Our World and Everything in It

 

First the snow, then a freeze, then rain caused a huuuuuge amount of water overflow in parts of mid Michigan causing sewage treatment plants to discharge into nearby rivers.

 

An unknown volume of untreated sewage went into the Shiawassee River in Chesaning. The overflow lasted 14 hours. Not good.

 

Power problems downed sewage pumps in Millington. Close to 350,000 gallons of raw sewage overflowed from treatment lagoons into Millington Creek.

 

In Saginaw the wastewater was treated but it was in excess of 40 million gallons. That’s a lot of water, and a good thing because all in all over 1 million gallons of sewage spilled in Genesee County over the weekend melt. Anything to dilute the sewage helps. And even though the waste water was treated, unless it is fully treated, bacteria still remains.

 

Makes me wonder how the basically self-regulating, Michigan CAFO (Confined Animal Farm) industry faired? Big open-air lagoons of animal waste, pesticide, blood, etc., ended up where?

 

And what about the rest of the year? According to Mlive.com’s Minority Report:

 

July 21, 2008: Bay City Times: More than 20 million gallons of sewage was discharged to the Saginaw River last week, according to a report from the Saginaw Wastewater Treatment Plant.

 

August 07, 2008: Jackson Citizen Patriot: A mechanical error at a lift station on Riverside Road in Columbia Township caused about 3,891 gallons of sewage to overflow this morning onto the land around the station.

 

August 05, 2008: Muskegon Chronicle: An estimated 140,000 gallons of untreated sewage flowed into Lake Bella Vista late Sunday after a nearby sewage pipe broke, Kent County officials said today.

 

Because Michigan is surrounded by water, we should really be concerned about any and all spillages into our streams, rivers, creeks, and groundwater. There is nothing minor about it.

 

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2008/12/sewage_overflows_run_into_midm.html

 

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/12/more_than_1_million_gallons_of.html

 

 

 

 

Anyone from Michigan knows that the UP or Upper Peninsula was once a location for all types of mining. I have a small collection of different types of stones laced with copper and ore from the UP myself. As of late there are only two mining operations left in the UP, but quite possibly not for long.

 

Ever since an owner of a backwoods camp found a sparkling rock while digging for a well in Stephenson, MI six years ago, speculators for companies are exploring more than a dozen areas in the UP for mining precious metals again. The sparkling rock turned out to be zinc discovered from a nearly 2-billion-year-old-rock formation with other precious metals. So much for the faith based idea that the world is simply not that old.

 

On the subject of faith relative to Michigan’s prehistoric history and mining, I’ve read Stephen Collins book, THE “LOST” TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL…FOUND!  Collins is an epigrapher or reader of ancient writings prior to Greco-Roman history, which is as far back in history that the average U.S. student is taught. But ancient writings tell of many powerful and well traveled civilizations like the Phoenicians who were maritime experts and neighbors to Parthia, ruled by the Hebrews, and one of the greatest civilizations to have existed before Greece or Rome.

 

Collins chronicles history as he knows it from ancient writings and parallel to what is revealed in the bible. All of it coincides beautifully. What really caught my attention was the mention of Michigan in relation to the construction of King Solomon’s temple. King Solomon had smelting plants for metal used in his temple. According to Collins, at the same time the temple was under construction, there is evidence that copper mines in Michigan’s UP were completed depleted of copper, but no evidence of any structures in North America using that amount. It was more than likely mined and shipped to Mount Moriah near Jerusalem for the temple’s construction.

 

Solomon’s temple was believed to have been under construction prior to 1000 BC and after the bronze/iron ages with the help of Phoenician labor. Hmmmm. There was no bronze or copper left in the Mediterranean area after the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age. It had to come from somewhere else and who not to ship it from somewhere else  but the Phoenicians?

 

Interesting, isn’t it, but I digress? Michigan may have been involved with mining since ancient times but mining is not what it used to be. It is much more invasive than times of yore. Between equipment, extraction, and dumping what is not needed anywhere and everywhere, there are fears that mining in the UP will destroy tourism with tourists looking for peaceful places to ski, hunt and fish. 

 

We also know that all that comes out of a mine like sulfuric acid, and benzene gases are not good for the air, earth, or water. And the process itself is horribly messy, tearing up habitat, and disturbing wildlife. With cuts being made within the DEQ and the EPA, there will be few regulators to oversee the process of more than a dozen new mining ventures.

 

And so the question: “Is there enough precious metals and iron still left to make these new ventures worth the bad consequences of tearing up the UP in all of its wild splendor?” After all, we’re not in the practice of constructing gilded temples any longer.

 

Read more about current plans to mine: http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story/U-P-May-See-New-Mining-Boom/4Xd7R-vxaE-emaCe-s8e1w.cspx

 

For info on Stephen Collin’s book that I think everyone of faith should read simply because it’s fascinating facts that actually support biblical history, a very good read: http://www.giveshare.org/israel/lost10tribes.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just read an article on-line in the Freep. It was about the anniversary of Michigan’s bottle return law that turned 30 yesterday. It raised the question of adding non-carbonated beverages to the list of returnables, and problems with consumers returning bottles and cans that were purchased elsewhere. I immediately had visions of Kramer driving Newman’s mail truck to another state to return the huge load of returnable cans he had in the back. It seems Michigan has a Kramer problem. Too many people returning their out of state plastic here.

The problem may soon to be resolved. The article said that State Rep. Steve Bieda would introduce amended bills to stop the out of state bottle fraud with penalties for retailers who knowingly pay for them. And return machines will be keyed to reject any containers from out of state.

I don’t know why this hasn’t happened sooner. And I do not get that both Pepsi and Coke haven’t had to add their water bottles, which are the two most popular drinking waters, to the list of refundables. The amount of plastic water bottles that will take forever to break down in our trash dumps in inexcusable.

Adding non-carbonated beverages to the list of refundables, and curbside recycling at no additional cost to the consumer, would keep a huge amount of debris out of the trash dumps. I say “at no cost to the consumer” because some communities whose residents took the time to sort their plastic, metal, and glass actually saw their rates go up.

We have to think of something to do with the refuse that goes into dumps if we’re ever going to phase them out. I think we’re still pretty wasteful as a society that should know better.

WXYZ news announced this morning that Detroit area Coca Cola trucks would soon be running on hybrid electric motors. The trucks were purchased earlier this year from Eaton Corp.

Eaton is an impressive corporation as far as transportation and the environment. There website states: “We create innovations in hybrid power and low emission vehicles as a leading provider of diesel-electric hybrid power systems for truck and bus applications on three continents. Eaton is also developing hydraulic hybrid power systems technologies for use in refuse trucks, delivery vehicles, buses and other applications. Eaton has a hybrid truck drivetrain center outside of Kalamazoo and is a Cleveland-based Corp.

http://www.eaton.com/EatonCom/Markets/Truck/index.htm.

Coca-Cola ordered 120 of the hybrid trucks, the largest North American commercial order from Eaton’s hybrid systems according to WWJ. Coke previewed these trucks when they purchased 20 of them last year. They evidently liked their performance.

The article below said that Coca-Cola did extensive tests and found that “Eaton’s hybrid-electric drivetrain equipped trucks decreased emissions by 32 percent and fuel consumption by up to 37 percent.” This kind of fuel savings could start a trend.

http://www.wwj.com/Coke-to-Buy-Hybrid-Delivery-Trucks-From-

Eaton/1729913

Since we’re basically back to the drawing board relative to greatly lowering fossil fuel use in Michigan because of the Senate’s bad decision to cut mandates to business from our energy bills last week, Michigan has to look to other ways of cutting pollution from fossil fuel. So it’s already been suggested that our speed limit be lowered.

Personally, I don’t care if the speed limit is lower. I’ve lived through this before and it cut down road rage, traffic accidents, and therefore insurance premiums. If it’s posted 55mph, then we’ll go 70mph instead of 80mph and greater that I witness on the road all the time. Mind you, these speeders are generally juggling cell phones too.

Anyway, if the speed limit is lowered and we don’t like it, we only have ourselves to blame for not paying attention to what’s happening in our state congress relative to cutting pollution, helping the environment, creating more jobs, and enticing part of the Green Gold Rush to come to Michigan. It’s not happening for a reason. Pay attention and be pro-active in responding to our elected officials or we’re never going to turn around.

As part of the “Strange Days on Planet Earth” by National Geographic that I watched on PBS, was a segment about compounds found in plastic like bisphenol A that leached into a Missouri Tributary, and into the fish and animals in a remote area. Bisphenol A acts like estrogen, and is an endocrine interrupter. It doesn’t take much for this stuff, 30 parts per trillion, to affect estrogen response in fish because they have an extremely sensitive system.

I went to find out more about this because I’ve already written about fish in N.Y. and recently the Potomac River in Washington that have both sexes, have changed gender, or are sexless due to estrogen discharged in the effluents of sewage treatment plants. When I watched this latest presentation about fish in Missouri that are altered by bisphenol A, I thought I would rummage around and found website after website from different places all over the country with gender bender fish.

There was even a study about perch in Michigan’s lakes on jestor @ http://www.jstor.org/pss/3435861. The article listed various endocrine disruptors present in the water like the estrogen from sewage plants but also bisphenol A. Read the article because it states “gonadal intersex was observed in male white perch collected from the Bay of Quinte (22-44%) and Lake St. Clair (45%), [] Intersex was not observed in hatchery-reared white perch or in white perch collected from an uncontaminated reference site (i.e., Deal Lake) in the United States.” So the lower Great Lakes are considered contaminated.

This does not bode well for our water systems. The “Strange Days” series continued about bisphenol A in plastic from which we eat and drink. It’s dangerous for our health. That’s why we’re being told lately not to microwave anything in a plastic container. As for baby bottles it’s really bad news.

The series stated that hormones control genetic programming in developmental stages of life, so babies are really affected by bisphenol A. Heating plastic baby bottle causes 10 times the amount of bisphenol A to leach out. They didn’t have to connect the dots any further. Do not use plastic baby bottles unless it’s documented they don’t contain bisphenol A.

Ah, how soon we forget. Just a little over a year ago the United States Supreme Court ruled that the EPA could not bypass its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. That ruling caused a rush to court on behalf of other industry polluters, i.e., coal burning facilities. But luck ran out for the coal industry when the of U.S. Court of Appeal’s basically threw the EPA’s cap and trade program out, and told the EPA that they were wrong by taking power plants off the list of hazardous pollution sources with its “Clean Air Mercury Rule.” Now the EPA has two years to develop mercury emissions standards for existing power plants. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=232

So it seems a little redundant for citizens to have to sign a petition to send a message to our state congress to get Michigan moving. This particular petition calls for Governor Granholm to issue an executive order to immediately direct Michigan’s DEQ (Dept. of Environmental Quality) to regulate CO2 emissions from coal and other power facilities.

The real goal here is to show our state government we are indeed watching what does or does not happen in Michigan as far as legislation to move forward to bring new jobs to boost the economy, while continuing to curb pollution in Michigan. Our two houses and the governor continue to come to a stalemate regarding jobs, the environment, pollution, and our economy. We wouldn’t be as afraid to loose jobs in polluting industries like construction of coalburners, refineries, and even nuke plants, if we had a decent RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) and Energy Efficiency program to entice more green industry into our state, which seems to go hand in hand with the technical industries also.

Job growth in a new sector certainly takes the sting out of job loss and poor working conditions in waning manufacturing sectors. So get on with it Michigan! We’re missing a golden opportunity to transform ourselves quickly from old manufacturing status quo to something new completely that’s being afforded by green industry.

Perhaps signing a petition to nudge our politicians forward is a very good idea to show we want the green—both industry and paycheck green.

Take the time to sign at:   http://progressmichigan.org/page/s/globalwarming.
 

We’ll soon be seeing a new media blitz from the coal industry because people are catching on that coal is not clean. The industry is throwing $30 million dollars into an advertising and public relations campaign under the name of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). But the list that follows are all polluters like Billiton the largest mining company in the world, or CONSOL the largest producer of bituminous coal in America. They just don’t have motivation to cut into that kind power unless it’s from the kindness of their hearts.

AMEREN, American Electric Power, Arch Coal, Arkansas Electric Coop, Associated Electric Coop, Association of American Railroads, Basin Electric Power Coop, BHP Billiton, Buckeye Industrial Mining, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Group, CONSOL Energy, CSX, Detroit Edison, Duke Energy, Edison Electric Institute, First Energy Corp, Foundation Coal, Hoosier Energy, Massey Energy, National Mining Assoc., National Rural Electric Coop, Norfolk Southern, Peabody Energy, Southern Co., Tri-State Generation and Transmission, Union Pacific Railroad, Western Farmers Electric Coop.

This group is using other groups like America’s Power and Clean Coal USA to advertise across the country to make their coal look green. So be alert. There is nothing new. There is not a new kind of coal plant that generates electricity with lower CO2 emissions. There is coal that has very low sulfur content. And sulfur content and other particulates can be removed by what is termed “scrubbers.”  That’s not new technology, but it will help alleviate lung problems. Until something drastically changes coal users like the cheap dirty stuff because everything else costs money. This is a good article about it from the Wall Street Journal: http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/Clean-Coal-Oxymoron-WSJ.htm

In 2001 President Bush committed to more advanced clean coal technologies. According to an article on DOE’s website: “The Clean Coal Power Initiative is providing government co-financing for new coal technologies that can help utilities meet the President’s Clear Skies Initiative to cut sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollutants from power plants by nearly 70 percent by the year 2018. Also, some of the early projects are showing ways to reduce greenhouse emissions by boosting the efficiency by which coal plants convert coal to electricity or other energy forms.” Come on, 10 more years to just get sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury pollutants down? That’s lame. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/.

Not much is new with coal except for trapping the gas, and where to put it. Our Michigan CO2 well should be about full this weekend. It didn’t hold nearly enough liquid CO2. It’s not a solution. How many more holes are we going to rip into the earth? We have over 500,000 mines in the U.S. Many are old and abandoned. We have over 500,000 oil wells, many are done, fini. That’s a lot of holes in the ground. Will the earth heal quickly from the millions of holes we’ve drilled?
 

There is a presentation at MCCC’s Meyer Auditorium tonight called “Coming Home. State of the Straits: Status and Trends of Key Indicators. This is an effort to present the results of compiled data on the ecosystems health in the Detroit River and Lake Erie. I wanted to go but I’m 40 minutes away from MCCC’s parking lot and don’t like the looks of the weather. What I did is find the results of the program and printed out about 30 pages that comprise the comprehensive and integrative assessment.

This presentation is based on information in “50 key trend data sets and indicators” according to the report itself. However, it also states that this comprehensive and integrative assessment is initial and heavily weighted on state information with “important data and knowledge gaps.” Nevertheless, it “lays the foundation for continuous improvement in the future.”

But I can’t tell from the report what we’re improving on. There are percentages of increase or decline of contaminants with no beginning measurements given. There are also very few quantitative targets. So we don’t know what aiming for.  The study is over a 35-year time span. In 1970, we were polluted. The Clean Air and Water Act improved everything initially in a huge way. So to tell me from 1970 until now there has been an overall improvement in our water, well no kidding. What I want to know is what transpired over the past 10 years? For instance, regarding contaminants in western Lake Erie sediments, there is a record in 1971, and another in 1995 for mercury and PCB’s. Two records, 24 years apart are telling us there is a 70% decline in mercury in sediment and a 50% decline in PCB’s and other organochlorine contaminants. I don’t think that is very thorough. The mercury is 70% lower from what amount? Does this constitute a good amount? Mercury may have been 85% lower in the 90’s with pollution levels going up some 15% since then and the overall reading from 1971 will still look good at 70% reduction in pollution even though it’s rising again and quickly. Many of these reports concerning water end in 2004 too, like amounts of mercury in walleye.

Reports from 1977-2004 show that mercury in walleye has seen a 60% decline between the late 70’s and early 80’s; levels have remained steady since. What? Nothing has changed in over 25 years? It may be because there is more fishing, and therefore more fish caught at an early stage. We’re told to eat the smaller fish, especially in the ocean, because they have had less time to ingest mercury. There is nothing in this report that shows the accumulative affects of mercury either like from sediment, to fish, to birds, to larger predators.

I had to consider the source and motivation of this report too when I saw the list of editors and funding. Two of the editors are from the USFWS, the controversial agency that currently aims to kill the wolves and buffalo out west without presenting a solid answer as to why.  And the funding sources include DTE, and the US EPA, another favorite controversial agency of mine. But like I said, I really wanted to hear this presentation. The presenters probably had really good slides of the wildlife that is thriving. Nothing is all bad news. If anyone attended please let me know about it.

I’ve included an article from the Toledo Blade about this presentation relative to receding shorelines and loss of water in the Great Lakes too.  http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080107/NEWS06/801070402.

These are the actual tables resulting from the compilation of data for the trends reported in the presentation. http://www.epa.gov/med/grosseile_site/indicators/sos/assessment.pdf.
 

I ran across a good website that explains RPS or Renewable Portfolio Standards. A state’s RPS spells out what is being enacted within the state to lower the state’s dependency on fossil fuels through conservation and alternative energy initiatives. And it draws jobs—many, many jobs!  An  analogy would be that an RPS is like a state’s environmental resume for new green businesses looking for a home for their headquarters/operations.

So all RPS’s aren’t the same of course. An RPS must be tailored to the state. All states won’t lean equally on the wind, solar, or geothermal power mix that are major parts of a state’s RPS.  Some states will rely on solar more than wind, or wind more than geothermal power. An article that discusses Michigan’s RPS and how it already leaves solar out of the picture is http://www.photon-magazine.com/news_archiv/details.aspx?cat=News_PI&sub=america&pub=4&parent=624. That’s too bad because solar has been really good for me this winter in Michigan.

There is a lot of reading here and it’s very interesting. Twenty-four states have already established RPS’s and are experiencing a lot of job growth. Considering Michigan barely regulates its CO2 emissions, and keeps inviting more polluting industries into the state, I don’t find it surprising that Michigan doesn’t have an RPS yet. Of all the states that have suffered heavy job loss, an RPS should have been first on an agenda for our congress. Contact our reps. and senators to get moving on “green” job opportunities in the thousands in Michigan and cut the polluters loose.

The tax benefits to states that court “green” business is good also. The sercoline website below stated that in Nevada, one geothermal plant paid “$800,000 in county taxes and $1.7 million in property taxes. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management collects nearly $20 million each year in rent and royalties from geothermal plants producing power on federal lands in Nevada – half of these revenues are returned to the state.” In Iowa, “the 240 MW of wind capacity installed in 1998 and 1999 produced $2 million per year in tax payments to counties and school districts and $640,000 per year in direct lease payments to landowners.”

So having, as well as, advertising a good RPS will garner states more jobs, a greater tax base, and a much healthier environment while helping alleviate overall global warming. The big bonus: it entices more business to come on board, like Minnesota: “The 143 wind turbines in the 107-MW Lake Benton I project in Minnesota, installed in early 1998, brought $250 million in investment.”
 
Are Michigan’s tradeoffs to polluting industries for a few hundred jobs saved here and there being offset against higher health care expense due to bad air, or water pollution, and include the loss of new “green” jobs that bring more tax revenue, and entice more businesses to invest in Michigan?  I’d like to see that equation. I don’t think Michigan is heading in the right direction, except for the very temporary oil drilling blitz that will probably occur, whether we want it to or not. But at some point, our demand will exceed our supply and we won’t have oilmen in the White House to push that agenda any longer.
http://www.serconline.org/RPS/fact.html.

http://www.michigancleanenergy.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B43B4E9A9-4132-4A0D-A15F-39434E54B50C%7D.