Indiana
Andy Buschbaum Featured Speaker in Michigan City, Nov. 6, 2011
Andy Buschbaum, the Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center, and Co-Chair of H.O.W., was the speaker at the Purdue North Central’s Sinai Forum series held in Michigan City, Indiana.
Several LWV members attended, and here is the report:
Andy Buschbaum, (http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/Faces-of-NWF/Andy-Buchsbaum.aspx) who has extensive experience as a Lake Michigan advocate, began with statistics. “Forty million people love the Great Lakes,” he stated. “They contain 20% of the world’s fresh surface water, and 95% of the fresh surface water in the U.S. There are over 10,000 miles of coastline, more than the ocean’s coastline in the continental U.S. And there are more than 100,000 shipwrecks on Lake Superior alone!” After wowing the audience with the Great Lakes’ magnificence, he brought us back to earth by declaring that “They are not indestructible…For centuries, they’ve been headed for trouble.”
Only 1% of the Great Lakes are “recharged” (with fresh rainwater, etc.) each year, so essentially, they are a closed system. Most of us in LMLWV are familiar with the problems of the Great Lakes and Lake Michigan in particular. He spoke of the Lakes as one might speak of a human community: “Massive eco-system breakdowns… chain reactions of deprivation… immunity is damaged.” An apt metaphor for such things as the decline of Diporeia, which just happen to comprise the basis (80%) of the food web at the bottom of the Lakes. These little shrimp-like critters have declined by 94% over a 10-year period in Lake Michigan alone, creating vast underwater deserts. Other problems include toxic algae (toxic since they produce botulism, which kills all the way up the food chain), fish-killing viruses (viral hemorrhagic septicemia), invasive species (sea lamprey – which now grow to 18” since the water is warming up - and zebra and quagga mussels) taking over, e-coli beach closings, and the creation of a dead zone in Green Bay. Causes for the problems include anything from too much phosphorus from farm field runoff, to fertilizers, to airborne pollution.
The good news is that somehow, all of this is fixable. We need to restore the Great Lakes ecosystem according to the GLRI, the comprehensive plan in place designed to restore, protect, and preserve the Lakes.
Restoration of the bottoms of the Lakes includes cleaning up areas of concern (ACE), making sure the tributaries are clean, reclaiming and fixing the nearby wetlands and natural habitats and the prevention of new stressors coming in. Buschbaum related the history of how Healing Our Waters came to be formed, and how the scientists reached out to the US Congress for full funding and implementation of the process. These days, he says, H.O.W. should be considered a phenomenal success.
He also spoke about anti-water depletion measures, such as the US/Canadian law preventing water diversions through the Great Lakes Water Quality Compact.
The audience listened with rapt attention when he brought up the Asian Carp problem. He stated that so far, we’ve been lucky. At the moment, he said, “We need to buy enough time to solve this problem.” He mentioned the alternatives for closing various Chicagoland locks, and the problems with each alternative – near-lake option, mid-system option, and the down-river option. Concerns include: Where should the sewage flow or go? What about barge traffic and economic impacts? How much would effective sewage treatment cost? Our best hope with the carp problem is that there is funding coming in to solve the problem, and at this point, time is still on our side.
He left us with the knowledge that we do have challenges, but we also have the political and economic will to meet them, “huge hope,” as he termed it. And then came the advice that we can all heed: If you are a boater, be careful of what comes along with your boat! Don’t dump bait! Everyone – conserve water! Do not use fertilizers – they’ll get in the groundwater or the Lake eventually! Importantly, the Great Lakes are great for business; for every $2 invested, we get a $4 return. And, it is one of the few bi-partisan issues in America these days; both parties are willing to support efforts on behalf of retaining the Great Lakes as “part of our identity” and as “places where we manufacture our family memories.” Visit www.nwf.org/greatlakes or www.healthylakes.org for even more. So as a Canadian toll operator told Andy once, as he was on his way to speak at a conference, “Get on with yeh!”
Summer, 2011 Updates:
According to Indiana State Health Department Training Officer Denise Wright, there are 800,000 septic systems in Indiana and 250,000 are in some state of failure. Thus, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s Environmental Management Policy Committee has agreed to create a task force to take a look at creating a sewer district.
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Northwest Indiana was officially selected as one of 7 pilot areas in the US for the new Urban Waters Initiative. This is great news, since the goal of the effort is to increase collaboration to improved polluted water in traditionally underserved urban areas. Save the Dunes will provide us more information about this project as it moves forward. Also, Save the Dunes was awarded a $607,000 grant to retrofit the Thorgren Detention Basin in the Salt Creek Watershed. This will keep phosphorus and sediment from reaching Lake Michigan.
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More good news: Parents Magazine has named West Beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as one of America’s “Ten Best Beaches for Families 2011!”
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At a recent gathering at the Dunes, Cameron Davis, senior advisor on the Great Lakes for the US EPA, announced the awarding of nearly $1 million in grants for projects. Just more than $275,000 will go to the University of Notre Dame for research in the live bait trade aimed at DNA testing of invasive carp and other invasives.
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Would you like to track your sanitary sewer overflows, such as the recent 1 million gallons released by Gary, Highland, Merrillville and Chesterton within the same 24 hour period? Go to: http://www.in.gov/idem/5105.htm. You can also find combined sewer overflows at: http://www.in.gov/idem/files/factsheet_cso.pdf
Items to Watch, Spring 2011:
First, check the Sinai Forum Michigan City website for upcoming presentations this fall. Environmental policy is a major component of these forums.
Second, something to think about: the EPA has just lowered the acceptable level of mercury discharging into Lake Michigan. Our question is, how will this be monitored and enforced?
Third, Save the Dunes, based in Michigan City, is involved with several other organizations trying to purchase a 57-acre tract known as Moon Valley, for public use. This is one of the largest remnant dune parcels left near Indiana’s Lake Michigan coastline. The dune habitat remains biologically important, even after a history of sand mining. The site is home to six plant species of statewide concern, both rare and endangered. Various habitats exist there, including high dune, sand prairie, black oak savanna and innerdunal panne communities. Because it abuts several other areas of preserved properties owned by both Save the Dunes (Stockwell Woods) and the Town of Long Beach, saving it would mean 120 acres of contiguous green space would be preserved instead of being developed.
Fourth, the Indiana Senate passed SB 157, which directs the General Assembly’s Environmental Quality Service Council to study issues relating to the health and safety of the Great Lakes and Watershed: Water consumption, pollution, water quality & recreation, invasive species, and how current laws and regulations affect the Great Lakes and commerce on the Lakes. The House is devising rules to deal with disposal of unneeded medicines, either to the pharmacies where they were purchased, or through the mail.
“We are excited that Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore will be the 2009 BioBlitz park,” said national lakeshore superintendent Constantine Dillon. “This event will offer a great opportunity for thousands of people in Northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area to learn more about the incredible diversity of life in this nearby national park and be a part of its preservation.” For more information about the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore BioBlitz visit the National Geographic BioBlitz. If you would like to volunteer for the BioBlitz at the Indiana Dunes please contact the volunteer coordinator at 219 395-1682.
Keeping the beach in line
City plants dune grass to control sandLaurie Wink
The News-Dispatch
MICHIGAN CITY – How do you keep sand from creeping into places you don’t want it to go?
In the case of the Michigan City Port Authority, you plant dune grass – 80,000 dune grass plants to be exact.
Harbormaster Tim Frame got approval Monday from the Port Authority Board to enter into a $20,000 contract with Olde Paths Inc. of Holland, Mich., to plant two strips, each 900 feet long by 10 feet wide, to slow the blowing of sand into the marina’s launch ramp area.
See: http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=22354
