Great Lakes Blogger

everyone's entitled to an opinion even if it's wrong

Congress must enact stricter controls and set federal standards for how ballast water is handled by oceangoing ships. And a concerted effort must be made to find technology that would keep such ships from continuing to bring in invasive species, such as zebra mussels, that have done so much serious damage to the Great Lakes since the seaway was opened in 1959.

But those pushing to close the seaway - the conservation group Great Lakes United called for an overseas-freighter ban in late March - forget that the seaway provides economic benefits.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=597215

Yeah, benefits we'd lose from that closing ($55 million per year)--

http://www.gvsu.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.read_news&news_id=BE6334D4-FCB4-975C-676E0CBB41397C40

And costs --

Invasive species also cost the Great Lakes region $5 billion annually in damage and control costs, according to the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy released in December 2005.

http://www.greatlakes.org/news/040907.asp

Get out your calculator...$55 million benefits...$5 billion costs...sounds like a draw, doesn't it?

Ebola-like virus?

Although USA Today is best known for its ability to turn complicated realities into cartoon concepts through absurdly short stories, it does serve as a national paper of a kind...seen in airports and gas stations from coast to coast. So maybe this headline in today's paper will start some action in Congress on invasives...maybe.

A deadly Ebola-like virus is killing fish of all types in the Great Lakes, a development some scientists fear could trigger disaster for the USA's freshwater fish.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-29-virus-fish_N.htm

Great Lakes to get starring role in new pic

SHAWANO — The sturgeon are the movie stars this time.

On Monday, as the sturgeon began spawning at the Shawano dam, they began with an IMAX camera swinging overhead and one in the water alongside them.

The film, titled "Wonders of the Great Lakes," is due out in May 2008 and will focus on the Great Lakes with related shorter stories within the film.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070429/GPG0204/704290658/1233/GPGsports

a warning on MN conservation policy

Minnesota must dramatically change how the state's natural resources are managed, conserved and funded or face continued degradation of its waters, lands and wildlife habitat, according to a new state report.

...Conservation funding has been declining and is inadequate to protect the state's natural resources, it said. "Repeated budget cuts have prevented Minnesota's conservation agency budgets from keeping up with inflation," the report stated.

It said funding for major conservation agencies will decline by $100 million -- an 18-percent drop -- in inflation-adjusted dollars from fiscal years 2001 to 2009.

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1147607.html

Some of the ideas in this report, as described, make a great deal of sense -- especially a long-term conservation plan (perhaps a 50-year plan) that thinks in a cycle longer than the next election, and can be used to hold government accountable.

new book unravels toxic mystery

Persistent organic pollutants, such as PCBs and chlorinated pesticides, were banned in the U.S., and many other countries when they were found to devastate wildlife and cause cancer in humans. Yet, these pollutants remain in the environment at dangerous levels, and Mel Visser of Portage had long wondered why. So, after a 35-year career at the Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, first as a chemical scientist, then as vice president of the corporate environmental division, he has spent the last decade researching that question and writing the answer in his new book called Cold, Clear and Deadly.

http://publicbroadcasting.net/wmuk/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1072780

Michigan's toxic tank legacy

Sadly, the hundreds of millions of dollars that this will cost taxpayers have not even been counted in Michigan's gargantuan deficit. Like Minnesota, Michigan needs to go to voters with an earmarked funding source for water and land protection to secure its future health and economy.

Across Michigan, there are nearly 9,100 sites where underground tanks leaked gasoline, diesel fuel or chemicals -- potentially into the groundwater supply -- and have yet to be cleaned up, according to a federal report.

Wayne County leads the state with the most tank sites at 1,553, including 805 in Detroit. Oakland County is second with 821, and Macomb County is fourth with 437.

The tanks are either leaking gas or the sites remain contaminated because they have not been cleaned up, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Gasoline tanks make up most of the leaking vessels and pose serious public health risks by potentially polluting local wells with cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and toluene.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007704240391

biological pollution: let's keep debating, not acting

Banning ocean-going cargo carriers from the Great Lakes is not the answer to the growing problem of non-native aquatic species being introduced into the lakes.

Though these invasive species are causing changes in the eco-system of the nation's largest supply of freshwater, banning overseas ships would create economic havoc for businesses and industry that rely on this kind of shipping.

http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/SHE06/704250521/1109/SHEopinion

This editorial concedes a current and worsening environmental problem, then weighs it against assertions (without proof) of economic havoc, and tilts in favor of the latter.

The clock is ticking on biological pollution of the Great Lakes, and has been for more than 20 years.

MN conservation funding follies

What is it about "let the people decide" in November 2008 that seven Minnesota Senate committee members don't understand?

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/04/24/outdoors/

Great Lake State Park?

Bills proposed by a group of state legislators including Sen. Michelle McManus would create Michigan's largest — and wettest — state park.

The package of bills would designate the bottomlands of the Great Lakes within Michigan territory "the Great Lakes State Park.”

Attorney Jim Olson, an expert in environmental law who has fought commercial efforts to divert water out of the Great Lakes basin, said the bills add little in the way of protection for the Great Lakes.

Courts decided long ago that the lakes are owned by the state and held in a "public trust” for the benefit of all citizens, Olson said.

"Caution needs to be taken in the bills to recognize the trust and also respect the historical integrity and value of the shipwrecks and artifacts that are part of these Great Lakes bottomlands so they are free of exploitation and harm,” Olson wrote in an e-mail after he reviewed the six bills.

http://www.record-eagle.com/2007/apr/24park.htm

Although the Great Lakes under Michigan statutory and common law are already a public park, this package might make some sense, among other things, in terms of promoting public awareness that citizens collectively own the land beneath and water of the Great Lakes. However, attorney Jim Olson's comments in the article must be taken to heart -- the bills must be carefully crafted and drafted.

For a look at the boundaries of the "proposed state park," look at the water boundaries of Michigan. The park would contain over 38,000 square miles of land under the Lakes.

wake up, shipping lobby

You are fast earning a reputation as the "bad boys" of the Great Lakes.

I noticed the two articles last week celebrating the opening of the Great Lakes shipping season. There was no mention of the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars that are spent each time an ill-advised voyage results in the need for ice-breaker intervention.

There was no mention of the estimated $2 billion in damages caused by invasive species in ships ballast that have been brought into the Great Lakes in the past three decades.

As you read this, these same shipping interests are hammering your legislators to prevent meaningful ballast-water control - it will slightly affect their profit margins.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070424/OPINION03/704240332/1014/OPINION