State legislatures and Congress could consider new laws to deal with pesticide regulations. That’s after an Oregon pest management company received what some consider to be a slap on the wrist by the Environmental Protection Agency. A bug killer sprayed in a home led to the death of an elderly woman. Angela Kellner reports:
Transcript
State legislatures and Congress could consider new laws to deal with pesticide regulations. That’s after an Oregon pest management company received what some consider to be a slap on the wrist by the Environmental Protection Agency. A bug killer sprayed in a home led to the death of an elderly woman. Angela Kellner reports:
76-year-old Florence Kolbeck died of cardiac arrest a few hours returning home, where Swanson’s pest management had fumigated. Her husband was hospitalized for respiratory distress. Six others who entered the home, including emergency responders, also became ill.
The EPA investigated and fined the company $4,550 for misusing the pesticides.
Chad Schulze with the EPA says that was the maximum fine allowed under the law.
“That does not take into account the seriousness of the results of the violations. It’s just the statutory max.”
The person who applied the pesticides had failed his licensing exam seven times.
The company denies liability and disagrees with the EPA’s decision.
The National Geographic Channel is airing a documentary called “Waking the Baby Mammoth” this Sunday. The discovery of an intact baby mammoth carcass is also the cover story of the May edition of the National Geographic Magazine. Lester Graham has more on that:
Transcript
The National Geographic Channel is airing a documentary called “Waking the Baby Mammoth” this Sunday. The discovery of an intact baby mammoth carcass is also the cover story of the May edition of the National Geographic Magazine. Lester Graham has more on that:
(National Geographic) “This is the story of a nomadic reindeer herder, an extinct baby wooly mammoth, and a team of scientists on a quest to learn her secrets…”
One of the scientists on that quest is Dan Fisher. He’s a paleontologist at the University of Michigan.
This nearly 40,000 year carcass is the most complete baby mammoth ever discovered. The scientists named it Lyuba.
Fisher flew to Russia two years ago to get his first look at the mammoth, an animal that’s been extinct for thousands of years.
“It’s overwhelming really to feel the privilege of getting to be that close to something that does hold so many answers to questions many people have.”
Graham: “This was a fascinating find, but I wonder how much has it added to our knowledge of that period.”
“What it tells us about the period is that it was really a wonderful time to be a mammoth – to be a large mammal – on the open steppes of the high north.”
(National Geographic) “For paleontologists this is a time capsule from the Ice Age. When Lyuba lived, the mammoth steppe was at its peak. It was rich with vegetation that sustained millions of woolly mammoths for hundreds of thousands of years.”
An autopsy of the baby mammoth revealed a lot about where she died – 40,000 years ago a dry grassland. Today it’s a frozen tundra in Siberia.
Dan Fisher says the well-preserved carcass still had traces of what Lyuba ate.
“It’s remarkable that we can take evidence that’s with us today, that’s at our fingertips and generate from that new understanding that can give us perspective on big questions like extinction and climate change, issues that we certainly will have to continue to face as we deal with other endangered species and with the future of our own civilization and planet.”
Fisher says the mammoth remains help add to our understanding of a related animal still around today, the elephant. And they help us better understand our impacts on other endangered species.
And Fisher says learning more about the climate 40,000 years ago can help us understand one other thing.
“We want to, of course, understand the Earth’s climate system better and one of the ways we can test the computer models that help us to project patterns of climate change into the future is to essentially try them out on the past. The past is essentially the training wheels for learning to refine these models. So, information from Lyuba and other mammoths can help us to develop a better understanding of how the Earth’s climate system works.”
(National Geographic) “Dan Fisher and his colleagues will continue to unravel Lyuba’s secrets and to search for reasons why mammals went extinct at the end of the Ice Age.”
The National Geographic program indicates research continues to reveal a lot about Lyuba’s life, and her death, which the scientists begin to piece together in the documentary.
Dr. Ian Gilson and nurse Mary Busalacchi
treated several of the AIDS patients who died during the cryptosporidium
outbreak in Milwaukee.
(Photo by Erin Toner)
During the outbreak, residents flocked to this artisan well in
Milwaukee to load up on safe drinking water. The well is supplied by an
aquifer that was unaffected by the cryptosporidium contamination
(Photo by Erin Toner)
Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co. supplied agencies
with bottled water during the outbreak
(Photo by Erin Toner)
Fifteen years ago, 400,000
people got sick and more than 100 died
from contaminated drinking water. It’s
still the biggest outbreak of waterborne
disease ever in the United States. It
happened because a parasite got into the
water supply in Milwaukee. Since then,
there have been major changes in water
systems across the nation. Erin Toner
reports:
Transcript
Fifteen years ago, 400,000
people got sick and more than 100 died
from contaminated drinking water. It’s
still the biggest outbreak of waterborne
disease ever in the United States. It
happened because a parasite got into the
water supply in Milwaukee. Since then,
there have been major changes in water
systems across the nation. Erin Toner
reports:
Dr. Ian Gilson has been treating AIDS patients for 25 years. He says in all that time,
nothing’s been as bad as 1993 when Milwaukee’s drinking water was contaminated with
a parasite called cryptosporidium.
“We began to get reports of some of our patients having diarrhea that didn’t stop and we
had patients with weird stuff like an ulcer that was not related to acid, severe gall bladder
disease without stones. Ultimately by the time it was called a waterborne epidemic we
knew we had a big problem on our hands.”
Healthy people who drank the water, or brushed their teeth with it, or ate food that was
washed in it, had severe vomiting and diarrhea. But people with weak immune systems,
like those HIV with AIDS, couldn’t fight the parasite. And there weren’t good AIDS
drugs back then, so the patients just deteriorated.
“I distinctly remember several patients saying if you can’t get me over this let’s just be
done with this. One guy who was suffering terribly, we couldn’t seem to get him enough
morphine. And I ordered what I thought was a fatal dose of morphine because I thought
that was the only thing that was going to help him. And it actually relieved his pain.”
When it was all over, cryptosporidium killed 103 people with HIV and AIDS. Even after
15 years, the source of the parasite is still a mystery.
“The cause is not known and may never be known. There does not seem to be any
obvious explanation.”
Carrie Lewis is superintendent of Milwaukee Water Works. She says at the time of the
outbreak, the city pumped in water through an intake pipe about a mile off shore in Lake
Michigan.
The prevailing theory is that sewage overflows contaminated water in the bay, and that
the water was pushed toward the intake pipe and entered the treatment plant.
Lewis doesn’t buy it.
She says if human sewage was the source, people would have had to be sick to excrete
the parasite, and there’s no evidence of that. Some also speculate that cow manure
contaminated area rivers, but Lewis says regular testing in the watershed rarely finds
traces of cryptosporidium.
Lewis says she has no clue what happened, and she’s OK with that. She says what’s
important is what’s changed since then. Lewis says water testing at the time of the
outbreak amounted to taking a couple of samples a day – and that was considered good.
“Today we have hundreds of instruments testing the water every single second for all
sorts of different parameters, so the 15 years that’s gone by it’s a lifetime.”
The cryptosporidium outbreak so damaged Milwaukee’s psyche that people were willing
to do just about anything to make the water safe again. The city spent $90 million to
extend the intake pipe farther out in Lake Michigan. The filters at purification plants were
updated. And now the water is treated with ozone, which kills cryptosporidium.
What happened in Milwaukee caused changes around the country.
New federal regulations required water systems to test for the parasite and safeguard
against it. A drug was licensed to treat the disease.
Michael Beach is associate director for healthy water at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. He says today people should have a lot of confidence when they turn on
their tap.
“Those types of outbreaks have virtually disappeared from the tracking system.”
Many water experts say municipal drinking water in this country is now the safest in the
world. They say the legacy of the Milwaukee outbreak is that water utilities are no longer
just managing a system of pipes and water mains – they’re in the business of protecting
public health.
With more cyclists on the road, there is concern about keeping accident rates from going up as well
(Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
There’s a grass roots effort to
honor people killed while riding bicycles.
It’s called “ghostbikes”. Chuck Quirmbach
reports:
Transcript
There’s a grass roots effort to
honor people killed while riding bicycles.
It’s called “ghostbikes”. Chuck Quirmbach
reports:
Only a tiny number of bicyclists are hit and killed. But some riders say the death toll should be
zero.
So, in about sixty communities across the US, bicycle groups are painting bikes all white. Then
they chain them to a post near the site of the bicycle fatality.
Rider Jessica Weinberg compares the skeleton-looking ghostbikes to white crosses placed where
people die in motorized vehicles.
“I think anyone who drives on the highway when they see a cross on the side of the road, that
does kind of make you think for a minute, ‘should I drive a little more carefully here, there was a
tragedy here, what was the situation?’ We want the same thing with the ghostbikes.”
Weinberg says with high gas prices putting more bikers on the road, ghostbikes may help keep
accident rates from going up.
The beach looks beautiful... until you stumble on dead birds and fish killed by Type E botulism.
(Photo by Rebecca Williams)
A poisoned seagull on a Lake Erie beach.
(Photo by Lester Graham)
Researcher Dr. Brenda Moraska LaFrancois and the team getting ready to head out on Lake Michigan to investigate the avian botulism mystery. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)
Researcher Dr. Hans Van Sumeren holding the Little Benthic Vehicle – a remote operated machine that allows the dive team to take photos and collect samples from the bottom of Lake Michigan. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)
A deadly toxin is spreading across
the Great Lakes, killing fish and birds.
Rebecca Williams reports scientists are
trying to put the puzzle together as quickly
as they can:
Transcript
A deadly toxin is spreading across
the Great Lakes, killing fish and birds.
Rebecca Williams reports scientists are
trying to put the puzzle together as quickly
as they can:
(sound of waves lapping the beach)
It’s one of those perfect beach days. Not too hot, not too crowded. Everything’s
just right.
Unless you don’t like rotting fish and dead birds full of maggots.
Hunter Brower is hanging out at this Lake Michigan beach. He says he’s seen a
lot of dead gulls here in recent years.
“It’s disgusting. We’re out here to enjoy our time and it’s just not right.”
The birds and fish are being killed by Type E botulism. Basically, it’s food
poisoning. For about a decade now, botulism has been killing huge numbers of
birds in the Great Lakes.
We’re talking about more than 75,000 birds – and scientists think that’s probably
a very conservative estimate. That’s because birds could be dying and not
reaching the shore. And it’s very hard to know how many fish are getting killed.
They’re harder to diagnose.
“It’s really one of nature’s most potent toxins.”
Mark Breederland is with Michigan SeaGrant. He says some studies show the
toxin can paralyze fish.
“They can actually lose their orientation and be bobbing up and down vertically
and that would be easy pickin’s if you’re a loon.”
Loons and other birds eat those poisoned fish, or, even grosser, they’ll eat the
maggots in dead birds on the beach, and get sick. The toxin can make birds lose
control of their neck muscles. Their heads fall in the water and they drown.
Beaches full of dead fish and birds aren’t great for tourism. But scientists are
more worried about what this means for endangered species – from the giant lake
sturgeon to the tiny piping plover.
Mark Breederland says they’re also worried about the thousands of migratory
birds that get killed on their way south in the fall.
“They’re just driving down their migratory highway, pulling over for a rest stop to
get something to eat, and that’s their last and final resting spot.”
So scientists are trying to pin down what’s going on.
There’s one main hypothesis. It involves some nasty little critters: invasive zebra
mussels and their cousins, the quaggas. They got into the lakes in the ballast
water of foreign ships.
Both mussels suck in lake water and filter it. They’ve made the lakes a lot clearer
than they used to be.
The clearer water means more sunlight can reach the lake bottom, and that
kick-starts algae growth. When the algae die, it sucks oxygen out of the water.
And, all of that is perfect for a bacterium that produces the botulism toxin to go forth
and multiply.
Okay, now, remember those pesky mussels? Scientists suspect they can take in
the toxin but they’re not affected by it. But fish that eat the mussels get sick.
One fish in particular loves to eat mussels. It’s the invasive round goby. And
there are lots and lots of gobies in the Lakes. That could mean lots of poisoned
snacks for bigger fish and birds.
Researchers have a bad feeling about all this, and they’re trying to confirm their
hunches.
(sound of boat engine starting up)
Brenda Moraska LaFrancois is headed out on Lake Michigan to investigate. She’s
part of a team that’s collecting samples from the lake bottom.
She says this is a tough mystery to unravel.
“These are really complicated systems and unfortunately they’re continuing to
change.”
As soon as scientists think they have a handle on what’s going on, some new
invader gets in and messes everything up again. So it’s really hard to know what
could be done to stop the outbreaks.
The experts say, if you go to the beach, it’s safe to swim. But you shouldn’t eat any
fish or waterfowl that seem sick.
Your local wildlife managers might tell you: don’t touch it, but get something to
bury the dead animal down in the sand, so other birds won’t feed on it and spread the
toxin.
Many bats are being killed by wind turbines (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
The wind turbine industry has made
changes to reduce the number of birds killed
by the spinning blades. But scientists are
finding that more bats are being killed.
Rebecca Williams reports one research team
thinks it now knows why:
Transcript
The wind turbine industry has made
changes to reduce the number of birds killed
by the spinning blades. But scientists are
finding that more bats are being killed.
Rebecca Williams reports one research team
thinks it now knows why:
It’s been a mystery why bats are getting killed by wind turbines. They’re
usually great at avoiding collisions because they sense moving objects
even better than still ones.
A team from the University of Calgary looked at dead bats near
turbines. They found that 90% of the bats had internal bleeding.
Erin Baerwald is the lead author of the study. She says there’s a sudden
drop in pressure near the tips of the turbine blades. And when bats fly
close enough, the pressure drop makes their lungs over-expand and
burst. She thinks the bats are attracted to the turbines.
“Maybe they see these tall turbines as trees.”
That’s because most of the bats that are getting killed are tree roosting
bats.
Baerwald says researchers are looking at ways to change turbines to
avoid killing bats.
Kuhina, the largest male of the group, sat for hours at Honey Girl's memorial (Photo by Patrick Doyle, Malama na Honu volunteer)
Private citizens in Hawaii and as far away as Canada have reportedly raised $5000 for a reward fund for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible for Honey Girl’s death (Photo by Patrick Doyle, Malama na Honu volunteer)
Officials are investigating the
mutilation and death of a green sea turtle
protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Heidi Chang reports, the death of this
particular turtle is causing uproar in Hawaii:
Transcript
Officials are investigating the
mutilation and death of a green sea turtle
protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Heidi Chang reports, the death of this
particular turtle is causing uproar in Hawaii:
The North Shore of Oahu is a popular gathering place for about 24 Hawaiian
green sea turtles. Residents and visitors from around the world go there
to watch the turtles bask in the sun.
One of the favorites was a 275 pound turtle called ‘Honey Girl’, because
of her honey colored shell.
Joanne Pettigrew is with Malama na Honu. It’s a group of volunteers
that protects the turtles. Pettigrew says the community is outraged over
the killing of Honey Girl earlier this month.
“I was in shock and disbelief, that anyone could remove the breastplate,
cut off the flipper, dismember this beautiful creature, our largest female,
Honey Girl, with a beautiful shell.”
State and federal authorities say they don’t know yet why the turtle was
killed.
Researchers have created a genetically
modified mosquito. Rebecca Williams reports the
scientists hope the mosquito will help save lives:
Transcript
Researchers have created a genetically
modified mosquito. Rebecca Williams reports the
scientists hope the mosquito will help save lives:
Malaria kills more than one million people every year. The disease is
spread by mosquitoes.
Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena is a researcher at Johns Hopkins Malaria
Research Institute. He’s part of a team that has bred a genetically
modified mosquito. It can’t get infected by the malaria parasite.
“If we go to a region where malaria is prevalent and we are able to
substitute the local mosquito population by the modified mosquito that
cannot carry the parasite, then the net effect will be interruption of
transmission.”
Jacobs-Lorena says they’re confident the super mosquito is safe to
release into the wild.
But he says they’ll have to convince a lot of people that it’s okay to let it
out of the lab.
Signs of VHS, from the Michigan DNR (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Despite efforts to stop it, there’s a new
indication a nasty fish virus is spreading. Christina
Shockley has the latest:
Transcript
Despite efforts to stop it, there’s a new
indication a nasty fish virus is spreading. Christina
Shockley has the latest:
The name even sounds scary: viral hemorrhagic septicemia. It causes fish to bleed to
death.
VHS has been in the Great Lakes for at least three years. Officials have been trying
to confine it to the Great Lakes basin, but now it’s spread into central Ohio.
Elmer Heyob is with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
He says the worst-case scenario is that VHS could get into a hatchery that stocks fish
for lakes and streams, and that cloud hurt the region’s economy.
“First the hatcheries, then the fishery, then the people that support the fishery, the
boating industry, it just goes on and on.”
Heyob says to stop VHS from spreading, you shouldn’t move fish from one lake to
another, and you should clean boating and fishing equipment before you move to a
different lake.
Researchers believe eventually fish build up immunity to the disease.
VHS does not pose a threat to people.
For The Environment Report, I’m Christina Shockley.
A tern chick at Mille Lacs Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
There are few things as aggravating as getting stuck in a traffic jam. But for some drivers crossing a busy bridge from the U.S. to Canada there’s aggravation on top of aggravation. Joyce Kryszak reports that’s because a plan to build an additional bridge is being blocked by concern for a bird and a little fish that it eats:
Transcript
There are few things as aggravating as getting stuck in a traffic jam. But for some drivers crossing a busy bridge from the U.S. to Canada there’s aggravation on top of aggravation. Joyce Kryszak reports that’s because a plan to build an additional bridge is being blocked by concern for a bird and a little fish that it eats.
Every year, millions of people cross the mighty Niagara River on the Peace Bridge that connects Buffalo, New York to Canada. And many of them sit for hours in a traffic jam. The border crossing and passport checks slow things down. But there are just not enough lanes for all the traffic.
Ice delivery man Tim Holliday is one of those who is fed up with hours and hours of bridge delays.
“Like, I gotta go to the duty-free here, and when I’m coming out of here I have to go through customs and they always ask, what were you doing in Canada?” said Holliday. “I’m just sick of the hassles, you know?”
Transportation officials say a new bridge is needed. The traffic problems will only get worse. Because of increased trade, about eleven million additional travelers are expected to be using the Peace Bridge over the next decade.
And that’s a headache for Ron Rienas. He manages the busy international bridge crossing. He says building a new bridge would help with the traffic delays and help with national security.
“This is a border improvement project designed to address redundancy issues, security issues, traffic flow, all of those things, maintenance issues…all of those are impacted by not being able to proceed with the project,” said Rienas.
A second bridge has been designed. It’s a cable-stayed bridge with towers as high as the Washington monument.
Brian Higgins is Congressman for the area. He’s pushing for federal approval of the impressive cable design. He says the region needs an iconic symbol of progress.
“We are in the eleventh hour of a project that’s been going on for fifteen years. We need additional capacity at the Peace Bridge to promote the efficient, predictable flow of commerce between the United States and Canada – we need an iconic bridge, a signature bridge,” said Higgins.
But that signature bridge is exactly the kind of design that is dangerous to many birds.
And the Niagara River is a virtual highway for nearly three hundred kinds of birds. The cables can be invisible to the birds and they can fly into them and die.
Among those birds is the Common Tern. It’s an endgangered species.
Terry Yonker knows these and other birds better than most.
“We probably documented somewhere in the range of half a million birds, and there’s a common tern right there.”
Yonker is a scientist and a former Ornithological Society president. He wrote an environmental study that recommended against the bridge’s cable design because it could kill hundreds of different kinds of birds, including the endangered tern.
Yonker says even if it avoided hitting the cables by flying over the bridge, the tern would be stressed by such a tall bridge design. That’s because it has to make eight trips over the bridge each day to feed its young. But he says it probably wouldn’t make that many trips if the new bridge is any higher than the Peace Bridge.
“You raise that structure and they’ll have to spend a lot of energy doing that. They’ll maybe make five or six trips a day and that means one or two chicks are going to get less food out there,” said Yonker.
The other concern is a food source for the tern.
Fishery experts say the enormous piers would change water currents, eventually killing off the Emerald Shiner. That’s the tiny fish the endangered bird feeds on.
So a new design is being recommended: A lower bridge with smaller piers to protect the tern and the emerald shiner.
Federal and state agencies are working to find a way to mitigate the threat to the birds and fish by altering the plans for the new bridge. But environmental experts say you can’t mitigate extinction.
Environmentalists and some biologists say the common tern is more than an endangered bird. They say it’s a warning, about what happens when sound science is ignored for the sake of progress.
But, try explaining that to the people stuck in traffic for hours because a second bridge is being blocked to save a small bird and a little fish.
