Industrial Animal Operations Health Water Risk
Battle to keep water discharge permit with Ohio EPA not Ohio Department of Agricultrue continues.
The Pew Commission report says that industrial scale farm animal operations cause "unacceptable" risk to public health and the environment. There are many confined animal feeding operationsCAFO's) in the Maumee/River Rasin/Lake Erie watershed and more proposed. recently Shefield Dairy has been cited.
Fermi 3 Coastal Wetlands
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says this about Fermi 3's coastal wetland take will be one of the most significant coastal wetland take in the history of Michigan Coastal wetlands statutes. For the MDEQ statement to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions click here
Fermi Three will draw 49 million gallons of water from the Western Basin of Lake Erie - just under the radar of 50 million gallons that would require an analysis of the increased fish kills and the thermal plumes. The Fermi application said that phosphorous is not a problem in the Western Lake Erie basin. The application also denied the existence of Maumee Bay. These are major problems in the application that need to be addressed as part of the EIS.
Ottawa River Toxic Cleanup
The Ottawa River's contaminated sediments are close to getting dredged. The cost - and estimated $48 million. Agreements by responsible parties have been reached and the project should by underway this summer. Thanks to US Fish & Wildlife and USEPA for keeping the public informed and making this project happen.
Great Lakes Compact
Most herald the passing of the Great Lakes Compact but there is skepticism on the part of some including Marcy Kaptur who worry that water will be treated as a commodity and will be sold in 5.7 gallon containers under NAFTA and other treaties and laws. Click here for the Compact.
Ohio still needs to pass, required by the Compact, implementing legislation on water conservation, protecting water quantities in streams and bottled water. This will be important in the 2009 legislative session.
Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association
CALENDAR
Going green With Your Lawn - Ohio Extension
Maumee Bay State Park Nature Amphitheatre
May 20 7 pm
Waterkeeper Meeting
Lake Erie Room
Bay Park Hospital
June 10 7 pm
For your daily dose of
Great Lakes news, click here.
Asian Carp Threaten the Great Lakes & the Maumee
The Carp are in the Chicago canal. The battle to keep them out of the Great Lakes continues.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
The Great Lakes are getting $475 to help to restore them. Grant applications were do at the end of January 2010 and are now under review.
GREEN WATER
Lake Erie has two priamry sources of phosphorous - the Maumee and Detroit Rivers. In 2009 the Detroit Free Press and the Windsor Star talk about the magnitude of the problem.
Turbidity contributes to the growth of bad algae according to a 2009 study.
Most say that the most phosphorous in Western Lake Erie comes from agricultural runoff from the Maumee. Additional phosphorous comes from sedimetns that are open lake dumped, lawn fertilizer, wastewater plants, storm water, factory farms, and???
Studies on algae in the Maumee and Lake Erie continue. The power plants should make every effort to reduce the increased temperatures into the bay and lake of their 3 billion gallons of water used daily.
ALGAE & ROUNDUP ...OSU Research
Roundup?? Is Roundup the underlying cause of toxic algae and dead zones? Click here for more information.
Study finds major source of ecoli is factory farms
A study to determine the sources of ecoli - human or animal has concluded that factory farms are the dominant contributor of ecoli into Lake Huron. Click here for the article
Green Water Grows Lyngbya - Microcystis Algae
LYNGBYA THRIVES ON NORTHERN MAUMEE BAY AND NEARBY LAKE ERIE SHORES
Highpoint, North Carolina upgraded their wastewater plant and the lyngbya is nearly gone. Sewage in the River Raisin and other tributaries to the northern shores may, along with thermal plumes from power plants, be the underlyiing cause of the growth of lyngbya. Click here for a report on Lyngbya. For a picture of lyngbya taken August 17th, 2008.
The algae is getting worse every year researchers tell us. Lake Erie is once again at a tipping point.
What can people do to help? Use dishwasher detergent with no or low amounts of phosphorous - some have 8.5% - others have none. If you use lawn fertilizer, when your lawn is mature no phosphorous is needed. The middle number on the bad should be zero - if you hire your lawn to be fertilized - ask for no phosphorous. Get in touch with the Waterkeeper and get a group top check the levels of phosphorous in a ditch, creek, or river near where you live.
Sole Source Aquifer Comment Period end April 22nd
Protect the sole source aquifer around Bryan, Ohio that is drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Click here for suggested comments.
WESTERN LAKE ERIE WATERKEEPER PROGRAM
The Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association(WLEWA) is a member of Earthshares..
The WLEWA Mission: “To preserve, protect, and improve the waters and fish of the Western basin of Lake Erie, the warmest, shallowest, most biologically productive area in all of the Great Lakes through collaboration, education and advocacy.”
Serving the Western Lake Erie Watershed - in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Ontario
The Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association(WLEWA) serves the waters in the area from the Maumee River in Fort Wayne, Indiana east to Huron, Ohio and Point Pelee in Ontario, Canada. This western Lake Erie watershed includes the River Raisin, the Portage River, Maumee River and Bay and Sandusky River and Bay as well as all islands in the basin. WLEWA is a licensed Waterkeeper Alliance program.
WAYS TO HELP LAKE ERIE WATER...FISH
Buildings, streets, yards and parking lots take the place of bare ground, forests and wetlands. Lake Erie is 80% developed with farms, urban, etc. with the greatest loss of wetlands. As in the 50-s and 60's, the Western Lake Erie waters having growing quantities of algae because of too much phosphorous that dies and creates a dead zone -water without oxygen in the central basin of Lake Erie.
For finding green products
When paving use pervious concrete
To help the waters - plant native plants.
Daily Aerial Views
of Lake Erie, St. Clair & Detroit
Great Lakes - Canadian Video
Fish & Climate change
West Erie Sept. 2009
Roger Kniight ODNR.
OEPA Reviewing Bayshore Fish Kill Permit
Bayshore Fish Kill Economic Study
OEPA says decision in about 60 days from June 23rd.
Bayshore kills - Steve Pollick thinks kills mean little - Blade 6-13-2010
Bayshore kills - economics Blade Tom Henry & Editorial 6-2010
Economic Study Press Release
Bayshore News Art 06-03-2010 Toledo Blade
Port Clinton News Herald
Akron Beacon Journal
May 2010 Gentner Economic Fish Kill Study
Natural Resource and others Bayshore Comments
Ohio Environmental Council and others Comments
Western Lake Erie Water Association and others Comments
Great Lakes Huge Fish Killing Power Plant
FIRST ENERGY BAYSHORE Information
EPA list and link to Bayshore documents
April 2010 OEPA draft permit
Bayshore April 2010 louver information
Bayshore October 2009 OEPA ODNR recommendations to Bayshore/First Energy
Send a letter to Governor Strickland and plant manager to close the units now during low electrcal use
March 3 , 2009 Ohio EPA Bayshore Fish Kill Public Meeting click here
Toledo City Paper, August 20, 2009 article on fish kills. Click here
Toledo Blade article on fish kills says that fishing is at least an $800 million dollar business in Ohio. Click here for Feb. 23, 2009
Akron Beacon Journal article discusses fish kills - First Energy - fish kills do not matter Click here for March 3, 2009 story
CBS WTOL story on the fish kills click here
Toledo Blade March 4, 2009 on fish kill meeting on cost click here
Toledo Blade March 8, 2009 Bayshore Greener Steve Pollick click here
Press Publications March 5, 2009 Bayshore Thermal Impact article
For an aerial view of the Bayshore plant click here.
For the USEPA/OEPA consultant review of Kinetrics report from September 2008 click here. for the February 2009 Tetra Tech recommendations and review of the Bayshore plant click here
For the company Kinetrics summary report on fish kills click here
For the full company Kinetrics report on fish kills click here
To catch and eat fish requires a license and then there are rules. To kill the fish and do nothing - unlicensed - no rules. The Bayshore Power Plant is known as the Great Lakes largest fish killing power plant. The Bayshore plant, according to OEPA, kills more fish than all of the other Ohio power plants combined. ODNR says the power plant kills more fish than all the hatcheries produce annually,
The Bayshore First Energy power plant reports show fish kills averaging 126,000 fish a day caught on the screens and 6 million fish a day that go through the screens. . Find out more about the fish kills and comment at an Ohio EPA meeting March 3rd. Click here for a Fish Kill Meeting Flier.
For a petition asking Governor Strickland to stop the fish kills and pay for the fish impinged and entrained until the fish kills are reduced by the best available technology click here.. To send an electronic message - Sierra Club Take Action link to send a message to Governor Strickland and OEPA Director Chris Korleski to reduce the fish kills. For a power point presentation on the fish kills and Western Lake Erie email here.
Bayshore conducted studies released in 2008 from 2005 and 2006. Click here for a summary report on the 46 million fish caught against the First Energy Bayshore Power plant screens(known as impingement) and the 2.2 billion fish that go through the screens(known as entrainment). The First Energy Bayshore Power Plant appears to be to be the greatest fish killing power plant in the Great Lakes. For the full detailed report click here. The report indicates that most of the water is drawn from the Maumee River, and for at least two months in the two year period studied all of the water in the Maumee River went through the plant. The data indicates walleye, perch, and bass are killed along with emerald shiners that top the list. The Bayshore Plant is also said to kill more fish than all other Ohio power plants combined -click here. The Bayshore/First Energy plant has thermal impacts - click here for the report. For the December 2008 Kinetrics Benthic/Thermal Report click here. For the remedies being studied by First Energy called modeling click here(Note First Energy is not looking in to the best known solution, a cooling tower, which the nuclear plants in the area have). For the amount of Maumee River water that goes through the plant click here.
The Maumee River is the most biologically productive river in the Great Lakes and the power plant in the fall, according to power plant studies, pulls the entire Maumee River waters through the plant in a day. The Bayshore power plant is also thought to be the largest fish killing plant in the Great Lakes with company studies showing over 46 million fish per year caught against the screens and over 2 billion larval fish that go through the screens. This averages to 126,000 fish per day on the screens and 6 million larval fish per day through the screens. Limits are set on sports fish for all that catch the fish and eat them but the power company that harms the fish with mercury, kills the fish from thermal water use and feeds the algae by warming the water has no limits, pays nothing, and degrades the ecosystem of Maumee Bay and western Lake Erie....
The power plant owners, Bayshore/Toledo Edison/First Energy comment on the fish kills in a September 28th, 2008 Press Publication article. Mark Durbin, Edison Communications, states that a fish diversion plan and cooling tower are both options First Energy is looking at. He calls the cooling tower possible but not probable - click here for the story.
Coke Plant: Appeals Filed
"The Sierra Club, in tandem with Harbor View - a village downwind of the proposed site - has appealed the permit modification on the grounds that too much time has elapsed." -- The Blade, April 1, 2008
On January 31, 2008, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency had issued a modified permit-to-install for FDS Coke LLC. To read the OEPA news release, click here.
The January 31, 2008, permit-to-install is available here, and the June 21, 2007, FDS application is available here.
The OEPA refuses to set any standards in this permit for the 1.1 million tons of CO2, the most conspicuous greenhouse gas, that will be released.
This new coke plant will have more emissions than the old Interlake Coke Plant on Front St. in Toledo, Ohio . . . about 3x more, according to OEPA records.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's response to public from December 2007 submissions is available here.
Additionally, the OEPA has also issued a permit-to-install for "a cooling tower to be used as part of an electric generation facility the company also plans to build." You can view this permit here.
Further information from the Ohio EPA about the proposed FDS Coke plant in Toledo and Oregon, Ohio, can be found here.
To learn more about this plant of heavy pollution and its unknown backers, please head over to our Coke Plant page.
Dr. 'Bob' Brundage Scholarship
The 2010 Brundage scholarship award went to Todd Crail.
The Dr. Brundage Scholarship is a fitting tribute to this great man. The $500 scholarship is awarded annually to a graduate student at the UT Lake Erie Center.
Detroit River Contrinutes to Nutrient Problems in Lake Erie
Environement Canada finds that the Detroit River is dumping more phosphorus in Lake Erie than originally thought.
OHIO EPA PHOSPHORUS TASK FORCE REPORT
Hers is a link to the press release, a summary report and the full report. The report does not provide immediate steps needed to reduce phosphorous loads but rather recommends more studies and voluntary steps. With Lake Erie levels 9" lower than in 2009, heavy rainfalls and major wind events, Lake Erie could be in for a devastating 2010. Waterkeeper comments and suggested comment letters to come.
OPEN LAKE DUMPING ISSUE HEATS UP
Blade article 06-03-2010
Public Radio
An appeal has been filed to the permit issued by Ohio EPA to allow 800,000 cubic yards of dredged sedimetns to be dumped in the open lak The NAtional Wildlife Federation, Ohio Environmental Council, Izaac Walton League, Lake Erie Charterboat Association and the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association filed the appeal to the permit. The press release in the appeal
A letter from OEPA Director Chris Korleski and ODNR DIrector Sean Logan asks the Army Corps of Engineers to put put all dredged sediments in the open lake in the summer of 2010. Please keep the pressure on not to allow all sediments to be open lake dumped. Call Goveror Strickland at 614-466-3555.
Permit issued April 2010
OEPA Response to Public Comments
Comments on open lake dumping:
Mayor City of Toledo
National Wildlife Federation
Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association
City of Oregon and Toledo Resolutions
To learn more about open lake dumping -
Ohio Sea Grant article that states that bad algae likes turbidity.
Waterkeeper speech at OEPA open lake hearing
Open Lake Dumping Blade January 14
Oregon resolution on open lake dumping
Open lake dumping Press article January 7, 2010
Open Lake dumping Blade January 4, 2010
Army Corps assessment - open lake dumping ok for water and fish.
Concept Habitat Units by Corps
Concept Toledo Lighthouse Fish Island.
Quantity chart of open lake dumping 1994-2009/2012
Point Place harborlands
Open lake algae Blade article Sept. 2009
Taft asking to end open lake dumping
Army Corps rules and confined disposal cost, information dumping
UT studies on dredge, confined
Put sediments in mines study
Open Lake agreement to stop open lake dumping
Waterkeepers Helping the Gulf..
