Environmental groups are back in
court to challenge the use of the main pesticide
used in growing cherries and apples. Bob Allen
reports the environmentalists had set aside their
lawsuit while waiting for EPA to issue new rules
for applying the chemical during a phase-out period:
Transcript
Environmental groups are back in
court to challenge the use of the main pesticide
used in growing cherries and apples. Bob Allen
reports the environmentalists had set aside their
lawsuit while waiting for EPA to issue new rules
for applying the chemical during a phase-out period:
Azinphos-Methyl or AZM is a highly toxic chemical that
affects the nervous system. Last November, EPA released
stricter rules for applying it and they gave apple and
cherry growers another six years to phase it out.
Environmental groups say that’s much too long, and they’ve
taken up their suit again.
Shelley Davis is with Farmworker Justice. She says EPA was
supposed to weigh the cost to growers against the health
risks to workers and their families.
“The problem here is that EPA didn’t do that. All it did
was total up the financial benefit to the growers. And
that’s what we said to the court is not a fair deal.”
Regulators say growers need more time to learn to use
alternative pesticides.
The federal government has removed protections for the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region and is considering lifting protections of wolves in the Rocky Mountains. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources 2001)
Gray wolves in two regions of the US could
be on the verge of losing federal endangered species
protection. A wildlife group says the next step should
be to reduce public fears about the animal. Chuck
Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Gray wolves in two regions of the U-S could
be on the verge of losing federal endangered species
protection. A wildlife group says the next step should
be to reduce public fears about the animal. Chuck
Quirmbach reports:
The Interior Department is removing gray wolves in the Western
Great Lakes area from the lists of threatened and endangered
species. The federal agency is proposing the same de-listing for
the gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountain region.
The group Defenders of Wildlife support the Great Lakes plan.
Spokesperson Gina Schroeder says as the wolves are removed from
the lists, one task will be to dispel some myths about the
animals:
“…And it’ll be very important that there’s a better
understanding of the biological and sociological aspects of
wolves.”
Schroeder says for example, wolves are extremely unlikely to
attack humans and there are non-lethal ways to discourage wolves
from coming near livestock. But the Humane Society of the US
says if it doesn’t think the wolves are being protected well
enough, it might file a lawsuit challenging the de-listing plans.
Environmental groups are considering resuming their lawsuit against the EPA. They say it’s a travesty the agency has tacked an extra couple of years onto their original plan to phase out a widely used pesticide. But some fruit growers are struggling to find an alternative that’s as effective as what they’re losing. Bob Allen reports their industry has little margin for error:
Transcript
Environmental groups are considering resuming their lawsuit against the EPA. They say it’s a travesty the agency has tacked an extra couple of years onto their original plan to phase out a widely used pesticide. But some fruit growers are struggling to find an alternative that’s as effective as what they’re losing. Bob Allen reports their industry has little margin for error:
Azinphos methyl or AZM is the main insecticide used in cherry and apple orchards. The cherry industry has zero tolerance for any insect parts found in the fruit. Whole truckloads of cherries have been dumped because of a single fruit fly maggot.
Michigan State University researcher Mark Whalon says so far there’s no alternative to AZM that can do the job. He’s been testing the use of alternatives in orchards for the last three years.
“Other locations where cherries are grown can use these compounds, export them into our markets and essentially put us out of business because they can grow cherries at a very much reduced cost.”
This spring EPA planned to phase out AZM on fruit by 2010. But a week ago the agency decided to allow its use to continue two years beyond that.
Hog manure being injected into the ground and tilled under. The manure fertilizes the crops, but if too much is applied it can foul up waterways. (photo by Mark Brush)
Today, we continue our series on pollution in the heartland.
Dairy farms are getting bigger. Many keep thousands of cows in buildings the size of several football fields. These big dairy operations can make a lot of milk. That translates into cheaper prices at the grocery store.
But some worry these large farms are polluting the land around them. In the fourth story of our week-long series, the GLRC’s Mark Brush visits a big Midwestern dairy farm:
Transcript
Today, we continue our series on pollution in the heartland. Dairy farms are getting bigger.
Many keep thousands of cows in buildings the size of several football fields. These big dairy
operations can make a lot of milk. That translates into cheaper prices at the grocery store. But
some worry these large farms are polluting the land around them. In the fourth story of our week-long series, the GLRC’s Mark Brush visits a big Midwestern dairy farm:
(sound of giant fans)
About a thousand cows are in this building, eating, lolling around, and waiting for the next round
of milking.
There’s a sharp smell of manure hanging in the air. Big fans are blowing to keep the cows cool,
and to keep the air circulated.
Stephan Vander Hoff runs this dairy along with his siblings. He says these big farms are good for
consumers:
“We’ve got something here and we’ve been able to do it in such a way that we’re still producing
at the same cost that we were fifteen years ago. It costs more now for a gallon of gas than a
gallon of milk. And so, that’s something to be proud of.”
Vander Hoff’s dairy produces enough milk to fill seven tanker trucks everyday. They also
produce a lot of waste. The cows in this building are penned in by metal gates. They can’t go
outside. So the manure and urine that would normally pile up is washed away by water.
Tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater are sent to big lagoons outside. Eventually, the
liquefied manure is spread onto nearby farm fields. It’s a challenge for these farmers to deal with
these large pools of liquid manure. The farther they have to haul it, the more expensive it is for
them. Almost all of them put the manure onto farm fields.
It’s good for the crops if it’s done right, but if too much manure is put on the land, it can wash into streams and creeks. In fact, this
dairy has been cited by the state of Michigan for letting their manure get into nearby waterways.
(sound of roadway)
Lynn Henning keeps a close eye on Vander Hoff’s dairy.
(car door opening and closing)
She steps from her car with a digital camera, and a device that measures water quality.
(sound of crickets and walking through the brush)
She weaves her way down to the edge of this creek.
“This is the area where we got E. coli at 7.5 million.”
High E. coli levels mean the water might be polluted with dangerous pathogens. Lynn Henning is
testing the creek today because she saw farmers spreading liquid manure on the fields yesterday.
Henning is a farmer turned environmental activist. She works for the Sierra Club and drives all
over the state taking water samples and pictures near big livestock farms.
Henning says she got involved because more of these large animal farms expanded into her
community. She says when the farmers spread the liquid manure, it can make life in the country
pretty difficult:
“The odor is horrendous when they’re applying –we have fly infestations–we have hydrogen
sulfide in the air that nobody knows is there because you can’t always smell it. We have to live
in fear that every glass of water that we drink is going to be contaminated at some point.”
Water contamination from manure is a big concern. The liquid manure can contain nasty
pathogens and bacteria.
Joan Rose is a microbiologist at Michigan State University.
“If animal wastes are not treated properly and we have large concentrations of animal waste
going onto land and then via rainfall or other runoff events entering into our water – there can
be outbreaks associated with this practice.”
Rose tested water in this area and found high levels of cryptosporidium that likely came from
cattle. Cryptosporidium is the same bug that killed people in Milwaukee back in 1993. Rose
says livestock farmers need to think more about keeping these pathogens out of the water. But
she says they don’t get much support from the state and researchers on how best to do that.
For now, the farmers have to come up with their own solutions.
(sound of treatment plant)
Three years ago, the state of Michigan sued Stephen Vander Hoff’s dairy for multiple waste
violations. The Vander Hoff’s settled the case with the state and agreed to build a one million
dollar treatment system. But Vander Hoff isn’t convinced that his dairy was at fault, and thinks
that people’s concerns over his dairy are overblown:
“If we had an issue or had done something wrong the first people that want to correct it is us. We
live in this area. So why would we do anything to harm it?”
Vander Hoff is upbeat about the new treatment system. He says it will save the dairy money in
the long run.
The Sierra Club’s Lynn Henning says she’s skeptical of the new treatment plant. She’ll continue
to take water samples and put pressure on these farms to handle their manure better. In the end,
she doesn’t think these big farms have a place in agriculture. She’d rather see farms go back to
the old style of dairying, where the cows are allowed to graze, and the number of animals isn’t
so concentrated.
But farm researchers say because consumers demand cheap prices, these large farms are here to
stay and there will be more of them. Because of this, the experts say we can expect more
conflicts in rural America.
Religious groups are suing local governments across the country for denying permits to build religious buildings. Part of the reason is that many churches are building bigger buildings that take up acres of land. And many of the disputes are between rural neighborhoods, and so-called mega-churches, with buildings over 50 thousand square feet. A federal law limits the power of local governments to say “no” to buildings designed for religious use. The GLRC’s Linda Stephan reports:
Transcript
Religious groups are suing local governments across the country for denying permits to
build religious buildings. Part of the reason is that many churches are building bigger
buildings that take up acres of land. And many of the disputes are between rural
neighborhoods, and so-called mega-churches, with buildings over 50 thousand square feet.
A federal law limits the power of local governments to say “no” to buildings designed for
religious use. The GLRC’s Linda Stephan reports:
Bay Pointe Community Church prides itself on a contemporary worship style.
(Sound of singing, “Show your power, oh Lord our God, oh Lord our God”)
Members believe it’s their job to reach out to the world, and to the local community.
(Sound of singing, “to Asia and Austrailia, to South America and to the United States.
And to Michigan and Traverse City”)
But some people in the community think the church would be a bad neighbor. Right now,
the church in northern Michigan meets in a high school auditorium. But members have big plans for a
building of their own. It’ll be 58-thousand square-feet. That’s plenty of room for
Sunday school classes, a gym/auditorium, and even space enough to rent out to a
charter school on weekdays.
A year ago local township officials shot down those plans. They said the building’s
“too big,” that it would clash with the area, and that it would cause too much traffic.
Then the church sued, claiming religious discrimination.
The church has some unhappy neighbors in the rural area where it plans to build.
At a public hearing, resident Brian Vos told local officials NOT to back down,
regardless of the lawsuit.
“This isn’t about a church, this is about future development. Heck, Wal-Mart
could come in on East Long Lake. And if they had church on Sunday, you’d have to approve it.”
But, rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars defending itself in federal
court, the township settled out-of-court. It agreed to let the church build its building,
and even to let it expand to more than 100 thousand square feet within a few years.
Many residents are NOT happy with the deal and they’ve threatened to recall
the entire township board.
There are similar cases across the country. A recent federal law limits the ability of
zoning boards to say “no” to churches and other religious groups who want to build,
or to expand. Jared Leland represents the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The group is bankrolling lawsuits on behalf of churches across the nation. Leland says
the law was created because zoning boards have used bogus arguments to deny permits
to religious groups they don’t like:
“For instance, a Buddhist meditation center was being restricted from existing in a
particular district because they would generate too much ‘noise.’ They
were silent meditation Buddhists. There would absolutely be no noise coming from such.”
Leland says because of the law, today, a municipality needs a
“compelling government interest” to deny a religious building project.
That’s a serious issue that has to do with health, safety, or security.
He says municipalities are usually worried about how a building will look,
or about parking. And he says that’s not enough:
“For instance, if they say, well, something this large is gonna generate too
much traffic, it’s gonna cause parking concerns in the residential district,
those are not compelling government interests.”
But some say putting a mega-church in an area where the community
wants to preserve farmland or keep sprawl away from greenspace should be enough.
“The question is: What is valuable to Americans?”
Marci Hamilton is an expert on church-state law at Cardozo Law School in New York City.
She argues that residential neighborhoods should have some say about what’s being built
next door, through their local government.
Hamilton says the law that Congress passed, RLUIPA, the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, is an unprecedented Congressional power grab
from local governments. She says people expect local officials to protect their
neighborhoods from problems like traffic, and noise.
Hamilton says since just the threat of a federal court case is often
enough to force a settlement, there’s an incentive for churches to sue
local governments. Even where the case has no merit under RLUIPA:
“What we’re seeing is almost anything appearing on the mega-church campuses.
We have one in Texas that has a McDonald’s on campus. We have a mega-church in
Pennsylvania that has an automobile repair. I think it’s hard to argue that
those largely commercial activities appropriately fall under RLUIPA.”
Hamilton says she believes the Supreme Court will eventually rule
that the law violates state’s rights. But the High Court has yet to hear a
land use case under this law.
The EPA recently finalized its mercury reduction plan for coal-burning power plants. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage developing children. Now 16 states are taking the EPA to court, saying the so-called “cap-and-trade” plan doesn’t go far enough. The GLRC’s Gregory Warner reports:
Transcript
The EPA recently finalized its mercury reduction plan for coal-burning power
plants. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage developing children. Now
16 states are taking the EPA to court saying
the so-called “cap-and-trade” plan doesn’t go far enough. The GLRC’s
Gregory Warner reports:
The coalition of states filed the suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
DC Circuit, challenging the cap-and-trade rule.
Cap-and-trade allows operators of older power plants to swap pollution
credits with newer plants instead of minimizing their own emissions.
EPA regulators say their program will cut mercury pollution by 70 percent over the
next 12 years. The states say mercury is too dangerous for a go-slow
approach. Emily Green is with the Sierra Club:
“Just a little bit can cause major problems for children’s health in
particular, so right now we have the technology to reduce mercury from coal
plants by 90 percent, that’s what we should do.”
In contrast to the EPA rule, more than 20 states have adopted or are moving
to adopt more stringent rules to reduce mercury emissions.
Ten states are suing the U.S EPA over emission standards for power plants. Part of the lawsuit is aimed at air pollution that might lead to global warming. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Ten states are suing the U.S EPA over emission standards for power
plants. Part of the lawsuit is aimed at air pollution that might lead to
global warming. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
The Clean Air Act tells the EPA to revise emission standards for new
pollutants every eight years. The federal agency put out updated
regulations earlier this year, but some states argue the EPA failed to
regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
CO2 is believed to contribute to global warming. Wisconsin Attorney
General Peg Lautenschlager says there’s a scientific consensus that
increasing global temperatures will cause many problems with storms,
pollution and agriculture.
“So from that standpoint we think that the CO2 emissions issue particularly is
one where we need to get up to speed in the United States.”
The EPA defends its climate protection programs and says it’s following
President Bush’s plan to reduce greenhouse gases.
Raw sewage from urban areas is a big source of pollution
in the Great Lakes. And a lot of people are fighting over how best to keep it out. Now, the Milwaukee area’s sewer district is once again the focus of a bitter legal fight. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shawn Allee reports on the dispute:
Transcript
Raw sewage from urban areas is a big source of pollution in the Great Lakes. And a lot of people
are fighting over how best to keep it out. Now, the Milwaukee area’s sewer district is once again
the focus of a bitter legal fight. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shawn Allee reports on the
dispute:
Last week, Wisconsin’s Attorney General filed suit against the Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage district. The suit seeks extensive upgrades to keep raw sewage out of Wisconsin’s
waterways.
Last year, spring storms overwhelmed local sewers and the district dumped millions of gallons of
raw sewage into rivers and Lake Michigan. Sewer district spokesperson, Bill Graffin, says the
lawsuit seeks the impossible – a perfect sewer system.
“You can never ever say that you will eliminate all overflows, because you never know what
Mother Nature’s going to throw at you. If you design your system to the biggest storm you’ve
ever had, there’s always the possibility that a bigger storm’s going to come along.”
The district contends it’s already overwhelmed by current upgrade projects, which may cost
nearly a billion dollars. Many of those projects are required by previous lawsuits.
The Attorney General says the district must improve, and it should either raise additional money
itself or seek state assistance.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, also known as factory farms, produce a lot of animal waste. Some groups are worried that a new EPA rule will be too easy on enforcement of environmental regulations. (Photo courtesy of the EPA)
A coalition of environmental groups is asking a federal judge to review an agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and operators of large-scale livestock farms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman
reports:
Transcript
A coalition of environmental groups is asking a Federal Judge to review an agreement between the EPA and operators of large-scale livestock farms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:
The environmental groups say these large-scale farms are responsible for emitting harmful pollutants. The EPA recently offered farm operators the chance to take part in further studies on those emissions. In exchange, the agency relaxed its enforcement of certain environmental regulations during the period of the study.
The Environmental Integrity Project and three other groups recently filed a lawsuit questioning the legality of the agreement. Michelle Merkele is Senior Counsel for The Environmental Integrity Project. She says the agreement is unnecessary.
“The EPA has had the authority under the Clean Air Act to gather the kind of data it needs to determine emissions levels at these industrial farming operations. It doesn’t need the industry’s permission.”
The EPA says it believes the agreement is the best way to completely assess the situation and to eventually bring the entire industry into compliance.
Conservation groups want the FCC to be more careful about allowing the building of communications towers. The groups say the fate of millions of migratory birds may be at stake. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Conservation groups want the FCC to be more careful about allowing the
building of communications towers. The groups say the fate of millions
of migratory birds may be at stake. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Chuck Quirmbach reports:
A lawsuit recently re-filed in federal court charges the Federal
Communications Commission with failing to comply with several
environmental laws in its licensing of communications towers.
David Fischer of the American Bird Conservancy says the FCC rarely
considers the potential effect of towers on birds.
“On birds that have been known for many years now to fly in or around
or otherwise impact towers and either injure themselves or die.”
The lawsuit specifically involves towers along the Gulf Coast… which
is on the migration route of many birds that spend summers in the
Midwest. But the Bird Conservancy says the case may set an example for
tower projects all over the U.S.
The FCC says it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The
conservation groups first brought their case three years ago.
