Tag: fine

Legal Wrangling Over River Levels Continues

The fight between environmental and business interests on the Missouri River has created legal wrangling in two federal courts. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Weber reports:

Transcript

The fight between environmental and business interests on the Missouri
River
has created legal wrangling in two federal courts. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s
Tom Weber reports:


The controversy started when a federal judge in Washington recently
ordered
the U.S. Corps of Engineers to lower water levels on the Missouri
river.
That move would protect endangered birds and fish that risked losing
their
nests with the higher water levels.


The Corps told the judge, though, it intended to ignore that ruling
because of a
previous ruling in a Nebraska court. That ruling said water levels
should
be high enough to keep barge traffic moving on the lower Missouri.


The Washington judge scolded the Corps for refusing her order and ruled
the
agency in contempt. The Corps in turn asked the Nebraska judge to
modify
her ruling to allow it to avoid heavy fines for being in contempt.


But Wednesday… the Nebraska judge refused. The Corps is appealing
her
ruling.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tom Weber.

Amnesty for Shipwreck Looters

Over the years, people have stolen all kinds of items from shipwrecks in the Great Lakes including nameplates, portholes, and even toilets. One state is now offering people a chance to return these stolen things – no questions asked. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:

To return an item or report a theft from a shipwreck call the Michigan Department of Natural Resources at 800-292-7800.

Transcript

Over the years, people have stolen all kinds of items from shipwrecks in the
Great Lakes including nameplates, portholes, and even toilets. One state is
now offering people a chance to return these stolen things – no questions
asked. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:


Michigan, like many states in the region, has laws against removing artifacts
from a shipwreck. Penalties in the state can include up to two years in
prison or fines up to 5000 dollars. But for the next couple months, the
state just wants to get some of the stolen stuff back. Lieutenant Timothy
Burks is with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources law enforcement
division.


“The divers refer to these wrecks as underwater museums.”


He says souvenir hunters, and people looking to make money selling shipwreck
artifacts are damaging the value of these sites


“If 10 or 20 people take one small porthole soon there’s nothing left.”


Anyone who returns items to the state of Michigan between now and July 31st
won’t be prosecuted. In the case of shipwreck artifacts taken from bottomlands
in other states or provinces, Burk says they’ll try to return them to
the place they came from.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.

Money for Mussels

A million dollar fine will be used in restocking and studying
freshwater mussels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:

Transcript

A million dollar fine will be used in restocking and studying freshwater
mussels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


A Japanese-owned company called Tennessee Shell Company has paid the first
installment of the million dollar fine. The company pleaded guilty to
illegally harvesting freshwater mussels in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and
West Virginia. The company places mussel shell material in oysters to grow
cultured pearls. Chuck Traxler is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He
says the money from the fine won’t just go into the the agency’s general
account.


“The entire amount will be used for mussel research. This is unique
in that these funds are going to be used to help the species that was
damaged.”


Besides being over-harvested, native mussel populations have declined
because of poor water quality and because of invasive species such as the
zebra mussel.


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