The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting a rule that would require contractors to be certified before working on projects that involve lead-based paint. It’s part of a larger push to eliminate childhood lead poisoning as a major health concern. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting a rule that would
require contractors to be certified before working on projects that involve
lead-based paint. It’s part of a larger push to eliminate childhood lead
poisoning as a major health concern. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley
reports:
Under the rule, contractors would have to take training courses, and get
formal certifications, before being allowed to work on projects that could
disrupt lead-based paint. It would apply to work done in homes built
before 1978, where a child under the age of six resides.
Ben Calo is the president of a lead-abatement company in southeast
Michigan. He says the measure would be a hassle for contractors… but it’s a
good idea for homeowners.
“They know that there’s something wrong with lead, but they trust that
the contractor that comes in is going to take all the proper precautions.
I’m not saying that they’re not good contractors, it’s just that if you’re not
required to do this, you don’t do it.”
The EPA says the rule would add about 500-dollars to the cost of large
renovation projects involving lead-based paint.
Public interest groups say, on average, more than 850
billion gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage is dumped into U.S. waterways each year. Notifying the public of these events is sporadic, but one city has started to tell the public of when—and where—overflows occur. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
Public interest groups say, on average, more than 850 billion gallons of
untreated or partially treated sewage is dumped into U.S. waterways each
year. Notifying the public of these events is sporadic, but one city has
started to tell the public of when — and where — overflows occur. The
GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:
Federal guidelines say officials need to notify the public of sewage
overflows, but the rules are vague… and sometimes not followed.
Kevin Shafer is executive director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewage District. In a somewhat unusual move, it’s set up an online
map of area waterways that will highlight where, exactly, sewage is
dumped into the water.
Shafer says, in the past, specific information wasn’t so easy to get.
“We would notify the Public Health Department and then they would
notify everyone that there’d been an overflow. We never really
pinpointed the location, unless someone from the media or general public
called.”
Shafer says people should avoid areas where overflows have occurred
because of bacteria and viruses that could be in the water.
Meanwhile, some states in the Great Lakes region are working on
updating notification requirements about sewage overflows.
Sturgeon spearing season is underway in some areas of the region. And hook and line fishing is allowed at other times of the year. But to protect the fragile population, the number of fish harvested each year is tightly controlled. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
Sturgeon spearing season is underway in some areas of the region, and hook
and line fishing is allowed at other times of the year, but to protect the
fragile population, the number of fish harvested each year is tightly
controlled. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley
reports:
Over-fishing and habitat problems have plagued the lake sturgeon found
in the Great Lakes. Although the numbers are starting to rebound, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says lake sturgeon are still threatened or
endangered in nearly all areas the species was once found.
Ron Bruch is a sturgeon biologist with the Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources. He says the spawning cycle of lake sturgeon is one
reason the population needs to be watched.
“Lake sturgeon don’t spawn until later in life, the females don’t spawn
until they’re 20 to 25 years old, and then they only spawn once every
three to five years.”
Bruch says only about five percent of the adult population of lake
sturgeon should be harvested each year… to avoid a population crash.
He says that compares to nearly 30 percent of the population of most
other game fish.
A deer wasting away from Chronic Wasting Disease. (Photo courtesy of Michigan's Department of Natural Resources.)
An elk infected with Chronic Wasting Disease. (Photo courtesy of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.)
A disease that infects deer and elk has been alarming wildlife officials and hunters for years. But now it seems the disease could be more dangerous than previously thought. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
A disease that infects deer and elk has been alarming wildlife officials
and hunters for years, but now it seems the disease could be more
dangerous than previously thought. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Christina Shockley reports:
Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, affects the brain tissue of deer and
elk. Sponge-like holes form in the brains of sick animals. The deer
begin to waste away, become weak, and then die.
Since CWD was discovered in Colorado nearly forty years ago, wild deer
in nine other states have tested positive for the disease. Little is known
about CWD – including how to stop it.
What scientists do know is that the infectious proteins-called prions –
thought to cause CWD are found in the brain and spinal cord areas of
infected animals, but officials still don’t have the answer to the big
question.
Judd Aiken is a professor of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences at
the University of Wisconsin.
“The ultimate question is whether venison from infected animals, CWD infected
deer, poses a risk to humans. Clearly the first question that needed to be
asked and addressed was whether there was infectivity in muscle.”
Recent findings say there is.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky injected muscle from an
infected deer into the brains of genetically altered mice. The mice
displayed signs of CWD. This is the first time the infectious proteins
blamed for CWD have been found in deer meat.
The finding raises questions about whether eating venison is safe.
Researchers including Aiken say the study is important, but has limits.
For example, he says it doesn’t replicate what would happen in real life.
Plus, he says it’s probably unlikely humans can even get CWD. He says
studies suggest it’s difficult for the disease to jump to other species. Still,
he urges caution. Hunters should get the meat tested before they eat deer
from an area where CWD has been found.
“I, in no way, can advocate the consumption of infected deer, and indeed,
I would suggest due to the limitations of the CW tests, I don’t advocate
the consumption of deer obtained from a CWD endemic area.”
Even if the test comes back negative, Aiken says a negative result isn’t
always accurate, and infected animals in the beginning stages of the
disease can look and act normal.
(Sound of sporting goods store)
John White is a deer hunter from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He’s in the
hunting section of a nearby sporting goods store. White isn’t too
concerned about Chronic Wasting Disease.
“Not a whole lot of people are worried about it. I mean, when it first
came out, some people were a little leery about it and didn’t want to hunt
that year, but they kinda got over it. I’m not really worried about it being
in the meat at all, because by the time the test comes back I’ll probably
have the deer eaten already and then it’s already too late.”
State wildlife officials say… that’s not a good idea. They recommend that
if you hunt deer in areas where the disease has been found, get the deer
tested before eating it. That message hasn’t changed… since learning the
prions could be in the meat. Some argue… it should change.
John Stauber is with a government watchdog group in Wisconsin, and
is co-author of “Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?”
He says officials are keeping quiet about the risk of CWD so they don’t
lose revenue from hunting licenses.
A large portion of state conservation agency budgets are dependent on
fees from hunting licenses. He says all deer that die should be tested for
the disease. Stauber also says CWD is a major human health concern.
“The biggest risk might not be the people who would die from
eating venison, but rather, the people who would die from the
contamination of the blood supply. This is a problem that would unfold
not in days or months or years, but even over decades.”
Stauber says it’s just a matter of time before Chronic Wasting Disease
spreads to people… he says some might even have the disease already,
and not know it.
But researchers like Judd Aiken from the University of Wisconsin say
people shouldn’t over-react.
“People should be concerned, but I don’t want people to panic, either. If
you think you may have consumed venison from infected animals, I don’t
think it’s likely that you’ll ever develop a human prion disease.”
But, Aiken says there’s too much we don’t know about the disease, and
since studies can take years to complete, we might be in the dark for a
while longer.
New research shows the infectious material believed to cause Chronic Wasting Disease can be found in the meat of infected deer. Previously, it was thought that only the brain and central nervous system areas of deer or elk carried the fatal disease. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
New research shows the infectious material believed to cause Chronic
Wasting Disease can be found in the meat of infected animals.
Previously, it was thought that only the brain and central nervous system
areas of deer or elk carried the fatal disease. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
The authors of the study at the University of Kentucky say anyone
handling or eating deer infected with CWD may be inadvertently
exposed to the disease.
The research shows that for the first time the mutated proteins – called
prions – can be present in deer muscle.
Officials in states with CWD in wild deer say their message to hunters
won’t change:
Get deer tested for CWD, and don’t eat deer that test positive.
Jim Kazmierczak is Wisconsin’s State Public Health veterinarian.
“What this demonstrates is that the CWD agent does occur in deer
muscle. What it does not address is the question of human
susceptibility to Chronic Wasting Disease.”
Kazmierczak says it’s still unclear how – or if – Chronic Wasting Disease
could be transmitted to humans.
Officials say a new outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease
could erupt after a fence was cut at an infected hunting preserve in Wisconsin. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley
reports:
Transcript
Officials say a new outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease could erupt after a fence was cut at an
infected hunting preserve in Wisconsin. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina
Shockley reports:
Authorities say someone intentionally cut a hole in a perimeter fence at the preserve in central
Wisconsin. They say tracks indicate deer had gone in and out of the area through the hole…
before the owner saw it and notified the Department of Natural Resources.
Alan Crossley is with the Wisconsin DNR. He says officials shot deer around the preserve to try
to limit the chance the disease would spread to wild deer.
“We have to try to assess whether any deer escaped from that shooting pen. Then we’re going to
be meeting to talk about okay, should we try to do any additional shooting of deer in a larger area
around that pen.”
Crossley says it’s now even more important to monitor deer near the preserve in the years ahead.
He says it will take time to determine how their overall efforts to combat the disease are working.
So far, CWD has been found in the wild in ten states, including Wisconsin, New York and
Illinois.
Researchers began a program to reintroduce whooping cranes in the eastern U.S. in 2000. This winter, some young cranes are learning how to migrate south from older birds. The biologists tracking the birds say so far, the new recruits are catching on. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
Researchers began a program to reintroduce whooping cranes in the
eastern U.S. in 2000. This winter, some young cranes are learning how
to migrate south from older birds. The biologists tracking the birds say
so far, the new recruits are catching on. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
At first, humans led the new flock of whooping cranes from Wisconsin
to Florida by flying ultra light planes. Now, some of those birds are
teaching a few younger cranes how to make the trip.
Kelley Tucker is with the International Crane Foundation, one of the
groups involved in the reintroduction project. She says this winter, four
young whooping cranes are flying with older cranes and sandhill cranes
on the migratory path. They’re relying partly on instinct, partly on the
lead of the older birds.
“The birds will be a couple miles apart, but some of the biologists have
said ‘I have a sense that the younger birds know where the older birds
are.’ Sometimes they’ll roost within a mile or two of the older birds.”
Tucker says eventually she hopes all the chicks will learn to migrate
from older birds, and the ultra light planes won’t be used. She says it’s
important for the cranes to make it back to Wisconsin in the spring to
mate.
Water diversion is an increasing threat to the Great Lakes. As communities grow so does the demand. (Photo by Brandon Bankston)
We’re continuing the series, Ten Threats to the Great Lakes. Our field guide through the series is Lester Graham. He says our next report looks at where the demand for water will be greatest:
Transcript
We’re continuing the series Ten Threats to the Great Lakes. Our field
guide through the series is Lester Graham. He says our next report looks
at where the demand for water will be greatest.
Right around the Great Lakes is where there’s going to be more demand
for drinking water. Water officials say as cities and suburbs grow, so
does the need for water. Some towns very near the Great Lakes say they
need lake water right now, but in some cases they might not get it. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
People who live around the Great Lakes have long used the lakes’ water
for transportation, industry, and drinking water. Most of the water we
use, gets cleaned up and goes back in the lakes.
That’s because the Great Lakes basin is like a bowl. All the water used
by communities inside that bowl returns to the lakes in the form of
groundwater, storm water runoff, and treated wastewater, but recently, thirsty
communities just outside the basin—outside that bowl—have shown an
interest in Great Lakes water.
Dave Dempsey is a Great Lakes advisor to the environmental group
“Clean Water Action.”
“We are going to be seeing all along the fringe areas of the Great Lakes
basin all the way from New York state to Minnesota, communities that
are growing and have difficulty obtaining adequate water from nearby
streams or ground water.”
Treated water from those communities won’t naturally go back to the
basin. Treated wastewater and run-off from communities outside the
Great Lakes basin goes into the Mississippi River system, or rivers in the
east and finally the Atlantic Ocean.
The Great Lakes are not renewable. Anything that’s taken away has to be
returned. For example, when nature takes water through evaporation, it
returns it in the form of rain or melted snow. When cities take it away, it
has to be returned in the form of cleaned-up wastewater to maintain that
careful balance.
Dave Dempsey says the lakes are like a big giant savings account, and
we withdraw and replace only one percent each year.
“So, if we should ever begin to take more than one percent of that
volume on an annual basis for human use or other uses, we’ll begin to
draw them down permanently, we’ll be depleting the bank account.”
Some of the citiesthat want Great Lakes water are only a few miles from
the shoreline. One of the most unique water diversion requests might come
from the City of Waukesha, in southeastern Wisconsin. The city is just 20 miles
from Lake Michigan. Waukesha is close enough to smell the lake, but it
sits outside the Great Lakes basin. Waukesha needs to find another
water source because it’s current source – wells—are contaminated with
radium.
Dan Duchniak is Waukesha’s water manager. He says due to the city’s
unique geology, it’s already using Great Lakes water. He says it taps an
underground aquifer that eventually recharges Lake Michigan.
“Water that would be going to Lake Michigan is now coming from Lake
Michigan…. our aquifer is not contributing to the Great Lakes any more,
it’s pulling away from the Great Lakes.”
Officials from the eight Great Lakes states and Ontario and Quebec
recently approved a set of rules that will ultimately decide who can use
Great Lakes water. The new rules will allow Waukesha—and some
other communities just outside the basin—to request Great Lakes water,
and drafters say Waukesha will get “extra credit” if it can prove it’s
using Lake Michigan water now.
Environmentalists are still concerned that water taken from the Lakes be
returned directly to the Lakes, but some say even that could be harmful.
Art Brooks is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of
Wisconsin- Milwaukee. He says the water we put back still carries some
bi-products of human waste.
“No treatment plant gets 100 percent of the nutrients out of the water,
and domestic sewage has high concentrations of ammonia and
phosphates. Returning that directly to the lake could enhance the growth
of algae in the lake.”
That pollution could contribute to a growing problem of dead zones in
some areas of the Great Lakes. Brooks and environmentalists concede
that just one or two diversions would not harm the Great Lakes, but they
say one diversion could open the floodgates to several other requests, and
letting a lot of cities tap Great Lakes water could be damaging.
Derek Sheer of the environmental group “Clean Wisconsin” says some
out-of-basin communities have already been allowed to tap Great Lakes
water under the old rules.
“The area just outside of Cleveland–Akron, Ohio– has a diversion
outside of the Great Lakes basin, so they’re utilizing Great Lakes water
but they’re putting it back.”
There are several communities that take Great Lakes water, but they, too,
pump it back. The new water rules still need to be ok-ed by the legislature of
each Great Lakes state, and Congress. Since the rules are considered a
baseline, environmental interests throughout the region say they’ll lobby
for even stricter rules on diversions.
Seven years ago a Canadian company applied for a permit to export Great Lakes water to Asia. That plan was scrapped after a public outcry. And officials realized they needed to update the standards on Great Lakes water diversions. Now, the eight Great Lakes governors are expected to sign off on the new water diversion standards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
Seven years ago a Canadian company applied for a permit to export Great
Lakes water to Asia. That plan was scrapped after a public outcry, and
officials realized they needed to update the standards on Great Lakes water
diversions. Now, the eight Great Lakes governors are expected to sign off on
the new water diversion standards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Christina Shockley reports:
The so-called “Annex 2001” document has been years in the making. Its main goal
is to protect the Great Lakes from thirsty communities outside the Great Lakes basin.
Todd Ambs is a water expert. He’s working on the Annex on behalf of Wisconsin
Governor Jim Doyle.
“This is not just about diverting water out of the basin. It’s also about
how we manage consumptive use of water within the Great Lakes basin,
obviously the most significant fresh water resource in North America.”
Ambs says the document will require states to keep better track of where
water within the basin is going, and who’s using it.
Under the latest draft, some communities that sit outside the basin can
request Great Lakes water, but those communities would need to return used water back
to the basin, and any request would need approval from all eight Great Lakes governors.
The governors are expected to sign the document at a meeting in Milwaukee on
December 13th.
For the GLRC, I’m Christina Shockley.
If all eight Great Lakes governors sign the ‘Annex 2001’ document, it would
still need to be ok-ed by each state’s legislature, and Congress before going into
effect.
Glaciers similar to this one carved the Great Lakes region's landscape during the Ice Age. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
A non-profit group is working to preserve part of the region’s glacial history. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley explains:
Transcript
A non-profit group is working to preserve part of the region’s glacial history. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley explains:
The group is building a national scenic trail where a glacier stopped and receded thousands of years ago in Wisconsin. The same glacier formed Lake Michigan. Landscape formations along the trail vary from cone-shaped hills to long, snake-like hills.
Nancy Frank is with the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation. That’s the group working on the project. She says sometimes there’s no definite line of where the glacier was.
“It may be a band of about three miles or so of glacial material, that forms what they call the terminal moraine, which is as far as that glacier went.”
Frank says work on the trail began in the 1950’s. So far, 600 miles of it are done; at least 400 miles are left to go. A bill before Congress would make it easier to complete the trail. The ice age trail is one of only eight scenic trails in the nation.
