President Bush is proposing a toll for use of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Some worry the toll will dissuade usage and hurt businesses. (Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
The Bush Administration wants to charge ships
for passing through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The
Seaway links the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
The Administration hopes the toll will help the
system pay for itself. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
The Bush Administration wants to charge ships for passing through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Seaway links the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The Administration hopes the toll will help the system pay for itself. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
The Bush Administration’s spending plan for next fiscal year calls for
raising 8 million dollars through a new toll system on the Seaway. The
shipping industry says the move could hurt businesses and cost jobs. But
Seaway Administrator Albert Jacquez says he doesn’t expect tolls to affect
traffic levels. He says there used to be a toll, but it was eliminated in
1987.
“If you look at five years before we stopped collecting tolls and five years
after, you’ll see very little change in the level of cargo that moves
through the system, and so I wouldn’t expect a great impact.”
Jacquez says the state of the economy in North America has a much larger
effect on cargo than any other factor.
Great Lakes shippers say the plan is unfair because it would force them to
pay twice for using the Seaway – once for an existing harbor maintenance
tax, and again for a transit toll.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Sightings of the Chinese mitten crab outside of its native habitat make some scientists uneasy that it will turn into an invasive species. (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Fish and
Game)
Biologists are asking people to keep their eyes peeled for another potential invader into the Great Lakes. A Chinese mitten crab was found in the St. Lawrence River last fall. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Biologists are asking people to keep their eyes peeled for
another potential invader into the Great Lakes. A Chinese mitten
crab was found in the St. Lawrence River last fall. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Scientists aren’t sounding the alarm yet. One Chinese mitten crab found near Quebec City doesn’t constitute an invasion. But if they reproduce, the critters could spread quickly.
David MacNeill is a fisheries specialist with New York Sea Grant. He says one was found in Lake Erie in the 1970s, but didn’t proliferate. The mitten crabs spawn in salt water, so they don’t really threaten the upper Great Lakes. But the St. Lawrence River may be better habitat. Regardless, MacNeill says the discovery highlights problems with foreign ships exchanging ballast water before they enter the Great Lakes system.
“Inside ballast tanks on ships, they’re like giant tidal mud flats. When you empty all the water out, there’s this large mud layer. Some of these organisms can burrow into the sediment which is what the mitten crabs do.”
In January, the Coast Guard conceded its ballast discharge rules don’t always work. It said it must find new ways to keep foreign invaders out of the Great Lakes.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Here’s a last-minute gift idea for a green-thinking loved one. A New York-based environmental group will retire a pollution credit in someone’s honor. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein explains:
Transcript
Here’s a last-minute gift idea for a green-thinking loved one. A New York-
based environmental group will retire a pollution credit in someone’s honor.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein explains:
The Environmental Protection Agency issues pollution credits to power
plants. Each one allows them to emit one ton of sulfur dioxide from their
smokestack.
Several years ago, one power company donated 10,000 of the credits to the
Adirondack Council. The group’s a non-profit working to reduce acid rain.
Instead of trading them on the open market, where they can fetch up to 800
dollars apiece, the Council decided to retire the credits. Spokesman John
Sheehan says for 50 bucks, the group will send someone a gift certificate.
“That certificate will show that that person has removed essentially one ton
of sulfur dioxide from the atmosphere permanently and that that pollution
will never go up a smokestack anywhere in the country, and it will help
clean up the Adirondacks and the rest of the United States at the same time.”
Sheehan says the Adirondack Council has about 3,000 credits left. His staff
will be around until Thursday to help people give the gift of cleaner air this
Christmas.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
A group called Scientists and Engineers for Change is touring battleground states, campaigning against the Bush Administration.
(Photo by Emanuel Lobeck)
A group of prominent American scientists, including 10 Nobel prize-winners, will bring a campaign against the Bush Administration to key battleground states in the region. The group says the President has misused and marginalized scientific research. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
A group of prominent American scientists, including 10 Nobel prize-winners,
will bring a campaign against the Bush Administration to key battleground states
in the Great Lakes. The group says the President has misused and marginalized
scientific research. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
The political advocacy group formed last week is called Scientists and Engineers for
Change. Stanford University professor Douglas Osheroff is a member. He won the Nobel
Prize for physics in 1996. He says the Bush Administration is compromising scientific integrity.
“Having scientists reporting to middle-level bureaucrats who simply don’t have the background
to assess what the scientists are saying and he, of course, has essentially put a gag order
on scientists that are paid by the government directly. They are really not free to say what
they want.”
Osheroff also says President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s ties to the oil industry have
led them to minimize evidence of climate change.
Members of the Scientists and Engineers for Change will speak in Battleground states
like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania this month.
The group has no direct ties to Senator John Kerry’s campaign. The Bush campaign hasn’t
responded to the group’s claims.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
The city of Toronto is using the deep, chilly waters of a Great Lake as “green” air conditioning for some of its skyscrapers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein explains how:
Transcript
The city of Toronto is using the deep, chilly waters of a Great Lake as
“green” air conditioning for some of its skyscrapers. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s David Sommerstein explains how:
Toronto and a provincial pension fund joined forces to form a company
called Enwave. It plunged three new intake pipes 3 miles out and 270 feet
deep into Lake Ontario. The pipes suck up near-icy water, which is used to
cool other water that’s pumped to air conditioning systems around the city.
The original water is re-used as drinking water.
Chris Asimakis is Chief Operating Officer of Enwave. He says the project
saves energy and reduces pollution.
“Literally you’re offsetting between 75 and 90 percent of the electricity that
you would have otherwise used and paid for to run a traditional type chiller.
And as a result, the air in Toronto is cleaner because we’re displacing
electricity generation from coal-fired plants, as an example.”
The project has the capacity to air condition 100 office buildings or 8,000
homes. Current clients include some of Toronto’s most prominent
landmarks, including the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
An annual report by NAFTA’s environmental agency says electric power plants are the worst air polluters in North America. It also says much of the pollution comes from states and provinces in the region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein has details:
Transcript
An annual report by NAFTA’s environmental agency says electric power plants are the
worst air polluters in North America. It also says much of the pollution comes from
Great Lakes states and provinces. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David
Sommerstein has details:
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation studied industrial chemical releases in
North America in 2001, the latest data available. After Texas… Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Indiana, and the province of Ontario led in toxic emissions.
The study also found air pollution was down overall. But it still accounted for two-thirds
of all chemicals released by industry. Bill Kennedy is the commission’s Executive
Director.
‘There’s still a lot of chemicals that are going into the air and we think that the
governments and industry need to do a better job.”
Kennedy says the electric industry has the most work to do. Mostly coal-fired power
plants produced almost half of all the air pollution in 2001, including 64% of all mercury
emissions. The report calls for the United States, Canada, and Mexico to use more
renewable energies to reduce reliance on polluting power plants.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
You’ve probably heard about global warming, maybe also climactic cooling. Scientists have identified another phenomenon called “global dimming.” They say the world is getting darker. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
You’ve probably heard about global warming, maybe also climactic cooling. Scientists
have identified another phenomenon called “global dimming”. They say the world is
getting darker. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports.
In the 1980’s, a handful of researchers noticed a strange trend. Less sunlight was
reaching the earth’s surface than fifty years earlier. The scientific establishment
dismissed the notion as ridiculous. But researcher Michael Roderick of Australia
National University says today, ‘global dimming’ is becoming accepted. He says much
of the northern hemisphere is 10 to 20 percent darker than it used to be.
“Something in the atmosphere is blocking the sunlight from getting through. And that
something is either more clouds or more aerosols, so basically pollution.”
Roderick says the dimming is worst in big cities, but rural areas and even Antarctica also
are getting less sun.
Scientists don’t know what ‘global dimming’ means for people, plants, and animals.
Roderick and geophysicists from around the world are meeting this week in Montreal to
take a first stab at that question.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Eel fisherman John Rorabeck near his home
and fishery on Point Traverse, near Kingston on northeastern Lake Ontario. He says these waters were once practically boiling with eels. One night, he caught 3 tons of eels. Today he's lucky to catch one eel. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
The American eel in this tank is 30 inches long, about the size of a baseball bat. Scientist John Casselman
estimates it is more than 15 years old. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
Research scientist John Casselman in his "wet room" lab
at the Glenora Fisheries Station of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He has two American eels in the tanks for research purposes. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
For centuries, the American eel dominated the waters of parts of the Great Lakes. Only fifty years ago, the snake-like fish accounted for half of the biomass of Lake Ontario. Today, it has all but disappeared. Researchers and fishermen see the decline as a shrill warning about changes in climate and the environment. And they say now is the time to do something about it. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
For centuries, the American eel dominated the waters of parts of the Great Lakes. Only
fifty years ago, the snake-like fish accounted for half of the biomass of Lake Ontario.
Today, it has all but disappeared. Researchers and fishermen see the decline as a shrill
warning about changes in climate and the environment. And they say now is the time to
do something about it. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Before you say, who cares about a slimy critter like an eel, hear me out. Eels are
amazing.
They spawn in the Sargasso Sea – the Bermuda Triangle. But no one’s ever caught them
in the act.
“There is a mystery that we haven’t solved. We have never seen them spawn.”
After they’re born, they’re like tiny glassy leaves. They float thousands of miles north
and west on ocean currents. Then they wiggle up rivers and streams from Florida to
Quebec.
“The eel is a fish that we should be looking at very closely.”
They live up to 20 years in freshwater before they start the long journey to the Sargasso
to spawn.
The problem is their offspring are not coming back.
“A very important native species of the Great Lakes, that we’re at serious risk of losing.”
As you can hear, a lot of people are worried about the eel, and not just in the Great Lakes.
European eel young are down 99% from the 1970’s. The Japanese eel is down 80%. In
Lake Ontario, the fish is all but gone. And the people who rely on it feel like they’re
disappearing too.
(sound up of waves)
Just ask fisherman John Rorabeck. He grew up here by the lighthouse on Point Traverse,
a peninsula that juts out into northeastern Lake Ontario.
Rorabeck’s been fishing these waters for more than thirty years. Eels were his prime
catch. He points past the lighthouse.
“I remember when I started fishing there were nights on that south shore, the most fish
that was in there would be eels at certain times and there was literally tons of them on
that south shore. Now you could go back and you’ll find nothing.”
He stopped fishing eels three years ago because it just wasn’t worth it.
“That eel is telling man we better smarten up because this is happening all over the
world.”
Now Rorabeck dedicates his fishing time to science. He catches specimens for leading
eel expert John Casselman, who examines them in his lab.
“It is truly a crisis. A crisis of concern.”
Casselman’s a scientist at the Glenora Fisheries Station, run by the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources. In 1980, at a point on the St. Lawrence River in mid-summer, he
counted more than 25,000 eels a day. Last year, there were scarcely 20 a day.
Casselman ticks off a host of possible causes – overfishing, dammed-up rivers, erosion,
pollution, invasive species, and perhaps most troubling, a climactic change of cooling
ocean currents.
“There is an interrelationship between what’s going on in the ocean and the recruitment of
eels.”
And he says we’re mostly to blame. The problem is, Casselman and other researchers
don’t know exactly how all the factors relate or which is worse. And they say there’s no
time to find out. Last summer eel experts from 18 countries made an unusual statement.
In what’s now called the Quebec Declaration of Concern, they urged more action, not
more science.
“I’m a research scientist and of course, I love data. At this stage, you don’t want me.
Don’t ask me to explain what’s going on here because by the time I get it figured out, it
may be too late.”
The Great Lakes Fishery Commission has issued an emergency declaration of its own. It
represents commercial fishermen and anglers in the region. Spokesman Mark Gaden
says it’s calling on the U.S. and Canada to do everything they can to reduce eel deaths in
the Great Lakes.
“We’re committing ourselves, our resources to working to make the recovery of the
species a reality.”
Last month, the province of Ontario halted commercial eel fishing for the foreseeable
future.
(sound up at beach)
Fisherman John Rorabeck supports that plan. He stares out across the waters he’s trawled
for decades. He says he’s behind anything to bring the eel back to Lake Ontario for
future generations.
“And hopefully we can. But…I don’t expect to see it in my time. When I… (crying)
…when I think of all the times that we’ve had out in the lake and my forefathers and see
what’s happening here, it breaks you down.”
Rorabeck says when he thinks of the eel nearing extinction, he feels like he and his way
of life are becoming extinct too.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Environmental and consumer watchdogs have launched an all-out offensive against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a new report. They say the Corps wastes taxpayer money on unnecessary projects, including some in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein has more:
Transcript
Environmental and consumer watchdogs have launched an all-out offensive against the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers in a new report. They say the Corps wastes taxpayer money on
unnecessary projects, including some in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
David Sommerstein reports:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has built some of the nation’s biggest marvels, from the
Hoover Dam to the St. Lawrence Seaway. But in recent years, the Corps has come under fire
from Congress and others for cooking the books to justify its own work. The latest charges come
in a report by the National Wildlife Federation and Taxpayers for Common Sense. The groups
identify 29 Corps projects they say gobble up federal money and destroy natural resources. Steve
Ellis is with Taxpayers for Common Sense. He says the agency must be reformed.
“In 2000, a huge scandal erupted on the upper Mississippi River that rocked the agency that
showed that they were manipulating data. We’re back debating this exact same project or a very
similar project now three years later. The Corps bears close observation and close watching.”
The groups also cite a St. Lawrence Seaway study they say is bent on wider and deeper channels
at a price of 15 billion dollars to taxpayers. Corps and Seaway officials say the study only looks
at the existing system, not expanding it.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
The view from an icebreaker on the channel between the Snell and Eisenhower locks near Massena, NY. Icebreakers have to crunch through ice for the Seaway to open on time. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
The St. Lawrence River is the only way for international shippers to bring cargo in and out of ports such as Duluth, Detroit and Chicago. The river’s frozen during the winter and the shipping channel is closed. The date it re-opens each spring is highly controversial because icy conditions can damage the shoreline. Critics say the government agency that runs the Seaway is sacrificing the environment to get ships to port earlier. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein has more on this debate:
Transcript
The St. Lawrence River is the only way for international shippers to bring cargo in and out of
ports such as Duluth, Detroit and Chicago. The river’s frozen during the winter and the shipping
channel is closed. The date it re-opens each spring is highly controversial because icy conditions
can damage the shoreline. Critics say the government agency that runs the Seaway is sacrificing
the environment to get ships to port earlier. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David
Sommerstein reports:
This year the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation plans to allow shipping starting
March 25th. But the spring thaw comes late to northern New York and the St. Lawrence River.
Even in late March, there can still be lots of ice, especially in bays and coves. And it’s a sensitive
time for fish.
“There’s many species of fish that begin their spawning activities very early, even before the ice
is out.”
Stephen Litwiler of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation says a ship’s wake
can rattle the ice enough to gouge delicate habitat.
“The ice going up and down is scouring the shoreline and pushing water in and out of the shallow
marshy areas and it’s dislodging vegetation that’s critical for these habitats.”
The bobbing ice can be so bad it can damage people’s docks and homes along the river.
A chorus of politicians and interest groups, including New York’s two senators and the Mohawk
tribe that lives along the river, are calling on the St. Lawrence Seaway to postpone its March 25th
opening date. Just one week, they say, will give the ice time to melt. Stephanie Weiss directs the
citizens’ group Save The River. She says environmentalists fear the date is driven by the
shipping industry.
“People lose money, so when you have that situation when they’re trying as hard as they can to
open early, we think it just makes it difficult for them to make the safest possible decision.”
The decision is made by government agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Seaway administrator
Albert Jacquez makes the call for Washington.
“To be honest with you, if I was listening to the industry and only the industry, we wouldn’t even
be talking about this date. We’d be talking about opening a lot sooner.”
Jacquez says the Seaway balances commercial demand with weather conditions, thaw trends, and
environmental concerns when it chooses an opening date. Last year thick ice forced the Seaway
to postpone the opening for the first time ever. Save The River’s Stephanie Weiss says it always
needs to be delayed rather than damage the river’s ecology.
“It was too early last year and it might be too early this year. It’s difficult really for anyone to
know.”
Weiss says getting cargo ships in and out of Great Lakes ports one week earlier isn’t worth the
risk of damaging the St. Lawrence River’s fish and nature for good.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
President Bush is proposing a toll for use of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Some worry the toll will dissuade usage and hurt businesses. (Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
