Tag: east coast

Part 2: Tidal Power in the Atlantic

  • A team from Verdant Energy attempts to install a turbine. (Photo courtesy of Verdant Energy)

An emerging industry has begun to harness the motion of waves, tides, and currents.
On the East Coast, several companies are already testing various technologies to
capture this new form of renewable energy, often called tidal power. While tidal
power is still in its infancy, companies studying it say it could
eventually be more profitable and more environmentally-friendly
than other forms of renewable energy. Amy Quinton reports:

Transcript

An emerging industry has begun to harness the motion of waves, tides, and currents.
On the East Coast, several companies are already testing various technologies to
capture this new form of renewable energy, often called tidal power. While tidal
power is still in its infancy, companies studying it say it could
eventually be more profitable and more environmentally-friendly
than other forms of renewable energy. Amy Quinton reports:


(Pare:) “Coming in it hits this shore pretty heavy, going out it hits the
Newington shore pretty heavy, it is a dramatic roar. It really is.”


Jack Pare, a retired aerospace systems engineer, points to the water
under the Little Bay Bridge in Dover, New Hampshire. Here, tides
from the Great Bay move quickly through a narrow opening to the
Piscataqua River – at almost nine feet per second at its maximum.


Pare sits on a state commission that will study tidal power generation
here under the bridge:


“It’s just one of many things you have to do if you want to – quote – ‘save the
planet’ or otherwise cut down on our carbon emissions.”


Renewable energy experts say energy from tides, currents and
waves could double the hydropower output in the U.S., producing
20% of the nation’s electricity. Right now, only one company
is producing tidal power so far in the United States.


A little known start-up called Verdant Power has six underwater
turbines, resembling windmills, in the East River in New York. Founder
Trey Taylor says those turbines can generate power 18 hours a day:


“That power is then put directly into a supermarket and a parking
garage. Oh and by the way, in that parking garage in New York City there are
electric vehicles that plug into tidal power, which we think is pretty
cool.”


Taylor foresees a time when 300 of these underwater turbines will
power about 8,000 homes in New York. Verdant Power has also
spent more than two million dollars putting high-tech equipment in
the water to test how fish would react to the slow moving turbines:


“All we’re seeing so far, and this is all recorded, is what we were told by fish biologists who we went to who did some modeling, is that fish would swim through them because they’re moving so slowly or that fish will swim around them. And what we’re seeing is, fish are swimming around them because there’s a lot of separation between the turbines.”


But Jack Pare points out the turbine technology that works well in
New York’s East River might not be appropriate for the Piscataqua:


“We have deep water shipping, we have harbor seals, we have stripers
and we have lobster, none of which are present on that other site. And so there’s
a little bit more to be careful of.”


But another company studying tidal power on the East Coast has
come up with a type of technology that may alleviate that problem.
Oceana Energy, which holds permits along the Piscataqua River, has
technology that looks like a large wheel, with an open center.
Project Manager Charles Cooper says that allows marine mammals
to swim through:


“The open center approach we think is both more environmentally
friendly and likely less costly and also likely to be able to be scaled to
different sizes and generate a lot for the amount of
hardware that has to be put together.”


But Cooper says each site is different, and Oceana remains open to
using other companies’ technology. He says tides in the Piscataqua
could theoretically produce about 100 megawatts of power,
enough for about 100,000 homes:


“That’s a substantial amount of power but I think that’s not really the main
emphasis of this type of development, this is going to be something that can be looked at as supplemental to the real base load energy generation.”


Cooper says while east coast tides have less strength than those on
the west coast, they come with more regularity and typically
surround heavily populated areas.


Verdant Power officials believe the renewable energy will eventually
be profitable – an early analysis shows tidal power costing Verdant
seven to eight cents per kilowatt hour.


Those energy costs are slightly higher than natural gas and fuel oil.
And so far, Verdant has produced that without government
subsidies.


For the Environment Report, I’m Amy Quinton.

Related Links

Getting Paid to Recycle

  • If you don't recycle, the bin can make a handy shelf. Cities are trying to get people who don't recycle much or at all... to get into the habit by offering them incentives.

Recycling can have some economic benefits. But as a country, we’re
just not doing that much of it. The US Environmental Protection
Agency says the national recycling rate has been hovering around 30%
for several years now. Rebecca Williams reports some cities
are trying to get people to recycle more… by paying them to recycle:

Transcript

Recycling can have some economic benefits. But as a country, we’re
just not doing that much of it. The US Environmental Protection
Agency says the national recycling rate has been hovering around 30%
for several years now. Rebecca Williams reports some cities
are trying to get people to recycle more… by paying them to recycle:


It’s not easy getting someone to admit they don’t recycle. But I was
over at my friend Andrea’s house for dinner, and she confessed.


(Sound of Andrea opening a can of beans)


“Normally I would take this can and throw it away in the garbage and
never look at it again. I don’t really like cleaning garbage to throw
it away.”


Now in her defense, she doesn’t really produce that much trash to begin
with. Maybe just one small bag a week.


Andrea says it just feels like too much work to recycle. Taking the
labels off, cleaning out the cans, walking down four flights of stairs.
Though they’re indoors and carpeted.


(Sound of garage door opening)


Right now she’s using her recycle bin as a shelf. She’s got some books
and a quart of oil sitting on it.


If Andrea did recycle, she’d have to drag her bin out to the curb from
the garage. About oh, three feet or so.


“In the mornings I run pretty late so just taking the garbage out and
lugging it down the stairs along with my bags for work is quite a hassle in
and of itself and I’m proud of myself for doing that, so… (laughs).”


Now… my friend can’t be the only one out there who doesn’t recycle.
A recent survey found that 28 states reported a decrease in their
recycling rates since 2001.


That’s not good news for cities, because cities can benefit from
recycling. If they can divert enough recyclables from the waste
stream, they can avoid some of the high costs of disposing waste in
landfills.


But even if you have trucks that drive around and pick up people’s cans
and newspapers from their curbs, there’s no guarantee they’ll put them
out there for you.


Unless, of course, you offer them a reward.


Some cities on the East Coast are paying people to recycle. They’re
using a company called RecycleBank.


With RecycleBank, you get a recycling container with a tracking chip
embedded in it. You can toss all your cans and newspapers and bottles
into that one container… so, none of that annoying sorting.


Ron Gonen is the company’s co-founder.


“There’s a mechanical arm on the truck that picks up your container,
reads the chip, identifies that your household recycled and how much
your household recycled. The amount that your household recycled is
translated into RecycleBank dollars.”


Those RecycleBank dollars can be cashed in as coupons to shop at more
than 300 stores.


“We really look at it from the lens of the recycling industry and that if
your household recycles you’re actually creating value, and some of
that value should be passed back to you.”


Gonen says each family can earn up to $400 a year. He says people are
so into it, they’re even bringing stuff from work to recycle at home.
And he says recycling rates have tripled or even quadrupled in
neighborhoods using RecycleBank.


But some cities have found incentives only work up to a point. So
they’re making it against the law not to recycle. Seattle, for
example, won’t pick up your trash if there’s stuff in it that could be
recycled.


Timothy Croll is Seattle’s Solid Waste Director. He says trash
collectors aren’t going through trash cans, but they are peeking in.


“It’s not like we’re taking these things into an MRI or anything like
that it’s just what the garbage collector can see at the top when they
open the lid.”


Croll says the law works. He says only a few trash cans have been left
behind with a note. And Seattle did try incentives first. The city
charges residents less for trash collection if they use a teeny little
trash can and recycle a lot more. Croll says that’s been pretty
successful. But he says the city wanted to push for even more
recycling… so, they made it a law.


“Some tools work better for some people than others. For some people
it might be they know it’s the right thing to do, but their lives are
busy, and unless you give them one more reason they’re just not going
to get over that threshold and do it. It’s like yeah I know, I know I
should floss too, you know?”


Croll says it’s up to cities to first make recycling convenient… And
then try sweetening the deal.


You know, my non-recycling friend DOES recycle her soda cans. She
lives in Michigan, so she gets 10 cents back for each one. It’s enough
of an incentive that she’s saving bags of cans at work and stashing
cans in every corner under her kitchen sink.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Related Links

Cities Cope With Pesticide Pollution

  • Farmers are using fewer pesticides these days. (photo by Don Breneman)

Today, we continue our series on pollution in the heartland. Farm pollution is one of the biggest contamination problems in the country. But unlike other industries, there are very few pollution restrictions on agriculture. In the second story of our week-long series, the GLRC’s Lester Graham reports when cities clean up pollution from pesticides, the cost ends up on their citizens’ water bills:

Transcript

Today, we continue our series on pollution in the heartland. Farm pollution is one of the biggest
contamination problems in the country. But unlike other industries, there are very few pollution
restrictions on agriculture. In the second story of our week-long series, the GLRC’s Lester
Graham reports when cities clean up pollution from pesticides the cost ends up on their citizens’
water bills:


Every city in the Corn Belt that gets its water from surface supplies such as lakes and rivers has to
deal with pesticide contamination. For the most part, the pesticide levels are below federal
standards for safe drinking water. But water treatment plants have to test for the chemicals and
other pollutants that wash in from farm fields.


Some cities have had to build artificial wetlands or take other more expensive measures to help
reduce pollution such as nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticides.


Craig Cummings is the Water Director for the City of Bloomington, Illinois.


“Well, you know, it is an expense that, you know, we would rather not bear, obviously. We
don’t, you know, particularly like to pass that on to our customers. But, again, it’s understood
that we’re not going to have crystal clear, pristine waters here in the Midwest. But, that’s not to
say that we should stick our head in the sand and not work with the producers. At least here in
our little neck of the woods we think we have a great working relationship with the producers.”


Part of that working relationship is a liaison with the farmers.


Jim Rutheford has worked with farmers in the area on soil conservation issues for decades. He’s
showing me the artificial wetlands that the City of Bloomington is monitoring to see if it can help
reduce some of the contaminants that end up in the city’s water supply. The wetlands reduce
nitrogen runoff and filter out some of the pesticides such as atrazine that otherwise would end up
in Bloomington’s lake.


“The atrazine was used back several years ago in high concentrated amounts. Its effects were if
you get a flush of rain after your atrazine is put on, it comes into the lake.”


Rutherford says for a very long time atrazine has been popular with corn farmers.


“It’s the cheapest, but it’s also gives more problems as far as water quality is concerned.”


Because atrazine has been so popular, a lot of farmers use it and it’s polluted some lakes to the
point they exceeded safe drinking water standards.


In one test during spring applications of atrazine, National Oceanic and Atmospherica
Administration scientists found so much of the chemical had evaporated from Midwest farm
fields that rain in some parts of the East Coast had atrazine levels that exceeded safe drinking
water levels.


But atrazine levels have been going down. It’s not so much because of artificial wetlands or
because farmers are concerned about pesticide pollution, although some of them have expressed
concern. Atrazine has not been as much of a problem because more and more farmers are
switching to genetically modified crops such as Round-Up Ready soybeans and more recently
Round-Up Ready corn. The Monsanto seed is genetically altered so that the Monsanto pesticide,
Round-Up, can be applied to the fields and not hurt the crops. And Round-Up doesn’t cause the
kind of water pollution that atrazine does.


Mike Kelly is a farmer who’s concerned about reducing storm water runoff from farm fields.


“A lot of the herbicides that we’re using attack the plant, not the soil. For example, Round-Up
does not hang around in the soil. Now, I do still use atrazine. It does attach to soil particles. But
there’s where the advantage of no-till–the soil staying put in the field–as you said, we’re not
getting as much erosion, so it stays put and breaks down the way it’s supposed to.”


Kelly use a conservation tillage method that doesn’t plow up the soil the way traditional methods
do. That means less soil erosion so pesticides aren’t as likely to end up in waterways. And Kelly says low-till and no-till methods are beginning to get a hand from nature:


“Definitely conservation tillage and no-till is going to help keep herbicides in the field. Again, he
do see increased infiltration through better soil structure and also through earthworms coming
back, creating holes about the size of a pencil three to four feet deep in our soils. That is a nice
avenue for water to infiltrate rather than run off.”


And if more of the water percolates down into the soil, less of it is going to end up polluting
water supplies such as the City of Bloomington’s lake.


Water Director Craig Cummings says they city encourages voluntary efforts like Mike Kelly’s.
Cummings says the city depends on the farming community too much to point a finger, accusing
farmers of pollution.


“We recognize that we’re in the breadbasket of the world here. And we’re going to see with the
kind of agricultural practices that we have here in the Midwest or United States, we’re going to
see some of these contaminants.”


Cummings says it’s not a matter of eliminating pesticide contamination at the source, but
rather a matter of the city keeping levels low enough that the water is safe to drink.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

Ten Threats: Expanding the Seaway

  • A freighter leaving the Duluth harbor in Minnesota. (Photo courtesy of EPA)

One of the Ten Threats to the Great Lakes identified by many of the experts we surveyed
is dredging channels deeper and wider for larger ocean-going ships. In the 1950s, engineers
carved a shipping channel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence
River. The St. Lawrence Seaway was to make ports in cities such as Chicago and Duluth main
players in global commerce. Today, the Seaway operates at less than half its capacity.
That’s because only five percent of the world’s cargo fleet can fit through its locks and
channels. For decades, the shipping industry has wanted to make them bigger. David
Sommerstein reports:

Transcript

We’re continuing our series Ten Threats to the Great Lakes with a look at the idea of
letting bigger ships into the lakes. Lester Graham is our guide through the series.


One of the Ten Threats to the Great Lakes identified by many of the experts we surveyed
is dredging channels deeper and wider for larger ocean-going ships. In the 1950s, engineers
carved a shipping channel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence
River. The St. Lawrence Seaway was to make ports in cities such as Chicago and Duluth main
players in global commerce. Today, the Seaway operates at less than half its capacity.
That’s because only five percent of the world’s cargo fleet can fit through its locks and
channels. For decades, the shipping industry has wanted to make them bigger. David
Sommerstein reports:


(Sound of rumbling noise of front-loaders)


The port of Ogdensburg sits on the St. Lawrence River in northern New York State.
When the Seaway was built, local residents were promised an economic boom. Today
what Ogdensburg mostly gets is road salt.


(Sound of crashing cargo)


Road salt and a white mineral called Wallastonite – the Dutch use it to make ceramic tile.
Front-loaders push around mountains of the stuff. In all, the port of Ogdensburg
welcomes six freighters a year and employs just six people.


Other Great Lakes ports are much bigger, but the story is similar. They handle low-value
bulk goods – grain, ore, coal – plus higher value steel. But few sexy electronic goods
from Japan come through the Seaway, or the gijillion of knick-knacks from China or
South Korea.


James Oberstar is a Congressman from Duluth. He says there’s a reason why. A
dastardly coincidence doomed the Seaway.


“Just as the Seaway was under construction, Malcolm McLean, a shipping genius, hit on
the idea of moving goods in containers.”


Containers that fit right on trains and trucks. The problem was the ships that carry those
containers were already too big for the Seaway’s locks and channels.


“That idea of container shipping gave a huge boost of energy to the East Coast, Gulf
Coast, and West Coast ports, and to the railroads.”


Leaving Great Lakes ports behind ever since the regional shipping industry has wanted to
make the Seaway bigger.


The latest effort came in 2002, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studied the
economic benefits of expansion. The study said squeezing container ships through the
Seaway would bring a billion and a half dollars a year to ports like Chicago, Toledo, and
Duluth. But if you build it, would they come?


“Highly doubtful that container ships would come in. Highly doubtful.”


John Taylor is a transportation expert at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
He’s studied Seaway traffic patterns extensively. He says there would have to be “a sea
change” in global commerce.


“Rail is too competitive, too strong moving containers from the coast in and out say from
Montreal and Halifax and into Chicago and Detroit and so on, too cost-effective for it to
make sense for a ship to bring those same containers all the way to Chicago.”


The expansion study sparked a flurry of opposition across the Great Lakes. It failed to
mention the cost of replumbing the Seaway — an estimated 10 to 15 billion dollars. It
didn’t factor in invasive species that show up in foreign ships’ ballasts. Invasives already
cost the economy 5 billion dollars a year, and environmentalists said it glossed over the
ecological devastation of dredging and blasting a deeper channel.


Even the shipping industry has begun to distance itself from expansion. Steve Fisher
directs the American Great Lakes Ports Association.


“There was quite a bit of opposition expressed through the region, and in light of that
opposition we took stock of just how much and how strongly we felt on the issue and
quite frankly there just wasn’t a strong enough interest.”


Most experts now believe expansion won’t happen for at least another generation.
Environmentalists and other critics hope it won’t happen at all.


So instead, the Seaway is changing its tactics. Richard Corfe runs Canada’s side of the
waterway. He says the vast majority of Seaway traffic is actually between Great Lakes
ports, not overseas. So, the Seaway’s focus now is to lure more North American shippers
to use the locks and channels.


“Our efforts have to be towards maximizing the use of what we have now for the benefit
of both countries, the economic, environmental, and social benefit.”


Today, trucks and trains haul most goods from coastal ports to Great Lakes cities.
Shippers want to steal some of that cargo, take it off the roads and rails, and put it on
seaway ships headed for Great Lakes ports.


For the GLRC, I’m David Sommerstein.

Related Links

State Tries to Stem Flow of Trash

Two Great Lakes states – Pennsylvania and Michigan – top the list of destinations in North America for solid waste disposal. In Michigan, that designation is spurring action to slow the pace of trash being shipped to its landfills. We have more from the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta:

Transcript

Two Great Lakes states – Pennsylvania and Michigan – top the list of destinations in North
America for solid waste disposal. In Michigan, that designation is spurring action to slow the
pace of trash being shipped to its landfills. We have more from the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Rick Pluta:


A new report says one-quarter of the trash going to Michigan’s landfills comes from out-of-state.
Some of it is from neighboring Midwest states such as Illinois and Indiana, some it from as far
away as the east coast. Most of Michigan’s out-of-state waste comes from Canada.


Landfill space is abundant in Michigan and dumping costs are low. But there’s a movement afoot
to try and slow the pace of trash headed to Michigan landfills.


Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.


“We have sited so many landfills over the past decade or so that we have literally become the
dumping ground of North America.”


Legislation is pending to limit the types of waste that can be dumped in the state’s landfills, and
to make dumping more expensive.


Those efforts have been dealt a setback. A court has ruled transporting trash is a form of
interstate commerce that can only be regulated by the U.S. government.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Rick Pluta.

Related Links

Anglers Offered Alternatives to Toxic Lead Sinkers

  • Dave Zentner caught a smallmouth bass using a bismuth sinker. Zentner is active in the Izaak Walton League, and he wants more anglers to switch to non-lead tackle, which can poison eagles, loons and other water birds. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)

Anglers around the Great Lakes region are starting to pay more attention to some of the smallest and most humble pieces of gear in their tackle box – lead weights and jigs. Recent research shows lead fishing tackle is killing eagles, loons and other water birds. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:

Transcript

Anglers around the Great Lakes region are starting to pay more attention to some of the smallest
and most humble pieces of gear in their tackle box – lead weights and jigs. Recent research shows
lead fishing tackle is killing eagles, loons and other water birds. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:


Outside a Gander Mountain outdoor gear store in Duluth, Minnesota, there’s a steady stream of
people dropping lead tackle into a cardboard box. They bring it in plastic bags, in jars, and in the
original wrappers. They walk away with a small supply of sinkers made of steel, tungsten, or
bismuth.


Jim Simmons says he doesn’t use much lead tackle, but he’s ready to get rid of most of his supply.


“Well, I just brought in one package of split shot,” he says.


“What did they give you in exchange?”


“Some jigs, a couple of weights.”


“What are they made of?”


“They’re made of steel, and one is ceramic.”


“How do you think it will work?”


“I think it’ll work fine. We’ll try it out, give it a shot anyway!”


Inside the store, another angler says he doesn’t want to poison loons, but he isn’t ready to give up
his investment in lead weights.


“I have the tackle so I might as well use it,” he says. “Maybe I’ll switch to the other stuff, as I use
up the old.”


But a lot of anglers simply don’t realize lead tackle could be hurting wildlife.


No one uses lead shot for hunting anymore. It was banned years ago. But loons, eagles, and other
birds are still dying from lead poisoning.


Eagles can be poisoned by eating birds that have eaten lead.


Loons dive to the bottom of lakes and pick up pebbles and eat them. The pebbles go to the bird’s
gizzard, where they help grind up the small fish they eat. If they happen to swallow a lead sinker
or jig that some angler has lost, it only takes a small piece to poison the bird.


Some studies in New England have found as many as half the loons could be dying from lead
poisoning. In the Midwest, the figure is lower, but more research is underway.


Dave Zentner loves to fish. He’s an active member of the Isaac Walton League, a national
conservation organization.


He’s trying out the non-lead jigs for the first time, from a canoe in the St. Louis River near Duluth.
He keeps getting his line caught in the rocks on the bottom.


“There’s nothing that feels differently to me about this tungsten jig. It fishes with that twister-tail
just like any lead jig I would have hooked on before. And it sure as heck has been effective in
getting me snagged up!”


Zentner casts over and over, and loses his jig in the rocks. He reaches for another one, made of
bismuth.


“We left a piece of fishing gear down there,” he says. “And if a loon or a merganser decides to try
to eat it, we haven’t left something that’s going to make it sick.”


Dave Zentner was hoping the Minnesota legislature would ban lead tackle. Small lead sinkers are
banned in New Hampshire, Maine, and national parks in Canada. A New York ban takes effect
next spring. But in Minnesota, fishing groups and tackle manufacturers fought the bill.


So instead, the state is running a voluntary exchange program, and hoping to raise awareness
among anglers.


Zentner says some people won’t want to spend a little extra for the bismuth and tungsten weights
that behave like lead. But he says prices will come down as the demand goes up.


“And let’s make a little sacrifice, even if the price is a little higher,” he says. “We buy RVs and
ATVs and boats and motors, we spend thousands and thousands of dollars. And this is a
proposition that’s miniscule compared to that one.”


So far, a few tackle manufacturers have added non-lead alternatives to their product lines. But
there aren’t nearly as many choices as the lead products offer. Manufacturers are reluctant to re-
tool until they know people will buy the new lead-free products.


It could take years to persuade large numbers of anglers to switch from their tried and true gear.
But Dave Zentner says that’s what he’s going to try to do.


“We don’t want to put the tackle people out of business, we want them to stay in business,” he
says. “But we’re simply saying – it appears there’s a problem; let’s go to work on it, let’s educate,
let’s experiment, let’s work together.”


Finally Zentner proves the non-lead tackle works by catching a small-mouth bass.


“And it is a little guy!”


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.