56 billion bottles of it in 2004 in the U.S. alone?
That's what Corporate Accountability International was asking at the University of Minnesota Duluth Tuesday when it sponsored a taste test pitting bottled water against Duluth tap water.
Students tried to pick Dasani and AquaFina from Duluth and Minneapolis tap water. It's part of a national campaign by the group to persuade Americans to stop buying bottled water.
Few students identified all four varieties correctly in the taste test. Several got them all wrong.
"I'd drink any of them; they were all good," said UMD junior Alex Flinner, who guessed one out of four correctly. "I don't drink bottled water, so I'm not sure what it tastes like. It didn't taste any different here."
Lori Mattson, a UMD junior, walked up to the taste test holding a bottle of Dasani. She walked away wondering why she had paid for it. She identified only one of four samples and thought Duluth tap water was Dasani.
"I only drink bottled water because I thought tap water was making me sick. But I couldn't taste much difference," Mattson said.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/14322946.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
It's been 20 years since the non-native zebra mussel entered the Great Lakes in the ballast water of an oceangoing vessel. And still no effective controls on ballast water discharges in the Great Lakes. But at least Congressman Vern Ehlers is trying. When will the shipping industry accept its stewardship responsibilities?
To sport anglers, the round goby is a headache that could turn to a migraine.
A prolific, invasive species from the Caspian Sea, the gobies in Lake Michigan are crowding out the perch.
"Gobies are the worst. They're just all over the place," said John Borgman, of Gold Coast Outfitters tackle shop in Ottawa County's Port Sheldon Township. "Where we used to catch perch, they're gone.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1144680307219000.xml&coll=6
DEXTER, Mich. (AP) — A weekend trip on the Huron River from Warrior Park to Belleville was organized by an avid canoeist to commemorate a journey made 326 years ago by explorer Robert La Salle.
Sieur de la Salle, Robert Cavalier, was born on Nov.21/1643 at Rouen, France. He spent 9 years studying to be a Jesuit priest. This included studies on logic, physics, and mathematics. In 1667, he immigrated to Canada.
While in Canada he became obsessed with discovering an elusive route to the orient through central North America. Over the years, some people believed him as visionary (some people even questioned his sanity) because of his obsession with becoming a famous discoverer.
...La Salle did not find the Mississippi delta from the Gulf of Mexico. He was eventually murdered by mutineers in Texas on March 19th, 1687.
http://www.plpsd.mb.ca/amhs/history/sdls.html
When Congress authorized billions of federal money to match Florida's own bucks and restore the Everglades in 2000, the idea of a similar federal commitment to the Great Lakes was born. Last week Great Lakes members of Congress introduced bills calling for billions in federal aid to restore the Great Lakes.
Meanwhile, how's the Everglades recovery going? Today's Miami Herald offers a mixed answer:
Just as progress is being realized, federal funds could now be in jeopardy. Gov. Jeb Bush, who leaves office early next year, is lobbying to cease federal court oversight that came from a 1992 settlement reached after the federal government sued the state for not abiding by its own clean water standards.
The deal produced a consent decree under which a federal judge in Miami oversees Everglades cleanup.
Many say a move away from the court would take the teeth out of the plan and could frighten away congressional funding for the cleanup.
''If there's a perception that [the state is] trying to bypass the consent decree there will be a direct impact on federal funding,'' said John Scofield, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee. ``We're not exactly flush with cash. We don't need a lot of excuses to cut funding, even from something as important as the Everglades.''
The 30-year, $10.5 billion federal-state partnership is the largest wetland restoration effort in the world.
Let's not rain on the Great Lakes' chance to have a parade before it even starts.
A $23.5-billion tab -- the cost of a plan to fix the lakes that was introduced last week in Congress -- sounds daunting. But spread over five years, this equals only about 1% of what the Defense Department spends annually. Also, the chief sponsors of the bill, including Michigan's Carl Levin in the Senate and Vern Ehlers in the House, have put together a smart package that resonates beyond the Great Lakes basin.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060409/OPINION01/604090312/1068/OPINION
By this time next year, Ontario's first wind tower manufacturing plant should be hard at work on the shores of Lake Superior, thanks to a joint venture between Algoma Steel Inc. and Schaaf Industries Corp., a German manufacturer of wind towers. The venture, known as SIAG Great Lakes LP, will employ 140 people from the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., area and consume 25,000 tonnes of steel plate per year. More importantly, says Martin Pochtaruk, director of operations planning, it reduces Algoma's dependence on one commodity, pushing the company up the manufacturing integration chain to make it more economically sustainable.
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/strategy/article.jsp?content=20060222_154433_5908
WASHINGTON -- Legislation introduced Wednesday in Congress to rid the Great Lakes of zebra mussels and raw sewage represents a symbolic victory in a long battle, but backers will have a tough time prying $23 billion from a tight-fisted Congress.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/NEWS06/604060566/1120/RSS
Washington -- Lawmakers from both parties Wednesday introduced bills to provide more than $23 billion to restore the Great Lakes and their tributaries, prompting cheers from environmentalists.
The plaudits from the National Parks Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, however, belie a certain reality: It could be tough to convince the 535-member Congress, with clashing regional and budget priorities, that the Great Lakes deserve this big infusion of cleanup cash.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1144312669224340.xml&coll=2
A $23.5 billion bill was introduced in Congress on Wednesday to restore the ailing Great Lakes, but several budget experts doubted its near-term success given the costly Iraq war and other big-ticket demands on the cash-strapped federal government.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/POLITICS/604060383/1003/rss
Great Lakes-area lawmakers introduced legislation in Washington on Wednesday to restore the region's environment despite warnings that there's little money to pay for the effort.
The bills address many of the issues in the Great Lakes restoration plan, unveiled last summer in Duluth by top Bush administration officials and heralded as the beginning of an era of renewal for the lakes.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/14276393.htm?source=rss&channel=duluthsuperior_news
Coalition Endorses New Great Lakes Clean-Up Bill
‘An Essential Step in Long-term Effort to Restore Lakes’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 5)—Conservationists today hailed the introduction of a bipartisan bill to restore the Great Lakes by stopping invasive species introductions, halting sewage contamination, cleaning up toxic pollution and restoring wildlife habitat.
“This bill gets it right,” said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association and co-chair of the Healing Our Waters®–Great Lakes Coalition. “It offers practical solutions to urgent problems facing the Great Lakes. This bill deserves support from anyone who cares about clean drinking water, safe beaches, and healthy fish and wildlife.”
The Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act puts into practice priority recommendations of a $20 billion Great Lakes clean-up strategy released in December as part of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, a planning process initiated by President Bush in 2004.
“Thanks to leaders in Congress, this bill would put into action the historic blueprint that Great Lakes citizens and government officials developed together last December,” said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office and co-chair of the Healing Our Waters coalition. “The bill’s introduction is an essential step in the long-term and ongoing effort to restore the lakes.”
A bipartisan group of U.S. legislators introduced the bill, including Sens. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Carl Levin (D-Michigan), and Reps. Vern Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids) and Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago).
“Great Lakes restoration is an issue defined by urgency, not political party affiliation,” said Emily Green, director of the Sierra Club’s Great Lakes program. “We will work with Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress to pass the bill and implement its common-sense solutions.”
The bill introduction follows a March 16 hearing that examined the implementation of the $20 billion clean-up plan. At the hearing, industry leaders, conservationists and a bipartisan group of local, state and federal officials urged Congress to restore the lakes without delay.
“The lakes are the key to our economy and quality of life,” said Reg Gilbert, senior coordinator for Great Lakes United. “The longer we take to restore them, the more expensive the job gets. Great Lakes restoration is the right thing to do for our environment, and it is also economically smart.”
The Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act would:
==Stop the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species by enacting a comprehensive national program. ==Prevent the Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes by authorizing the Corps of Engineers to maintain and operate the dispersal barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and prohibit the importation and sale of Asian carp.
== Restore fish and wildlife habitat by reauthorizing the Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Restoration Act at $20 million.
==Prevent sewage contamination by reauthorizing the State Revolving Loan Fund and providing $20 billion over five years to assist communities with improving their wastewater infrastructure.
==Clean up contaminated sediment under the Great Lakes Legacy Act by authorizing $150 million per year.
==Phase out mercury in products by establishing a new grant program and improving existing research programs.
==Coordinate and improve Great Lakes programs by establishing the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force and the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.
“This bill deals with the most pressing problems facing the lakes,” said Cameron Davis, executive director of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “It’s time we stop addressing these problems on a piecemeal basis and start taking a comprehensive approach to bringing the Great Lakes back to health. The scientific, public opinion, and fiscal case for safeguarding this magnificent national treasure has been made. Now we need to act.”
The Great Lakes comprise almost 95 percent of the nation’s surface fresh water and supply drinking water to more than 35 million U.S. and Canadian residents. There are eighteen national parks in or near the Great Lakes watershed. The Great Lakes also support a diversity of wildlife, including a world-class fishery, maritime trade, industry, and agriculture.
“Today is a day of hope,” said David J. Miller, executive director of Audubon New York. “A little over one year ago, citizens and elected officials vowed to restore one of this country’s great natural resources. Leaders in Congress delivered us one step closer to that goal. A lot of work remains, but we will not stop until we succeed in restoring and protecting the Great Lakes for people now and for generations to come."
The Healing Our Waters®–Great Lakes Coalition consists of more than 85 state, regional and national zoos, museums, aquariums, hunter, angler, and conservation organizations. Headed by the National Wildlife Federation and the National Parks Conservation Association, the coalition is seeking state and federal support to restore sensitive coastal wetlands and other critical habitat, stop the introduction of invasive species, eliminate toxic hotspots, reduce polluted runoff, end beach closings, and clean up contaminated sediments in our Great Lakes.
Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhancing our National Park System. NPCA, its members, and partners work together to protect the park system and preserve our nation’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage for generations to come.
The National Wildlife Federation is America’s conservation organization protecting wildlife for our children’s future.
GREAT LAKES PACT RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT EPA-REGULATED DRINKING WATER
03 April 2006
Water Policy Report
Vol. 15, No. 7
Environmentalists and other critics of a Great Lakes water resource agreement areaiming to restrict water exports from the region, arguing that a loophole in the agreement allowing private companies to export bottled water could limit people's consumption of EPA-regulated drinking water.
The dispute over the Great Lakes agreement comes amid growing debate over whether water supplies should be treated as privately owned commodities or publicly owned resources, particularly as a growing list of major corporations, including Coca-Cola, Nestle and Vivendi Universal, increase their bottled water businesses.
At issue is an agreement signed late last year to create a water use compact and implement principles outlined in a 2001 plan known as the Great Lakes Charter Annex, where the parties agreed to protect, conserve, restore and improve the Great Lakes Basin (Water Policy Report, Nov. 28, 2005, p.17).
The compact is a compromise document, generally banning water diversions but leaving most other water use decisions up to states -- including how to treat the removal of water in containers of 5.7 gallons or less. The agreement also includes a controversial definition of a "product" that some environmentalists say would open the door to allowing the export of large quantities of water by bottled water companies.
Critics of the compact, including Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), say that unless
states tighten controls on bottled water companies, the agreement will do little to
address overuse and under-replenishment of water resources in the Great Lakes basin. Instead, critics say, the agreement could set a dangerous precedent allowing bottled water companies and other industries to challenge limits on water exports under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other trade laws.
More broadly, Kucinich and groups like Public Citizen and Corporate Accountability International say the boom in bottled water is troubling because it represents a global trend toward water as a privatized commodity rather than a human right.
The critics cite inadequate regulation of bottled water by the Food & Drug
Administration as one reason to oppose water privatization, noting that EPA and
local regulation of tap water provides better guarantees of public health.
"Unfortunately, bottled water is not adequately regulated, and tap water is actually subject to more rigorous testing and safety standards," Public Citizen says on its Web site.
Kucinich highlighted this issue in a speech last month to the Association of
Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) in Washington, DC, saying the growth of the bottled water industry could challenge the current public ownership of most
municipal drinking water agencies.
Kucinich predicted in his speech to AMWA that it will be difficult to close the
loophole. "There will be objections to changing the annex" because it took several years to reach a compromise, he said. But he urged water agencies to pay attention to the issue, saying, "This is a very dangerous moment" for retaining public ownership of drinking water.
Little formal action on adopting the landmark water use compact into state law is
expected until next year, but environmentalists and other activists in Great Lakes states are already gearing up to tighten restrictions on the export of bottled water taken from the region's watershed.
While Great Lakes governors and two Canadian premiers signed the compact last year, it will not go into effect until states ratify it and pass implementing legislation, and Congress approves it. The compact's supporters emphasize the agreement is a baseline and individual states can strengthen the water use provisions, either through legislation ratifying the compact or through separate implementing legislation.
Much of the debate will focus on two key definitions in the compact: "product" and "consumptive use." The compact says a product is something produced in the Great Lakes basin by human or mechanical effort or through agricultural processes and used in manufacturing, commercial or other processes or intended for intermediate or end use consumers. Consumptive use, according to the compact, is the portion of water withdrawn or withheld from the basin that is lost or otherwise not returned due to evaporation, incorporation into products or other processes.
While supporters say the definitions have distinct legal meaning, critics such as
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) say that taken together, the
definitions limit states' discretion to control water exports in small containers.
Once something has been defined as a product, it enters into the flow of commerce and would be subject to protections under the Commerce Clause and NAFTA, an MCWC attorney says. Kucinich voiced similar concerns to AMWA, saying trade laws could exacerbate overuse of water in the region.
The issue of bottled water companies exporting water out of the Great Lakes is
already being litigated in Michigan, where MCWC recently filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court in the case Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v. Nestlé Waters North America, Inc, seeking to limit Nestle's pumping of spring water that forms the headwaters of the West Branch of the Little Muskegon River.
The plaintiffs say Nestle's pumping of water has reduced flows and levels,
physically and substantially harmed the stream and two lakes, and interfered with the rights of riparian landowners and public who can no longer use and enjoy the stream for boating and fishing.
Last December a state appeals court overturned a 2003 state trial court decision
that shut down Nestle's high-capacity wells, creating a new "reasonable use
balancing" rule that MCWC says opens the door to large exports of the region's
water. Before the ruling, Michigan riparian law did not allow diversions and exports of water out of watersheds if it diminished the flow and levels, or interfered with riparian landowners' or the public's use of a lake or stream, MCWC president Terry Swier said in a March 29 press release.
"If the Court of Appeals decision is left standing, the many businesses who rely on the water, and the public who fish, boat and swim in Michigan's lakes and streams, are all going to be required to stand in line with those who want to sell our common water for use somewhere else," she said.
Meanwhile, several environmental groups have been focusing their attention on
closing the so-called bottled water loophole at the state level as state
legislatures begin developing ratification and implementation bills, although one
environmentalist says activists will also need to pay attention to what Congress
thinks.
States will need to both ratify the compact and pass implementing legislation, which can be done through one bill or separately, sources tracking the issue say. While state legislatures could authorize state environmental agencies to develop implementation policies, sources say they believe most legislatures will opt to detail implementation actions in legislation.
No state is expected to ratify the agreement this year, and several states are
planning to wait until 2007 to begin working on legislation, sources say. Illinois
lawmakers have introduced bills, but no action on them is anticipated this year,
sources say. Ohio lawmakers are in the early stages of drafting legislation, and New York lawmakers could introduce legislation to ratify the compact and address invasive species issues later this spring, the sources say.
Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota will probably introduce bills in 2007,
although Indiana and Wisconsin are likely to begin discussing possible legislation
this year, the sources say. Wisconsin is the only state so far that is considering
introducing a combination ratification and implementation bill. An environmentalist in Wisconsin says a coalition of environmental and conservation groups is pushing to close the bottled water loophole and believes it could happen because there are no current bottled water plants in the state.
Michigan passed a water withdrawal law earlier this year that covers some of the
issues in the compact, but additional legislation will be necessary to actually
ratify and implement the agreement, the sources say. Sources were uncertain of
Pennsylvania's plans.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — International Paper Co. said Tuesday that it was selling 440,000 acres of forest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to a timberland investment management company.
The land is among 5.1 million acres, mostly in Southern states, that International Paper is selling to two investor groups for an estimated $6.1 billion. The buyer of the Upper Peninsula acreage is Resource Management Service LLC, based in Birmingham, Ala.
Resource Management Service has agreed to abide by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, a set of industry principles for managing forests in an environmentally sensitive manner, said Amy Sawyer, spokeswoman for International Paper.
HANCOCK — While Wisconsin conservationists are breathing easier after a massive land sale Wednesday, their colleagues in the Keweenaw fear Michigan may not be as lucky.
A release from Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s office Wednesday announced the sale of 64,633 acres in the state from International Paper to the Nature Conservancy and the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
The “Wild Rivers Legacy Forest” project represents the largest land conservation effort in the state’s history, according to the release, preserving 101 square miles of forest, lakes and rivers in Florence, Forest and Marinette counties in northeast Wisconsin.
The agreement, according to the release, is part of a larger effort by International Paper to explore selling as much as 6.8 million acres of forest land in the Midwest, the South and the Northeast.
The announcement came a day following that of a $300 million project involving 218,000-acres in 10 states between International Paper, the Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund for lands in the southern United States.
Jeff Knoop of Michigan’s Nature Conservancy office in Marquette confirmed Thursday that an announcement regarding International Paper’s properties in Upper Michigan was “looming” within the next 48 hours, but said his office was not involved.
http://www.mininggazette.com/stories/articles.asp?articleID=1347
SPRINGFIELD - Asian carp could someday be on the menu at Illinois prisons.
As a state lawmaker looks for possible uses for the nuisance fish, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections said Tuesday that officials are open to serving Asian carp to inmates.
http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2006/03/29/top/10006024.txt
The Traverse City Record Eagle consistently produces some of the best editorials on Great Lakes issues of any newspaper in the Great Lakes Basin -- always putting conservation first.
Since it began, the beach grooming debate has been a clear case of special interests pitted against the greater public good, and so far, special interests have won out. The new report, however, should remove any doubt that the public good lies in protecting coastal wetlands, not in the desires of the influential few.
http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/mar/28edit.htm