Boat Tour Stops in Erie, PA

The boat tour sails on. Erie, PA – home of Presque Isle Bay, the first Area of Concern to be designated by citizen petition, and the first to reach “Area of Recovery” status – hosted the Earth Voyager earlier this month. Checkout press hits below:

http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/stcasx/va92win15111/VOYAGER061108.wmv/play.asx

http://www.wicu12.com/news/index.vnss?newsid=5664

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/NEWS02/806130377

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS02/806120386/-1/NEWS

Don’t forget to sign the petition to the presidential candidates.

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Almost There…

Fish in Deer Lake, Michigan have so much mercury running through their gills that they were banned from dinner plates in 1981, a century after Ropes Gold and Silver Company used liquid mercury to recover gold from ore just north of the basin of the Lake. But more recently, mercury salts were used by Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company in iron ore assays and made their way into the waters during this century. And that is just the mercury - we haven’t even mentioned the decades of untreated waste that was sent into this watershed. The fish weren’t the only damaged goods either, local wildlife has suffered too, such as Bald Eagles that never had any babies – until recently - in 1998 researchers discovered baby eagles. That is because this AOC has come a long way from the early 1980s when it was first designated a troubled area and now it is nearing delisting.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

Can’t Fish, Can’t Swim, What Can You Do?

Folks in Green Bay, Wisconsin only get a few months a year to enjoy the summer sunshine, but even then they can’t fish, boat, swim, hunt or recreate without restrictions. The mallard ducks and a dozen species of fish can’t be eaten and birds aren’t reproducing either. The economy is hurt by the fact that the harbor and channel can’t be dredged due to all the contaminated sediments. Eighteen counties and forty watersheds lie within this Area of Concern yet it lingers on the list and moves ever so slowly toward any restoration.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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The Mystique of Manistique

A hundred years ago, lumber jacks rolled logs on the Manistique River that ends at the mouth of Lake Michigan. Today, the sawdust still sits in the riverbed and in the Lake harbor along with eroded sand from the years of log drives. Since those days, the river hasn’t fared much better, instead paper mills deliver PCB’s, small industry pollutes it further as does the waste water treatment plant and ferries, recreation boats and commercial fishing vessels. The result has been numerous beach closings, restrictions on eating fish or wildlife and the actual destruction of wildlife habitat.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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Dirty Deal

Swaths of rich farmland and vibrant industrial areas dot the Saginaw River and Bay area – Michigan’s largest watershed- and they have used the abundant waters as a catch all for agricultural run-off and industrial pollution. The area drains 15 percent of Michigan’s land and contamination has led to degraded fisheries, a loss of recreational activities and an inability to eat the fish. The main problems with the sediments are nutrients from farm run-off, soil erosion and PCB’s. It is time to speed up the cleanup of this vital resource.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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Pollution Potion

The Sheboygan River AOC sits at the crossroad of three watersheds including itself, the Mullet River and the Onion River. This means that decades of agricultural and industrial pollution from three cities, eleven villages and seven towns gather in the Sheboygan River AOC making it a virtual cauldron bubbling with a disgusting stew of dangerous chemicals. The toxic recipe has created nuisance algal blooms, contaminated sediments and made the fish inedible. This AOC empties into Lake Michigan threatening the ecology of the Lake as well.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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Blame the Pioneers

You can blame American Pioneers for starting the destruction of the St. Louis River and Bay habitat, and later generations piled on the assault with industrialization, hazardous waste sites (that have since been abandoned), carelessly designed landfills that leak into the groundwater, chemical spills, overflowing untreated sewage and runoff. Nice! Nearly 8,000 acres of wetland and open water habitat have been destroyed since the first settlers arrived. Isn’t it time we take responsibility for our actions and return this AOC to its original pristine state before it is too late?

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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The Come Back River

At the turn of the last century, White fish would literally jump into hoisted nets of fishermen on the rapids of St. Mary’s River, but today, even if there were abundant fish willing to be netted they couldn’t be eaten. St. Mary’s River AOC has been contaminated with oil, grease, metals, ammonia, phenols, bacteria, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, cyanide and lead, and PAH’s by Algoma Steel, Ontario water pollution Control plants, sewer overflows, St. Mary’s Paper mill, industry and municipal discharges. The river also suffers from the ravages of the sea lamprey. To date, the worst aspects of this AOC – Tannery Bay and two mercury hot spots – are on their way to recovery because of the Great Lakes Legacy Act. During the first half of the 1900s, Northwestern Leather Co., a tannery, dumped waste into channels that flowed into the bay and settled in the floor. Today, 40,000 cubic yards have been cleaned with $4.8 million in Legacy Act funds, $2.6 million from Phelps Dodge and $600,000 from the Clean Michigan Initiative. Once it is clean, new residential areas and parklands can be built which will have a positive impact on the local economy. It is just another example that this can be done with the help of the Great Lakes Legacy Act.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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A Copper for Your Lake?

Torch Lake sits in the midst of Copper Country – where copper was mined, milled, smelted and leached from the mid-1800s up to just 40 years ago. The production of 10.5 billion pounds of copper left in its wake stamp sands and slags and surficial materials melted into nearby waters. Researchers estimate that 200 million tons of copper ore tailings have been deposited into Torch Lake displacing nearly a quarter of the lake’s original volume. But remediation of this site is underway and progress is evident – another reason why the Great Lakes Legacy Act is instrumental and should be supported.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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Calling All Great Lakes US Senators

What do we want? A Ballast Bill. When do we want it? Now! Great Lakes Senators where are you? We are moving dangerously close to the end of the summer session and we still don’t have Senate approval for a ballast law – dooming us for another year (at least). Another year of ecological havoc, another year for a dozen or so invasive species to establish themselves in our fresh water, and another $5 billion in costs for our states, cha ching!

Please take heed and prevent more species such as the dreaded zebra mussels from entering our fresh waters. Ocean going ships have introduced more than 70 percent of the non-native species into the Great Lakes since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959.

In April, the House voted 395 to 7 approving the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2008 and tucked within that bill is a national ballast standard that will protect our fresh water from ballast discharges. Ships use ballast water for balance on surface water, but ocean going vessels harbor alien species and when they discharge this salty back wash they infect the lakes with dangerous microorganisms. The House bill will mitigate those effects by:
-Establishing a ballast water treatment standard;
-Requiring treatment technology on board commercial vessels in 2009 using an interim standard that grows more aggressive by 2012.
-Setting a national goal that ballast water discharged into all US waters will contain no living organisms by 2015.

But now, due to Senate inaction, the law we need most urgently languishes – we need the Senate to approve the Coast Guard Authorization – then reconcile the bills in committee and send it to the President for a signature before August recess.

“We need the Senate and President to complete what the House started and finally shut the door on invasive species introduced through ballast water discharge,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “If this effort sinks, all of our nation’s great waters will suffer devastating and irreversible damage.”

The185 invasive species in the Great Lakes cost citizens, businesses and cities hundreds of millions of dollars per year. A new invasive species is discovered, on average, every 28 weeks.