By Kari Lydersen
On a blustery gray day in late February, I stood in deep snow on Eagle Rock in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with Chauncey Moran, otherwise known as River Walker, gazing at an expense of conifers, wetlands and streams leading to Lake Superior about 10 miles away.
Put the two words "United Nations" in any domestic policy discussion and you inflame the fears of those concerned about a conspiracy to create one world government spying on us all. That applies even when the issue -- the effect of the Obama Administration's task force on ocean and Great Lakes policy -- comes with this third-party disclaimer:
Judging from some of the comments posted about an article on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website, some in the suburbs west of Milwaukee are afraid of being beholden to a diverted Lake Michigan water supply from the Big City. This is a rare case where dubious motives meet environmental responsibility in a happy partnership. A couple of the comments:
Lots of (non-Asian Carp) news in the past few weeks worthy of mention and of course, comment.
A couple of weeks ago USEPA Administrator Lisa Jackson released the final Great Lakes Restoration Initiative plan for 2010. It's along the lines of the draft circulated for comment last year, but it has been updated to reflect the immediacy of the Asian Carp issue.
The highlight of the plan for me continues to be cleanup of the toxic sites known as Areas of Concern. There are 30 such sites on the U.S. side of the Lakes and they contain PCB's and other heavy manufacturing waste left as a legacy from the industrial era of 40-50 years ago.
As everyone watches the cane toad's advance into the Great Lakes with baited breath (along with a lot of lobbying, campaigning and frustration), here in Western Australia we have been watching cane toads advance to our state for years. This toad was purposely introduced in the 1930s to control the French's cane beetle that threatened sugar cane crops, and it has been spreading across the country ever since. Cane toads are poisonous, harming native wildlife by eating small animals and poisoning the larger animals that try to eat them.
Michigan's Great Lakes Offshore Wind Council yesterday submitted policy recommendations yesterday that navigated around the issue of a required offshore distance setback for turbines. The chairperson of the Council said "the council decided not to include a minimum because some communities may be open to closer shoreline sites than others." No doubt true, but Great Lakes bottomlands are state public trust lands, not local lands. Shouldn't the state have a firm policy?
One of the region's and nation's foremost authorities and voices on the environmental and community impact wind energy is Dr. Roopali Phadke, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Since it feels like "wind week" in this space, it seems timely to publish an interview I recently conducted with her by e-mail.
In addition to water diversions, Australia and the Great Lakes region share another challenge: state disunity. In both the US and Australia, state disunity has prevented the appropriate and timely actions and policies required to protect our major freshwater sources. Recently, some of the most notable points of contention between the Great Lakes states are in regard to wind farms, the Asian carp, or water diversions.
Today's Christian Science Monitor reports on steadily mounting opposition to Great Lakes offshore wind projects, with a proposed wind farm of Michigan's west coast the poster child. The resistance is legitimate both because that farm's wind turbines would be too close to the shore and because the industry is out front of the readiness of government and communities to deal with the proposals.
Australia is the driest continent on Earth. So what can we possibly have in common with the water-rich Great Lakes states? Water diversions, for one thing.
Here in Western Australia, we have been piping water out of Perth to the Goldfields since the end of the 19th century. The Golden Pipeline, a 560 km aboveground drinking water pipeline, was an amazing feat of engineering and the reason that Australia was able to have a gold boom at all. In fact, our ingenuity with water (along with our abundant supply of minerals) is one reason this dry country is able to thrive.
Not enough for the city to pay for entirely on its own, apparently. It hopes to snag up to $50 million from that well-known environmental advocate, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Shovel-ready?
“Given that the radium is a federal mandate,” Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson said after the hearing, “it makes sense that federal funds should help us meet the mandate.”
One only has to look at a map to see that Michigan is defined by water.
The same goes for Michigan State House Representative Dan Scripps' 101st District. It includes approximately 150 miles of Lake Michigan's eastern shore and that's one reason Scripps places so much emphasis on water.
Elected in 2008, Scripps' campaign featured a "New Michigan Now" theme that talked not only about revitalizing the economy, but also of enhancing protection of Michigan's water as a key component of economic recovery.
Campaign themes are meant to inspire but are often forgotten after winning candidates are confronted with the realities of governing.
Scripps however appears to remain focused on incorporating water protections into his legislative work.
The Great Lakes got a little extra piece of national attention last week in a Washington Post column by veteran David Broder. A summertime resident of Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, Broder praised the Obama Administration's Great Lakes restoration initiative.
But he said one thing that irked a lunchtime companion of mine.
It wasn't wrong, it was incomplete. And misleading.
As concerns mount about mammoth offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes, one important but easy-to-solve problem is getting only minor attention. When proposed projects arise that affect multi-state or U.S.-Canada viewsheds, there should be consultation across boundaries. It's a matter of respect and good faith. And the process should be confirmed in writing with plenty of public comment opportunities.
It's reassuring that citizen Great Lakes advocates are in Washington, D.C. this week speaking out for this amazing freshwater system. This has become an annual winter ritual sponsored by the Healing Our Waters Coalition and it is doing much good, keeping the interests of the Lakes in the forefront of the minds of members of Congress. This year's work might help spur action on the Asian carp invasion, among other things.
Anyone who thinks offshore wind in the Great Lakes is a done deal, had better think twice. A non-scientific, informal focus group of citizens in shoreline communities that I've visited is overwhelmingly negative. There is much more willingness to support on-land shoreline wind. To many, the thought of turbines changing the view of open waters is an attack on something timeless about the Great Lakes.
The offshore wind proposal along the west side of Michigan is stirring up a hornet's nest of opposition. Take a look at a sign being popularized from north of Muskegon to Ludington (click on the headline above.)
Two intense weeks of hearings and public comment sessions on Asian Carp concluded last week.
First it was the U.S. House of Representatives hearings where Congressman Oberstar (D-MN) listened to experts from various agencies and environmental groups talk about the issues and the federal plan to deal with the invading carp.
Then came two public comment sessions, one in Chicago and the other in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where citizens had a chance to ask questions and speak their mind.
I attended the Chicago session and watched the D.C. hearings and the Ypsilanti meeting via the web.
An article in today's Detroit News summarizes the fiasco that Michigan government's review of an Upper Peninsula mining project has become.
From the start, what is now the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment has bent every procedure and twisted every rule to overlook the mine's harmful impact. The latest offense to open government was its approval last month, on the final day of the life of the former Department of Environmental Quality, by a staffer below the level of director.
© 2010 Great Lakes Forever.
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