The Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush is punishing fewer polluters than under previous administrations. That’s according to analysis done by the Knight Ridder news service. More from the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush:
Transcript
The Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush is punishing fewer
polluters than under previous administrations. That’s according to analysis
done by the Knight Ridder news service. More from the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mark Brush:
Investigators looked at environmental enforcement records dating back to
1989. They found that under the current Bush administration – enforcement
has dropped significantly when compared to the Clinton and the first Bush
administration. The EPA averaged close to 200 citations a month under Bush
Senior. And now, that average has dropped to 77 citations a month under
George W. Bush.
Joel Mintz is the author of a book on the history of EPA enforcement. He
says enforcement is crucial to the agency.
“I think it’s critical really. It’s at the heart of what any regulatory
agency does. Without enforcement, environmental laws would have no teeth.
They just would not be taken seriously.”
EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt says the numbers are lower because they’re
practicing what he calls “smart enforcement.” He says they’re working with
businesses – developing incentives for companies not to pollute – instead of
focusing on punishment.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
The Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary in southeast Michigan is home to thousands of migrating Sandhill Cranes each fall. (Photo by Mark Brush)
Ron Hoffman is chairman of the Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary Committee. He started studying the cranes in the mid 1960's. (Photo by Mark Brush)
Every Monday in autumn, volunteers count the birds and write the numbers up on a nearby board. (Photo by Mark Brush)
The colder weather and shorter days are keeping most of us inside. But for a group of volunteers it’s the perfect time to head outdoors. They’re putting on their gloves and setting up their spotting scopes to go out and watch one of their favorite birds get ready for the long trip south. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports these birds gather by the thousands before migrating:
Transcript
The colder weather and shorter days are keeping most of us inside. But
for a group of volunteers it’s the perfect time to head outdoors. They’re
putting on their gloves and setting up their spotting scopes to go out and
watch one of their favorite birds get ready for the long trip south. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports these birds gather by
the thousands before migrating:
(Sound of cranes)
It’s a dreary and damp evening next to this marsh in rural southeast
Michigan.
The dampness has that edge of cold to it that’s hard to escape.
And while most people are heading to their warm homes for the day –
things here at the Haehnle Bird Sanctuary are just getting started as
volunteers count cranes:
(sound of cranes flying overhead and volunteers)
“I got a whole line of coming in over the flats out there – oh, man – It’s
startin’… how many?”
“Thirty-four.” (sound of clicks)
With the help of a clicker, three volunteers from the Audubon Society
count the birds.
Fortunately for them, the birds they’re counting are… really big.
The Greater Sandhill Crane is one of the biggest birds in the region.
They glide into the sanctuary by the thousands with their gangly legs
dangling behind them.
They’re counting the birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
This is part of a wider effort in the region to get an overall count of the
crane population.
They have one night to count – and tonight’s the night.
Gary Siegrist is one of the volunteers. He says the birds come into this
wetland after a day feasting in the farm fields:
“They’ve been out feeding all day… and they stage… this is one of two
places in southern Michigan where they stage. And when they get to a
point where they have enough fuel in their bodies enough fat built up, and
their food supplies are gone, and maybe the mud lake is frozen over, then
they’ll find a favorable wind and head south.”
The gathering is an instinct for these birds. During the summer months
they spread out across the region in pairs. But when it’s time to migrate
they get together in big flocks before they head to Florida. And when they
gather in large numbers – it can get noisy.
Gary Siegrist says the bird’s call is one of the things that draws him here
to count the birds year after year:
“People don’t realize that it’s the oldest living bird species. They’ve got a
relative that goes back 35 or 65 million years – it’s the time of the
dinosaurs…the bird is fantastic and if you can hear the call, you
can hear it in the background, it kind of sends shivers down your back. It
reminds you of a different time.”
(sound of cranes flying by)
The volunteers also spend their time chatting with people who visit the
Sanctuary. And even on a cold night like tonight – people have come out
to see the birds.
Phil DeLang drove with his wife and grandson two and a half hours just to
watch the gathering… and they do it every year:
“I think all of nature is precious, I me an it’s really precious when you
think of things becoming extinct, like the passenger pigeon, what a
tragedy, it never should have happened. I’m just glad there’s places like
this. People have taken the effort to give these birds a home.”
(sound of counting)
The birds continue to arrive by the hundreds as the sun begins to set. As
darkness falls – the volunteers tally up their final number:
“Twenty nine seventy five. Tweny-nine seventy five? Yeah. O.k.”
The count for the evening is over. And by their calculation nearly 3000
birds are settling down for the night.
(3 seconds of sound at night)
The volunteers head home to double check their math – and send in their
final numbers.
(bring up morning birds)
The next morning at the sanctuary the birds are waking up and heading
into the farm fields.
We caught up with Ron Hoffman here. He’s the guy who coordinates the
official crane count for this region. And between all the volunteers that
counted last night – they spotted 4,600 cranes.
Ron has been studying these birds since the 1960’s when they were just
coming off the threatened species list. And he’s seen the bird’s population
grow steadily over the years.
But Ron Hoffman and the other volunteers see a pattern developing in this
area – a pattern that could threaten the number of cranes that use this
sanctuary. The Haehnle sanctuary is surrounded by spreading housing
developments. They fear these developments would use up farmland,
which is important to the birds:
“I’m sure we’ll always have cranes, but at the same time if this area within
ten fifteen miles of hear is so built up that there’s not the food reserves
here for the cranes to feed, then the number of cranes using this would be
diminished.”
But no matter how many cranes are out here, you can bet Ron Hoffman
and the other volunteers will be counting them year after year.
They care about these birds.
While we were talking, he interrupted to watch a young bird fly by:
“This guy is really lost – look he’s coming back over.” (sound of little
bird) Did you see him craning his neck and looking? He’s trying to find
his parents…”
Hoffman says his biggest hope for the Greater Sandhill Crane is that the
population will remain stable, so that he and others can continue to
experience what he calls one of the wildlife spectaculars in this region.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
Chemicals known as PBDE’s are used as flame-retardants in many products. But PBDE’s have been showing up in people and in wildlife. Now, one of the biggest manufacturers of PBDE’s has announced that it will be phasing out the chemical. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
Chemicals known as PBDE’s are used as flame-retardants in many products.
But PBDE’s have been showing up in people and in wildlife. Now, one of the
biggest manufacturers of PBDE’s has announced that it will be phasing out
the chemical. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Some animal tests have shown that PBDE’s can be toxic – but the EPA says
it’s “not yet concluded that the chemicals are an unreasonable risk to human
health.”
However, the Great Lakes Chemical Corporation has announced that it will
voluntarily stop producing a widely used PBDE, known as Penta, by the end of
2004. This chemical is used mostly to prevent fires in furniture cushions.
Anne Noonan is with Great Lakes Chemical. She says the company started
developing an alternative in the mid 1990’s when research began to show that
PBDE’s gets into the environment and eventually the food chain:
“We understood that it did bioaccumulate and there was growing public
concern that this would start building up in the environment. So with that
in mind, we started developing this product.”
The new product is called FireMaster 550, and according to the EPA, initial
tests have shown that this chemical should be safe.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
The U.S. Coast Guard is working to develop a new standard for cargo ships to help stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. Officials are holding five public meetings to discuss the environmental impact of such a standard. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports:
Transcript
The U.S. Coast Guard is working to develop a new standard for cargo ships to
help stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. Officials are holding five
public meetings to discuss the environmental impact of such a standard. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports:
At the moment, foreign ships coming into the Great Lakes are supposed to exchange
their ballast water in the open ocean to flush out foreign organisms, such as
zebra mussels. But no one knows how effective that is. Now, the Coast Guard
is developing a standard that will establish how biologically clean a ship’s
ballast water has to be.
Mike Gardiner is a commander with the U.S. Coast Guard in Cleveland:
“I think that some of the preliminary work would indicate that if you eliminate
organisms above a certain cutoff, and you take care of everything that size and
above then you tremendously reduce the chance that you’re going to have an
invasion.”
The Coast Guard is holding a series of public meetings across the country in the
next month in including one in the Great Lakes region. They hope to get input
from biologists, the shipping industry, and environmentalists to help develop
the national standard.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
A class of potentially toxic chemicals, known as PBDEs, is being found in higher levels in people in North America. The chemicals are used to prevent fires in everything from couch cushions to televisions. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
A class of potentially toxic chemicals, known as PBDE’s, is being found in
higher levels in people in North America. The chemicals are used to prevent
fires in everything from couch cushions to televisions. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
PBDE’s are used extensively throughout North America. In Europe and Asia
the chemicals are hardly used at all for this purpose. To date, four studies have
indicated that North Americans have considerably higher levels of the
chemicals in their bodies, than do Europeans and Asians. The most recent
study tested the breast milk of 47 women in Texas.
Linda Birnbaum co-authored the study published in the journal Environmental Health
Perspectives. She says while these chemicals were created to save lives,
other chemicals should be developed that won’t be absorbed by human tissue:
“Personally I’m concerned about chemicals that persist and bio-accumulate.
They eventually get to a point be that they can be a problem.”
Some animal tests have shown that the chemicals can be toxic. That’s why the
European Union and the state of California enacted a ban on certain types of PBDE’s.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
In the last ten years, some cities in the region have seen an increase in the number of days on which the air was considered unhealthy. And according to a recent report, much of the blame should be placed on air pollution from cars and trucks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
In the last ten years, some cities in the region have seen an increase in the number of days on
which the air was considered unhealthy. And according to a recent report, much of the blame
should be placed on air pollution from cars and trucks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mark Brush has more:
In its report, the Surface Transportation Policy Project highlighted research showing links
between transportation-related air pollution and increased asthma rates, and increased cancer risk.
Jim Corliss is one of the report’s co-author’s. He says progress has been made in cleaning up the
nation’s air, but that there’s still more to be done about pollution from vehicles.
“The increase in driving, the explosion in the number of miles people drive every day and every
year has really undermined a lot of the progress that we’ve made in cleaner engines.”
Corliss says that the increase in the number of miles driven is largely due to the way communities
are designed. He says urban sprawl has led to large increases in the number of miles driven for
everyday errands.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
A group that represents sewer and water agencies is calling for the creation of a federal trust fund to help rebuild antiquated pipelines. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
A group that represents sewer and water agencies is calling for the creation
of a federal trust fund to help rebuild antiquated pipelines. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Water and sewer bills are going up because cities are faced with the problem
of fixing and upgrading their old pipes. These projects can run into the
billions of dollars, and the cost is borne by local communities.
Ken Kirk is the Executive Director of the Association of Metropolitan
Sewerage Agencies. His group is calling for the creation of a federal trust
fund to help finance these huge projects:
“We’re talking about a trust fund that’s going to preserve and protect, and
enhance the water quality of all the great water bodies in this country, and
that is a national issue, it’s always been a national issue and we have to
put it back on the map again because to lose that resource would be an
absolute crime.”
The EPA estimates that current funding sources are falling short of the need
by hundreds of billions of dollars.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
Earlier this year, the EPA tightened regulations on pollution from large-scale livestock operations. Farmers will be limited on the amount of manure they’re allowed to spread on fields. A new study by the USDA says, under the new regulations, these farmers will need more land on which to spread the manure. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
Earlier this year, the EPA tightened regulations on pollution from
large-scale livestock operations. Farmers will be limited on the amount of
manure they’re allowed to spread on fields. A new study by the USDA
says, under the new regulations, these farmers will need more land on which
to spread the manure. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has
more:
Researchers say most of the big livestock farms will need more land under
the new regulations. The study found that operations in some parts of the
country will have trouble finding that land.
Marc Ribaudo is an agricultural economist with the USDA’s Economic Research
Service. He says it’s possible that these large-scale farms will look to
the Midwest as a potential place to relocate:
“I would think that for those companies or those operations where manure
management is suddenly an important cost, that they would give greater
consideration to the Midwest or areas where there’s more land available for
spreading manure.”
He cautions that manure management is just one factor in the overall cost of
running these farms. But that finding available land to spread manure on is
becoming increasingly important.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
Purple loosestrife's looks are deceiving. It's a beautiful plant, but researchers say it has caused enormous damage in many parts of the country. An imported beetle has now shown significant signs of controlling the plant.
Galerucella calmariensis is a species of beetle being reared and released throughout the region to control purple loosestrife. The bug was imported from Europe and Asia. (Photo courtesy of L.T. Kok)
Purple loosestrife is a beautiful plant. It’s tall… and each cone-shaped stem produces hundreds of flowers. When the plants bloom in mid-summer they can create a sea of purple in wetlands throughout the region, but the ability of the plant to spread and reproduce in great numbers is what concerns scientists and land managers. Over the years they have been working to control it. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush says one way they’re trying to control it is by releasing a bug to eat the plant:
Transcript
Purple Loosestrife is a beautiful plant. It’s tall… and each cone-shaped
stem produces hundreds of flowers. When the plants bloom
in mid-summer they can create a sea of purple in wetlands
throughout the region… but the ability of the plant to spread and
reproduce in great numbers is what concerns scientists and land
managers. Over the years, they have been working to control it.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush says one way
they’re trying to control it is by releasing a bug to eat the plant:
Roger Sutherland has lived next to this wetland for more than 35
years.
He helped build a boardwalk over the soggy marsh so that he can
get a close-up view of some of his favorite plants:
“You see that plant with the big green flower? Yep. That… and
there’s more along here… that’s a pitcher plant. These are insect
eating plants and there’s another one called sundew here… here’s
some right in here…”
(sound under)
But like many wetlands throughout the country, this wetland has
been invaded by a plant originally found in Europe and Asia.
Purple Loosestrife was introduced as an ornamental plant.
It was a
beautiful addition to gardens, but once it took
hold in the environment,
it out-competed native plants.
Frogs, birds, and insects have relied on these native plants for
thousands of years. Purple Loosestrife is crowding out their habitat.
“We’re going to get a lot more shade with this loosestrife.. and so
these plants that are on these hummocks here…
these little insect
eating plants and so on… just can’t tolerate that shade, so we’ll
probably lose ’em unless I can keep it open here… and I am trying
to keep some of it open.”
The plant spreads quickly… that’s because one plant can produce
more than two million seeds that spread with the wind, like dust.
So when it moves into an area, it often takes over creating a thicket
of purple with a dense root system.
Land managers have seen populations of ducks, and turtles
disappear when loosestrife takes over…
And research has shown that the plant can reduce some frog and
salamander populations by as much as half.
So land managers wondered what to do to stop the spread of this
weed.
They initially tried to control the plant by digging it up… or by
applying herbicide to each plant.
Trying to kill the plants one by one is hard work… especially
considering how abundant purple loosestrife is.
But researchers have hope because of a bug.
(Sound of volunteers planting loosestrife)
Volunteers have gathered here in Ann Arbor, Michigan to plant
purple loosestrife.
They’re putting dormant loosestrife roots into potting containers and
adding fertilizer.
(more sound)
When the plants leaf out they’ll be covered with a fine mesh net and
become home to a leaf-eating beetle known as galerucella.
And galerucella loves to munch on purple loosestrife.
The volunteers are creating a nursery to raise more beetles.
Once they’ve got a bunch of beetles growing on the plant… they’ll
take it to a nearby wetland… and the bugs will be released into the
wild…
(sound up)
Linda Coughenour is a member of the Audubon Society.
Her group is working with state and local agencies to raise and
release these beetles.
She says tackling purple loosestrife invasions is a big task – and
governments need help from volunteers to deal with the problem:
“This is a serious problem throughout the entire Great Lakes
wetlands… it has migrated from the East Coast to the Midwest…
so, uh.. the problem’s just too big – so they thought up doing this
volunteer project and they’ve enlisted people all over the state… and
we’re just one of those.”
Volunteers have have been releasing their beetles into this wetland
for few years now and they’re beginning to see progress:
“It’s going really well… for a while we got off to a slow start, but for two
years now we’ve found evidence that the beetles are reproducing on their
own. We see little egg masses, we see larva that are starting to eat
the plants, we see adult beetles on the plants that have wintered
over. And that’s the thing, to get them to do it on their own.”
But releasing a foreign species into the wild is always a concern.
There are a number of examples of bugs released into the wild to
eliminate a pest, but ended up causing a problem themselves.
But before importing a bug that will prey on plants – the federal
government requires testing to make sure it won’t eat other plants.
The tests have been done.
And researchers feel that this is an extremely finicky bug…
Berndt Blossey is a specialist on invasive plants and ways to control
them.
He says the beetles were tested on native plants before they were
allowed to import the bugs:
“And it was shown there that they will not be able to feed and
develop on the plants. They will occasionally nibble on them, but
they will not be able to develop on them and they usually move off
after they have taken a bite, and they move off to other plants.”
The leaf beetle is not the only bug researchers are importing.
They’re also importing two other beetles known as “weevils.”
One that feeds on loosestrife flowers, and one that feeds on its root
system.
Blossey says more than one bug is needed to keep the plant from
growing back:
“Loosestrife will rebound from resources in the root stock. If you
have the root feeder in the system as well, these fluctuations will be
dampened, so loosestrife will not be allowed to comeback to higher
levels.”
(sound of wetland up)
People who admire the diversity of plants and animals in wetlands
like the idea of keeping purple loosestrife in check.
Roger Sutherland welcomes the bugs.
He believes they’ll help him keep this wetland open for the plants,
birds, and insects he’s come to know over the years:
“We know that the purple loosestrife will probably always be here.
But if we can bring it down to a manageable level, where you’re going
to have a pocket here and a pocket there… and you can kind of
maintain the integrity of this wetland system… then you can’t ask for
anything more than that.”
And researchers say that’s the goal.
To help these wetlands reach a balance… so that plants and animals
that have evolved to rely on these wetlands for thousands of years…
can continue to do so.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
A new study indicates that more children might be at risk from the effects of lead in their environment than previously thought. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
A new study indicates that more children might be at risk from the effects of lead in their
environment than previously estimated. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has
more:
Elevated levels of lead in a child’s bloodstream are known to cause mental development
problems. The question is…how much lead is too much? Today, the danger level is set at 10
micrograms per deciliter of blood. But new research published in the New England Journal of
Medicine shows that levels below ten micrograms might also cause problems. Richard Canfield
is a researcher at Cornell University. He headed up the latest study:
“Instead of finding that as lead levels increase the power of lead to cause
problems increases, which most people would think, we found that most of the
damage seems to be done at the low levels.”
Canfield and his group found that IQ levels in young children dropped even at lead levels below
the current standard. He notes that, on the whole, the problem of lead poisoning in children is
decreasing, but it’s still a major concern.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
Children are typically exposed to lead in older homes with lead based paint or lead in the home’s
piping system, and by playing in soil next to roadways contaminated by cars that burned leaded
gasoline in the past. To find out more about lead poisoning visit the Center’s for
Disease Control’s website at www.cdc.gov.
