Industry Attempts to Curb E-Waste

Some environmental groups say the electronics industry is taking a good first step toward eliminating electronic waste such as old computers. But they say there’s a lot more to do before the problem is resolved. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Some environmental groups say the electronics industry is taking a good first step toward eliminating electronic-waste such as old computers. But, they say there’s a lot more to do before the problem is resolved. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

A national organization representing the electronics industry says its members have agreed to consider increasing prices to cover the cost of recycling their products when they reach the end of their usefulness. However, several environmental groups pushing a Computer Take-Back Campaign say the agreement is not very specific — for instance it doesn’t go into how the program would actually work or how much electronic waste might be recovered. David Wood is the Program Director of the GrassRoots Recycling
Network.

“I’m not really sure that there is a deep commitment on the part of the electronics industry to really get to the end result.”

The environmental groups want the electronics manufacturers to include in their program a phase-out of hazardous materials such as mercury and lead that are used in many electronics products.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Ballast Slime Hatches Aquatic Invaders

New research shows that having ships dump their ballast water before entering the Great Lakes might not be enough to stop the growth of invasive species in the region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

New research shows that having ships dump their ballast water before entering the Great Lakes might not be enough to stop the growth of invasive species in the region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Freighter ships are now required to exchange their ballast water in the ocean before entering the Great Lakes to flush out aquatic nuisances that might have hitchhiked from foreign ports. But a biology student at the University of Windsor, Sarah Bandoni, has found that the slime and silt at the bottom of the ballast tanks carry lots of eggs. That silt isn’t all removed when the water is flushed. And, despite having been in dark and freezing conditions, when things become better, the eggs can hatch.

“In the most part, I’m finding quite a lot of them are viable, averaging probably 50 to 75-percent of the eggs have been able to hatch.”

Bandoni says that means there’s at least the potential for some of these eggs to escape into Great Lakes ports. About 160 invasive species, such as the zebra mussel have been imported by cargo ships, causing damage to native species, including fish.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Casting Votes for Official Fish

Illinois has the bluegill. Minnesota has the walleye. But Ohio lawmakers have argued for years over Ohio’s official fish. It’s a toss up between the smallmouth bass and the walleye, and the debate doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston has more:

Transcript

Illinois has the bluegill. Minnesota has the walleye. But Ohio lawmakers have argued for years over Ohio’s official fish. It’s a toss up between the smallmouth bass and the walleye, and the debate doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston has more:

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder says it’s tough to say which fish is more important to Ohio. But an Ohio House committee recently voted 15-4 to make the smallmouth bass the reigning fish. Householder says, though, the decision will not be heard by the full House anytime soon.

It’s a touchy subject because the smallmouth bass is found in all of Ohio’s 88 counties. Yet the walleye brings in millions of tourist dollars into areas along Lake Erie. Tim McCann owns the charter fishing boat service Fisherman’s Wharf in Port Clinton. McCann says walleye fishing lures tourists into town each spring and fall. He says the walleye is so important to the economy that there is an annual walleye festival on New Year’s Eve:

“Just like in Times Square we drop a walleye from a crane. It is a 50-foot walleye made out of paper mache. And it’s very, very big, you know, for our economy and everything else here in Port Clinton.”

But McCann says he recognizes the importance of the smallmouth bass throughout the state. The fish is plentiful in southeastern Ohio. That’s where Ohio House speaker Larry Householder grew up. But Householder’s spokeswoman Jenn Detweiler says her boss doesn’t have a preference.

“The Speaker himself has, has avidly pursued both the walleye and the smallmouth bass … (laughs) so, making a decision about which one is more appropriate could be a tricky one.”

Over the years, Ohio schoolchildren and fisherman have cast their votes for their favorite fish. But lawmakers have the final choice, and, right now … they say they have bigger fish to fry. It is an election year, and lawmakers worry a vote for the wrong fish could cost votes at the polls.

So, some say perhaps the state should leave the decision to others. For instance, school children in Illinois picked the bluegill more than 30 years ago because they liked the way it looked, and the politicians didn’t lose any votes over the decision.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Natalie Walston

Lessons From Green Building Design

Principles of sustainable design, or “green building” have been around for years. These are designs that, among other things, reduce energy use and create more comfortable working environments. Yet they are often dismissed as costly, impractical, and experimental. But green design has come a long way in recent years. The construction cost of an environmentally-friendly office building today is comparable with the cost of more traditional methods, and the maintenance costs are often much lower. Architects and builders across Pennsylvania have learned that, and the result has been a major shift in how buildings are constructed. And the lessons learned there could eventually make their way across the entire Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Brad Linder reports:

Transcript

Principles of sustainable design, or “green building” have been around for years. These are designs that, among other things, reduce energy use and create more comfortable working environments. Yet they are often dismissed as costly, impractical, and experimental. But green design has come a long way in recent years. The construction cost of an environmentally friendly office building today is comparable with the cost of more traditional methods, and the maintenance costs are often much lower. Architects and builders across Pennsylvania have learned that, and the result has been a major shift in how buildings are constructed. And the lessons learned there could eventually make their way across the entire Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Brad Linder reports:

The Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum Marsh lies just around the corner from the Philadelphia International Airport. The refuge is also home to the Cusano Environmental Education Center, celebrating its first anniversary as what many consider to be the city’s greenest building.

The Center’s heating and cooling relies on a geothermal system. About five hundred feet below the Cusano Center, the temperature remains near 50 degrees all year round. Deep wells reach into the ground to borrow heat in the winter, and cool air in the summer.

(Natural sound marsh machine)

The Center also makes use of a “marsh machine,” to clean and recycle wastewater. Refuge Manager Dick Nugent says the machine uses natural processes to filter water through a “constructed wetland” of PVC pipes, gravel, and marsh plants. Nugent says the city water department delivers drinking water, but the marsh machine has a more important use.

“We wanted this here as an environmental education tool. It isn’t as if we needed it for the functionality of this building. The message to take home is that marshes serve a very important function.”

Cyrus Baym is a volunteer coordinator at the Cusano Center. He says people come expecting to learn about nature, but wind up getting something special out of the building.

“The people that are coming in, they see this fabulous building, a lot of space, a lot of glass, and then when you start explaining along with the exhibits the sustainable design features, the use of recycled materials, passive solar windows their eyes get even bigger. They get more excited and want to implement it in their own house.”

Refuge Manager Dick Nugent says there was some additional cost to innovations like the geothermal system and the southern wall of the building, which is made mostly of glass windows. But in the long run, many of those additions will wind up saving money on electricity and heating. And the overall goal isn’t to be frugal, but to teach.

On the other side of the state, another approach toward sustainable design is taking hold.

Pittsburgh is currently home to one-quarter of the nation’s buildings that have been certified as green by the U.S. Green Building Council. The non-profit national industry group represents design, construction, and environmental interests. The council also administers the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating system, which judges the overall environmental performance of buildings.

Unlike the Cusano Center in Philadelphia, many of Pittsburgh’s green buildings weren’t designed to be educational tools. The PNC Firstside Center in Downtown Pittsburgh provides workspace for 1800 employees in the bank’s technology and processing divisions.

Elmer Burger was one of the principle architects for the building. He says designing the largest LEED certified building in the country made sense for the project. The large floor space improved communication within business departments, and also allowed for extensive use of natural light.

“With a large floor plate, we had an opportunity to make the ceilings higher and bring daylight further into the building. So you can be as far as 125 feet away from the outside wall and still have daylight in a view.”

Burger says the building’s large windows give employees a view of the Monongahela River, and also save money by reducing the need for artificial light.

Rebecca Flora is director of Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance, a non-profit group working to encourage and facilitate environmentally friendly design in the city. She says some non-profit groups are interested in green buildings for ideological reasons, but also wind up getting long-term economic benefits.

“The life cycle value of doing a green building is actually quite significant in some cases. I know with Conservation Consultants, their building actually uses 60% less energy than a traditional building, which can have huge implications in terms of the small operating budgets that many non-profits have to work with.”

Flora says saving money is one of the main factors in getting major institutions like PNC to build green

“The myth that is out there is that green buildings cost more, and that’s one that we’re constantly trying to educate people around in that you get what you pay for. We’re trying to educate people around the fact that green building also adds value, and how do we equate that value with increased bottom line is a real key issue for most people.”

Flora says it’s important to convince clients, and not just architects of the benefits of green design. She says if the demand for LEED certified buildings increases, sustainable design techniques will become more common.

A number of other commercial and non-profit institutions in the city have also chosen green design. Both the Alcoa Corporate Center, and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank are green buildings. And the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center is the first convention center in the country to earn LEED certification

With so many high profile green projects, sustainable design is starting to look like common sense to many architects and their clients. Elmer Burger says the success of the PNC Firstside Center has led the company to adopt a new policy. All of their new corporate buildings will be designed to meet LEED requirements.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Brad Linder.

Related Links

SMALL WETLANDS DROWNING IN DEVELOPMENT (Short Version)

  • Small wetlands such as the one pictured above often dry up during the summer. These 'ephemeral wetlands' are home to all kinds of frogs, salamanders, reptiles and aquatic life that depend on this specific kind of habitat for their survival. Photo by Lester Graham.

Biologists are trying to get people to appreciate a long-overlooked ecosystem. Small pools that often dry up in the middle of summer, called ephemeral wetlands, are frequently drained or filled in, destroying habitat for a number of different creatures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Biologists are trying to get people to appreciate a long-overlooked ecosystem. Small pools that often dry up in the middle of summer, called ephemeral wetlands, are frequently drained or filled in, destroying habitat for a number of different creatures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

(Frog sounds)

Ephemeral wetlands can be found in rural areas, suburbs, and even in big cities. Ed Hammer is a biologist with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says these temporary wetlands are home to frogs, salamanders and other animals that have evolved with the wet then dry cycle of an ephemeral wetland, and some of those animals are an important part of the food chain.

“Things like fairy shrimp are extremely valuable to migrating birds. Species like pintail ducks will go in and feed in these wetlands. So, they’re extremely important for things like that.”

The problem is, most of the ephemeral wetlands are small, usually less than two acres in size, and so they’re not recognized as being very important. The EPA is now trying to raise awareness of the temporary wetlands to help preserve the creatures that depend on them.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

  • Download a brochure on ephemeral wetlands by the Conservation Foundation. Acrobat Reader required to open file.

Small Wetlands Drowning in Development

  • Small wetlands such as the one pictured above often dry up during the summer. These 'ephemeral wetlands' are home to all kinds of frogs, salamanders, reptiles and aquatic life that depend on this specific kind of habitat for their survival. Photo by Lester Graham.

Biologists are becoming concerned about the disappearance of a habitat for wildlife that can be found in rural areas, in sprawling suburbs, and even in big cities. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to get city planners, farmers, and developers to stop draining small marshy areas that biologists call ephemeral wetlands. The EPA says in the rush to save big areas of wetlands these small temporary wet spots have been overlooked at the expense of some unique wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:

Transcript

Biologists are becoming concerned about the disappearance of a habitat for wildlife that can be found in rural areas, in sprawling suburbs, and even in big cities. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to get city planners, farmers, and developers to stop draining small marshy areas that biologists call ephemeral wetlands. The EPA says in the rush to save big areas of wetlands these small temporary wet spots have been overlooked at the expense of some unique wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:

(Frogs sound)

There’s still just a bit of ice along the edges of this little pool, but it’s a warm day, the ice will soon melt, and the frogs sound as if they’re rejoicing. In the coming weeks, this shallow little pond will become a chorus of different kinds of frogs and host a dance of mating salamanders. Many kinds of amphibians and reptiles are drawn to wet spots like this one to mate and reproduce. And. there’s a bit of a rush to their reproductive activities. More than likely by middle or late summer, this little pool will be all dried up. Actually, that’s good because it means fish can’t survive here, fish that would eat the young of many of these species. So a lot of these frogs and salamanders and other creepy-crawly things do really well here while its wet.

Ed Hammer is a biologist with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says these temporary, or ephemeral, wetlands are usually pretty small… most under two acres in size…some so small you could jump across them. But they’re really important to aquatic life such as fairy shrimp and clam shrimp, which can survive, and even need dry periods. And certain species of frogs and other amphibians who use the wetlands for breeding.

(Frogs fade out)

“They’re extremely productive. We have some of these smaller wetlands in our area in the Chicago region that in a quarter acre of size can produce hundreds and hundreds of salamanders and leopard frogs in a good year when the water holds out. They really depend on those habitats being there every few years at the very least.”

And Hammer says the productivity of the ephemeral wetlands helps other species.

“Salamanders and frogs are fed upon by a multitude of other organisms like turtles and snakes and on up the food chain and then, you know, owls will feed on them. Raccoons and skunks and fox and all up the food chain they’ll be fed on. So they’re an extremely important food source.”

The temporary wetlands are also important to many migrating birds such as pintail ducks and little green herons. Paul Zedler is a professor of environmental studies and scientist at the University of Wisconsin arboretum.

“Imagine you’re a bird, a shore bird, looking for habitat in which to forage. Then ephemeral wetlands, while they’re there, can be an excellent place for resting and feeding.”

Zedler says the ephemeral wetlands are amazing to him because of the wet then dry cycle to which so many animals have adapted.

“It’s like instant ecosystem. Like, add water and you get an ecosystem. People who, once it’s pointed out to them, invariably think it’s pretty darn neat.”

But a lot of times, the people who own the ephemeral wetlands don’t realize that area that gets swampy in wet years is a thriving habitat. Ephemeral wetlands are often drained to plant crops, or bulldozed deeper to build storm water retention basins for housing developments, or the surrounding woodlands are cut down eliminating the habitat where many of the frogs and salamanders live the rest of the year.

They’ve disappeared so quickly that some species that depend on ephemeral wetlands are in danger of disappearing too. Gary Casper is with the Milwaukee Public Museum. He’s been studying a certain turtle called Blanding’s turtle to see why its numbers have dwindled so much.

“Blandings turtles look kind of like those old German helmets from World War II and they have a really bright yellow chin and throat with a real long neck. They’re a threatened species in Wisconsin and threatened or endangered in several other states.”

Casper has been watching Blanding’s turtles to see what makes them tick, where they like to live and eat.

“And after looking at the data from seven years of radio tracking, it’s quite clear that they strongly prefer these seasonal, isolated wetlands probably because they provide much more food for them.”

And so they join a host of other critters such as gray tree frogs, marbled salamanders, fishing spiders, wood ducks and others who heavily depend on the ephemeral wetlands.

The EPA is publishing pamphlets and holding seminars to teach state and local officials and those folks interested in preserving wildlife habitat…hoping they’ll spread the word about the value of the seasonal ponds, or mud puddles so that private landowners will keep them around.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

  • Download a brochure on ephemeral wetlands by the Conservation Foundation. Acrobat Reader required to open file.

African American Legislators Pro-Green

African American members of Congress tend to vote more favorably on environmental issues than other congressional groups. That finding comes from a new study that looks at how black Americans think about environmental issues. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:

Transcript

African American members of Congress tend to vote more favorably on environmental issues than other congressional groups. That finding comes from a new study that looks at how black Americans think about environmental issues. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

The study’s researchers say they wanted to find out whether the old conventional wisdom that African-American are not as concerned about the environment as white Americans held up under scrutiny. Past studies have shown that’s not true for the general population. Paul Mohai is a researcher at the University of Michigan. He says the next step was to find whether that held true in policy-making decisions. So the researchers looked at the votes of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“And we found over a two decade period that their pro-environmental record tended to be better than other groups in Congress.”

More pro-environment than either white Democrats or Republicans. Mohai says with the number of African-Americans in Congress doubling since the early 1980s, the environmental movement might find it has strong allies in the black members of Congress.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Conjecture Continues on Water Levels

Whether Great Lakes water levels are expected to improve this summer depends on who you ask. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Whether Great Lakes water levels are expected to improve this summer depends on who you ask. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

The average water levels of the Great Lakes have dropped about four feet in the last four years. The Army Corps of Engineers says with heavy snowfall in March and heavy rains in recent weeks in some parts of the basin, the Corps is expecting some improvement in those levels. But a meteorologist concedes that the Corps predictions disagree with those of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Cynthia Sellinger is a hydrologist with NOAA. She says because of warmer than normal weather, much of the precipitation evaporated instead of running off into the lakes.

“Without a good spring run-off which gives us our seasonal rise, the lakes will be either at last year’s level or slightly lower.”

And NOAA says for the next three months the Great Lakes basin can expect average precipitation and that won’t help the lakes replenish themselves.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Trade With Asia to Ship in New Invasives?

  • The Asian longhorned beetle, native to China, is a serious threat to hardwood trees in the U.S. So far, populations of the beetle have been confined to Chicago and New York. Foresters are concerned that more non-native species will be introduced through expanded global trade. Photo courtesy of USDA-APHIS.

Forests in the Midwest may be under siege from exotic species more often in the future… partly because of international trade. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams explains:

Transcript

Forests in the Midwest may be under siege from exotic species more often in the future… partly because of international trade. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports:

The Asian longhorned beetle is native to China.
The beetle caught a ride to the U.S. in the wooden packing material of
imported goods. So far, the beetle has been found in New York and
Chicago. 


Once a tree is infested with beetles, the best way to stop the beetles from spreading is to destroy the tree.

A National Academy of Sciences study predicts that threats to native species will increase as trade opens up between the U.S. and China. The authors say that China may become a new “donor region” for species that could become invasive.

Entomologist Deborah McCullough is an author of the study.

“You can kind of visualize this whole complex of insects and weeds and plant pathogens in Asia that haven’t had a pathway, they haven’t had a route to be brought to the country yet… and we really don’t know what all could end up coming in.”

Dr. McCullough says because China’s range of climates and plant life are similar to that of the U.S., many species that make it over here have a chance to become established.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Voters Love the Lakes

The Michigan Legislature voted recently to ban new oil and gas drilling under the Great Lakes. Until the ban was enacted, Michigan had been the only state considering to allow such drilling. As the nation heads into a new round of federal, state, and local elections, Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Cameron Davis says that the region’s drilling debate provides some invaluable lessons for candidates:

Transcript

The Michigan legislature voted recently to ban new oil and gas drilling under the Great Lakes. Until now, it had been the major holdout on such a ban. As the nation heads into a new round of federal, state, and local elections, Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Cameron Davis says that the region’s drilling debate provides some invaluable lessons for candidates.

The first lesson to our future leaders is to beware of one element of news “spin”- that if you repeat something long enough it will become true. In pressing their case, oil and gas interests said that drilling would not result in oil bubbling up to pollute Great Lakes water. As a result, they repeated, drilling was quote -“safe.” They failed to listen, however, to citizens troubled by something different: oil and toxic hydrogen sulfide leaks on land that could put human health and fragile coasts at risk. Given the small amount of oil and gas below the lakes, citizens said drilling wasn’t worth it. So, we get to lesson number one: Our future leaders should define public safety and environmental health broadly, not so narrowly that they gloss over legitimate concerns.

Lesson number 2: the debate was as much about the need for states to be credible leaders in natural resource protection as it was about drilling itself. The Lake Michigan Federation looked at 30 active wells in Michigan and found that eight of them had in fact contaminated water supplies. According to the same research, state oversight continues to fail in the clean up of any of those sites. In the drilling debate, citizens believed that without responsive agency action, the only way to prevent similar damage from shoreline drilling was to prohibit the practice in the first place. Congress responded to citizens’ concerns over the summer by suspending new drilling for two years. Candidates can take away from this that if states don’t want Congress stepping on their toes, they need to do a credible job themselves of protecting the Great Lakes.

Last, pro-drilling interests argued during the debate that other serious challenges besides drilling deserved more attention. While concerned citizens believed that a drilling ban was the best way to prevent new shoreline damage, advocates also agree that a number of other important threats need to be addressed. The third moral of the story is that people’s interest in protecting the Great Lakes environment from drilling is the beginning, not the end.

It’s time to move onto other pressing threats such as harmful water diversions in an increasingly thirsty world. We need to prevent future invasions of foreign pest species like the zebra mussel that throw the multi-billion dollar Great Lakes fishery out of whack. With women of childbearing age and other sensitive populations unable to eat certain fish because of contamination, it’s time to eliminate cancer-causing and other pollution once and for all. And, it’s time to restore fish and wildlife habitat, including the region’s precious wetlands, forests, and sand dunes.

Voters love the Great Lakes. Because of that, whoever commits first in upcoming elections to protect them, wins.