A scientist has discovered a chemical compound that attracts
an invasive fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson
reports that this could be a breakthrough in controlling harmful fish
populations:
Transcript
A scientist has discovered a chemical compound that attracts an invasive fish. The
Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports that this could be a break through in
controlling
harmful fish populations:
Eurasian ruffe were introduced in the Duluth-Superior harbor from ballast water of
ocean-going
ships in the 1990’s. Ruffe reproduced so quickly, they now make up 80 to
90-percent of the fish
population, squeezing out native fish. Now, they’re spreading eastward across Lake
Superior
toward the lower Great Lakes.
University of Minnesota Fisheries Professor Peter Sorenson says he’s isolated a
pheromone that
will cause the fish to cluster in great numbers of male ruffe who are tricked into
thinking it’s time
to mate.
“It causes a great deal of sexual arousal and excitement. So to help detect this
thing, I suppose
like a dog they get a little crazy and just start swimming around like crazy and
nudging and
inspecting the fish in the tank.”
Once they’re clustered, Sorenson says it may be possible to find a way to cut their
population.
Sorenson hopes to find a similar pheromone in carp and sea lamprey, other invasive
species
which threaten native fish in the Great Lakes.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
It looks as though a second pollution hot spot in the Great Lakes
will receive money for cleanup. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports on the progress of the Great Lakes Legacy Act:
Transcript
It looks as though a second pollution hot spot in the Great Lakes will receive money
for cleanup.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports on the progress of the
Great Lakes
Legacy Act:
The Great Lakes Legacy Act was passed in 2002. It earmarked 54 million dollars a
year for five
years to clean up pollution hot spots. In the first several years, not all the
money promised was
delivered. So clean up on the 31 polluted areas has been slow.
Right now, the Black Lagoon on the Detroit River is the only pollution hot spot
being cleaned
up. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say they’re hoping to
start on a
second project in Lake Superior next year.
Wisconsin will need to pony up a third of the 5.2 million dollar cost to dredge the
sediments in
Superior Harbor. Wisconsin Project Supervisor John Robinson is hopeful. He says
two decades
after identifying the pollution, money may finally be available.
“The Legacy Act is clearly a catalyst that will allow us to go ahead. Without it,
the project
would be delayed into a period of time that we’re uncertain of.”
Some of the money will come from companies partly responsible for the pollution.
Robinson
hopes to begin cleanup in February.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
A new federal fund designed to clean up pollution hotspots along the Great Lakes is being underfunded. Money promised from Congress is coming in much smaller amounts than originally pledged. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
A new federal fund designed to clean up pollution hotspots along the Great Lakes is being
underfunded. Money promised from Congress is coming in much smaller amounts than
originally pledged. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
The Great Lakes Legacy Act was passed by Congress in 2002… with a promise of 54 million
dollars a year for five years to clean up some of the 31 so-called “Areas of Concern”… the most
heavily polluted areas along the Great Lakes.
But in 2004, the first year money was allocated, only 10 million dollars was released by
Congress. Even so, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Scientist Mark Tuchman says this is
money available for clean up now… a change from the notoriously slow Superfund process.
“This is a focused program. The focus is on contaminated sediments at AOCs. So we’re
optimistic that this program can start making a significant dent in the contaminated sediment
problem in these Great Lakes sites.”
Congress is allocating 24 million dollars for Great Lakes clean up projects in 2005. That’s still
less than half the annual amount promised.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Low-sulfur fuel is now available to everyone, even if they haven't realized it yet. (Photo by Pam Roth)
A quiet revolution of cleaner air began this year for cars
and trucks. Motorists might not know it, but they’ve been burning
low-sulfur fuel as part of a requirement under the federal Clean Air
Act. The requirement was put in place during the Clinton Administration.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
A quiet revolution of cleaner air began this year for cars and trucks. Motorists might
not know it, but they’ve been burning low-sulfur fuel as part of requirement under the
federal Clean Air Act. The requirement was put in place during the Clinton Administration.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Low-sulfur fuel is sometimes referred to as “green gas.” The gas isn’t really colored green.
But if it was, people might have noticed that they’re pumping different gas. For two years,
refineries in the United States have been investing millions of dollars to produce the new gas.
Dave Podratz is the manager of the Murphy Oil refinery in Superior, Wisconsin. He says his
refinery spent 26 million dollars to begin making the gas since October.
“It’s not the kind of thing you would notice, the average consumer going to the pump probably
wouldn’t even notice it watching tail pipe emissions, but the sufur dioxide emissions are
definitely going down.”
Podratz says the new fuel cut the amount of sulfur by 90 percent. And other tail pipe
emissions are going down as well. That’s because low sulfur fuel improves the efficiency
of your car’s catalytic converter, Which, in turn, reduces the amount of pollutants like
nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Mark Kubiske checks the valve that controls the flow of greenhouse gases to a stand of sugar maples, birch and aspen. (Photo by Jennifer Simonson)
One part of the greenhouse gas-making facility. (Photo by Jennifer
Simonson)
A stand of trees is surrounded by pipes that release greenhouse gases. (Photo by Jennifer Simonson)
Scientists from around the world are studying how higher levels of carbon dioxide will affect forests 100 years from now. They’re doing that by pumping higher levels of CO2 and ozone into stands of trees. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson visited the experimental forests and has this story:
Transcript
Scientists from around the world are studying how higher levels of carbon dioxide will affect forests 100 years from now. They’re doing that by pumping higher levels of CO2 and ozone into stands of trees. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson visited the experimental forests and has this story:
(sound of “quiet area”)
The north woods of the Great Lakes states are stands of millions of acres of pine, maple, birch, and aspen forests. It’s a perfect place to try to figure out how trees will react to the higher levels of ozone and carbon dioxide scientists expect in the future.
(sound of beeping fence gate)
The first thing you notice at Aspen Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment Project – Aspen FACE for short – is two huge tanks inside the fenced in enclosure. Each one is bigger than an 18-wheel tanker truck. They’re full of carbon dioxide… CO2. So much CO2 is used in this experiment, the tanks are filled twice a day.
(sound of filling tanks)
If you looked at the site from an airplane, you’d see 12 circular tree stands surrounded by 30 foot high pipes. Those pipes pour CO2 or ozone gases or both into the air surrounding birch, sugar maple, and aspen trees. The scientists know that greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere have been increasing. They believe two centuries of industrial pollution has contributed to the problem. And they expect the CO2 and ozone levels to double by the end of this century. They’re raising the level of greenhouse gasses in different mixes to see what the predicted levels will do to forests.
This open air project is different than previous experiments. David Karnosky is with Michigan Tech. He’s the Project Manager for Aspen FACE. He says before these kinds of projects, they just tested trees inside places like greenhouses.
“We needed to get out of those chambers. We needed to have a more realistic, real world sort of situation where we had multiple trees. We wanted real intact forest communities. We didn’t want to have just a small number of trees inside of a chamber.”
The United States Department of Energy launched this experiment in Wisconsin’s northwoods seven years ago. Karnosky says they’re learning how the trees react to the higher CO2 levels, and that could shape the future of the world’s timber industry.
“Who will be the winners? Who will be the losers? Will aspen or birch or sugar maple? In northern Wisconsin here we’ve got probably 40 million acres of those species mixes. What’s going to happen under elevated CO2 in the next 100 years? Will these forests remain as they are?”
(sound of driving on gravel)
Driving to one of the experimental circles, we pull up to a ring of trees. Mark Kubiske is one of the two full-time on-site researchers.
“Now this particular ring is an elevated CO2 plot. CO2 is delivered through this copper pipe. It runs to that fan, there’s a large fan right on the end of that gray building.”
The scientists have found that trees in the CO2 circles grow 30 percent faster than trees without the gas.
“The trees are larger in diameter, they’re straight, they have lots of leaf area, they just look very healthy. That is just in tremendous contrast to the ozone ring. We’ll go up around the corner and look at one.”
Nearby another circle of trees is not doing nearly as well. The trees are skinny, twisted not as tall as the other sites. Higher ozone levels are hurting the trees.
At the sites where pipes emit both ozone and CO2, the tree growth seems normal – except for some stunted maple trees. The leaves of the aspen and birch take in much of the CO2, convert it to sugar which goes to its roots, eventually becoming a natural part of the soil. That suggests forests may help alleviate gases that cause global warming. The Project Director, David Karnosky says CO2 and ozone appear to cancel each other out. But he says it’s too early to draw any firm conclusions. Ultimately, he says governments will be able to look at this glimpse into the future and try to come up with emissions policies that help.
“The whole issue of the Kyoto protocol, our government not signing off on that. There’s been some relaxing of the feelings from what I’ve seen from the President’s report now that they’re beginning to realize that elevated CO2 is having an impact on global warming and could be impacting our plant communities.”
Karnosky says it’s possible that besides reducing emissions, governments might determine that planting more trees might be very helpful in reducing greenhouse gasses worldwide.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
When "opportunities for wilderness" knock, will Congress answer? (Photo by Jake Levin)
The Bush Administration is recommending wilderness protection for a group of 21 islands in Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
The Bush Administration is recommending wilderness protection for a group of 21 islands
in Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports from
Superior.
This is the first time Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson visited the Apostle Islands
National Lakeshore off the coast of Wisconsin. If Congress goes along with the
Administration’s recommendation, his next visit won’t see much change because much
of the park is already operating as a wilderness area. Manson says critics are wrong
when they say the Bush Administration isn’t protecting wilderness.
“Ultimately, it is up to the Congress to designate wilderness. There are a number of
wilderness proposals pending before the Congress that have been in limbo for a number
of years and Congress has failed to act on them.”
The proposal would keep 80% of the islands a wilderness area… with motorboat access
to the islands, but no motor vehicles allowed on the 21-island group. That’s not enough,
according to Sean Wherley. He’s with the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
He says it’s political grandstanding for a battleground state.
“The fact that now it’s lining up behind a non-controversial piece on the Apostles is
disingenuous and misleading at best. It’s very troubling because they have passed on
opportunities for wilderness across the country.”
So far this Congress hasn’t passed any wilderness designations. If that holds true, it will be
only the second Congress not to do that since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Water levels on the Great Lakes have come up this summer… thanks to the wet conditions. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
Water levels on the Great Lakes have come up this summer… thanks to the wet conditions. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Higher water levels have been good for the shipping industry. Lake cargo is up 20 percent this
year. Glenn Neckvasil is with the Lake Carriers Association in Cleveland. He says a wet
summer has brought water levels closer to normal. Because of that, ships are able to carry a lot
more cargo.
“We did a little study here in July. Some of the thousand footers are carrying 2800 tons more per
trip. Some of the smaller ships are carrying as much as 1400 more tons per trip. So obviously,
this is a big boost to the efficiency of the industry.”
Neckvasil says water levels are just a fact of life… a cyclical thing.
Lakes Superior and Erie’s levels are up from last summer and close to the normal historic level.
Lake Ontario is above normal. Lakes Huron and Michigan are up a foot from last year, but still
about a foot below normal levels.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
A report by an environmental group says smokestacks on ships are becoming a larger source of air pollution in ports across the country. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports, the shipping industry says they’re in the process of cleaning things up:
Transcript
A report by an environmental group says the floating smokestacks on ships are becoming a larger
source of air pollution in ports across the country. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports, the shipping industry says they’re in the process of cleaning things up.
Environmental Defense says smog plagues big city ports…citing New York, Chicago, Detroit,
Cleveland and Toledo as having unhealthy levels. Jana Milford is a Senior Scientist with
Environmental Defense. She says diesel-operated ships don’t have as stringent regulation as
trucks; so while land-craft pollution is being reduced ship pollution remains the same. Milford says
in 25 years, ship smog will make up 28-percent of air pollution, four times higher than in 1996.
Glenn Neckvasil is with the Lake Carriers Association. He says ships are “green transportation”
compared to trucks and trains.
“On the U.S. side there are 65 U.S. flagged vessels working on the Lakes. They move about 125
million tons of cargo. I mean I don’t know how many thousands of locomotives and how many tens
of thousands of trucks are here in the region moving cargo.”
Neckvasil says ships are phasing in a new, low-sulfur fuel that will be required by 2010.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
A bill in Congress would extend a moratorium on drilling in the Great Lakes, but higher gas prices and a lower amount of OPEC oil production could make extending the ban tougher. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
A bill in Congress would extend a moratorium on drilling in the Great Lakes, but higher gas
prices and a lower amount of OPEC oil production could make extending the ban tougher. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
A bi-partisan group of senators is pushing to extend the moratorium on drilling for gas and oil in
the Great Lakes. The moratorium is set to expire next year. Democrat Russ Feingold of
Wisconsin is optimistic the moratorium will be extended to 2007, but he says the energy lobby is
opposed to it.
“The oil industry would love to drill in all kinds of places. Not only Alaska, but our coasts. They
even have a desire to drill in places like Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.”
Most Great Lakes states already have tight controls or bans on drilling in the lakes. Michigan
Geological Division Chief Harold Fitch says drilling has gone from an uproar four years ago to a
non-issue now. Even so, he says there are reservoirs of gas and oil under the Great Lakes.
“We have seven producing wells, producing from reservoirs that are beneath the Great Lakes.
We suspect there are other reservoirs out there.”
Fitch says other states including Indiana and Ohio have potential to tap into the gas and oil
reservoirs.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
A rare extension of the shipping season through the Soo Locks at Sault Saint Marie, Michigan is encountering the challenges of nature… but ships continue to plow their way from Lake Superior ports to the lower Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
A rare extension of the shipping season through the Soo Locks at Sault Saint Marie,
Michigan is encountering the challenges of nature, but ships continue to plow their
way from Lake Superior ports to the lower Great Lakes. Mike Simonson reports for
the Great Lakes Radio Consortium:
An unusually high demand for domestic iron ore from northern Minnesota and
western coal from Montana and Wyoming caused the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
to keep the Soo Locks open an extra ten days. Weather permitting, they’ll try to
keep the locks open until January 25th.
Glen Nekvasil is with the Lake Carrier’s Association in Cleveland. He says this
won’t become an annual extension.
“This is a one-time request. The steel industry had a late surge in 2003, especially
seeing the tariffs on imports are gone, we just could not take a chance on letting that
momentum slip away because 2004 is a whole new ballpark for them. We got to start
out with every advantage we can.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality all had to agree to the extension, since they say plowing ice flows can cause
environmental disruption.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
