The stifling hot weather recently has triggered ozone action days in many parts of the country. That means smog levels are high and the air can be unhealthy to breathe. But the Environmental Protection Agency says it’s making progress on cleaning up the pollutants that lead to ground-level ozone. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams reports:
Transcript
The stifling hot weather recently has triggered ozone action days in many
parts of the country. That means smog levels are high and the air can be
unhealthy to breathe. But the Environmental Protection Agency says it’s
making progress on cleaning up the pollutants that lead to ground-level
ozone. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams reports:
Smog forms when pollutants mix with hot, stagnant air and sunshine. The
pollutants come mostly from cars and trucks, and power plants. Ground level
ozone can make asthma worse and can even cause permanent lung damage.
Chet Wayland is with the EPA. He says ozone concentrations are dropping as
regulations on smokestacks and tailpipes kick in.
“Ozone concentrations have decreased about 20 percent since 1980 and since 1990
they’ve actually decreased about 8 percent. I think that’s one of the things we’re seeing
even this summer, as hot as it is, we’re not seeing the levels we would’ve
seen several years ago.”
But ozone is still a major health problem. A recent EPA-funded study found
that ozone levels the agency considers acceptable can cause lung damage and
lead to premature death.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, also known as factory farms, produce a lot of animal waste. Some groups are worried that a new EPA rule will be too easy on enforcement of environmental regulations. (Photo courtesy of the EPA)
A coalition of environmental groups is asking a federal judge to review an agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and operators of large-scale livestock farms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman
reports:
Transcript
A coalition of environmental groups is asking a Federal Judge to review an agreement between the EPA and operators of large-scale livestock farms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:
The environmental groups say these large-scale farms are responsible for emitting harmful pollutants. The EPA recently offered farm operators the chance to take part in further studies on those emissions. In exchange, the agency relaxed its enforcement of certain environmental regulations during the period of the study.
The Environmental Integrity Project and three other groups recently filed a lawsuit questioning the legality of the agreement. Michelle Merkele is Senior Counsel for The Environmental Integrity Project. She says the agreement is unnecessary.
“The EPA has had the authority under the Clean Air Act to gather the kind of data it needs to determine emissions levels at these industrial farming operations. It doesn’t need the industry’s permission.”
The EPA says it believes the agreement is the best way to completely assess the situation and to eventually bring the entire industry into compliance.
The EPA is being called to put regulations on ballast water discharges. (Photo courtesy of the USGS)
Ballast water discharges from ocean freighters must be regulated by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That’s the ruling of a California judge.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:
Transcript
Ballast water discharges from ocean freighters must be regulated by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. That’s the ruling of a California judge. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Sarah Hulett reports:
The ruling calls on the EPA to repeal a decades-old exemption for ballast water discharges from the
federal Clean Water Act. Discharges from ships’ ballast tanks have dumped foreign plants and
animals into coastal waters and the Great Lakes. The organisms have wreaked environmental and
economic havoc on native ecosystems.
Jordan Lubetkin is with the National Wildlife Federation.
“By this ruling, ballast water discharge is regulated as a biological pollutant. Ballast water is
treated like a discharge from an industrial facility, or a wastewater treatment facility, and in
this regard it’s no different.”
An EPA spokesman says the agency is reviewing the decision, and its options. The judge has ordered
an April 15th conference for the EPA and the environmental groups that sued to discuss how to move
A new study suggests that air pollution has a significant effect on developing babies. (Photo by Lester Graham)
A recent study indicates expectant mothers who are exposed to air pollution see damage to the genetic make up of their newborns. That might increase the babies’ risk of contracting cancer later in life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A recent study indicates expectant mothers who are exposed to
air pollution see damage to the genetic make up of their newborns.
That might increase the babies’ risk of contracting cancer later in
life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The expectant mothers were asked to carry air monitors in backpacks to see how much they were exposed to air pollutants. The Columbia University researchers chose 60 mothers in low-income neighborhoods. Dr. Frederica Perera is chief author of the study.
“All of our mothers in the study were non-smokers. So, the primary source of these pollutants in air would be things like motor vehicles, emissions from residential heating units, burning fossil fuel and also from power plants located even fairly far away.”
It’s the fist study to make a connection between air pollutants causing genetic changes in the womb that could increase cancer risk. Earlier studies by the researchers already revealed greater prenatal exposure to air pollution caused lower birth weights and smaller heads in newborns.
The cormorant population is booming in the region, and some anglers say they're competing too hard with the birds for fish. (Photo courtesy of Steve Mortensen, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)
Don Schreiner is the DNR's manager of fisheries for Lake Superior. Every year, the hatchery at Knife River rears thousands of rainbow trout. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Robin Whaley likes to fish in the Knife River in Minnesota. Behind her is Knife Island, where officials are trying to keep cormorants from nesting. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Anglers around the Great Lakes are eager for a summer of fishing. Everyone wants to catch the big one. But they’re getting some competition. It comes in the form of the double-crested cormorant. The big black birds with long necks are fish eaters. Cormorants were nearly wiped out by the now-banned pesticide, DDT, in the 1970’s. But now cormorants are back in big numbers. Some anglers feel there are too many cormorants now. And they say the birds are eating too many fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on one experimental effort to control cormorants:
Transcript
Anglers around the Great Lakes are eager for a summer of fishing. Everyone wants to
catch the big one, but they’re getting some competition. It comes in the form of the
double-crested cormorant. The big black birds with long necks are fish eaters.
Cormorants were nearly wiped out by the now-banned pesticide, DDT, in the 1970’s. But
now cormorants are back in big numbers. Some anglers feel there are too many
cormorants now, and they say the birds are eating too many fish. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on one experimental effort to control
cormorants:
(sound of waves)
Robin Whaley often fishes here on Knife River. It’s the biggest spawning ground for
rainbow trout on the north shore of Lake Superior. But today she’s watching the
cormorants on Knife Island, a quarter-mile offshore.
The cormorant population is booming. About a hundred cormorants lived on the island
last year.
“I guess they’re just coming up into this area in the last few years and becoming a
problem, for degrading habitat and for eating little fish.”
Cormorants are native to this area, but they haven’t been around much in the last few
decades, because of poisoning from the pesticide DDT.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stocks rainbow trout here. This year
they put 40,000 young fish into the river. Anglers like Robin Whaley hope the little fish
will grow big enough for them to catch someday.
The little fish face a lot of predators and hazards and the cormorants are one more threat.
Some people would like to reduce that threat. It’s illegal to kill cormorants. They’re
protected by law because they’re a migratory bird.
But a new federal rule says if they’re threatening a resource, people can fight back in a
different way.
Bill Paul runs the Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services Program in Minnesota. He
sent workers onto Knife Island to try to keep the cormorants from nesting. Their methods
are experimental – but they’re pretty basic.
“We put up some flapping tarps in wind, a couple of yellow raincoat scarecrows, we also
put up ten flashing highway barricade lights, we also have a light siren device out there
that goes during the night.”
The workers also used special firecrackers shot by guns at passing birds to scare them
away.
They did this for two weeks during the cormorants’ nesting season. Bill Paul says even
with all that noise and commotion it wasn’t easy to scare them away.
“They seem to be fairly smart birds and real persistent at coming back to Knife Island.
So we’re uncertain yet whether our activities are actually going to keep them off there
long-term.”
As part of their study, researchers had permission to kill 25 cormorants to find out what
they’d been eating. They wanted to see how much of a threat the birds were to game fish
like the rainbow trout.
They found fish in the cormorants’ stomachs all right. But not the kind most people like
to catch and eat.
Don Schreiner supervises the Lake Superior fishery for the Minnesota DNR. He says
he’d need more than just a few samples to really know what the birds are eating.
“My guess is that cormorants are opportunists and if there’s a small silver fish out there
and he’s just hanging out and the cormorant has that available to eat, he’ll eat it. The
question becomes, is this a significant part of the population that they’re consuming, or
isn’t it?”
Despite the concerns of some anglers, researchers have been studying cormorants for
years, and so far they haven’t been able to prove the birds are harming wild fish
populations.
John Pastor is an ecologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He says the study at
Knife River won’t prove anything useful either.
He says it ignores the bigger picture. Pastor says you can’t just look at one predator and
come to any firm conclusions. There could be lots of reasons why there aren’t many
steelhead, or rainbow trout.
“Changes in land use. All the adult steelhead out there eating the young of the year
steelhead. Maybe it’s some pollutant in the lake. You never know. But it’s easy to fix on
the predator as the problem, because people see a cormorant dive down and come up with
a fish, and they say to themselves, I could have caught that fish.”
Pastor says even if the cormorants are eating lots of young rainbow trout, it doesn’t
necessarily mean the birds are hurting the overall trout population.
And even for an angler like Robin Whaley, the concern about the trout is mixed with a
feeling of respect for the cormorant.
“I admire the bird very much, but human beings, we’re in the business of controlling
habitats and populations, and this is just another case of that.”
For many anglers, the ultimate question in this competition between predators is simple.
It’s about who gets the trout – cormorants or humans.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.
It takes a lot of work to turn a cow or chicken into a hamburger or chicken nuggets. And the process creates a lot of waste. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to reduce the pollution that’s released into rivers, lakes and streams. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:
Transcript
It takes a lot of work to turn a cow or chicken into a hamburger or chicken nuggets. And the
process creates a lot of waste. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to reduce
the pollution that’s released into rivers, lakes and streams. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Rebecca Williams has more:
The EPA estimates meat and poultry processors use 150 billion gallons of water every year.
Most of that water becomes wastewater. That wastewater can contain oil, blood, manure, and
feathers.
If the wastewater isn’t treated, organic wastes and nutrients are released directly into waterways.
Excess nutrients can cause harmful algae blooms, and kill fish.
The new rule targets about 170 meat and poultry processors.
Mary Smith directs a division of the EPA’s Office of Water.
“The meats industry will have to meet tighter limits on the pollutants that it discharges to the
water. And then, of course, for poultry, this is the first time they will be regulated at all, they
didn’t have preexisting regulations, unlike the meats industry. And they will have to meet limits
for ammonia, total nitrogen, and what we call conventional pollutants.”
These regulations are a result of a lawsuit against the EPA, settled 13
years ago.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.
The Environmental Protection Agency is accused of ignoring the disappearance each year of tons of mercury at several processing plants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
The Environmental Protection agency is accused of ignoring the disappearance each year of tons
of mercury at several processing plants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:
The plants make chlorine. Part of the process at these older plants involves putting an electric
current through big vats of mercury. Every year the plants buy tons more mercury, but don’t
report that it escapes as emissions. Three environmental groups have sued the EPA, saying the
agency isn’t protecting the public’s health when it allows that much mercury to just disappear.
Jim Pew is a lawyer with one of the groups, Earthjustice.
“The very simple question that came up is, ‘Gosh, where is all this mercury going?'”
“And nobody seems to be able to answer that?”
“No. The Environmental Protection Agency gave it a little bit of thought and then declared that –
and this is a quote, “…somewhat of an enigma.”
Mercury can cause neurological damage to humans. Fetuses and young children are especially at
risk. The environmental organizations want the EPA to find out what happens to all that mercury
and require the older plants to modernize to a process that doesn’t need mercury to make
chlorine.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
A group of state legislators from the region are pushing for new laws aimed at limiting mercury pollution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:
Transcript
A group of state legislators from the region are pushing for new laws aimed at limiting mercury
pollution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports.
The multi-state effort targets coal-fired power plants, and products that contain mercury – including
thermometers.
Wisconsin and Ohio are looking to enact stricter pollution controls on power plants than what’s
being proposed in Washington. Other states, including Michigan, are calling for a phase-out of
products that contain mercury. They also want mercury parts and switches to be removed from
cars and appliances before they’re scrapped.
Former Maryland lawmaker Leon Billings is with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators:
“You’ve got to go at it from all perspectives. Power plants represent 30 to 40 percent of the
ambient mercury. But these other sources are significant, especially if they’re not controlled
properly.”
Mercury is a toxin that can affect the nervous system. It can be especially harmful to developing
children.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sarah Hulett.
The production of vinyl products is considered by many to be an environmental hazard. But vinyl’s affordability keeps it popular. Now a new study says vinyl alternatives can be just as affordable. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:
Transcript
The production of vinyl products is considered by many to be an environmental hazard. But
vinyl’s affordability keeps it popular. Now a new study says vinyl alternatives can be just as
affordable. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:
Vinyl or PVC is used in everything from pipe fittings to
medical gloves. It’s cheap and easy to make.
But when vinyl is produced it releases hazardous substances like mercury and dioxin. Both are
known to threaten human health.
The study was done at Tufts University. The authors say
regardless of health threats, vinyl is only inexpensive in
the short term.
They say that while vinyl is cheap when you first buy it,
it doesn’t last as long as most of its alternatives.
Frank Ackerman co-authored the study. He says since
the study showed vinyl isn’t more affordable, using
vinyl is irresponsible to the environment.
“The excuse that the market made us do it, that we were
economically forced to do something that we knew was
bad for health and the environment. That’s a lousy
excuse. There’s no reason to put up with that. You can
afford to do what you know is right for your health and
for the environment of those around you.”
Ackerman says the alternatives can be materials that
vinyl originally replaced. These are often natural
materials like woods and metals.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.
As the U.S. government debates cutting mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, Wisconsin may become the first state in the region to pass mandatory controls. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
As the U.S. government debates cutting mercury emissions from
coal-burning power plants, Wisconsin may become the first state in the
region to pass
mandatory controls. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach
reports:
Mercury released by the burning of coal often falls
into bodies of water and can be passed up through the food chain.
A proposal going before the Wisconsin Natural Resources
Board would order big Wisconsin utilities to cut mercury
emissions 40% by 2010 and 80% by 2015.
Environmentalists want faster
and deeper reductions.
Lloyd Eagan is a Wisconsin air management official. She says
her agency is taking a cautious approach
to how utilities would meet their goal.
“We did not assume that there would be improvements in
mercury control technology… which there will be, but we
based the rule on what is in existence today that we
think will work.”
Utilities still say the Wisconsin mercury plan goes too far.
They want the state to wait until approval of a federal cleanup plan.
That plan targets several different air pollutants.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck
Quirmbach in Milwaukee.
