"Mysteries of the Great Lakes" is an IMAX film highlighting the threats to Great Lakes wildlife (Photo by Lester Graham)
There’s a new IMAX film about the threats to wildlife around the Great Lakes. Chuck Quirmbach has more:
Transcript
There’s a new IMAX film about the threats to wildlife around the Great Lakes. Chuck Quirmbach has more:
The film “Mysteries of the Great Lakes” highlights some less commonly known stories, like that of the massive fish known as the lake sturgeon. Biologists are trying to bring the threatened fish back to healthy numbers.
Ron Bruch is a key figure in the new movie. Here, he discusses a 120 year old female sturgeon he’s seen numerous times on spawning runs.
“I’ve gone through this ritual eight times with this fish, and each time I wonder if it’ll be the last. But she’s a survivor and maybe 50 years from now, she’ll come up this river looking for me, and I’ll be gone.”
The film also looks at possible health risks to bald eagles, and what invasive species are doing to native wildlife.
“Mysteries of the Great Lakes” has started its run in several U.S. and Canadian cities.
Some feel the Great Lakes are being ignored by Congress (Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, NOAA)
The Great Lakes might be the most ignored
resource on the continent. Great Lakes advocates
say they have not been able to get enough attention
or money from Congress. Rebecca Williams reports
one group is outlining what needs to be done to fix
the Lakes before climate change makes things worse:
Transcript
The Great Lakes might be the most ignored
resource on the continent. Great Lakes advocates
say they have not been able to get enough attention
or money from Congress. Rebecca Williams reports
one group is outlining what needs to be done to fix
the Lakes before climate change makes things worse:
Washington D.C. is a long way from the Great Lakes. Most members of
Congress don’t live near the lakes. And many don’t understand just how big
they are.
Don Scavia used to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in Washington.
“I’ve spent 15 years inside the Beltway and I just know that the Great Lakes just don’t
have the same sense of urgency and importance inside the Beltway as some other places like the Chesapeake Bay and others have. Senators and
Congressmen don’t have boats on it like they do on the Chesapeake. I think
it’s a matter of if you haven’t been here, if you haven’t seen them, you
really don’t get it.”
These days, Don Scavia is a scientist at the University of Michigan. He’s a
co-author of a report on global warming and the Great Lakes. He says we
need to help the Great Lakes adapt to the changes that are already happening
because of global warming.
“The restoration strategy is put in place specifically to increase the
resiliency of the Lakes, increase the buffering capacity of the Lakes, to allow them
to adapt to this near-term climate change.”
Just about everyone around the Great Lakes has noticed that water levels are
dropping. Recreational boats can get stuck. Big cargo ships can’t get into
harbors. And they have to carry lighter loads when lake levels drop. That
means more trips, and, eventually, higher prices for all of us. And
climate change might make it worse.
On top of that, the Great Lakes are struggling with fisheries collapsing,
invasive species damaging the ecosystem, and pollution that’s never been
cleaned up.
Jeff Skelding is with the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.
“When Great Lakes effort began, we had a lot on our plate to deal with and
then we looked at the science of global warming and its impacts on the Great
Lakes it kinda froze us in our tracks. Now we’ve got global warming to
contend with.”
So, what do the advocates want from Congress?
There’s a $20-billion price tag on Great Lakes restoration.
Bits and pieces of it have gone before Congress. And there’s been some
progress on money for things like restoring wetlands. But for the most
part, most of the time, the Great Lakes just haven’t been a priority in
Washington.
Rahm Emanuel is a Congressman from Illinois. He holds a leadership position
among the House Democrats. He says he hopes the money will be approved by
Congress sometime soon.
“I don’t want another study, I don’t want to pay for another analysis, I’m
over studied, over analysis-ed. We know what it takes to fix it, we know
what the pollutants are, now we’ve got to put our money where our mouth is.”
Politically, the time might not get any better for Great Lakes advocates.
There’s a Census coming up and new Congressional district lines will be
drawn. The Great Lakes region will lose representation in the US House.
That means the Great Lakes states will lose clout in Congress.
So, the region’s members of Congress need to get a Great Lakes restoration
package to the next President before that happens. Great Lakes advocates
are hoping the next President – whether it’s McCain, Obama or Clinton – will
give the Great Lakes more attention, and money.
Zebra mussels were discovered 20 years ago, and have since spread across the country (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Researchers say they’ve found something
that will kill invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
The mussels got into the US in the ballast of
foreign ships. Since then they’ve spread throughout
the country. Rebecca Williams reports:
Transcript
Researchers say they’ve found something
that will kill invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
The mussels got into the US in the ballast of
foreign ships. Since then they’ve spread throughout
the country. Rebecca Williams reports:
So, let’s say you have a nasty pest, an invasive species. Then someone says, we can get rid of that
pest and it looks like there’s no environmental downside.
“It kinda sounds like snake oil. But it’s true.”
That’s Dan Molloy with the New York State Museum lab. He’s come up with a
way to kill zebra and quagga mussels.
Molloy says a strain of common bacteria is toxic to zebra and quagga
mussels. And, even if the bacteria are dead, they can still kill the
mussels.
“You know maybe horror stories of people applying biocontrol agents. And it
had effects they didn’t anticipate. We’re applying dead cells. And they’re
just as effective live or dead.”
It’s great news for power plants, because the mussels clog up intake
pipes.
But it’s not clear if the bacteria can kill mussels in open water.
Midwest states and Canadian provinces are conducting public forums this fall on a plan to control large-scale water withdrawals from the Great Lakes Basin. The plan is known as Annex 2001. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports… it’s already proving to be controversial:
Transcript
Midwest states and Canadian provinces are conducting public forums this
fall on a plan to control large-scale water withdrawals from the Great
Lakes Basin. The plan is known as Annex 2001. And as the Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports… it’s already proving to
be controversial:
The Great Lakes governors and Canadian provincial leaders have drafted
a plan setting standards for new water withdrawal requests. Thirsty
companies and communities outside the basin are expected to look at the
five lakes with increasing frequency. Environmental groups largely
like the proposal… though some want it made stronger.
But George Kuper of the Council of Great Lakes Industries says the plan
is too restrictive. At a regional hearing in Chicago, Kuper said
states and provinces that are competing to attract businesses could
block a diversion request.
“Regional review as now proposed would erode the ability of individual
governors and premiers to attract new jobs to their respective
jurisdictions. That’s a problem.”
In addition to the state meetings taking place, another regional
hearing is scheduled for September 20th in Toronto.
Many governments need to approve the Annex 2001 plan and the process is
expected to take a few years.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.
An environmental lobby group in Canada says the Ontario Ministry of Environment watches industrial plants pollute the Great Lakes, but rarely enforces pollution laws. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has the details:
Transcript
An environmental lobby group in Canada says the Ontario Ministry of Environment watches industrial plants pollute the Great Lakes, but rarely enforces pollution laws. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.
Between 1995 and 1999, polluters’ violated Ontario’s water pollution laws ten thousand times, but only eleven plants faced any penalties. Elaine McDonald is a staff scientist with the Sierra Legal Defense Fund, based in Toronto, which published a report on the findings. She says the problem started when the government cut the Ministry of Environment’s budget by about 40-percent:
“This resulted in lax enforcement in the field and– basically a policy of lax enforcement and therefore we saw this sudden increase in violations and very few charged being made.”
The Sierra Legal Defense Fund is calling on the Ontario government to crack down on Great Lakes polluters. The environmentalists say they do see signs of improvement, with more charges being filed in recent months against repeat pollution offenders. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lester Graham.
A Wisconsin member of Congress is warning the Coast Guard to pay more
attention to Great Lake’s needs. U-S Representative Dave Obey says he
is fed up with what he calls foot-dragging to replace the World War Two
vintage ice breaker, Mackinaw. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike
Simonson reports:
An environmental group wants to stop the U-S and Canada from
renegotiating an agreement on cleaning up the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that the first step the
group is taking is taking the voice of citizens from both countries to
the governments:
"Mysteries of the Great Lakes" is an IMAX film highlighting the threats to Great Lakes wildlife (Photo by Lester Graham)
