Sewer system oversight studied for Whitefish Lake, MT→

Lynnette Hintze, reporting for The Daily Inter Lake:

“Last year the Whitefish Lake Institute released a study that confirmed pollution in Whitefish Lake due largely to failing septic systems.
It found contamination at City Beach, Viking Creek and Lazy Bay and pinpointed several shoreline areas at risk for future contamination.
The Institute’s probe confirmed a 1980s study that also found contamination in the lake from failing septic tanks. While the latest study concluded recreation is still safe on the lake, it sounded the alarm bell for city officials.
The Whitefish City Council appointed a community wastewater committee to prepare a report and make recommendations to the council regarding wastewater management.”

It is interesting to see communities struggling to deal with human waste. In this case it appears that the issue has been studied for 30 years but no solution has been acted on. The need for something besides traditional individual sewage treatment systems is long overdue. 

What’s wrong with gorgeous Lake George? Scientists wire it up to find out→

David Richardson, reporting for Grist: 

“Thomas Jefferson called Lake George in Upstate New York “without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw.” The painter Georgia O’Keefe lived part time at the lake during the 1920s and ’30s, drawing inspiration for some of her laconic, gauzy landscapes. The Whitneys summered there, the Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers — all the big industrialists. It’s still one of New York’s top vacation destinations, bringing in around $1 billion in tourism each year.

If climate change took vacations it would probably go there too. But climate change doesn’t take vacations. In fact, Mark Swinton says it’s kind of hanging out at Lake George all the time, and not in a regular-folk, kick-back-in-an-Adirondack-chair-and-read-a-good-book sorta way.”

York ranks high for keeping sewage out of Great Lakes→

Sean Pearce, reporting for the Newmarket Era:

“An Ecojustice report ranks York Region, along with Durham Region, second among 12 municipalities when it comes to keeping sewage out of the Great Lakes.Receiving a B+ grade, York and Durham placed behind only Peel Region in the organization’s 2013 Great Lakes sewage report card. York and Durham scored high in the majority of categories, given their lack of combined sanitary and storm sewers and the fact there is no mechanism for untreated wastewater to bypass the Duffin Creek water pollution control plant.

Unlike most other treatment plants on Lake Ontario, Duffin Creek has no bypass capability, he said, which means only treated effluent is released into Lake Ontario, even during periods of extreme storms.”

Shoreline regulations are about water quality→

by Peter Bauer: 

“As a society we know how to protect water quality. Engineers, landscape architects, excavators, and regulators, among others, know what protects water quality and what does not. Stormwater management is the key here. All too often though stormwater management is deferred, ignored or short-changed.

Shoreline regulation is not about aesthetics. It’s about protecting water quality.”

Why rabbits have white tails→

Daniel Cressey, reporting for Nature News Blog: 

“Dirk Semmann, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Göttingen in Germany, thinks he has the answer to this puzzle — and the evidence to back it up. Other theories hold that rump patches are warning to other animals, are sexually selected, or serve to show a predator that they have been spotted.

Semmann’s research suggests that these spots actually confuse predators because of their very noticeable nature. By focusing on the bright spot, the would-be predator ignores the larger body of the animal. Then, when the rabbit executes a sharp turn, the spot disappears and the predator has to readjust to focus on the camouflaged coat, losing vital seconds.”

Lake Thunderbird 30 years behind target dates set by Clean Water Act→

Joy Hampton, reporting for The Moore American:

“Lake Thunderbird’s well-earned nickname, “Dirtybird,” may not apply in six years, according to computer model projections. The model projections and recommended requirements for reducing lake pollution were developed by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and Dynamic Solutions LLC.

Regulations implemented as a result of the study will affect Moore and south Oklahoma City as well as Norman because all three of those municipalities discharge stormwater into Lake Thunderbird’s watershed.”

Lake Thunderbird is not alone. There is a large number of lakes in the United States that are polluted and the prospects for restoring water quality are daunting. 

Plastic beads are the latest pollution threat to Great Lakes→

Lisa Maria Garza, reporting for Reuters:

“Tiny plastic beads from beauty products are showing up in North America’s Great Lakes, and an environmental group is calling upon companies to stop using the plastic particles.

Scientists have already been found the particles, known as microplastic, floating in the oceans but recently reported the same contamination in the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth. The particles are often less than a millimeter (0.04 inch).
”

What we put in our products enters the environment and then circles back to pollute our bodies. 

Preventing pollution much better than cleaning up Jordan Lake→

Michael A. Mallin and Kenneth H. Reckhow, reporting for the newsobserver.com:

“Jordan Lake is a major drinking water supply for the Research Triangle area and a heavily used recreational area. Over the years, inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus have led to large algal blooms that impair this waterway, causing the U.S. EPA to require North Carolina to devise a plan (called a TMDL – total maximum daily load) to reduce nutrient inputs. Over several years, a variety of stakeholders worked out a plan involving compromise that was signed by Gov. Bev Perdue.

However, the General Assembly is now considering delaying pollutant controls for three years and suggests that using as-yet unidentified technology within the lake proper can clean it up. The best and cheapest way to improve water quality is to keep the nutrients from entering the lake in the first place.”

BP is polluting Lake Michigan→

Chicago Tribune editorial: 

“BP, one of the world’s biggest companies, dumps nearly 20 times more toxic mercury into Lake Michigan than federal regulations permit.

This has been known for years, but BP still gets away with it. How? Ask the people of Indiana.

In 2007, a Chicago Tribune investigation documented that Indiana allowed the massive BP refinery in Whiting to increase the amount of pollutants it released into the lake water that’s used by millions of people for drinking, fishing and recreation. Permitting the oil company to dump high levels of mercury, ammonia and suspended solids helped to clear the way for a big expansion of the refinery.”

Nitrogen pollution is widespread in southern Minnesota lakes and rivers, report finds→

Josephine Marcotty, reporting for the Star Tribune: 

“Nitrogen contamination in southern Minnesota is so severe that 27 percent of the region’s lakes and rivers could not be used for drinking water, according to an unexpectedly blunt assessment of state water pollution released Wednesday.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) said that, overall, 41 percent of the streams and lakes in southern Minnesota have excessive nitrogen, which can be toxic to fish and other forms of aquatic life and is the state’s most widespread form of water pollution.”

Report highlights development threats on Canadian watershed→

Hannah Hoag, reporting for Nature:

“Without better governance, a robust science programme and stronger regulations for extractive industries and hydroelectric developments, Canada’s massive Mackenzie River basin could continue to face destroyed landscapes and massive bills for environmental clean-ups, an international panel of experts warns in a report issued today.

The Mackenzie River is the longest river in Canada, pouring 10.3 million litres of fresh water, the equivalent of four Olympic swimming pools, into the Arctic Ocean per second. Its ecosystems are mostly intact. They provide breeding habitat for migratory birds and include wetlands, boreal forest and carbon dioxide–absorbing peat lands, but they are at risk under warming climate scenarios and natural-resource development.”

How science studies lakes like White Bear; update on fixing a lethal intersection→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost: 

“Sometimes it seems we know still less about the water beneath our feet: how much of it there is, how reliably it’s being replenished, how long our ever-increasing demands on it can be sustained.

Many interesting glimpses into our reservoirs of groundwater knowledge and ignorance were laid out in a talk last Thursday evening, sponsored by The Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences.”

Fish on Prozac Prove Anxious, Antisocial, Aggressive→

By Brian Bienkowski and Environmental Health News, reporting at Scientific America:

“New research has found that the pharmaceuticals, which are frequently showing up in U.S. streams, can alter genes responsible for building fish brains and controlling their behavior.

Antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States; about 250 million prescriptions are filled every year. And they also are the highest-documented drugs contaminating waterways, which has experts worried about fish. Traces of the drugs typically get into streams when people excrete them, then sewage treatment plants discharge the effluent.”

Microplastic Pollution Prevalent in Lakes, Too→

From Science Daily: 

“Researchers have detected microplastic pollution in one of Western Europe’s largest lakes, Lake Geneva, in large enough quantities to raise concern. While studies in the ocean have shown that these small bits of plastic can be harmful to fish and birds that feed on plankton or other small waterborne organisms, the full extent of their consequences in lakes and rivers is only now being investigated.”

Protecting Lake George by limiting pollution from runoff→

Jamie Munks, reporting for the Glen Fall Post-Star: 

“It was Lake George that drew Tony DeFranco back to this northern Warren County town to work for his family’s firm, which has a growing aim to plant landscaping features that protect the lake from pollutants.

DeFranco returned three years ago to work with his father at DeFranco Landscaping Inc. in Hague, the business David DeFranco started in 1984.

The younger DeFranco’s interest in coming back to the area was piqued in part by projects like the West Brook Environmental Initiative in Lake George.

“If something happened to this lake, we wouldn’t have this business,” DeFranco said. “Tourism is what we have here in the Adirondacks, in Lake George.”

The family-owned firm, which has counted all five of the DeFrancos (both parents and three children) as employees at one point or another, has found a niche in northern Warren County — combining landscaping with stormwater and erosion control and property management.”

It is important to have a job that does good work and makes a difference for people and  their environment.  

Stormwater rules roil Minnesota cities→

Josephine Marcotty, reporting for the Star Tribune:

“More than 200 Minnesota cities, from tiny Lauderdale to wealthy Rochester, will have to devise ways to keep the rain where it falls as part of a controversial new mandate designed to protect urban streams and lakes from the dirt and pollutants that wash off streets and yards along with the stormwater.

The cities, for the first time, will be required to maintain or reduce the volume of runoff leaving their systems, under a stormwater management plan approved Tuesday by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency governing board. The plan also requires the cities to account for their share of pollutants such as phosphorus and sediment that foul many urban lakes and streams.”

This is an important step in addressing lake pollution within cities. Perhaps we can start to think about non-point pollution oming from agricultural lands.

Cocaine, DEET, other chemicals found in Minnesota lakes→

Dan Gunderson, reporting for MPR:

“A new study of Minnesota lakes finds more evidence that water across the state contains a wide range of chemicals.

The largest study of its kind ever done in Minnesota shows chemicals from household products, prescription drugs and illegal drugs are common in Minnesota lakes. ”

— http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/water/water-monitoring-and-reporting/water-quality-and-pollutants/endocrine-disrupting-compounds.html

What we use in our homes, our gardens, and in our manufacturing and agricultural industries, ultimately ends up in our lakes and rivers. Are you surprised about these results?

Observed Atmospheric CO2 Hits 400 Parts Per Million→

Over at Slashdot:

“Over the past month a number of individual observations of CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory have exceeded 400 parts per million. The daily average observation has crept above 399 ppm, and as annually the peak is typically in mid-May it seems likely the daily observation will break the 400 ppm milestone within a few days. This measure of potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere should spark renewed discussion about the use of fossil fuels. For the past few decades the annual peak becomes the annual average two or three years later, and the annual minimum after two or three years more.”

One should always worry when something changes dramatically.

The Keeling Curve A DAILY RECORD OF ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE FROM SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY AT UC SAN DIEGO

AT&T cell phone tower diminishes Minnesota’s prized northern wilderness→

Stephen Wilbers, reporting for MinnPost:

“Last summer there were no permanent structures visible from Ella Hall Lake to mar the wilderness horizon. But if you paddle Ella Hall Lake this summer, you’ll see the top of AT&T’s newly constructed 450-foot cell phone tower, with its white strobe light blinking by day and its red beacon light flashing by night.

Goodbye, wilderness.”

Get ready for more White Bear Lakes: Two new looks at groundwater depletion→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost:

“Two new reports on Minnesota’s groundwater resource deserve more attention than they’ve been getting. One, from the U.S. Geological Survey, updates and elaborates its findings that falling water levels in White Bear Lake are largely attributable to increased groundwater pumping by city water systems to the north and west. Another, from the Freshwater Society, sets that lake’s predicament in the context of a much larger problem — a huge increase in groundwater pumping all across Minnesota during the last quarter-century.”