Author: Dave Dempsey

Green Cities California (GCC) announced today the release of its Master Environmental Assessment (MEA) on Single Use and Reusable Bags. The MEA, commissioned by GCC and developed by ICF International’s Sacramento office, summarizes existing studies on the environmental impacts of single use plastic, paper, compostable and reusable bags, as well as the impacts of policy options such as fees and bans on bags. Meanwhile, proposed Minnesota legislation would tax plastic bags, adding to momentum against their continued use. (more…)

A volunteer poses with the bottles and cans collected at a Massachusetts watershed cleanup.

A month after the governor of Delaware proposed dumping the state’s beverage container refund law in favor of a new tax for community recycling, in-state and national environmental groups have come out against the recommendation.  Delaware is one of 11 states that has a law providing for beverage container refunds, which are strongly opposed by the beverage industry and some beverage retailers. (more…)

As the product stewardship movement gains steam, attention is turning to the issue of unsafe disposal of residue or unwanted consumer pharmaceuticals.  The widespread detection of pharmaceutical residues in public waters and fish has raised biologists’ concerns.  In Minnesota, the popularity of public-sponsored take-back days and a coming legislative proposal in the 2010 session to create a network of collection facilities, funded by pharmaceutical makers, adds a new twist to the problem. (more…)

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists with a bighead carp, one of two species whose entry into the Great Lakes is sparking widespread concern.

Last week’s edition of Great Lakes Asian carp news brought both a U.S. Supreme Court decision and disclosure of the species’ environmental DNA in Lake Michigan.  But as members of Congress, state officials and Great Lakes advocates scramble to prevent a self-sustaining Asian carp population in the Great Lakes, a Minnesota commentator has challenged the prevailing wisdom, asking whether such a population would really be so detrimental to the Lakes and their resources.  Among other things, commentator Greg Breining argues whether the idea of a “healthy ecosystem” is valid and whether so-called invasive species are often a bad thing.

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A new Minnesota stakeholder report identifies 38 solid waste reform recommendations that could dramatically reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

A report submitted December 31 to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) outlines 38 ways the state could achieve a 20-year reduction of 52.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions through changes in solid waste policy and practices.

Coordinated by the Minnesota Environmental Initiative (MEI), a nonprofit organization, the report contains 22 consensus recommendations from a roup of stakeholders and another 16 with majority support in the group.

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The Common Barn Owl is not so common in Midwestern states where it’s considered vulnerable. A recent surprise appearance in Wisconsin highlighted the species’ fragile status in the region.

A raptor listed as an endangered or threatened species in seven Midwestern states made a rare appearance in Wisconsin late in 2009.  The ailing barn owl, which couldn’t fly or stand when rescued in Mequon, is being rehabilitated in the Pine View Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Fredonia.

Although once abundant in the Midwest — and relatively plentiful globally — the common barn owl has plummeted in population in the seven states since the early 1960s.  A combination of habitat loss from farmland development and the past use of toxic pesticides has depressed barn owl numbers in the region.  Barn owls are more susceptible than other owl species to pesticides, although most of the problem chemicals affecting them are no longer in use.

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A map prepared for Michigan’s Great  Lakes Offshore Wind Council shows areas of high wind power production potential in the state’s offshore waters.

One of the first proposals for a major offshore wind project in America’s freshwater has surprised Michigan regulators and begun to stir opposition from onshore property owners. But the company behind the proposal says it has the potential to help right Michigan’s struggling economy with new jobs and leadership in wind energy development.

First disclosed last month, the Scandia Wind proposal to install 100 to 200 wind turbines two to four miles offshore in Lake Michigan for a 1,000-megawatt project comes after a September report by the state’s Great Lakes Wind Council.  That report outlined high potential areas in the state’s Great Lakes for wind power, while recommending turbines be placed as least six miles offshore.

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The Prairie Island nuclear plant at Red Wing, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River.  Nuclear power advocates want to repeal the state’s 15-year-old ban on new nuclear plants.

The state that enacted one of the nation’s most farsighted clean energy laws in 2007 may be a battleground over nuclear power in 2010.  A coalition of interest groups wants to repeal Minnesota’s 15-year-old moratorium on new nuclear plants. Like pro-nuke interests elsewhere, the Minnesota coalition is arguing that nuclear power is a clean solution to climate change problems.

The 2007 Next Generation Energy Act mandates that Minnesota generate 25% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.  It also sets a state goal to reduce electric demand 1.5% per year through efficiency and conservation programs. The law defines renewable sources as solar, wind, small hydro, hydrogen and biomass.

But nuclear power advocates want to add nuclear energy to the mix. The so-called Sensible Energy Solutions for Minnesota says it includes business, labor and environmental leaders, although no organized environmental groups support the repeal. A board member of SESM says calls nuclear “the most sensible and carbon-free base-load electricity source in existence.”

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The beverage container industry continues to fight state and national container legislation despite evidence that such laws could contribute significantly to greenhouse gas reduction while providing energy, recycling and litter control benefits. The industry says community recycling programs, which put the cost burden on communities rather than container manufacturers, are a superior system for processing bottles and cans.

The latest weapon in the industry’s arsenal is a report commissioned by itself; the American Beverage Association (ABA) that says bottles, cans and packages made by its members are easily recyclable because community recycling programs that can handle them serve an overwhelming majority of Americans. Getting more consumers to capitalize on the programs, the study suggests, is the best way to recycle the containers.

But it’s not that simple.

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The discovery of malformed frogs in the Minnesota River watershed in the 1990s touched off field and lab research on endocrine disrupters that is continuing to yield findings.

Minnesota, the state that made national headlines with the discovery of malformed frogs in the 1990s, has found endocrine disrupting chemicals and traces of pharmaceuticals even in some of its most remote and otherwise cleanest waters.  Armed with substantial state funding, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has released a new report and is now continuing field work to determine the aquatic range of endocrine disrupting chemicals that can mimic hormones and cause changes to the reproductive system or development of organisms.

The new study found the hormones androstenedione in 64 percent of sampled lakes and 50 percent of sampled rivers, estrone in 55 percent of the lakes and 75 percent of the rivers, and 17β-estradiol in 55 percent of the lakes and 38 percent of the rivers. “These may be of human origin, naturally occurring, or both,” MPCA observed.  Bisphenol-A was found in 45 percent of the sampled lakes and 38 percent of sampled rivers.

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The ancient lake sturgeon, a threatened species, is making a modest comeback in the Great Lakes after more than a century of overharvest and habitat destruction.

Even as news spreads of the possible imminent invasion of giant Asian carp in the Great Lakes, there’s also good news — the mammoth, native lake sturgeon is making a comeback, breeding where it hasn’t in decades. Once regarded by European settlers in the region as a trash fish, the sturgeon has long been venerated by Native Americans. Concerted habitat restoration and restocking programs have given new life to the fish, which can live over 100 years and grow to weights of 200 pounds and lengths of greater than six feet. In fact, one Michigan angler a few years ago mistook a resting sturgeon for a floating log — until it swam away.

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Bighead carp are one of two non-native species of Asian carp causing widespread concern among Great Lakes advocates. The other is silver carp.

Great Lakes advocates are calling it a “conservation emergency” now that non-native Asian carp have been detected within seven miles of Lake Michigan. They want an immediate closure of locks and gateways leading to the lake in a literally”last-ditch” attempt to keep the fish out.

The fear is that the giant fish will disrupt the valuable Great Lakes sport fishery by outcompeting species at the top of the Lake Michigan food web, consuming the forage fish the established species depend on — and like many of the other 180 non-native aquatic species already in the Great Lakes, causing general ecosystem disruption.

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