Closure of lakeshore power plants announced

Energy giant FirstEnergy Corp. has announced that it will close six older coal-fired power plants, four of which are nestled along the Lake Erie shoreline. The company made the decision after it became clear that upgrading the facilities to meet stiff new federal regulations concerning the discharge of airborne pollutants would not be cost effective.

The Ohio plants dotting the Lake Erie shore that have been targeted for closure are Bay Shore Units 2-4 near Toledo, the Lake Shore Plant in Cleveland, the Eastlake Plant, and the Ashtabula Plant. The other two plants to close are the Armstrong Power Station in Adrian, Pennsylvania, and the R. Paul Smith Power Station in Williamsport, Md.

The EPA new air quality standard lowering acceptable levels of mercury and other airborne pollutants from power plants went into effect on December 21st after decades of industry resistance and delay. The new standard is expected to save 11,000 lives annually. The closures will result in the loss of some jobs as well as a decline in tax revenue for the communities affected. 

Bay Shore Unit 1 remains open. Last summer I reported on the high mortality of adult and juvenile fish species that result when the fish either impact or get sucked into intake screens at the Bay Shore plant.

As I reported back then, a study issued by the firm Abt Associates, commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, found that over 13,000 deaths each year are due to fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants.

I am saddened by the loss of jobs this will cause but, by any measure, this is overall a big win for the American people due to the health benefits from tons of mercury no longer spewing into our atmosphere. My only regret is that this did not happen long ago. If it had, how many more lives would have been saved?

Let's not leave the fate of Lake Erie to the politicians

NASA image

When I first saw the NASA satellite photo, I was reminded of all those creepy photos of the lungs of cigarette smokers. If this were an X-ray the doctor would be telling his patient, "I'm afraid we've got some decisions to make."

Indeed we do. Clearly the patient has been ill for a very long time, but like a cancer patient who doesn't want to hear bad news, sometimes the symptoms must first become painfully obvious before the patient -- or in this case the patient's caregivers -- seek treatment.

One very big symptom reared its ugly head this past summer in the form of a massive algae bloom that fanned out across much of the western half of the lake. Suddenly folks who depend on the lake for their livelihood were saying, "Whoa, where did this crap come from?" And then it was all over the news.

And there were less visible though just as ominous symptoms. The dead zones in the central part of the lake may be getting bigger. These are large areas of the lake that are devoid of oxygen, hence nothing can live there. Other serious problems include increased runoff due to bigger rainfalls that put more waste into the lake, and invasive species.

To quote a recent editorial at BuffaloNews.com, something is going very wrong in Lake Erie.

So what do we do? Continuing with the medical analogy, we shouldn't just trust the doctors -- or the politicians -- to make everything better. Groups have been meeting and discussing options for controlling the algae bloom situation. On the invasive species front the EPA has proposed stricter rules for ship ballast water.

That's all well and good, but we as citizens have a roll to play, too, and one group has stepped forward to do just that. SaveLakeErie.com was formed "to raise public awareness, rally support and educate residents on how they can help save Lake Erie on a person level at home." I blogged about their site a while back and, due to the sparsity of content on their site, asked, rhetorically, whether it might be someone's idea of a joke. Well just the other day I received an email from Todd at SaveLakeErie.com who told me,

No, this is not our idea of a joke. A cursory analysis of all the websites for water, Great Lakes & Lake Erie groups were all dry, boring, dated and not exciting. With the current economic woes, people have bigger problems like saving their home let alone saving Lake Erie. It’s a huge challenge getting people to not only pay attention but care. We are a team of world class social media, viral marketing and branding professionals who are taking a different approach to get people’s attention and raise awareness. Most of all to educate and let people know there ARE things they can do to help, on a personal level and at home. We have more videos up and more on the way.

Thanks, Todd. You guys have got some great content up now including some fun videos and, most important, a practical list of 10 things you can do to save Lake Erie. Great stuff. I encourage everyone to check out their website, fan them on Facebook and spread the word about those ten things.

We can't leave it to the politicians to save our lake.

EPA hiring jobless workers for Great Lakes cleanup

We learn today that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will spend $6 million to hire unemployed people who can work on Great Lakes cleanup projects. Congress has appropriated $775 million over the past two years for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a wide-ranging plan to improve the region's environmental health.

The projects will include cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, improving wildlife habitat and protecting watersheds from contaminated runoff. In recent weeks, EPA has been announcing grants for projects around the region from the $300 million allocated for the 2011 fiscal year. The final $6 million from that pot of money will go to the unemployment initiative.

Supporters of the Great Lakes initiative have said it would stimulate the region's economy and create jobs. The newly announced program is unique because it specifically targets jobless workers. An EPA spokesman said the initiative is similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Depression-era program that put the unemployed to work.

EPA will choose projects by the end of September. To qualify, they must provide immediate, direct ecological benefits and be located in areas identified as federal priorities, such as national lakeshores or areas of concern. They also must include a detailed budget and produce measurable results.

It's not know how much of this work will involve Lake Erie projects. I will be keeping an eye on this and will pass along what I hear.

What's It All About, Algae? Meet the Dead Zone!

Algae bloom is represented by green color seen in the western basin.  European Space Agency/NOAA Photo

As reported in Sunday's Toledo Blade, a huge bloom of potentially toxic microcystis algae, which has reared its ugly head almost annually since 1995 after more than a 20-year absence, has been visible from space since at least July 22. European Space Agency satellite photos (one example shown above) show it fanning out toward the Lake Erie islands.

Although the lakes always have small, natural concentrations of algae, heavy spring rain and near-record phosphorus runoff from farms and sewage networks, combined with dry, intense heat and stagnant air of recent weeks, are the likely driving forces behind the bloom.

A Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin issued by NOAA on July 28 said the microcystis concentration in the algae is 500 times greater than the World Health Organization’s standard (20 micrograms per liter) for recreational water. Not all microcystis contains the deadly toxin microcystin. It is not known how much, if any, of the current bloom has that toxin. If it does, the potential health effects are serious.

Algae choked beach on Catawba Island

But problems associated with phosphorus runoff are not confined to Lake Erie's Western Basin. Stand by for The Dead Zone. No, I'm not referring to the Dead Zone of the Stephen King novel, nor do I mean the movie or TV series of the same name. No I'm referring to the dead zone in Lake Erie.

In recent decades, the bottom waters in the Central Basin of Lake Erie have become anoxic in the late summer. Anoxic means without oxygen. Aquatic creatures, including fish and bottom-dwelling animals, need oxygen in the water to live or they suffocate. The fish may be able to swim to better waters, but most of the other animals cannot. Commercial fishermen of the Central Basin are all too familiar with the dead zone.

The reasons for this annual dead zone were, at first, unclear. So, in June 2002, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in cooperation with many universities and other agencies in the United States and Canada, began an intensive special study to determine the cause of the oxygen depletion in Central Lake Erie.

The study concluded that while the unique configuration of Lake Erie's Central Basin is largely responsible for the problem, too many nutrients, especially phosphorus, make the problem much worse. Most of the excess phosphorus comes from human activities, including sewage treatment plants and agriculture. This animation gives a simplified explanation of how oxygen depletion develops:

The EPA monitors oxygen depletion levels in Lake Erie by taking samplings and doing surveys, primarily from its vessel, Lake Guardian, the only self-contained, non-polluting research vessel on the Great Lakes.

The problems of algae blooms in western Lake Erie and the dead zone in the central basin of the lake are going to be with us for the foreseeable future. These problems are going to require solutions - and vigilance. At a time when funding is becoming scarcer by the year and some politicians suggest killing or at least gutting the EPA and other environmental agencies, the answers are not going to be easy to come by.