Some environmentalists are calling for a moratorium on growing genetically altered trees in orchards and forests. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Some environmentalists are calling for a moratorium on growing genetically altered trees in
orchards and forests. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Genetically modified crops have been in the fields for a number of years. Now, genetically
altered trees are being introduced. Fruit trees with genes spliced in to protect them from pests or
disease are becoming more common. And some forest trees are being genetically altered to make
them easier to process for paper.
Jim Diamond is with the Sierra Club. He says if these genetic traits are transferred into the wild,
it could mean biological contamination…
“When you put corporate-patented hacked genetic code out into the out-of-doors where it can
travel around, that genetic code can get into other related species and the way in which they can
interact and change nature is not understood at all.”
Orchards and paper companies say use of the genetically modified trees is safe. In some cases,
genetically modified trees have prevented the loss of entire fruit industries… and might be used
to restore some valuable trees back to the forests.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Sludge being spread over a field with a manure spreader. (Photo by D. Seliskar, Halophyte Biotechnology Center, Univ. of Delaware)
The more people inhabit the earth – the more sewage there is. Something has to be done with it. Before chemical fertilizers were invented, farmers used human manure to improve their crops. Some still do. About three million dry tons of treated sewage – called sludge – fertilize sod, pasture land and even food crops every year in the United States. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Amy Tardif looks at what the practice may be doing to the environment:
Transcript
The more people inhabit the earth – the more sewage there is. Something has to be done with it.
Before chemical fertilizers were invented, farmers used human manure to improve their crops.
Some still do. About three million dry tons of treated sewage – called sludge – fertilize sod,
pasture land and even food crops every year in the United States. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Amy Tardif looks at what the practice may be doing to the environment:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says using treated human waste as fertilizer is the
most environmentally sound way to get rid of it. It used to get dumped in the oceans. The
pollution caused dead zones.
Now, using it on land is becoming controversial. As people move closer to rural areas, they
discover what’s happening. It smells. It might also cause damage. Tommy Drymon insists the
creek near his Florida home has changed because farmers near his house use sludge as fertilizer.
“This was the most beautiful place I’ve ever settled down to. And the creek just looks awful now.
It used to be clear and now it’s just black and mucky all the time.”
Drymon says not only has the color changed – there’s more icky residue on the shore. He rarely
sees otters, deer and other wildlife any more. He definitely stopped swimming in it. Drymon and
his neighbors think the human fertilizer nearby farmers use – known as sewage sludge – is to
blame.
Sludge is made at sewage treatment plants. The water people flush down their toilets gets pretty
clean with today’s methods. That means more of what’s leftover stays pretty dirty. It resembles a
thin pudding or a powder depending on how it’s treated. It can contain viruses, bacteria,
chemicals and cancer-causing heavy metals.
“Now this sewage sludge includes not just human waste, it includes Pine Sol if you clean your
toilet bowl with Pine Sol, or if you do oil painting and you flush the paints down the drain or if
you work in a chemistry lab….”
Eric Giroux is an attorney for Earthjustice. He’s handling a lawsuit for Tommy Drymon and his
neighbors. It claims sewage sludge dumped on farms there is wafting through the air making
them sick and running off into the creek.
There are federal, state and county rules meant to prevent runoff. There are buffer zones from
water bodies and rules to protect groundwater. But sludge is not always applied according to the
rules. And there are things missing from the rules – according to The Cornell Waste
Management Institute. They don’t deal with poisons such as flame retardants, the drugs we take
and toxic chemicals that harm fish and wildlife and inhibit plant growth.
But those who use sludge as fertilizer like it.
“It’s a product that has to have something done with it. And if it’s done properly there are no
problems.”
Dennis Carlton has used the free product on his cow pastures for ten years. He says the calves
raised on those pastures end up weighing more than others. Sludge saves him sixty to 160 dollars
an acre on expensive chemicals.
“It’s cost effective and it does a better job than the commercial fertilizer because it last longer
because of the slow release qualities.”
Sludge contains lots of nitrogen – which is food for plants. It’s organic. Plants absorb it very
slowly. And that’s good.
Since 1997, University of Florida Soil scientist Martin Adjei has compared typical commercial
fertilizer – ammonium nitrate – with sludge. He says his studies show the good stuff in sludge gets
into the plants very nicely, and he says plants don’t seem to absorb the heavy metals.
“We measured lead, barium, cadmium, nickel in the plant. They were all point zero, zero two or
something parts per million in the plant.”
That’s lower than the EPA says it has to be. Adjei says only trace amounts of metals sunk into the
groundwater. He doesn’t know yet whether the metals drift into the soil. But he found too much
of the nutrient phosphorous builds up in the soil when fertilized with sludge year after year. He
admits there are many more tests to be done.
This year the EPA responded to complaints about sludge. It plans to test it for 50 chemicals – far
more than ever before. Geff Grubbs is the EPA’s Director of Science and Technology.
“We’re focusing on a couple of things, one is beginning to ramp up some of the research
investments to strengthen our understanding of some of the processes and nature of the
contaminants that could be present in sludge and what risk they might or might not pose. And we
do have a number of things that are in the works both near and longer term that might lead to
changes in the underlying regulations about what can be in biosolids before they are applied to
land.”
And, the EPA and a few industry groups have created a best practices program for willing
utilities. They pledge to control the odor and dust as well as manage the nutrients in their sludge.
The utilities are then audited by impartial, independent, third parties. There are only 48
municipalities participating nationwide.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Amy Tardif.
Retail superstores, like this Cabela's in Dundee, Michigan, have become tourist destination sites. Environmentalists worry that these types of developments are adding to poor land use patterns. (Photo by Sarah
Hulett)
Throughout the region, tourism is an important part of the economy. Families travel far and wide to visit historical sites, cultural institutions, and favorite recreation spots. But a relatively new part of the landscape is drawing people in for a single purpose: to shop. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports on how the trend is affecting land use patterns:
Transcript
Throughout the region, tourism is an important part of the economy. Families travel
far and wide to visit historical sites, cultural institutions, and favorite recreation
spots. But a relatively new part of the landscape is drawing people in for a single purpose: to
shop. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports on how the trend is affecting
land use patterns:
Brad Brinker is in Michigan for the day to take in the sights. He flew his plane from Pennsylvania
to Dundee, in the southeast corner of Michigan. Now he’s standing next to a waterfall that spills
into a pond filled with trout and aquatic plants.
“We were always impressed by the size of the mountain and the animals they have. That’s why
we’re here!”
The mountain is fake. The water? Pumped in. The animals? Stuffed.
This is Cabela’s – a 225-thousand-square-foot retail temple to the outdoors. It’s the home of 65-
thousand gallons of aquariums, dozens of game animals like caribou and mountain lions. There’s
a gun library, and acres of fishing equipment and hunting gear.
“Cabela’s considers itself a tourist attraction as well as retail. And in all of our major sites, we’ve
become one if not the major tourist attraction in the state.”
Steve Collins is the operations manager for Cabela’s. He says the strategy for drawing tourists and
shoppers hinges on careful placement of the store.
“What we try to do is make them destination stores, so people have to go out of their way a little
bit to get there. But once they get there they’re very easy to find. We’re not in the middle of a
mall. We’re not in the middle of town where you have to try and find us. Once you get down that
thoroughfare, we’re usually right at the exit. You can’t miss us.”
Michigan’s Cabela’s store IS easy to spot. You can see two 20-foot-tall bronze grizzlies from the
highway, locked in battle above a vast expanse of parking lot. The five-acre store was built to
look like a massive log cabin. It sits on a sweep of what used to be farmland. A U.S. highway
feeds thousands of cars a day onto its property.
It’s a familiar strategy for big-box retailers such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Land is generally
cheaper and easier to acquire in rural areas. And some of these superstores and outlet malls have
become destinations not just for shoppers, but for tourists. George Zimmerman directs Michigan’s
travel bureau.
“I think in the last ten years, on the national level, the Mall of America is an example of that.
Certainly the outlet mall boom is a big part of it. That certainly was a key point as far as retailing
as a destination, when those started popping up around the country.”
But superstores and outlet malls give environmentalists headaches. They say stores that set up
shop in undeveloped areas contribute to sprawl patterns that require expensive infrastructure.
They can also sap resources from nearby cities and towns. Although the business association near
Cabela’s Michigan store says the retailer has actually helped bring shoppers into the downtown
area, five miles away.
Victoria Pebbles works on sustainable development issues for the Great Lakes Commission.
Pebbles says there need to be disincentives for stores to locate in rural areas.
“If there are disincentives, for example, through farmland protection programs and protection of
natural features and cultural resources that are in our rural areas, then you can help to tip the
scales a little bit.”
Pebbles says right now, there are few restrictions on developing farmland into shopping malls.
Some states – such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – have set aside money to help
local governments better coordinate land use planning. And Michigan recently set up a task force
that will make land use policy recommendations to its Legislature.
(bring up Cabela’s parking lot sound)
In the meantime, it looks as though retailers will continue to look for cheap land with easy access
to highways. Cabela’s plans to open its fifth store in the Great Lakes region this fall. Its
Pennsylvania store will be easy to spot, perched on a hundred acres right off I-78 and Route 61.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sarah Hulett.
Funding has dried up for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study designed to show where, when, and how often it might flood along the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri rivers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rich Egger reports:
Transcript
Funding has dried up for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study designed to show where, when, and how often it might flood along the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri rivers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rich Egger reports:
After a whistleblower revealed the
Corps overstated the economic
benefits of its projects, Congress cut
the agency’s budget. That’s meant a
shortage of money for research, such
as this flood study. Supporters of the
research believe another large flood
is inevitable.
Heather Hampton-Knodle is with the
Upper Mississippi, Illinois, and
Missouri Rivers Association. She
says it’s important to finish the study:
“It’s the notion that we need to build the Ark before the flood…and be prepared to protect our citizens and keep our economy flowing in the case of that sort of major
disaster. This is one disaster we can
plan for.”
Funding was frozen this summer just
before the report was completed. Researchers
say they need just another $142,000
to finish the eight-and-a-half million
dollar study.
For the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium, this is Rich Egger.
Researchers with an environmental group have found that farm-raised salmon are contaminated with higher levels of PCBs than wild salmon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Researchers with an environmental group have found that farm-raised salmon are contaminated with higher levels of PCBs than wild salmon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The Environmental Working Group
tested salmon from grocery stores for
PCBs. It found that average levels of
PCBs in farm-raised salmon were
five times higher than in wild salmon.
Ken Cook is the President of the
Environmental Working Group. He
says PCB contamination is serious.
“It’s got a cancer risk associated with
it. It can also cause developmental
problems in children,
so we’re concerned that we have
the farm salmon cleaned up,
get rid of some of these PCBs. And
it won’t be too hard to do.”
Cook says the higher PCB levels
come from the feed for the salmon.
It’s ground up and concentrated fish.
Concentrating the fish concentrates
PCBs, giving farm-raised salmon
higher exposures. The farm salmon
industry indicates that levels are well
within the standards set by the Food
and Drug Administration, but the
PCB levels in the farm-raised salmon
do surpass the stricter guidelines set
by the Environmental Protection
Agency.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is
Lester Graham.
Scientists say they’ve found a fungus that kills the Emerald Ash Borer. The tiny green beetles have devastated ash tree populations in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Canada. Now, the Emerald Ash Borer is moving farther west. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
Scientists say they’ve found a fungus that kills the Emerald Ash Borer. The tiny green
beetles have devastated ash tree populations in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Canada. Now the Emerald Ash Borer is moving farther west. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has more:
Researchers with the U.S. Forest
Service and Michigan State University
say a product called “BotaniGard”
kills the Emerald
Ash Borer in lab tests. But they say
it isn’t clear yet whether the product
is effective against widespread
infestation.
BotaniGard is produced
by Emerald BioAgriculture
Corporation. Company President
John McIntyre says
it’s safe for people and animals.
“That’s one of the nice things about
biological pesticides. They oftentimes
are, and in the case of
BotaniGard, certainly is something
that is not harmful to the environment
or to the user.”
BotaniGard is not a new product.
Farmers have been using it since the
late 1990’s. The company plans
to donate some of the product to local
governments dealing with
Emerald Ash
Borer infestation.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Few U.S. Senators in the region supported stricter fuel standards in the most recent vote on the issue on Capitol Hill. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett has more:
Transcript
Few U.S. Senators from the region wanted stricter fuel standards in the most recent vote on the issue on Capitol Hill. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:
The legislation called on domestic car makers to produce fleets of vehicles that get
better gas mileage. The standard called for an average fuel economy of 40 miles per gallon by 2015. The current standard is 27-and-a-half miles per gallon. Three of the region’s senators opposed the measure for every one senator who supported it.
Anne Woiwode is with the Sierra Club. She says foreign automakers are producing
more fuel-efficient cars. Woiwode says that competition will hopefully spur lawmakers from
car-producing states to push for stricter fuel standards in the future.
“It’s going to be harder for the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois – the whole Great
Lakes region – to compete.”
Critics of higher fuel economy standards say they would force domestic automakers to
produce smaller, less safe cars. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sarah Hulett.
There’s a plan in place to clean up a PCB-contaminated river. It could be one of the most comprehensive, and most expensive, river cleanups ever done in North America. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Patty Murray has more:
Transcript
There’s a plan in place to clean up a PCB-contaminated river. It could be one of the most comprehensive, and most expensive, river cleanups ever done in North America. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Patty Murray has more:
The Fox River, which flows into Green
Bay, is the biggest source of PCBs
emptied into Lake Michigan.
Tom Skinner is with the EPA’s Great
Lakes National Program Office. He
says the Fox cleanup will be one of
the most ambitious ever.
“There’s a lot of talk about the
Hudson River project. This project has
the Hudson beat in a number of different ways.”
Such as: the cleanup may cost
400-million dollars, and Skinner says
the amount of contaminants to be
removed is also significant.
“The analogy we’ve used previously is that a
cubic yard is equivalent to a very
compact refrigerator. We’re
going to take probably over 7 million
of those out of the river.”
Seven paper companies that
dumped the PCBs in the river will
pay the cost of the project.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Patty Murray.
There’s a new high-jump record holder in the insect world. Researchers have discovered that a very common bug has an uncommon trait. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
There’s a new high-jump record holder in the insect world. Researchers have discovered that a very common bug has an uncommon trait. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
For a long time now, everybody
(even insect scientists) thought fleas
were the world champion jumpers,
but the flea has lost its top spot.
The Froghopper, sometimes called
the spittle bug, is the new high-jump
champ. British researchers revealed
in the journal Nature that Froghoppers,
which can be found in your backyard garden,
catapult themselves even higher.
Chris Dietrich is with the Illinois Natural
History Survey. He studies Froghoppers,
but leaves measuring their jumps to
the Brits:
“It really is not just as simple as lining them
up next to each other and seeing how
far they can jump one time. You have to
repeat the experiment many times
under different conditions. So, it could
be a very complicated matter to try to
do this.”
Dietrich says there’s not been a lot
of research on how high bugs jump,
so he wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the
Froghopper doesn’t lose its
high-jump crown to some other bug
that just hasn’t been measured yet.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
The art deco style Mott Building is the tallest building in Flint, Michigan. Local chapters of the American Institute of Architects are trying to raise awareness about buildings like these in order to preserve them. (Photo by Ronald Campbell)
As people move to homes and businesses in the suburbs they often abandon beautiful buildings. Some inner cities are now filled with boarded up store fronts and dilapidated high-rises. A group of architects hopes that people will be less likely to do this if they value good architecture and design. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney has this story:
Transcript
As people move to homes and businesses in the suburbs they often abandon beautiful buildings. Some inner cities are now filled with boarded up store fronts and dilapidated high-rises. A group of architects hopes that people will be less likely to do this if they value good architecture and design. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
Flint, Michigan could be the poster child for a city left behind. Parts of the city have crumbled since Flint’s
auto industry moved away. But like
many older cities, there are dozens
of architectural gems here… (sound up)
like the Mott Building. It’s the city’s
tallest building and the exterior, the
interior, and every detail right down
to the doors on the elevators (sound
of elevator) are designed and
decorated in the Art Deco style.
Albert Ashley is a security contractor
at the Mott Building. He says a week
doesn’t go by without someone
asking about it.
(elevator bings and boings)
“It’s quite regular, quite regular we
get comments about it and the
architectural design and so forth…
well they can tell that it was pretty
old building and well kept, you know,
and the design is pretty much the
same throughout the building, so they
notice that and they like it.”
(Sounds of traffic)
One person who has always liked this
building is Ron Campbell. As a child,
he’d stand here on the corner of
Saginaw Street waiting for the bus.
“I can remember asking my mother,
‘how many stories is that?’ And I
probably pestered her with questions
to the point where she was ‘just be
quiet and wait for the bus.’ But…
‘How high is that compared with the
Empire State Building? How many
buildings do we have like that?'”
With that kind of early interest in
buildings, it’s no surprise Ron
Campbell grew up to become an
architect. And he’s now written a
guide to the architecture in Flint.
It’s a pamphlet with pictures and
blurbs about 34 places in the city.
It’s available at highway rest stops
and at businesses and museums.
Campbell says he’s trying to
teach people about the various styles
of architecture found in the city, but
he’s also hoping the guide can in
some small way combat urban sprawl
by celebrating places that are
beautiful, well thought out, and
designed to last. He thinks that if
more people paid attention to good
architecture in many older cities
they’d be less likely to abandoned
them in favor of new buildings and
developments.
“The Guide is to show, you know,
‘here’s what
can come from good design. It
doesn’t matter if it was built in
1800’s or today. If it’s good design
and it interfaces well, it functions well,
it’s going to be with us, and therefore
we should use it and not think of it
as disposable.”
The Guide to Flint Architecture is one
of many projects local chapters of the
American Institute of Architects are
doing to raise awareness about
architecture and the environments
that we build. Similar guides have
been created for cities ranging from
Duluth, Minnesota to Manhattan.
Celeste Novak is the president of
AIA Michigan. She says the buildings
in a city can tell stories about the
community’s past.
“They are a museum that we are all
participants in, and so it’s important
that people understand that
about the buildings and the communities,
and so that they begin to treasure their
communities and that’s one way we
can all have more livable
communities and really prevent things
like sprawl and the unpleasant places
we all find ourselves at when we’re grocery shopping.”
Those strip malls and big box stores
near the highway look very different
from the places shown in Ron
Campbell’s guide.
(sound of footsteps on bridge)
Campbell and I walk across a small
wooden footbridge in the heart of
downtown Flint. We’ve just left a
peaceful riverfront park designed by
a well known architect. On the other
side of the river where we’re going
sits Carriagetown. It’s where the
vehicle industry began in Flint.
“Oh, Carriage Town is rich in history –
this is the birthplace of General Motors
Company with the Durant Dort
Carriage factory.”
After years of neglect, this factory
from the late 1800’s has been
restored as have many homes in this
historic district. Ron Campbell says
he’s glad Carriage Town was never
torn down. It’s part of the city’s
industrial history. And Carriage Town,
like the Art Deco Mott Building and
many other places in the Guide to
Flint Architecture are nostalgic places
for Ron Campbell. They’re reminders
of his past and things he’s done over
the years.
“Those buildings, it re-kindles
childhood memories for me, but then
I look at the future, and what are we
leaving for our children and our
children’s children and hopefully it’s
something just as memorable.”
He says design decisions can
change a community for better or for
worse. He and other architects like
him want to encourage people to
think about the buildings they have
and to pay more attention to
aesthetics. The hope is society can
do a better job protecting historical
structures, preserving natural
resources, and by doing so
controlling sprawl.
For the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.
