Month: November 2003

Drilling for Oil and Gas Near the Great Lakes

  • The AuSable River in Michigan is a popular destination for trout anglers. (Photo courtesy of Erin Hull)

A popular trout stream is the focus of a new battle over oil and gas development in the Great Lakes region. An energy company wants to drill for oil and gas under a publicly-owned natural area. The ensuing controversy is a complex round in an old debate over protection of wildlife habitat versus development of valuable mineral rights. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:

Transcript

A popular trout stream is the focus of a new battle over oil and gas development in the Great
Lakes region. An energy company wants to drill for oil and gas under a publicly-owned natural
area. The ensuing controversy is a complex round in an old debate over protection of wildlife
habitat versus development of valuable mineral rights. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Sally Eisele reports:


The Mason Tract is one of the last semi-wilderness areas in Michigan’s lower peninsula. The
hilly, forested acres by the south branch of the Au Sable River are the historical playground of
Henry Ford, George Mason, and other early auto executives, who made the difficult journey
North to fish for the stream’s elusive trout. The land belonged to Mason and he bequeathed it to
the state when he died in 1955 with the condition that it remain undeveloped.


(sound of stream)


On this rainy autumn day, the land looks much as it did then. The river winds its way through 14
miles of red pine, aspen and birch. And the brown trout that lurk in the shadows of the stream are
still legendary.


“People come from all over the world to fish and recreate along this river system.”


Rusty Gates owns a small fishing lodge nearby and is founder and president of a group called
Anglers of the Au Sable. He has lived by the river most of his life.


“The Mason tract. You go over to the trails and they are the way they’ve been for the last 50
years. You’re just as likely to see deer, turkey bear. This is just one of the best special spots left
in northern lower Michigan and it’s worth preserving.”


Gates leads the way up a well-worn trail from the river here to a small open air chapel—a slate-
roofed sanctuary, basically—built in memory of George Mason. But just over the rise, the land is
part of the Huron National forest. It’s on that federal land that the Savoy Energy Company of
Traverse City wants to drill a two-mile deep slant well to access the mineral deposits it has leased
under the state-owned Mason Tract. Rusty Gates learned about the plan on June 10th.


“On the 15th , I sent out an email letting people see this notice. And within 20 minutes I had a
response back from Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta and Vermont. People offering to help.”


The drilling proposal has drawn heavy opposition from environmentalists, sports enthusiasts and
some lawmakers who raise a host of concerns. If the well is drilled, a road will be built, trees will
be cut down and, at least initially, a well will be pumping oil or natural gas not far from the
chapel 24 hours a day. Opponents are worried about noise, possible spills and noxious odors.
They complain that the effect of any drilling will be to destroy the character of this unique tract of
land. Savoy Energy has refused repeated requests for interviews. The state Department of
Environmental Quality has twice rejected Savoy’s application for a drilling permit, asking the
company to consider other sites for the wellhead itself. But DEQ spokesman Hal Fitch says
legally, Savoy is on solid ground.


“The leases give the company the right to go in and explore for and develop and produce oil and
natural gas. We need to take into account the citizens concerns there. But we need to do it in a
way that honors those concerns as well as the property rights of Savoy Energy.”


Property rights are at the heart of this dispute. In a situation that goes back to the early settlement
of the country, land and the mineral rights are often owned separately. In Michigan, the mineral
rights dominate, and sometimes state, federal and private interests collide. A similar conflict over
proposed drilling along the Lake Michigan dunes ten years ago cost the state 90 million dollars to
settle. David Dempsey of the Michigan Environmental Council says the Mason Tract fight could
also be costly if a compromise isn’t reached.


“I think it’s part of a much bigger issue that’s going to continue until we live up to our
responsibilities as a people and as a government. The issue is, are there some areas that are
publicly owned either the surface or the subsurface that are so sensitive they should never be
developed?”


The Mason Tract issue has renewed calls for laws better protecting sensitive watersheds. But
University of Michigan geologist Steven Kesler cautions, there is no way to eliminate risk in oil
and gas exploration.


There’s no way you could drill a well and assure yourself there would not be an accident.
I think it would be fair to say the risks are small, but the risks are there.”


Kesler notes that with more than 11-thousand oil and gas wells currently in operation, Michigan’s
track record is good. And with increased demand for domestic fuel sources, he says conflicts
between the stewards of the land and the stewards of the minerals are inevitable.


“When I put on my geologists hat, I see a state with a pretty good distribution of oil and gas
resources and I see a country that desperately needs oil and natural gas. Looking at it that way, I
find myself thinking we’ve got to find ways to preserve land and at the same time, use it as
responsibly as we can.”


At this point, no one is saying Savoy Energy should not be allowed to drill for the oil and gas
deposits under the Mason Tract. In fact, with state and federal approval, drilling could begin this
winter. But if the wellhead isn’t located far enough from the river to address concerns about its
impact on George Mason’s legacy, the fight could escalate into yet another legal battle over
which is more important—protection of wild areas or extraction of the oil and gas far beneath
them.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sally Eisele.

Related Links

State to Test Breast Milk for Toxins?

California could be on the forefront of a new scientific approach that tests people for pollution. A measure in the state legislature would require the state to monitor mothers’ breast milk for dangerous toxins, such as pesticides or PCBs. Supporters of the legislation are hoping “biomonitoring” will catch on in other states too. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

California could be on the forefront of a new scientific
approach that tests people for pollution. A measure in the state
Legislature would require the state to monitor mothers’ breast
milk for dangerous toxins, such as pesticides or PCBs.
Supporters of the legislation are hoping “biomonitoring” will
catch on in other states too. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:


Biomonitoring is based on the suspicion that environmental
pollutants play a part in many cancers and other diseases. The
California program would focus on women’s breast milk, since
many chemicals can be found in fat cells located in the breasts.
The Breast Cancer Fund is a major backer of the California
biomonitoring effort.


Jeanne Rizzo is the group’s executive director.


“We’ve spent 30 billion dollars to look at treatment and
to look at a cure for breast cancer. We have spent very
little, a very small amount of money to look at what could
be contributing to the causes. Biomonitoring will give us
an opportunity to measure the synthetic chemicals, the
pollution in people, in the target organ for breast cancer.”


Some critics of biomonitoring fear it could cause women to
stop breast feeding. Or that insurance companies or employers
might use the information against people.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consoritum, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

Watchdog Group Goes to Court Over Sewage Overflows

An environmental watchdog group says the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has dumped one billion gallons of raw waste into Lake Michigan over the past eight years. Now it’s taking its case to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jenny Lawton reports:

Transcript

An environmental watchdog group says the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has
dumped 1-billion gallons of raw waste into Lake Michigan over the past 8 years. Now it’s taking
it’s case to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jenny
Lawton reports:


The Chicago-based Lake Michigan Federation says bacterial waste released from Milwaukee
continues to threaten Lake Michigan’s beaches.


The problem stems from Milwaukee’s underground sewage system…which isn’t big enough to
accomodate the city’s waste.


The Sewerage District has plans to upgrade the system by 2010.


But the Federation says that’s not soon enough.


Executive director Cameron Davis wants the Court to force the sewerage district to make the
changes by imposing fines.


“As long as there aren’t financial incentives to do that, what we’re going to see is kind of this
incremental, small step to small step approach sewage overflows in the region. And that’s simply
not acceptable.”


But last month, a Milwaukee federal district court dismissed a similar lawsuit… saying state
agencies had enforced the laws diligently.


Now the Federation hopes to prove to the U.S. Court of Appeals that Milwaukee has racked up
over 100 federal Clean Water Act violations in the past few years.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jenny Lawton.

Related Links

Enviro Group Brings Ad Campaign to Obituaries

Environmental groups often send mailers, hold fundraisers, and organize protests to raise awareness for a cause. But a Minnesota group tried a more unusual approach. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:

Transcript

Environmental groups often send mailers, hold fundraisers, and
organize protests to raise awareness for a cause. But a Minnesota group
tried a more unusual approach. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports.


Near the obituary section of the St. Paul newspaper, readers recently came
across this. Lake Patricia, age 12,830, dies after a grueling battle with
contaminated run-off. The ad in the form of a death announcement is part of
a fall campaign from the group Metro Watershed Partners. They’re hoping to
get people to rake their leaves. Ron Struss is with the University of
Minnesota extension service, and took part in the campaign. He says leaves
contain phosphorus, which causes harmful algae blooms if leaves wash into
lakes and streams. Struss says the obit hit home in the land of 10,000
lakes.


“Lakes are very dear to people in the state, and folks that have a
life-long association, and even through generations, loss of water quality
in a lake is taken as a loss of something that’s personal to them that’s
gone.”


Struss says the campaign has been successful. He says more people are
raking their leaves and telling their neighbors about the run-off problem.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Christina Shockley.

Unions Sue Over Factory Air Quality

The United Auto Workers and United Steelworkers of America have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Labor Department. The unions want the federal department to set clean air standards inside factories. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jerome Vaughn has details:

Transcript

The United Auto Workers and United Steelworkers of America have filed a
lawsuit against the U.S. Labor Department. The unions want the federal
department to set clean air standards inside factories. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Jerome Vaughn has details:


The Unions want a federal appeals court in Philadelphia to order the Labor
Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration otherwise known
as OSHA to issue new indoor clean air standards. The regulations would
reduce exposure to toxic metal working fluids used in building
automobiles, aircraft, and other products.


The UAW and the Steelworkers union say the current regulations instituted
in 1971 just aren’t stringent enough. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control
says there’s substantial evidence that the fluids can cause cancer of the
larynx, pancreas, skin and bladder.


The unions originally petitioned the Labor Department to change its
regulations back in 1993 but the agency has not explained its reasons for
refusing to make the changes.


The Labor Department says its highest priority is the health and well-being
of U.S. workers.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jerome Vaughn in Detroit.

Related Links

“Forbidden Fruit” Worries Foresters

In Europe, the black currant fruit is really popular, but chances are, you’ve never tasted it here. Farming black currants was banned nearly a hundred years ago because the plant spread disease through forests. Now, states are easing up on their bans, and growers are determined to bring this “forbidden fruit” to the American palate. But forestry experts caution that the black currant revival may still pose a danger to trees. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lisa Phillips reports:

Transcript

In Europe, the black currant fruit is really popular, but chances are you’ve never tasted it here.
Farming black currants was banned nearly a hundred years ago because the plant spread disease
through forests. Now, states are easing up on their bans, and growers are determined to bring this
“forbidden fruit” to the American palate. But forestry experts caution that the black currant
revival may still pose a danger to trees. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lisa Phillips
reports:


Greg Quinn is quite an entrepreneur. He’s run a restaurant in Europe and been the “garden guy”
for a New York City television station. Now, he’s living upstate on a farm in the Hudson Valley
region. His latest money making idea is black currants.


“Nobody in this country virtually knows what a currant is. In fact what people think currants are
are generally not currants. Those little dried raisin-y things are usually grapes and they’ve been
incorrectly dubbed currants. So no one knows what a currant is and Americans love new things.”


When he started looking into the black currant business, though, he ran into a problem: the fruit
was illegal. It had been banned since 1911 because of the role it played in spreading blister rust
through white pine forests. The disease moved from pine tree to currant shrub to pine tree, killing
young pines and damaging mature ones. Back then, timber was more important than berries, so
black currant cultivation was outlawed. The berries, which are native to the U. S., continued to
grow wild in the forest, though, and Quinn saw this as evidence that black currant and pine could
coexist. After months of lobbying the state legislature, Quinn got the ban lifted. Now, he’s free to
farm black currants.


(sound of Quinn walking up to currant crop)


“So these are some of the new varieties in here. Not much to look at but you can see the new
cuttings and so forth. Right now there’s probably less than a hundred. But by next Spring I hope
to have several thousand. And that’s really again the tip of the iceberg.”


Quinn’s quest is to make black currants the latest “hot fruit” on the market, with juices, teas,
wines, candies, and other products. He’s not the only one with the idea. Recently, five other states
ended their black currant bans, and there are black currant start up farms in Indiana, Utah,
Oregon, Connecticut, and Vermont. But some forest experts say states should proceed with
caution. Dale Bergdahl is a University of Vermont Forest Pathologist. He points out that in
Vermont, where black currant cultivation is legal, blister rust infects twenty percent of white pine
saplings and nearly a third of pole-sized white pines.


“If we begin planting more and more of these black currant species, the opportunity is there for
more infection to develop on our white pines, and that of course would be a detriment to the
timber industry. So in the long run there is risk involved and that risk needs to be seriously
considered.”


New York state officials say the state is proceeding with caution. Steve McKay is an agricultural
educator with the state’s extension service. He says the law signed last summer is designed to
keep black currants, which he refers to as “ribes,” away from situations most likely to promote the
spread of blister rust to white pine trees.


“The worst problem is when seedlings are young, and you’re in a place where there’s a lot of
moisture, and you have the ribes very close to where you’ve got those plantings. Because if you
get the infection started when the trees are young, it can cause girding in the trunk which within
five to seven years will kill the tree. When the trees are infected at a later stage in life, the disease
won’t travel back down the branch and gird the tree. So the bottom line is if you can get the trees
up to size without having had an infection at a young stage, then it wouldn’t be a problem.”


New York’s new law limits black currant cultivation to state-approved “fruiting districts,” meant
to avoid these conditions. But forest pathologist Dale Bergdahl doesn’t think these districts will
keep young white pines safe from blister rust. He’s skeptical of other black currant compromises,
too – such as the disease-resistant black currant varieties growers in New York and elsewhere are
trying. The reason, he says, is simple: black currants produce seeds, and there’s little control over
where they end up.


“Birds are going to carry it off and deposit it across the landscape in various ways. The next
generation of ribes may have no resemblance to the parent. That seed deposited in the field, by
birds, will grow up to be potentially susceptible to white pine blister rust. That in itself suggests
that there are some problems beyond the planting.”


Bergdahl says there is one compromise he would accept: seedless varieties of black currant. But
that could take some time to develop, and black currant advocates such as Greg Quinn are
showing no signs of waiting around.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lisa Phillips.

Utilities Struggle to Sell ‘Green’ Power

  • Power companies say there's no great demand from consumers for alternative energy sources such as wind-powered generators. (Photo by Lester Graham)

Many public power companies across the country have begun so-called “green power” programs. They offer customers energy produced from something other than coal, such as wind or water – if customers agree to pay higher rates. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports, many utilities are having a tough time getting people interested in green power:

Transcript

Many public power companies across the country have begun so-called “green power” programs.
They offer customers energy produced from something other than coal, such as wind or water, if
customers agree to pay higher rates. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner
reports, many utilities are having a tough time getting people interested in green power:


There are two-thousand public power utilities in the United States. They’re run by local
governments, and are essentially owned by their customers – instead of by investors. A handful of
public utilities have begun offering special “green power” programs. And some of them are working
quite well.


In Minnesota, Moorhead Public Service built a second wind turbine because its “Capture the Wind”
program has been so successful. But that’s not been the case for many municipal-owned utilities.


(power plant sound up/under)


The Board of Water and Light in Lansing, Michigan, is the largest public utility in the Great Lakes
region. It began buying green power two years ago – half of it is made from landfill gas, the rest is
hydro power produced at dams in northeast Michigan. Customers can get half their power from
those sources for an extra seven-dollars-and-fifty-cents a month.


But the program hasn’t been as popular as the utility had hoped. Spokesperson John Strickler says
only 700 of the company’s 100-thousand customers have signed up for it.


“We were a little bit surprised and a little bit disappointed that we didn’t have more
customers subscribe to that product.”


It’s a problem many power companies are having. Joe Nipper is with the American Public Power
Association. He says for one reason or another, people just don’t seem to be willing to pay more
for cleaner energy.


“For many folks the power bill is a significant part of their bills every month and they watch
that closely. I think maybe another part of it is despite the effort by Lansing and others to
make the public aware of the benefits of these programs, still, in all, in some cases, little is
understood about them.”


Some environmentalists say power companies need to tell people that burning coal in power plants
pollutes the air they breathe. And that green power doesn’t release harmful emissions. David Gard
is with the Michigan Environmental Council.


“People don’t understand generally that there is a very close connection between smog and
soot pollution that come mainly from power plants and very severe health impacts that we
end up paying for as a society in very major ways. We have lots of evidence that the kinds
of pollutants that come out of coal-fired power plants are causing childhood asthma,
mercury poisoning of fish, which are then eaten by people, and other kinds of diseases.”


Gard commends the Lansing Board of Water and Light for attempting to sell cleaner energy, but he
argues the green power program will never be successful the way it’s set up now. Gard says
instead of a voluntary program, all customers should share the cost of green power.
But the Board of Water and Light’s Nick Burwell says the utility won’t raise rates unilaterally for a
service people are not demanding.


“We basically have a dual role. One in providing electricity and the other in protecting our
owners and working for our owners. And basically whatever they want is what we will
provide. If out of the blue they were to suddenly say we want you to spend this much money
and become, oh I don’t know, some new technology and triple our bills, that would be great
with us because they own us. They drive what we do and the actions we take.”


And so far, rate payers have shown they’re not that interested in buying green power. Lansing
Board of Water and Light officials say they take their responsibility to the environment and to the
health of their customers very seriously. But they say unless more people become willing to pay for
cleaner energy, they likely won’t expand the program any further.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

Cabinetmakers Reclaim Historic Wood

  • Loggers at the turn of the last century direct their harvest down the Rum River. (Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society)

At the turn of the last century, lumberjacks throughout the northern U.S. and Canada sent millions of logs downriver. Many were destined for ships headed to Great Britain. But about ten percent of the logs sank along the way. In recent years, some of that old wood has been retrieved and sold on the market. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports on a pair of cabinetmakers who are using it to recapture a part of history:

Transcript

At the turn of the last century, lumberjacks throughout the northern U.S. and Canada sent
millions of logs downriver. Many were destined for ships headed to Great Britain. But
about ten percent of the logs sank along the way. In recent years, some of that old wood
has been retrieved and sold on the market. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen
Kelly reports on a pair of cabinetmakers who are using it to recapture a part of history:


(drilling)


Dave Sharpe balances a cupboard door against its frame as his brother Andy secures it with
a screw.


They’re installing cabinets in a cottage tucked into the woods of Quebec.


The cabinets are made from century-old pine logs that Dave says were pulled from the
bottom of the Ottawa River.


“I think it’s unbelievable when you think that we’re working with wood that was destined to
go to England like maybe 150 years ago. I always wonder what these old guys that cut the
logs would think if they knew it was 2003 and here we are installing a kitchen in Quebec
with the lumber that they cut. They’d probably think we were crazy for bringing it back
up.”


(pounding)


But for Dave and Andy Sharpe, this wood is a source of inspiration. They design and build
cabinets and furniture in the small town of Havelock, Ontario. They prefer this lumber
because it’s 20 percent denser and heavier than commercial pine. That’s because the logs
came from forests that had never been harvested before.


Plus, the colors are unique. The lumber has spent decades lying on the bottom of the river.
There, it was exposed to minerals that left streaks of red, yellow and blue. Mostly, the
wood has the look of a marble cake. There are stark contrasts between lights and darks.


Andy says the reclaimed lumber has changed the way he approaches his work.


“Sometimes you’ll find a unique board and you’ll set that board aside because you know it
would make a neat board in a table or something. The other thing, you tend to use more
hand tools on this wood than what you do the commercial pine. You just feel, you want to
feel the wood.”


(planing)


Andy slides a hand planer along the edge of a door.


Tiny curls of wood fall into a pile as he carefully molds the door to the frame.


While Andy and Dave love the feel of the wood, and the color, they say what really
inspires them is the story behind it.


At the turn of the last century, about two thirds of men in the Ottawa area worked in the
lumber industry. They spent the winter in rough cabins, cutting down trees and piling them
on the ice. Come spring, they’d ride the logs downriver.


Dave says those men are always present to him while he’s working.


“I can’t pick up a piece of it where I don’t think of the old days and the men that lived on
the rivers while they were driving the logs and lost their lives. Really, it fascinates me and I
think that I feel closer to them. I feel like I’m a part of that chain. I feel kind of like the
end of the log boom in Canada.


(brothers talking)


That passion influences customers too.


Will Lockhart hired the Sharpes to renovate the kitchen in his cabin.


The cabin’s an important part of his family’s history.


But he wanted it to represent the history of the region as well.


“Today, a lot of people don’t know about the logging days and it used to be, as Dave and
Andy mentioned, such an important part of this part of the world. I mean, everybody was
involved in it. The rivers were full of logs and we don’t know that anymore.”


(sound)


Dave Sharpe says, when he builds a piece of furniture, he imagines someone passing it on
to their grandchildren.


And telling them the story of Canada’s lumberjacks.


It’s estimated that the supply of reclaimed wood will be exhausted within 40 years.


Dave and Andy Sharpe plan to devote that time to preserving it in their furniture – leaving
behind a tangible piece of history.


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