News Series - The Environment Report

Asian Carp & the Great Lakes

This week, the Environment Report is taking an in-depth look at the connections between cancer and the environment. When somebody gets cancer, one of the first questions is usually "why?" Does this kind of cancer run in my family? Was it something in the water, or in the air around me? Did I get exposed to something? What would you do, or where would you go to answer these questions?

Asian Carp Invasion

The Environment Report has been covering the introduction of the Asian Carp species since January of 2000, when catfish farms in the south were importing them to control pests. The fish have since spread throughout the Mississippi River system. Millions of dollars of taxpayer money has been spent to try to keep these foreign species from swimming into the Great Lakes. Some scientists say their presence in the Great Lakes would be an "ecological disaster." Today, evidence of an Asian Carp species was found above an electric barrier designed to prevent their movement into the Great Lakes.

Cancer and Environment: Searching for Answers

Coal: Dirty Past, Hazy Future

A five-part series from the Environment Report on the future of coal in this country. Lester Graham, Shawn Allee, and Matt Sepic break down a debate taking place over the public airwaves and in the public policy arena. Can coal be a viable option in the new green economy? Support for this series comes from the Joyce Foundation.

Dioxin Delays

In this series, The Environment Report's Shawn Allee investigates Dow Chemical and dioxin contamination in mid-Michigan. Central Michigan has lived with toxic dioxin pollution in two major rivers and Saginaw Bay for decades. Shawn looks at who's been affected, why it's taken so long to clean up, how the science behind dioxin has played into this, and what the cleanup means for the rest of the country.

Green Burial

A series of reports about efforts to make the burial process more environmentally friendly.

Greenovation

The Environment Report has been following Matt and Kelly Grocoff in their effort to make their Ann Arbor home the oldest net-zero house in America. That means in a year the home will produce as much energy or more than it uses. Matt wanted to show that making an older home an energy efficient showcase made more sense than building new.

Is Fire Safety Putting Us at Risk?

You have flame retardant chemicals in your body. Scientists are finding these chemicals, called PBDEs, in newborn babies, and the breast milk those babies drink. We Americans have the highest levels of anyone in the world. We're exposed to these chemicals every day. They're in our couches, our TVs, our cars, our office chairs, the padding beneath our carpets, and the dust in our homes. They're building up in pets, wild animals and fish. They're even in some of the foods we eat. Doctors and public health experts are worried because hundreds of peer-reviewed studies are suggesting links to neurological and developmental defects, and fertility and reproductive problems.

Life on the Kalamazoo River

Itâs been more than a year since a pipeline owned by Canadian company Enbridge Energy ruptured, spilling more than 843,000 gallons of tar sands oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. In this three part series, we explore what life is like now for people who live near the river, what the spill might mean for the health of wildlife and the ecosystem, and the status of lawsuits and claims filed against Enbridge.

Pollution in the Heartland

Pollution in the Heartland looks at the impact of farming practices on our water supply and what some people are doing about it.

Swimming Upstream

A special Environment Report series on fish and the fishing industry in Michigan. Are our fish safe to eat, what can they tell us about the health of our lakes and rivers, and what's the future of commercial fishing in the Great Lakes? Reporter Dustin Dwyer traveled around the state and brings us these seven stories. Support for coverage of Great Lakes fishery issues comes from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust .

Tar Sands Oil

We've been reporting on tar sands oil and the oil spill cleanup throughout the year. Here are our stories:

The Collapse of the Salmon Economy

The Great Lakes are changing so fast that the agencies which manage fishing cannot keep up with the changes. Some types of fish populations are collapsing and others are thrivingâ¦ at least for now. In a project between The Environment Report and Michigan Watch, Lester Graham has a series of reports on whatâs happening and why.

Your Choice; Your Planet

Your Choice; Your Planet is a yearlong series of reports on how the consumer choices we all make affect the environment. Many environmental stories look at government regulations and industry failures, but the greater impact on the environment is determined by the choices that we make every day. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium plans to go far beyond the question of 'Paper or plastic?' The series will look at our attitudes about buying, consumer confusion, misleading marketing, and short-term thinking versus long-term effects when it comes to purchasing food, clothes, services and big ticket items. Being an environmentally friendly consumer is not always easy. Your Choice; Your Planet stories help you make better informed decisions.

Do-It-Yourselfers Reuse Scrap Materials

In springtime, many homeowners’ thoughts turn to home improvement projects. That typically means a hit in the wallet, and for some, guilty feelings about consuming too much. Most do-it- yourselfers saw up a lot of trees in the lumber they use. And they use other materials that affect the environment. But there are ways to keep more green in your pocket, and boost your green conscience. As part of an ongoing series called “Your Choice; Your Planet,” the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cari Noga reports:

Transcript

In springtime, many homeowners’ thoughts turn to home improvement projects. That
typically means a hit in the wallet, and for some, guilty feelings over consuming too
much. Most do-it-yourselfers saw up a lot of trees in the lumber they use. And they use
other materials that affect the environment. But there are ways to keep more green in
your pocket, as well as a green conscience. As part of an ongoing series called “Your Choice; Your Planet,” the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cari
Noga reports:

If you’ve ever sat in a high school gym, you’ll likely get a sense of déjà vu when you
walk into John Patterson’s home. That’s because in its former life, the house’s flooring
was high school bleachers. Cleaning them up was a chore. Patterson says he and his
wife filled up a five-gallon bucket removing the gum wads from the 20-foot yellow pine
planks. But Patterson says the work was worth it…

“What I like about them the best is the wood is so old, because they were in the school
for like 40 years. I hope they stay here for 40 years. You can’t replace them, or regrow
trees this long and tall. It’s something I’m really proud of doing.”

The floor is just one part of the couple’s overhaul of their home. Two summers ago they
stripped the tiny ranch-style home down to the studs. They nearly doubled the square
footage, and added a second floor. The windows, siding and even the 2 by 4s, are reused
or recycled.

A growing number of homeowners are combining a do-it-yourself attitude with an
environmental ethic. Instead of shopping at big box chain stores, they go to auctions and
used building material stores. They buy everything from bathtubs to doors to, yes, even
the kitchen sink. Patterson’s wife Sarah Goss is the scavenger, scouting out the stuff for
him to install. For her, reuse has been a lifelong value.

“I think it’s upbringing. You just grow up feeling a little guilt if you overuse your
resources…any way you can conserve or be a part of that, I feel like it’s an added plus.”

They’re not the only ones who think this way. Kurt Buss is president of the Used
Building Materials Association. He says the reuse movement is spreading as
communities nationwide try to reduce landfill volume. Up to 40 percent of landfill space
is construction debris.

“You don’t throw away newspapers and tin cans. You shouldn’t throw away your house.”

Buss says reused materials can be better quality, too.

“More often than not the wood is old growth lumber, which is certainly preferable to
much of the lumber that you see in lumber stores today which is speed grown on tree
farms… So there’s premium materials that are available with environmental benefits
attached.”

So, reused materials are often higher quality, and go easy on the environment.
They also cost a lot less – typically half of what the same item would cost new.

Still, not everyone’s sold immediately. There’s a lot of sweat equity that offsets the cost
advantage. John Patterson and Sarah Goss worked a long time scraping off all that
bubble gum.

Then there’s getting over the fact that most of the stuff is someone else’s discarded
material… their trash.

Bruce Odom owns the Michigan store where Patterson and Goss found many of their
materials. He says many shoppers walk in skeptics, but become believers.

“You see a lot of one party tugging the other one along, and the other one saying, ‘No,
no, I don’t know about this,’ whether it be the husband or the wife. You see a lot of that.
And yeah, you do need to realize that it’s all done and installed, you probably aren’t
going to recognize the difference except in your checkbook.”

If you’re making a list of things to do around the house, you can find reused materials
stores in at least 30 states. A visit to one might deconstruct the perception that newer is
better.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Cari Noga.

Green Conscience vs. Green Consumerism

This first report in the "Your Choice; Your Planet" series looks at the difficulties of being a "green" consumer.

Most of us are conflicted when it comes to the environment. Polls show the majority of us consider ourselves to be environmentally-friendly. But, our day-to-day decisions often don’t measure up to an earth-friendly lifestyle. Part of the reason is that there’s lots of confusion about what’s best for the environment. Another reason is that being earth-friendly is pretty darned inconvenient. In the first report of an ongoing series we’re calling ‘Your Choice; Your Planet,’ the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham explores the dilemmas we face when we attempt to do right by the environment:

Transcript

Most of us are conflicted when it comes to the environment. Polls show the majority of
us consider ourselves to be environmentally friendly. But, our day-to-day decisions often
don’t measure up to an earth-friendly lifestyle. Part of the reason is that there’s lots of
confusion about what’s best for the environment… Another reason is that being earth-friendly is pretty darned inconvenient. In the first report of an ongoing series we’re
calling ‘Your Choice; Your Planet,’ the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
explores the dilemmas we face when we attempt to do right by the environment:

It’s tough, trying to be green, or earth-friendly or whatever you want to call it. I mean…
most of us aren’t interested in always trying to find the eco-friendly clothes or trying to
figure out the differences between the “all natural” and the “100-percent real” juice. And
then there’s stuff. There’s all kinds of stuff we need… alright… maybe we don’t NEED
it… but – hey – everybody else has one. Why shouldn’t ?

There’s a gap between being a flower-sniffing, hemp-wearing, tree hugger… and a
regular person trying to be a bit more environmentally friendly. The Executive Director
of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope, says if you’re struggling with that gap… you’re not
alone…

“We haven’t solved the problem of linking up our values and our consumption. Most of
us consume out of habit and convenience. We don’t consume out of our deepest values.”

So… we BELIEVE that we ought to save the earth for future generations. And most of
us have a few habits that make us feel a little better about ourselves. Maybe we bring a
coffee mug to work instead of using Styrofoam cups. Or we might take the bus or the
commuter train once in a while, you know, to save the earth from our bit of car exhaust.

But the real challenge comes when we start buying stuff. You know… like groceries,
and cars, and appliances. Stuff. Joel Makower is the founder of GreenBiz-dot-com. It’s
website that bills itself as a “The Resource Center on Business, the Environment and the
Bottom Line.” He says the big impact on the environment takes place in how we spend
our money…

“I think consumers know intuitively that every time they open their wallet they cast a
vote for or against the environment. But, doing that’s a very complicated matter.”

(grocery store sound up)

It’s complicated because even if you walk into a store determined to buy only the
products that are the most environmentally friendly… you’re bombarded with conflicting
claims. Say you’re looking for trash bags. Are the bags claiming to be made of 80-
percent recycled plastic any better than the ones over here called ‘enviro-bags?’ I don’t
know. And that’s the problem. Most of the time we really don’t know which products
are the safest for the environment. And don’t even get me started on the whole paper or
plastic grocery bag question.

Joel Makower says we care, but we’re confused.

“There’s a huge gap between green concern and green consumerism. And that’s
everybody’s fault.”

Makower says companies don’t know how to market their products’ environmental
attributes and when they do try, he says, they often do it poorly or misleadingly. And
we’re afraid to try new things… not knowing if we’re being suckered into a poorly
performing product that SAYS it’s more environmentally friendly.

So, often, rather than deal with all that confusion… or instead of spending hours and
hours researching everything we buy…. we figure… “Well, it can’t be that bad; can it?”

Charles Ballard is an economist at Michigan State University. He says, really, there’s
only so much you can ask of us…

“Keep in mind that people can’t be expected to become saints just because they’re
interested in the environment.”

He says most of us see being environmentally friendly something like extra credit… or
something we do when we’re better off financially… kind of like a luxury item that we
can feel good about. Ballard says most of the time we’re more distracted by the glitz and
glamour we see on TV or read about in magazines and want just a little bit of that good
life for ourselves…

“What we have is a situation where immediate gratification, where grabbing for all the
gusto you can right now is the thing that’s driving our decisions.”

And when you’re going for the gusto… you tend to forget about the environmental cost
of your lifestyle. We buy the wrong things… and we buy too many things. We just plain
consume too much. But, then… sometimes our conscience starts eating at us… and
before you know it, we’re being a little more careful about recycling at work… or some
other little contribution to the earth’s well being.

The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope says environmentalists… or those of us who like to think of
ourselves that way… keep trying to do better…

“The American people’s values and ideals are ahead of their own habits. That’s actually
why we have religions, is because people want to be better than they are. And one of the
reasons we have an environmental movement, I think, is because Americans want to be
better than we are.”

And so… we sin in all of our consumption… and then make restitution by trying to be
better, more earth-friendly consumers. The problem is… as one writer put it… you can’t
really buy your way out of consumption. When you get right down to it…. you really
just have to buy less. That’s a tough one.

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

Packrats Hooked on Freecycling

Aaron and Claire Liepman with an old faucet and garden owl they're hoping to give away on the Freecycle Network. Aaron Liepman moderates two freecycle groups in Michigan. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)

We all have things that we no longer use hidden in our closets, or stuffed away in the attic, or crammed into the garage. It’s not that we’ll ever use them, but we can’t bear to just throw them away. They’re still good. Now, a new service is matching up people who want to get rid of things with people who want those things. In part of an ongoing series called ‘Your Choice; Your Planet,’ the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams explores freecycling:

Transcript

We all have things that we no longer use hidden in our closets, or stuffed away
in the attic, or crammed into the garage. It’s not that we’ll ever use them, but we
can’t bear to just throw them away. They’re still good. Now, a new service is
matching up people who want to get rid of things with people who want those
things. In part of an ongoing series called ‘Your Choice; Your Planet,’ the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams explores freecycling:

I’m a packrat. I just wanted to make that clear right from the beginning. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll probably confess you’re a packrat too.

But even I know when there’s something taking up space in my house that HAS to go. In the back of my closet, there’s a large, heavy, men’s wetsuit.

You know, a SCUBA diving suit. A relative gave it to me when he moved away. Now, I’m not a diver. I’m not even really a snorkeler. But I’ve kept it for two years. You know, just in case.

I need a little help getting rid of things. So, when I heard about freecycling… I thought, “This is it. This will help me face my inner packrat.”

Freecycling uses email groups to connect people in their hometowns. It brings together one person with their broken telescope… and that one person who needs – or just wants it.

The only rule – everything has to be free. No money, no trading. And also, you meet the giver or taker in person.

It’s Deron Beal’s idea. He manages recycling crews for businesses in Tuscon, Arizona. One day a year ago, he found himself with a warehouse full of stuff.

“We had a lot of the businesses we recycle with
downtown giving us old desks or computers, saying, can you do something with this. I’ll be darned if we got so much stuff in, I figured, let’s open this up to the public and set up the freecycle network.”

Beal emailed some friends and nonprofits. At first, he says it was just he and his friends giving each other stuff. But in just a few months, freecycle turned into a verb. Beal set up a website, freecycle-dot-org. And put instructions up so people could start freecycling in their own cities. Now, more than 90-thousand people all around the world are doing it.

So… I went to see the freecycling guy in my area, Aaron Liepman. He moderates two freecycle groups. He makes sure everything stays free, and steps in if people start arguing. He also helps packrats like me freecycle.

(sound in, typing)

Aaron sets me up on his computer.

“So, let me sign out and you sign in. (clicking) So now you type in your subject, just like an email message.

RW: “Offer: wetsuit. What else?”

“Wetsuit, SCUBA wetsuit. (crinkles, zipper noise) Looks like it’s a size large, that’ll be useful information. It has a little hat to keep you warm in the water (laughs).”

(typing out)

We look over my post, and I click Send.

So, I’ve started cleaning out my closet. But I’m not totally converted to this freecycling idea. I mean, really, aren’t we just moving our stuff from one house to the next? That doesn’t really cut down on consumption, does it?

I turned to University of Michigan professor Raymond DeYoung. He studies people’s buying and recycling habits. He thinks freecycling probably won’t change our buying habits all that much.

“Because we’re never going to be able with freecycling to get the new, get the novel, get the big, because by definition it’s already been bought, it’s already old, it’s the smaller. So it can’t impact our entire consumption behavior.”

DeYoung says, for freecycling to really succeed, we’d have to stop getting bigger houses. And stop filling them up with more and more things. But it’s hard, even for people who want to try to get by with less stuff.

I guess a wetsuit is a good first step.

It’s been a couple days, and I’ve gotten four messages. The first came five hours after my posting. From Shawn… he wrote: “I’ll take the wetsuit.” But he didn’t sound that excited.

In freecycling, you can use “first come, first serve” to decide who gets your item. But you don’t always have to. And I kind of wanted my wetsuit to be appreciated… you know, actually get to see the water. So I waited a couple days. Then, I got Kelly’s message. She wrote: “WOW!” in all capital letters and said her son would love the wetsuit… for snorkeling.

So I emailed Kelly. And we set up a place to meet in downtown Ann Arbor.

(street sound up)

“Wetsuit!” (Oh, are you Kelly?) “yeah, I’m Kelly.. (Hi, I’m Rebecca. This is the wetsuit.) Great!”

Kelly’s been freecycling for a month. And she says she’s hooked.

And judging from the postings, a lot of people are. They seem to like getting other people’s beer can collections and turtle sandboxes.

But some on the list worry it’s getting to be too much of a good thing. People have started to ask for laptops, and houses… and a time machine, any condition.

“I think because it’s so new, some people are asking for funny things, like don’t we all want cash, and a Lamborghini (laughs). I just laugh at those and go on.”

Kelly says she thinks the network will probably get past that after awhile, leaving behind just the really devoted freecyclers.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Asian Carp Barrier Escapes Budget Cuts

The Army Corps of Engineers' new barrier will be similar in design to the demonstration project in place now. (Diagram courtesy of USACE)

The war against terrorism nearly led to a biological invasion of the Great Lakes. The Army Corps of Engineers was struggling to find money for a barrier to stop Asian carp from getting into the Great Lakes. It wasn’t until a strong letter from 24 members of Congress was sent to the Corps that the money was found. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The war against terrorism nearly led to a biological invasion of the Great Lakes. The Army
Corps of Engineers was struggling to find money for a barrier to stop Asian carp from getting into
the Great Lakes. It wasn’t until a strong letter from 24 members of Congress was sent to the
Corps that the money was found. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Asian carp have already invaded the Mississippi River system and they’re making their way
toward the channel that connects the Mississippi basin to the Great Lakes basin. The big fish is a
poster child for alien invasive species. It leaps out of the water, sometimes even hitting and
hurting boaters. It competes with native fish. And it’s feared that it would wreak havoc on the
Great Lakes fishery and the ecology of the lakes if it ever gets through to them.

South of Chicago, a barrier that electrifies the water is in place in the connecting channel between
the Mississippi system and the Great Lakes. It shocks the fish and seems to stop them from going
any farther. But that barrier is just a temporary demonstration project. So Great Lakes officials
were pleased when the Army Corps of Engineers announced it would build a permanent barrier.

Michael Donahue is President and CEO of the Great Lakes Commission. The organization
lobbies for the eight Great Lakes states.

“Most invasive species we find out about after the fact, once they’re in the system, they’re
established and the damage is being done. In this instance we know who the enemy is, where
they’re at, what pathway they plan to take to get into the lakes and what we need to do to stop
them.”

So environmentalists, anglers, conservationists and scientists all believe stopping the Asian carp
from getting into the Great Lakes is a pretty good idea.

Stuart Ludsin is a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab. Ludsin says we don’t know exactly how the Asian
carp will affect the Great Lakes… but we don’t want to find out either…

“We certainly do not want to let other exotic species into the system for fear of the economic and
ecological consequences that can come from an invasion.”

Sport fishing enthusiasts don’t need to know exactly what the Asian carp will do to the Great
Lakes. Jason Dinsmore is a resource policy specialist with the Michigan United Conservation
Clubs. Dinsmore says it’s pretty clear the Asian carp won’t be good for anglers.

“Our big concern is: these fish eat what our fish eat, I guess is the best way to look at it. These
large predatory fish are planktovores which means that they eat very small organisms that our fish
like, you know, juvenile perch will depend on. And if they’re out-competing the juveniles of our
sport fish, our sport fish will look to take a hit in overall numbers which means there’s going to
be less for our anglers to catch.”

So, there’s no problem, right? The Army Corps plans to build it. Everyone seems to think it’s a
good idea. But then the Corps couldn’t find the money for it. Chuck Shea is the project manager
for both the demonstration fish barrier and the new permanent fish barrier that’s being planned.

“Earlier in the month of February we didn’t have the full funding allocated to the project. The
project was not dead in any way. We were still working internally to try to find the money.”

The four-point-four million dollars to build the electric barrier to keep the Asian carp out of the
Great Lakes was to come from a 25-million dollar fund that the Corps uses for projects not
specifically authorized by Congress. It’s discretionary money. But this year money is tight and
with money being used for projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, it wasn’t clear the Great Lakes fish
barrier could get the money from the fund.

“The war on terror and homeland security issues are creating new demands on the budget, in
particular for the Army. The Army is heavily involved in supporting the war on terror and
homeland security and that does affect the budget overall, yes.”

That’s when 24 Members of Congress from the Great Lakes region stepped in. They signed off
on a letter calling for the immediate funding of the fish barrier project and started making calls to
the Army and anyone else who had influence on funding the project.

It looks as though the political lobbying might have worked. The Corps issued a news release
which indicates the corps expects to start construction of the second barrier this summer,
completing it this fall. In the meantime, the temporary barrier will keep running, hopefully
deterring the Asian carp from making it to the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes Commission’s Michael Donahue says everyone hopes the barrier is completed
in time to stop the Asian carp because it’ll will cost a lot if it’s not.

“And instead of spending a few million dollars to prevent the invasion, we could be spending a
few hundred million dollars to deal with it once the Asian carp is established.”

The next challenge is finding money to rebuild the first electrical barrier and make the temporary
barrier permanent as well, backing up the new barrier in case it fails or needs to be shut down for
maintenance. No one wants to think about what might happen if the temporary barrier would
fail now before the permanent barrier is built. The Asian carp has been spotted as close as 20
miles from the barrier and only 50 miles from Lake Michigan.

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

Ban Proposed on Live Carp Imports

Another major piece is about to fall into place in the battle to contain the Asian Carp from spreading into the Great Lakes. Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources is set to slap a ban on importing the invasive carp. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

Another major piece is about to fall into place in the battle to contain the Asian Carp from
spreading into the Great Lakes. Ontario’s ministry of natural resources is set to slap a ban on
importing the invasive carp. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Toronto has a large appetite for the Asian carp. They’re imported to fish markets here live, so
they can be cooked fresh. But David Ramsay, Ontario’s minister of natural resources, says that’s
going to stop. He says he doesn’t know when the ban will go into effect. But it could be only
weeks that people will be able to enjoy their fresh carp.

The carp can grow up to eight feet in length, weigh more than one hundred pounds and consume
huge amounts of food….and they have no natural predators. Experts have warned that the Asian
carp could eat its way through the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Ramsay says the previous Ontario government did nothing about this invasive species, but he
says this government won’t wait.

“I’m very concerned about the invasive carp. We found one at the mouth of the Don River in
December. There’s a danger here, or a potential danger if these species of fish that are imported
into this country ever got loose in the Great Lakes, it could really put our Great Lakes ecosystem
in grave danger.”

This isn’t the first Asian carp to surface here. In the past two years one was found in Lake Erie,
and another in a fountain in downtown Toronto.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Getting Asian Carp on the Plate

An invasive species known as Asian Carp is migrating toward the Great Lakes. Some scientists fear the Asian carp will harm sport fishing in the lakes, if the carp ever get past some man-made barriers. Anglers, state conservation officials and others are trying to get the invasive fish on Congress’s plate… and even on yours. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has the story:

Transcript

An invasive species known as Asian Carp is migrating toward the Great Lakes. Some scientists
fear the Asian carp will harm sport fishing in the lakes, if the carp ever get past some man-made
barriers. Anglers, state conservation officials, and others are trying to get the invasive fish on
Congress’s plate and even on yours. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has
the story:

Asian carp escaped from southern U.S. fish farms a few years ago and the voracious eaters of key
parts of the food chain have been munching their way North on the Mississippi River and several
of its tributaries.

(sound of boat moving through water)

On the spoon river near Peoria, Illinois, the invasive carp are quite common. With a little
encouragement from a nearby electro-shocker, the large fish sometimes jumps out of the water
and right into a boat.

(sound of boat)

This two-foot long slippery visitor flips back and forth on the bottom of the aluminum boat until
Thad Cook of the Illinois Natural History Survey grabs the fish. Cook notes the markings of the
fish and says it’s one of the Asian carp known as a silver carp.

“It’s a healthy fish, cool to the touch, too.”

(sound of boat)

Not too far away, on the Illinois River, you can find more evidence of the Asian carp’s
prevalence.

Two other staffers of the Natural History Survey have caught about 40 Asian carp known as
bighead carp in a net that was only out for about twenty minutes. Erik harms holds open the
carp’s dark red gills.

“Those are the gills and they use that to filter out the phytoplankton, plankton.”

Researchers estimate there are now millions of Asian carp in the Illinois River. They’ve
continued to crowd out more of the native fish such as the white bass and buffalo fish. Not only
are the invasive fish causing problems for other fish… they’re causing problems for people. One
woman was injured this year when an Asian carp jumped and hit her in the head.

This big fish story might get worse. This year, the Asian carp migrated another 30 miles closer to
the Great Lakes. That puts the carp within 100 miles of Lake Michigan.

Phil Moy is with the Wisconsin Sea Grant. He says, look out if the carp gets in the Great Lakes.

“Well, it’s just gonna be another mouth to feed. We’ve seen some of the insult the zebra mussels
have added to the ecosystem and we just don’t need to take the risk of another one.”

Other researchers agree it’s best to keep the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. But some say it’s
not a sure thing that the fish would wreak havoc in those waters.

Mark Pegg directs the Illinois River biological station for the Illinois Natural History Survey. He
says the prolific carp might not reproduce as quickly in colder lake waters.

“Fish and a lot of other organisms show a resilience to environmental conditions, so I’m not
gonna say that’s gonna stop ’em dead in their tracks, but it’s certainly an avenue of hope.”

Pegg says it’s also possible that commercial anglers along the Illinois River may slow the spread
of the Asian carp by catching them and selling them.

“Anybody else, would you like to try it?”

Rick Smith is offering small pieces of cooked Asian carp, both regular and smoked. Smith runs
the Big River Fish Corporation in Pearl, Illinois. He says he recently hired some anglers to haul
in some of the invasive fish.

“For two months two crews fishin’ there and we caught almost 200-hundred thousand pounds of
fish in a month and a half and moved em.”

Yep, people bought them to eat. But smith admits that he won’t pay much for Asian carp, until
he’s got a stronger customer demand for them. And he acknowledges that the big fish can be
costly to harvest, because they tend to tear angler’s nets. So government officials say commercial
anglers alone won’t stop the spread of Asian carp. There might have to be more
reinforcements upstream.

A barge passes through the Chicago sanitary and ship canal. The canal connects the Illinois River
system with Lake Michigan. At one place on the bottom of the canal, there’s a system of cables
which electrifies the water. The two-million dollar barrier was originally built to keep the round
goby that’s invaded the Great Lakes out of the Mississippi. Now it’s seen as a way to stop Asian
Carp from getting into the Great Lakes. The electric barrier shocks the fish and is supposed to
stop them from going any farther. But a few months ago, a common carp passed through the
barrier as a barge was passing over it.

Chuck Shea is with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He says the Corps is testing to see if the
steel barges disrupt the electric shock so that fish can get by the barrier alongside the barges.

“So we are going to do a study where we are actually renting barges and running them back and
forth thru the barrier, while measuring the strength of the electrical field with a variety of
equipment.”

Shea says the results of the study could affect the design of a second electric barrier researchers
want to put in a few hundred feet away.

But just getting money to improve the first barrier and build a second one is stalled in
Washington. An invasive species bill could provide millions more dollars for Asian carp control.
But Congress has yet to pass the measure.

Dennis Schnornack chairs the U.S. section of the International Joint Commission. The IJC is an
advisory body that oversees the Great Lakes. Schornack says at one point it looked like the
invasive species bill would pass back in January.

“Well were nearly at the end of 2003 and haven’t seen a committee meeting in either the House
or the Senate, so that’s very disappointing and cause for some alarm.”

And it’s not just the Great Lakes that could be affected. One of the fish was recently caught
along the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota, much farther North than the carp
were previously thought to be. So some people are now pushing for a 25 million dollar electric
barrier across the Mississippi, so the carp don’t find their way into places like the Wisconsin and
Minnesota Rivers.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

Asian Food Stores Adding to Carp Problem?

An Illinois Natural History Survey intern shows off her catch (a bighead carp). Officials are concerned that human behavior may help the invasive fish get around the barrier on the Chicago River. (Photo by Mark Pegg, INHS)
From the backwater of the Illinois River near Havana, IL. Three asian carp species on a measuring board. From top to bottom - Silver carp, Grass carp, and Bighead carp. (Photo by Kevin Irons, INHS)

Over time, invasive species have upset the natural balance of the Great Lakes. Now, officials are working frantically to stop a new threat, the Asian carp. The carp lives in tributaries connected to the Great Lakes. But there may be another route into the water system – through Asian food stores. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports, live carp can be purchased in many cities throughout the region:

Transcript

Over time, invasive species have upset the natural balance of the Great Lakes. Now, officials are
working frantically to stop a new threat, the Asian carp. The carp lives in tributaries connected to
the Great Lakes. But there may be another route into the water system – through Asian food
stores. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports, live carp can be purchased
in many cities throughout the region:

“This one in Chinese, layoo. This one in Chinese…”

York Alooah stands in front of a crowded fish tank at the 168 Market in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.
He points to the fat, foot and a half-long bighead carp swimming behind the glass.

The fish are brought to his store by truck from Toronto. They originate at farms in the southern
U.S.

Speaking through an interpreter, Alooah says it’s unlikely that a carp could escape during
delivery.

“They use a big truck and have the fish tank inside.”

Alooah says the fish can’t jump out because the tanks are covered. Still, the live sale of these fish
has many people worried. That’s why states like Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio have
banned the possession of live Asian carp.

Several states are also asking the federal government to add these carp to a list of invasive species
considered harmful. That listing would make it illegal to possess them alive.

In Canada, there aren’t laws like that on the looks. But officials say they’re considering action.

Nick Mandrack is a research scientist with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. He
says Canadian researchers are keeping an eye on an Asian carp population that’s moving north up
the Mississippi River. They worry that the fish will migrate through a manmade canal into the
Great Lakes.

“If they were to become established, either through dispersal up from the Mississippi or
unauthorized release as a result of the live food trade, they could have enormous impacts on the
Great Lakes ecosystem, which would likely result in a dramatic decline in the biomass of game
fishes.”

That’s because two species of Asian carp eat the same food as small forage fishes. And those
forage fishes are what the larger gamefish rely on. The Asian carp are too big for the gamefish to
eat.

Researchers are also worried about two other species. The black carp could wipe out endangered
mussels that live in the lakes. And the grass carp destroys aquatic plants where native fishes live.

Mandrack has seen both the bighead and the grass carp sold live in Asian food stores. He and
others say that poses one of the greatest threats to the Great Lakes fish population.

(sound of fish scaling)

Back at the 168 market in Ottawa, York Alooah uses a long knife to butcher and scale a fish he’s
pulled out of a tank. He laughs when an interpreter asks if people ever leave his store with live
carp.

“When people buy, it’s not alive. He clean and kill and clean everything.” Is it never alive?”
“Never.”

In fact, the city of Chicago is hoping to guarantee that doesn’t happen. Officials want stores that
sell live carp to operate under permits. And the fish would have to be killed before it left the
store.

But not all fish is bought for consumption. There’s also concern about a Buddhist practice in
which captive animals are released into the wild.

Tookdun Chudrin is a nun with the MidAmerica Buddhist Association. She says the carp sold in
food stores are not likely candidates for release.

“I think that people would not buy such a large fish for liberation because they tend to get very
small animals and very often will put them in a pond at a temple.

And Chudrin says, Buddhists would want to know if the religious practice was harming other
animals.

“I think definitely if there were a sign saying that said putting these fish in the lakes could be
detrimental to other species, I think people for sure would heed that if this was going to endanger
others and the people knew it, I don’t think they’d do that.”

So far, only two Asian carp have been found – in the Canadian waters of the Great Lakes.
Another was released in a fountain in Toronto, just a few blocks from Lake Ontario.

Whether from pranks, or acts of kindness, some fear it’s only a matter of time before more carp
get into the water. They say the Great Lakes could become a giant carp pond, and many of the
species we’ve come to know would disappear.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.

Manmade Dead Zone to Block Asian Carp?

The Asian Carp is a huge fish that’s native to China. It was brought over from China and during the Great Flood of 1993 escaped from farm ponds and got into the Mississippi River. The Asian Carp competes with native fish and destroys their habitat. Researchers worry that if the Asian Carp gets into the Great Lakes, it could damage the lakes’ ecosystems. Some scientists believe that the threat of this invasive fish to the Great Lakes fishing industry is great enough to take drastic measures. One proposal would kill part of a river that connects the Mississippi River System to the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:

Transcript

The Asian Carp is a huge fish that’s native to China. It was brought over from China and
during the Great Flood of 1993 escaped from farm ponds and got into the Mississippi
River. The Asian Carp competes with native fish and destroys their habitat. Researchers
worry that if the Asian Carp gets into the Great Lakes, it could damage the lakes’
ecosystems. Some scientists believe that the threat of this invasive fish to the Great
Lakes fishing industry is great enough to take drastic measures. One proposal would kill
part of a river that connects the Mississippi River System to the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:

Since late in the 19th century until now, Chicagoans have spent billions of dollars to
clean up their water. Untreated sewage used to flow into the Chicago River and was
carried into Lake Michigan, where the city got its drinking water.

In the summer of 1885, 12 percent of the population of Chicago died of cholera and
other diseases because of fouled water.

Phil Moy is with the Wisconsin Sea Grant. He says before modern-day sewage treatment
plants, the river was a cesspool.

“You go back far enough, like before there was really even much more than primary
treatment… you had cattle carcasses and all sorts of nasty things floating and actually in
the river itself.”

More than a century ago, city planners decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago River,
to protect people’s health. This involved digging a larger and deeper canal that connected
the Mississippi River system to the Great Lakes. From then on, sewage dumped in the
Chicago River flowed downstream instead of into the lake. Chicagoans’ water supply
was no longer tainted, but the project opened up a way for fish and other species to travel
between the rivers and the Great Lakes. So Chicago’s efforts to clean up the sewage back
then, has caused unintended consequences a century later.

Now scientists are trying to find ways to stop exotic species that have invaded the
Mississippi from getting into the Great Lakes and exotic species that have invaded the
Great Lakes from getting into the Mississippi. Ships and barges use the canal to transport
goods, so putting up a physical barrier wouldn’t work. For now, the government has
spent more than a million dollars on an electric barrier that repels the fish, but they need a
second electric barrier for extra protection. However, more money from the government
to build the second barrier has been slow in coming.

So in the interim, some experts have come up with an idea… a temporary solution that
flies in the face of the Clean Water Act. They want to pollute the river again.

Jerry Rasmussen is with the Mississippi Inter-State Cooperative Resource Association.
The group tries to coordinate states’ efforts to protect the river system. Rasmussen says
creating a dead zone could be done easily and at low cost.

“Probably the least expensive thing to do in this situation would be shutting down some
of the treatments. It would be a cost effective measure, certainly in the interim.”

Rasmussen says the first step would be to shut off the aerators.

(natural sound)

South of Chicago, along part of the canal that connects the Chicago River to the
Mississippi River system, an inoperative aerator sits alongside the water. It’s not needed
in the wintertime, because there’s enough oxygen in the water during the cold months.
During the summertime, the aerators are turned on to help keep the river healthy. But
Irwin Polls of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District says shutting off the aerators
alone during the summer would not reduce the oxygen level enough to be lethal to the
fish.

“Keep in mind, in the early fifties and in the nineteen-sixties, before supplemental
aeration, before the treatment plants were upgraded, the primary fish species in these
waterways were carp and goldfish which could survive at lower oxygen levels than we
have today.”

So if common carp could survive the lower oxygen levels, maybe Asian Carp could, too.
If shutting off the aerators isn’t enough to degrade the river’s water quality, things could
get messy.

Jerry Rasmussen says releasing more sewage waste into the river by omitting the final
stage of waste treatment could be enough to create the dead zone. If not, Rasmussen says
chemicals would need to be added to make the water more toxic. Irwin Polls says this is
a bad idea.

“The kind of chemicals they’re talking about are hazardous. Over one and a half billion
gallons of treated sewage enters this system every day so you’d have to kind of add
enough material to dilute the system that you have in there so we’re talking about large
volumes, continuously, of toxic compounds. So it would be in violation of the law, the
federal laws, as far as introducing toxic compounds and the cost I think would be
astronomical, because the volume of water is tremendous.”

Breaking federal law is the major obstacle to implementing the dead zone plan. To
violate the Clean Water Act, scientists would have to get the support of the Mayor of
Chicago, the Illinois Governor, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and
ultimately the President.

But some scientists believe they’ve got to do something now to stop the Asian Carp.
They’re worried the carp might get into Lake Michigan while they wait to get enough
government money to make repairs on the existing electric barrier, and to buy and install
the second. They hope to have the second line of defense in place in a year. A meeting
with government leaders and experts on invasive species has been scheduled for
sometime in May. That’s when the plan’s supporters will try to convince policy-makers
to kill part of the river.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Killing River to Stall Spread of Invasives?

Biologists are trying to prevent invasive species such as the Asian carp, from traveling between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin. The latest plan proposed by some scientists is to remove all the oxygen from a section of the Chicago River. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell has more:

Transcript

Biologists are trying to prevent invasive species such as the Asian carp from traveling between
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river basin. The latest plan proposed by some scientists is to
remove all the oxygen from a section of the Chicago river. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Annie Macdowell has more:

Scientists say killing part of the river would create a barrier no fish could swim through and live.
Removing the oxygen is against the Clean Water Act, but biologists think it might be worth it.

Jerry Rasmussen is a river biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the
potential economic and ecological disaster from the invasive species justifies creating this dead
zone.

“The real problem has been reluctance of everyone, including myself, to take a measure like this
because of the implications of it and the precedents it sets, but the concern is significant enough
with these Asian Carp that a significant problem may require significant measures to stop it.”

Rasmussen says killing a section of the river buys engineers time to work on a long-term solution
to the invasives problem, such as building a second electric barrier. He says the river would be
shut down for a minimum of two years and then re-oxygenated so that living things could return.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Feds Invest to Stop Invasives Threat

Emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some experts think the Asian carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports on recent measures to stop the fish:

Transcript

Some emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some
experts think the Asian Carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake
Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports
on measures to stop the fish:

The only thing keeping the Asian Carp from leaving the Mississippi River
system and entering Lake Michigan through a canal is an electrical barrier.
That barrier repels the fish, but a power outage could shut off the barrier, and
allow the carp to enter the Great Lakes.

The International Joint Commission and three federal agencies, including the
Environmental Protection Agency, put together 300-thousand dollars for a
back-up power source.

Tracy Mehan with the EPA says it’s important to act quickly.

“It’s a modest investment with a huge payoff in terms of avoiding, yet
another scourge to the Great Lakes fisheries. We’ve got 160 exotic species
that weren’t here in the last century and we didn’t need another one
especially something with such a high impact as the Asian Carp can have.”

Asian Carp grow up to 4-feet long and 100 pounds. They eat native fish,
and have no predator in this part of the world.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.

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