® M.C. Mehta tion Ac Governor Governor Jon Corzine Citizen • Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Kennedy, Chairman Robert F. Strong Strong s Communitie • Nutrient pollution turning our waters toxic green $5.95 Clean Water Clean Water

Fall 2007 Fall WATERKEEPER

WATERKEEPER Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 2007 Fdp[pof!tvqqpsut!bmm!btqfdut!pg!uif!fowjsponfou;!bjs!rvbmjuz-!fofshz!dpotfswbujpo-!foibodjoh!hsffo!tqbdf-!boe!! qspufdujoh!sjwfst-!mblft!'!tusfbnt!gspn!qpmmvujpo!cz!hfofsbujoh!gvoejoh!gps!ufdiopmphjft!boe!qspkfdut!uibu!nblf!! nfbtvsbcmf!jnqspwfnfout!up!uif!fowjsponfou/!

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www.paulmitchell.com. Only in salons and Paul Mitchell schools. WATERKEEPER Volume 4 Number 2, Fall 2007

6 Letter from the Chairman: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 14 9 Who is Waterkeeper Alliance? 10 Waterkeeper Alliance News Release 12 Splashback 14 ripples 22 guest Column: Governor Jon Corzine 24 talking Water: M.C. Mehta 26 the Clean Coal Con 24 28 Sludge Busters: St. Clair Channelkeeper Doug Martz 32 Feature: THE RISE OF SLIME 34 The Consequences of Overfeeding our Oceans 40 Waterkeepers Chesapeake 42 State Secrets: Maryland Chicken Farms 43 Central Valley Dairy Factories 44 Big Dams, Big Ag and Toxic Algae 50 45 Georgia’s Precious Blackwaters Turn Green 46 North Carolina Hog Vigil 48 Action On The Forge 49 The Messy Vocabulary of Watershed Protection 52 Lake Erie: Signs of Trouble 53 The Way Forward 57 58 9th Annual Waterkeeper Conference 60 guest Column: Oliver A. Houck 62 ganymede: Mercury Rising 64 on the Water with Photographer Bill Yates 66 all Hands On Deck: Clean Coal/Dirty Politics

61

4 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org

Chairman of the Board Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The Surf, the Sound and the Sea of Toxic Green

ete Seeger says that if you put a frog die, they decompose, stealing life-giving in cold water and slowly bring it to oxygen from the water and turning once Pa boil the frog will sit calmly and productive waterways — like the Chesa- simmer. In contrast, a frog tossed into a peake Bay, Gulf of Mexico and Long Is- boiling pot will energetically try to es- land Sound — into lifeless underwater cape. Our communities, are like that frog, dead zones. Nutrient pollution causes pfi- sitting silently as our waterways slowly esteria and other diseases that now effect turn green and suffocate under a blan- waterways all over the nation, killing fish ket of algal slime. A constant supply of by the millions. “Sky of blue, sea of green,” nutrients, pouring into our waters from sing the Beatles, but this green is not nat- fertilizers, animal waste and inadequately ural, it is quite toxic and deadly. treated sewage is killing our waterways. We are literally exterminating life in “Sky of blue, sea It’s a problem that we know how to solve. our waterways. Long Island Sound, like We simply need to keep our waste out of coastal waterways around the world, is of green,”sing our water. But public officials at all levels one example of how we are turning up the the Beatles, but of government are sitting on their hands. heat. Prior to 1987, the changes in Long this green is not A survey of Waterkeepers around the U.S. Island Sound’s ecology were dramatic but shows nutrient pollution to be the single so gradual that people just accepted them. natural, it is quite most widely shared water quality prob- Like the frog tossed in cold water, no one toxic and deadly. lem of any that we face. But it is rarely noticed the slow but lethal environmen- given the attention it deserves, even as tal changes. In the summer of 1987, Long the problem grows worse and worse. Island Sound finally succumbed. Its east- Almost anyone who spent time this ern half died. Scientists found zero dis- summer around the water has seen the solved oxygen in the water. The fin fish results of nutrient pollution. Where you left the area or perished. The barnacles, used to wade in, look down and see your crustaceans, clams, quahogs and lobsters feet, you now just see a sickly green. You’ve died. For the first time, people who lived seen waters choked with algae. Fish circle around the sound experienced more or at the surface, gulping for oxygen. Algae less a universal consciousness that some- coat stream beds, displacing fish like trout thing important was being lost. In truth, that depend on a clear rocky bottom for those losses began long ago. spawning. And lakes, bays and coasts, The first European explorers to see where nutrients collect, are choked with Long Island Sound described a region of massive algal blooms. When the algae mythical productivity. They smelled aro-

6 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org mas from Long Island’s flowers before Cod, which is part of the hydrology of water-based income losses to the Long sighting land and found 400 bird spe- Long Island Sound. For a brief time, my Island Sound region caused by pollu- cies, most of which are gone today. Henry family had a home in Glen Cove on Long tion. The cultural and historical losses are Hudson’s Lieutenant Robert Juett de- Island. There were fishes that I knew as equally disturbing. Long Island Sound has scribed rivers choked with salmon (prob- a boy that are gone today; among them a special role. It gives New Yorkers, pris- ably striped bass) and mullet. Giant dol- the smelt, once so numerous they could oners of asphalt and steel, their best op- phin pods schooled in the East River and be scooped with a bucket. Long Island portunity to retouch the land and water. New York Harbor. F. Scott Fitzgerald, one Sound’s flounder catch dropped from When we destroy this resource, we lose of Long Island’s most faithful chroniclers 40 million pounds in 1982 to a million our sense of the seasons and the tides and in recalling its legendary abundance, sug- pounds in 1987. The oyster catch sank the life cycles of the fishes and our sense gested that the sound appeared to the first from 3 million bushels annually to 15,000. of the earth and our place on it. Dutch sailor as the “fresh green breast of The blue crabs and razor clams abundant In her 1962 book, Silent Spring, Rachel the new world” compelling him to hold in every bay and mudflat when I was a Carson sounded the clarion call against his breath in “an aesthetic contemplation boy — disappeared altogether. pesticides and toxins in our environment. he neither understood nor desired, face The year 1988 began the first economic And in the early 1970s, Congress passed to face for the last time in history with downturn in United States history during laws limiting or banning pesticides that something commensurate to his capacity which New York City’s unemployed could were killing our birds. Today, Water- for wonder.” not go to the shores of Long Island Sound keepers are working to awaken an equal Two hundred years after contact, the and reliably catch a fish for the family response to stop the extermination of European invasion had little impact on the dinner table. The fish were mostly gone. our waters from nutrient pollution. We estuary’s extraordinary productivity. Dur- Shellfish beds were closed. Chemicals must enforce and strengthen standards ing the 18th century enough lobster still and bacteria had poisoned the clams and for waste treatment systems, make agri- washed ashore each night from natural die- offs to fertilize the coastal farms of Con- necticut, New York and Massachusetts. In- mates protesting endless servings of Long Island Sound lobster rioted in New Eng- land prisons. New Yorkers ate more oyster than any other kind of meat, the product of Since our founding in 1999, Waterkeeper Alliance has grown from 25 to 161 a bivalve — now extinct — called the East member programs on six continents. To meet the demands of our rapidly growing, highly River oyster, whose 11-inch shell housed dynamic organization, the Board of Directors is proud to announce that this September, seven pounds of succulent flesh. Kristine Stratton joined Waterkeeper Alliance as the new Executive Director. Steve Fleischli, The 19th century’s Industrial Revolu- after serving in that role since 2003, will take on the role of President. And Robert F. tion’s impacts were noticeable but still Kennedy, Jr., who has served as President since cofounding the organization in 1999, now lacked the drama needed to cause an takes the helm as Chairman of the Board. outcry. The dolphins disappeared -dur ing the Civil War but entire communities continued to thrive on the sound’s terra- pin, ducks, striped bass, blue fish, clams and other estuarine bounties. Waterfront market hunters and fishermen prospered. By the 1920s, the terrapin, duck and lobster populations were in decline and periodic algae blooms clouded waters, once gin-clear. Somewhat less exuber- ant, Fitzgerald christened his contempo- rary Long Island Sound, “that great wet barnyard,” acknowledging its modern function as the primary waste recep- oysters. After 350 years of putting food cultural polluters (mostly industrial meat tacle for the enormous human popula- on our tables and enriching our culture, factories) accountable for their waste and tion now crowding its shores. But even commercial fishermen left their profes- stop the other sources from dumping in Fitzgerald’s time, life filled the sound sion in droves seeking other occupations their nutrients into our waters. Practically supporting its thriving commercial and — hanging sheetrock or tiling roofs and all our nation’s waterways are at risk of recreational fisheries. turning their backs on the sound. suffocation. Many waterways are already In the three decades before 1987, Clearly there are serious economic im- feeling the heat. It’s time for us to man the pace of change accelerated becom- pacts when we lose an estuary like Long the barricades against this overwhelming ing noteworthy even in the memory of Island Sound. Diminished fisheries are threat to our environment, security and a single generation. I grew up on Cape only part of the annual $6 billion dollar our way of life. w www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 7 ® WATERKEEPER On the M A G A Z I N E Cover Sailing into an algae bloom on the 50 S. Buckhout St., Ste. 302, Irvington, NY 10533 St. Johns River, Florida, August www.waterkeeper.org 2005. Photo: Bill Yates The official magazine of Waterkeeper Alliance Mission: Waterkeeper Alliance connects and supports local Waterkeeper Proud programs to provide a voice for waterways and communities worldwide. Sponsor of Eddie Scher Editor Bandana Malik Assistant Editor Switch Studio Art Direction Richard J. Dove Photo Editor Waterkeeper Amy Lamp Designer Giles Ashford Creative Consultant Magazine William Abranowicz Photo Consultant Board of Directors Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Andy Willner (chairman) NY/NJ Baykeeper Globally, the paper industry is the single Terry Backer Erick Bozzi largest industrial consumer of water and the (Vice President) Soundkeeper, Inc. Cartagena Baykeeper Board Bob Shavelson Jeff Salt third greatest emitter of greenhouse gases. (Treasurer) Cook Inletkeeper Great Salt Lakekeeper Mark Mattson Karl Coplan Getting the Paper Right! (Secretary) Lake Ontario Pace University, Environmental Waterkeeper magazine is printed on 100% post-consumer Waterkeeper Litigation Clinic Casi Callaway Fernando Rey recycled paper generated with wind power. We hope that other Mobile Baykeeper Cartagena Baykeeper Board publications will join us in committing to protect our environment Donna Lisenby Deb Self and building the market for environmentally sustainable products. Catawba Riverkeeper Baykeeper, Inc. Alex Matthiessen Cheryl Nenn The environmental savings from this switch are enormous: Riverkeeper, Inc. Milwaukee Riverkeeper Joe Payne Murray Fisher 510 trees preserved for the future Casco Baykeeper Honorary member Bruce Reznik Richard J. Dove 1,476 lbs. waterborne waste not created San Diego coastkeeper Honorary member Maya van Rossum Delaware Riverkeeper 217,250 gallons wastewater flow saved Board of Trustees 24,037 lbs. solid waste not generated Richard Dean Gale Anne Hurd Glenn R. Rink Anderson A. Judson Hill Laura & Rutherford 47,330 lbs. net greenhouse gases prevented Gordon Brown Thomas Houston Seydel 362,276,800 BTUs energy not consumed Michael Budman Karen Lehner Joan Irvine Smith Ann Colley Terry Tamminen Savings from the use of emission-free wind-generated electricity: Karen Percy Lowe James Curleigh & Kevin Lowe Jami & Klaus 24,590 lbs. air emissions not generated John Paul DeJoria David Peters von Heidegger William B. Wachtel 11 barrels crude oil unused F. Daniel Gabel, Jr. Paul Polizzotto Daniel Waldman In other words, savings from the use of wind-generated electricity Tom Gegax Gloria Reuben are equivalent to: Staff Steve Fleischli Sharon Khan not driving 8,224 miles President Environmental Economist Kristine Stratton Bandana Malik OR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Communications Associate planting 813 trees Susan Sanderson Rachel Cook Development Director operations Assistant Scott Edwards Francisco Ollervides Legal Director Senior Field Coordinator Waterkeeper is printed on FSC-certified Mohawk Options 100% Marc Yaggi Emily Egginton post-consumer recycled paper which is manufactured with Director of Waterkeeper Support Field Coordinator Green-e certified wind electricity. This paper is certified by Green Eddie Scher Michele Merkel Communications Director Chesapeake Regional Coordinator Seal and by Smartwood for FSC standards which promote Jeffrey Odefey environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically Staff Attorney Darlene Kasten William Gerlach Development Associate viable management of the world’s forests. Staff Attorney Lauren Brown Cate White of counsel Development Manager Jillian Gladstone Waterkeeper and Mohawk paper are proud to announce that Janelle Hope Robbins ADVOCACY & OUTREACH COORDINATOR using wind power and offsets we have achieved carbon neutral Staff Scientist CO2 paper production. Mary Beth Postman Assistant to the chairman

© 2007 Waterkeeper Alliance. Reproduction of editorial content only is authorized with appropriate credit and acknowledgement. Waterkeeper, Channelkeeper and Lakekeeper are registered trademarks and service marks of Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. Coastkeeper, Creekkeeper, Gulfkeeper and Inletkeeper are trademarks and service marks licensed by Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. Riverkeeper is a registered trademark and service mark of Riverkeeper, Inc. and is licensed for use herein. Baykeeper and Deltakeeper are registered trademarks and service marks of Waterkeepers Northern California and are licensed for use herein. Soundkeeper is a registered trademark and service mark of Soundkeeper, Inc. and is licensed for use herein. Waterkeeper is printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified Mohawk Options 100% post-consumer recycled paper which is manufactured with wind electricity. Printed in USA • Peake DeLancey Printers, LLC

8 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Who is Waterkeeper Alliance?

Waterkeeper Alliance gathered at City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana, June 2007. G iles A shford

On 161 waterways around the world, a Waterkeeper is on and policy expertise and takes their clean water campaigns to patrol, standing up to polluters and enforcing the laws that the national and international level. Waterkeeper Alliance is protect our rivers, lakes and coastal waterways. Waterkeeper the most effective protector of clean water because we truly Alliance supports our local Waterkeepers with legal, scientific act locally and organize globally.

Everyone has the right to clean water.

Join Waterkeeper Alliance—Get WATERKEEPER Join Waterkeeper Alliance and get WATERKEEPER Go to www.WATERKEEPER.org and click on Donate Now to join for one year. Everyone has the right to clean water. Waterkeeper Alliance as a supporting member. You can also join Waterkeeper Alliance by mail. Send your check, It is the action of supporting members like you that payable to Waterkeeper Alliance, to: ensures our future and our fight for clean water WATERKEEPER membership, 50 S. Buckhout St., Ste. 302, and strong communities. Irvington, NY 10533 or contact us at [email protected]

Waterkeeper Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your $50 contribution or more entitles you to receive a one year subscription to WATERKEEPER magazine, which has an annual subscription value of $12. The balance of your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 9 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Takes Helm of Waterkeeper Alliance as Chairman Board of Directors Announces New President, Executive Director

aterkeeper Alliance is pleased in the passage of rules to eliminate sum- to announce a new senior lead- mer beach closures in Santa Monica Bay Wership structure to meet the and trash in Los Angeles-area rivers. Mr. needs of the fastest growing grassroots Fleischli’s institutional knowledge and advocacy organization in the world. In proven record of success as a leader of the 1999 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and veteran Waterkeeper movement are unparalleled. Waterkeepers founded Waterkeeper Alli- As President, Mr. Fleischli will chart the ance to support the nationwide coalition course for elevating the profile of the or- of 25 local Waterkeeper programs. Driven ganization, leading advocacy campaigns by the unmatched success of the Water- and expanding local Waterkeeper growth keeper model of aggressive, citizen-led domestically and internationally. advocacy, today, 161 Waterkeepers patrol The Board of Directors also is proud to and protect waterways on six continents. announce that Kristine Stratton has joined To ensure strategic coordination of this Waterkeeper Alliance as Executive Direc- international network of local advocates, tor. Ms. Stratton brings extensive experi- and in anticipation of continued growth, ence and a fierce commitment to environ- the Waterkeeper Alliance Board of Direc- mental protection and community action. tors is pleased to announce an organiza- As Executive Director, she takes over day tional leadership change that will increase to day operations of Waterkeeper Alliance our capacity and strengthen the work of advocacy campaigns and member pro- our local Waterkeepers around the world. gram support. Ms. Stratton comes to us Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has served from the Conservation Law Foundation as President since founding the organi- in Boston, Massachusetts, prior to that, zation in 1999, now takes the helm as she spent more than a decade with the Chairman of the Board. Mr. Kennedy is WGBH Educational Foundation. one of the world’s most accomplished On 161 waterways on six continents environmental advocates and the na- around the world a local Waterkeeper is tion’s leading voice for strong environ- on patrol. Monitoring their waterway and mental and public health protection. As enforcing the laws that protect our water- Chairman, Mr. Kennedy will expand his ways and our communities. Waterkeepers strategic leadership for the Waterkeeper serve as investigator, advocate, scientist, movement and increase the visibility educator and lawyer — the voice of their and reach of Waterkeeper Alliance. “The waterway. Waterkeeper Alliance supports Waterkeeper model of citizen action is and connects these local citizen advo- in high demand around the world,” says cates into a unified force for environmen- Chairman Kennedy. “The promotion of tal protection. The Alliance strengthens Steve Fleischli and the addition of Kris- our local Waterkeepers — bringing their tine Stratton into the leadership of Wa- clean water campaigns to the national and terkeeper Alliance all allow us to meet international level. this need and bring our fight for clean Everyone has the right to clean water. water to communities everywhere.” And with this new leadership structure Steve Fleischli, after serving as Execu- Waterkeeper Alliance has expanded our tive Director since 2003, will take on the capacity to fight to protect our rights Executive Director Kristine role of President. Mr. Fleischli is an attor- and to serve local Waterkeepers and the Stratton celebrates joining Waterkeeper Alliance with ney and former Santa Monica Baykeeper communities that depend on clean water a dip in the Hudson River. in Los Angeles where he was instrumental around the world. w

10 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007

 Splashback 

Massachusetts Oil Act

uzzards Baykeeper Bscored a major vic- In 2003 an oil barge owned by Bouchard Transportation tory in the First Circuit Company spilled 98,000 gallons of fuel oil into Buzzards Court of Appeals this Bay (seen here unloading oil after the spill). In spring 2007 Coalition for Buzzards Bay (home of the Buzzards summer – good news Baykeeper) caught the company irresponsibly breaking for all coastal Water- state oil spill safety requirements. keepers. The decision by the court reinstates

key provisions of the of C ommerce Massachusetts Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act and supports states’ rights to establish oil spill prevention measures. While the legal battle isn’t over yet, this is an important step. The support of Alaska, Washington, Oregon,

California, Maine, Rhode Island and Puerto /D epartment tmospheric A dministration

Rico against the federal government and and A oil industry is an important indicator that states are beginning to stand up for them-

selves against oil interests. O ceanic N ational Each year, more than two billion gallons of oil are shipped through Buzzards Bay, Court eliminated important environmental the City of New Bedford with support from Massachusetts, putting the bay at grave risk protections in the law. Baykeeper and the state representatives. The bills provide for hazardous oil spills. For a long time, the Coalition for Buzzards Bay, together with a plan for tugboats with trained pilots state’s best defense against a toxic disaster the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to shadow oil tankers as they navigate was the Oil Spill Prevention and Response appealed the decision. This summer, after Buzzards Bay. And in August, the Mas- Act, a state law that requires tugboat a year-long legal battle, the U.S. Court of sachusetts Department of Environmental escorts, and enhanced manning and watch Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision, Protection and Attorney General’s Office provisions for tankers. The law also ensures reinstating the environmental protections announced that it would enforce environ- that oil transporters are held accountable and remanding the act back to the lower mental provisions in the act while it is for damage to the waterways, and that a court for a rehearing. being reviewed by the lower court. proper cleanup is performed in the case of In the interim, the state has held firm Buzzards Baykeeper and the Coalition an oil spill emergency. in maintaining the protections in the act. hailed this as a major victory in the ongo- But in July 2006, ruling on a complaint In July, legislation drafted by Baykeeper ing fight to prevent another oil spill in the filed by the federal government with sup- and the Coalition was presented before the bay and preserve state protections against port from the oil lobby, the U.S. District Joint Committee on the Environment for federal rollbacks.

Join Waterkeeper Alliance—Get WATERKEEPER Go to www.WATERKEEPER.org and click on Donate Now to join Waterkeeper Alliance as a supporting member.

12 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Corp-SU05-530 waterkeeperad18/30/055:27PMPage

SAFETY BLEED

TRIM {{Ripples }}}}}} Kelp Help NJ Ospreys elp beds are critical Kmarine habitats that provide food and shelter to over 800 species of Fledge flora and fauna. But just like the old growth for- ests of the Pacific North- west and the rainforests of the Amazon, the giant kelp forests are slowly vanishing from the planet. Without interven- Ospreys are tion, the kelp ecosystem unique among in Southern California birds of prey; these may never regain its Kelp biologist at work. ‘eagles of the sea’ dive completely historic proportions. underwater to That is why, as than 3,625 students in catch their kill. part of a collaborative 15 schools dedicated effort launched by the an entire year to learn California Coastkeeper about kelp. As the kelp atural history was made on the Hackensack River this July when the first Alliance, San Diego program comes to an NOsprey chick to hatch in the New Jersey Meadowlands in over 50 years took Coastkeeper conducted end this year, it will flight. The baby bird flapped its wings, hopped, hovered and then flew about a a Kelp Restoration and continue to serve as hundred feet along the river before perching on a utility pole. Monitoring Program. an innovative model to The fledging of the young osprey is a telltale sign that the vital meadowlands Over the course of the enhance the quality of are on their way to recovery. Habitat loss, water pollution, DDT and the unre- six year program, San education in our class- strained killing of raptors during late 19th and early 20th Century led to the sea Diego Coastkeeper rooms and promote a eagles’ disappearance from many urban watersheds. Hackensack Riverkeeper’s worked with 160 volun- sense of ownership of work over the past ten years has helped increase food and improve habitat for the teer divers to monitor the ocean ecosystem birds. If the young raptors survive into adulthood and learn to fish, it is likely that and restore local kelp among San Diego stu- they will return to the Hackensack River to raise young of their own. beds. In addition, more dents and their families.

Mission Bay Wetlands Win Protection After more than a decade of not clearly distinguished, resulting indecision, faulty surveys and in the destruction of ecologically inconsistent directives, the City of important wetlands in the middle San Diego has granted the highest of the San Diego River channel. level of protection to 133 acres With San Diego Coastkeeper’s of wetlands in Mission Bay Park. strong support, the City Council Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper held their boat launch and In 1987, the city decided that 25 has now voted unanimously to parade in July and it was a huge success. Firefighters led percent of the land and 6.5 percent guarantee the protection of the the parade through the harbor, Chesapeake Waterkeepers of the water in Mission Bay could remaining marsh. followed in their own boats, and police serenaded the crowd from helicopter sirens in the sky. be developed. Marshlands were

14 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org {{Ripples }}}}}} Kelp Help {{{{{{ Ripples }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Discovery Day Paddle Waterkeeper Family Album Tualatin Riverkeepers celebrated its 18th Annual Discovery Day with a splash this July. Each year, Tualatin Riverkeepers organizes a public official canoe Congratulations! race and community paddle. This year, six mayors, five county commissioners and five city and regional On May 29, Annika Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper councilors participated in the race down the river. Elizabeth Gerlach Eliza Smith Steinmeier is More than 200 others paddled a 5.5 mile course and was born at 8 lbs., the proud mother of Samuel learned about Tualatin Riverkeepers’ efforts to protect 20.5 inches to Smith Steinmeier born August Oregon’s Tualatin River. Waterkeeper Staff 22 at 6 lbs., 6 oz. Attorney Bill Gerlach Waterkeepers Australia Conference and his wife Pearl. Waterkeepers Australia met this July in Melbourne, Victoria, to share their experiences and expertise in dealing with the nation’s most pressing water issues such as misallocation and overuse. The Waterkeepers also studied the strategies of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper as they work to save Louisiana’s cypress forests, which are being logged for cheap garden mulch, as a model for future Waterkeepers Reed Super, Waterkeeper’s Francisco Ollervides, Waterkeeper Australia campaigns. lead attorney in the landmark Senior Field Coordinator and his federal case on industrial cool- wife Emily were married on July 14 Mini-Summit Marks ing water, is the new father of on the beaches of Cancun, Mexico. Buffalo River Progress Lyle Sebastian Super born on The newlyweds are pictured here, State, local and federal August 28 at 8 lbs., 13 oz. with Francisco’s family. officials and representa- tives from 30 different environmental, business and community groups HONORS gathered in June for Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper the Buffalo River Mini- Yarriambiack Hurricane Creek One Great Salt Lakekeeper Julie O’Neill during the Documentary Finalist of Seven Wonders Awarded Summit, hosted by Buffalo press conference with the Niagara Riverkeeper. The in UN Awards Hurricane Creek was Great Salt Lakekeeper Mudpuppy in the background Mini-Summit marked the Our Fair Share, a chosen as one of was awarded the 2007 taking demonstration core next critical stage towards documentary produced Seven Wonders of West Outstanding Achieve- samples of river bottom sediment. the cleanup of the river: by Waterkeeper Alabama by readers of ment in Pollution sampling the lower Buffalo Australia’s Yarriambiack Tuscaloosa News this Prevention Award by the River sediments for chemical contamination. At the Creekkeeper, was July. Hurricane Creek Utah Pollution Preven- event Riverkeeper Julie Barret O’Neill spoke on the selected as a finalist was nominated as tion Association in progress of the river’s cleanup. The summit culmi- in the United Nations the region’s second September. The award nated with a formal launch of EPA’s sampling vessel Association of Australia wonder, behind Mound recognizes outstanding the Mudpuppy. World Environment State Park. Author efforts by individuals, Day Awards. In recent Mark Hughes noted, businesses, local gov- Jordan River Canoe Float and Parade years, the Yarriambiack “If we went by volume ernments and commu- Great Salt Lakekeeper and supporters paraded down Creek’s water has been and passion of reader nity organizations that Utah’s Jordan River this summer in full 19th Century diverted to the Wimmera responses alone, Hur- help Utah’s environment costume and décor during the Jordan River Canoe River. The documentary ricane Creek would and public health. Great Float and Parade. The annual event is sponsored by captures Creekkeeper be far and away West Salt Lakekeeper was Lakekeeper to celebrate Pioneer Day, a Utah holiday and the community’s Alabama’s greatest recognized for the 2006 that commemorates the arrival of Mormon pioneers battle to restore the wonder.” Jordan River Parkway to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The event also draws flows of the Yarriambiack Cleanup Campaign. attention to the Jordan River and tributaries as an and have a voice in the important part of the pioneer story, providing water management of their for early settlers in the harsh desert environment. waterway.

16 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org         ,        . {{{{{{ Ripples }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Frisco Adopts Aggressive Plan to Fight Mercury

ince the California Gold Rush, San Francisco until now, the state has posted warning signs alerting SBay has been inundated with mercury. Miners fishermen and women of the dangers of mercury used 26 million pounds of mercury to extract gold contamination in fish. But the reach of these signs from California’s Coastal Range. Today, mercury is limited. The rusting, sometimes illegible or from polluted stormwater runoff, industrial misplaced signs prove ineffective for the wastewater, atmospheric deposition and most vulnerable communities, who mercury-laden sediments continue to may be illiterate or non-English foul the bay. This July, after over a speaking. Traditional signage also century of contamination and after fails to recognize that communities nearly a decade of advocacy, San who rely on free fish and seafood Francisco Baykeeper and partners from the bay cannot afford to take Mercury harms our succeeded in forcing the state to contamination into account. The waters, our fish, our adopt a tough plan to reduce mercury new plan requires local agencies bodies and our health. pollution in the bay. and industries to generate and fund This potent toxin has The new plan requires all sources of new protective actions to educate at- been linked to a range of mercury, both old and new, to limit pollution risk communities about safer food sources neurological and health to the bay. Under the plan historic sources like gold and train medical workers to better recognize and effects, including im- mines and contaminated bay sediment will be inven- treat signs of mercury poisoning. paired development and toried for cleanup. Present day sources of mercury Currently, about 2,645 pounds of mercury enter motor skills, blindness, such as stormwater and industrial waste will now the San Francisco Bay annually. The plan aims to sterility, heart disease, face tighter restrictions. Cities must reduce mercury slash the amount of mercury entering the bay down tremors and even death. in polluted stormwater from city streets, sidewalks to 1,540 pounds, a reduction of more than 40 per- Signs like this one are and buildings by 50 percent. Industries must reduce cent. The plan also includes a new process Baykeeper only a small part of the mercury in their wastewater discharges by 20 to 40 and other organizations can use to force the state solution. The state will percent. And oil refineries, which contribute as much to revise and further improve the plan based on new now take concrete action as 3,700 pounds of mercury in the Bay Area environ- evidence. “Every little bit of mercury that enters the to eliminate mercury ment annually, now have to account for the mercury bay is potentially harmful,” said Sejal Choksi, San contamination. in crude oil. Francisco Baykeeper. “I am optimistic that we may be The plan also includes strict new requirements to able to use this strong new framework to slash the help communities who rely on the bay for food. Up mercury problem in the bay.”

Santa Monica Bay, CA Petitcodiac River, Canada El Segundo Power Plant To Stop Ocean Intake Causeway Will Be Removed In a landmark action, NRG Energy announced their intention to In 1968, the province of New Brunswick, Canada, con- convert El Segundo, the company’s Santa Monica California power structed a kilometer-long causeway across the Petitco- plant, to a closed-cycle cooling system, eliminating the use of diac River with little regard to conservation or estuarine Santa Monica Bay seawater as a coolant. The once-through cool- concerns. The causeway is essentially an earthen dam that ing technology now used at the plant kills massive amounts of fish interrupts the natural flow of water in the river. With the and other marine life. Last year, both the California State Lands river blocked, fish populations have plummeted, native fish Commission and Ocean Protection Council adopted resolutions species have become extinct and the size of the river has dissuading the use of this antiquated technology in California. been significantly reduced. These actions were followed by a ruling from the a federal court Petitcodiac Riverkeeper has been working for eight years in January 2007 in favor of a coalition of environmental groups, through outreach and legal action to remove the causeway. including plaintiffs Waterkeeper Alliance, Santa Monica Baykeeper This August, in a giant step forward for the Petitcodiac River, and Hudson Riverkeeper, concluding that the Environmental a provincial minister publicly announced New Brunswick’s Protection Agency shall require power plants to protect aquatic commitment to replace the causeway with a 280-meter long habitats and employ the best technology available. “Our victory in bridge that will restore the flow of the river. Petitcodiac River- the federal courtroom is bringing life back into the Santa Monica keeper is now putting their efforts towards urging the federal Bay,” said Tracy Egoscue, Santa Monica Baykeeper. government to assist with the cost of the bridge.

18 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org

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Wal-Mart to Stop Selling Cypress Mulch from Louisiana Important Step Towards Preserving Endangered Cypress Swamps

aton Rouge, LA - September 5, 2007 - Wal- tailers who acknowledge the concerns of the Save Mart Stores, Inc. has informed its suppli- Our Cypress Coalition — though they continue to Bers that it will no longer buy or sell cypress fail to adequately address those concerns. Lowe’s mulch that is harvested, bagged or manufactured has stated it has implemented a moratorium on in the state of Louisiana. The policy be- mulch from cypress harvested south of the comes effective January 1, 2008. I-10/I-12 Highway in Louisiana, exclud- Waterkeeper Alliance, Lower ing the Pearl River Basin. But there is Mississippi Riverkeeper, Atchafa- no enforceable mechanism for en- laya Riverkeeper and the Save suring that the moratorium is actu- Our Cypress Coalition have led ally being upheld by suppliers. a national campaign to force the In addition, Home Depot has major retailers Wal-Mart, Home said that they will independently Depot and Lowe’s to stop selling verify the sustainability of the cy- cypress mulch. press that they sell in their stores. The decision comes on the heels However, no such verification cur- of recent action by the other home re- rently exists and Home Depot has not

On June 7, 2007, Waterkeepers and friends spoke out against the destruction of cypress forests at a press conference in City Park, New Orleans. Speakers, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Reverend Dan Krutz (pictured), addressed news cameras, reporters and more than 200 advocates wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Save the Cypress Forests.” In addition, Waterkeeper Alliance announced the publication of the second installment in their national cypress ad campaign: Don’t Buy It — a full-page Section A advertisement in USA Today reaching more than 2.2 million people. Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and Atchafalaya Basinkeeper — leaders of the Save Our Cypress Coalition — also announced that New Orleans and more than 50 other Louisiana cities, churches, businesses and other organizations have pledged not to buy or use cypress mulch. G iles A shford {{{{{{ Ripples }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

confirmed how they plan on implementing independent verification. Mulch suppliers for Home Depot and Lowe’s have claimed in the past that their suppliers do not source from coastal Louisiana, but the Atchafalaya Basin- keeper has gathered evidence proving this as- sertion to be false. “Suppliers of cypress mulch have proven willing to hide the source of their product in the past,” says Dean Wilson, Atchafalaya Don’t Basinkeeper. “Wal-Mart recognizes the dif- ficulties with verification and is acting- ac cordingly by identifying the whole state as an unacceptable source.” Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper has pre- pared an interactive cypress map showing chain-of-custody concerns through docu- mented examples of clear-cutting and cypress mulch production in Louisiana (available at Buy It! www.lmrk.org). As the map demonstrates, many brands of mulch which are produced in Louisiana are deceptively labeled with ad- dresses in Florida, Texas and Arkansas. The Despite the limited victory for Louisiana cypress forests, cypress forests nationwide Lowe’s Home remain at risk of this destructive industry. Wal-Mart According to the University of Florida, cy- Depot press trees in Florida are being cut out of the wetlands at a rate faster than they can regenerate, and almost half of the cypress cut is used for mulch. Buying Cypress Mulch Destroys The Save Our Cypress Coalition contin- ues to call on Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Our Coastal Forests Lowe’s to stop selling cypress mulch that Before you buy cypress mulch, you should know: cypress mulch is not certified as sustainable, no matter production is destroying the coastal forests that protect America’s Gulf where the logging occurs. While cautious- Coast from hurricanes and flooding. Entire cypress forests are being ly celebrating Wal-Mart’s move in Louisi- ground into mulch, even in places where cypress will never grow back. ana, the coalition submitted formal letters And it’s unnecessary. Pine bark, pine needles, and even leaves work just signed by more than 160 organizations to as well, and are much more environmentally friendly. Lowe’s, Home Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowe’s ask- Depot, and Wal-Mart loudly proclaim their concern for the ing the companies to stop selling cypress environment, yet they continue to sell cypress mulch. It’s time they stop. mulch. Supporters include conservation groups, garden clubs, anglers, eco-tour- Preserve America’s beautiful cypress forests. ism operators and members of the faith- Protect our Gulf Coast. Don’t buy cypress mulch! based community. Cypress forests are heralded as some of the Gulf of Mexico’s best natural storm and flooding protection. The swamps

is a registered trademark ofWaterkeeper Alliance

® support a wide array of wildlife includ-

Waterkeeper ing fish and crustaceans, migratory birds BEJ@KQPIKNA=PSSS*S=PANGAALAN*KNC and threatened and endangered species such as the bald eagle and the Florida panther. The swamps are of national importance As seen in USA Today, in protecting the economy, the unique environ- Page 12A, June 7, 2007 ment of the Gulf Coast and its people. w

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 21 waterkeeper guest column Working With Our Waterkeepers By New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine

ew Jersey has a rich legacy of pro- ditionally, the commissioner advanced a a critical tool for smart growth. We expect gressive environmental policies regulatory proposal that would vastly im- the revision to be completed next year. Nand I’m proud that my adminis- prove wastewater management statewide. The final plan will provide a blueprint for tration is continuing to expand upon that Eventual adoption of this protection managing the state’s water resources over legacy. A key reason for this is the support will mean safer drinking water for New the next 50 years and will ensure sufficient of the Waterkeepers in New Jersey. We Jersey’s families and cleaner habitats for water supply in all parts of the state. It will are privileged to have four Waterkeepers rare species of wildlife. The proposal of- also recognize that proper management is who serve as advocates for our waterways: fers New Jersey the highest level of water- not just having an adequate potable supply, Andy Willner, NY/NJ Baykeeper; Bill quality protection, limiting development but ensuring a healthy ecosystem as well. Sheehan, Hackensack Riverkeeper; Bill impacts and discharges of pollutants to Our current Stormwater Management Schultz, Raritan Riverkeeper; and Maya streams, rivers and lakes, and ensuring Rules emphasize low impact building van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper. no further degradation to waters that techniques that will prevent and mini- As New Jerseyans, we have long real- support critical wildlife or feed drinking- mize impact on new development sites ized that our environment is one of the water sources. using both structural and non-structural secrets of this state’s economic success. New Water Quality Management techniques such as minimizing land dis- Protecting it is critical to the high quality Planning Rules were also proposed on turbance, minimizing impervious cover, of life we enjoy, and keeping the environ- Earth Day. These proposed changes will infiltration basins and vegetative filters. ment healthy is crucial to ensuring that strengthen our ability to shield environ- The design and performance standards future generations can enjoy that same mentally fragile areas from the threats that for new development include groundwa- quality of life. Given that, it is our re- invariably accompany inappropriate devel- ter recharge, runoff quantity controls, and sponsibility to prioritize the preservation opment. For the first time, these proposed stream buffers. of open spaces and the protection of our rules address the impacts of septic systems This administration’s efforts to develop water supply. on groundwater and establish new stan- and implement statewide policies that When we protect our water quality, we dards for wastewater management plan- protect our water supply are made pos- protect the tourism industry that depends ning, removing environmentally sensitive sible, in part, by the support we receive on clean beaches. As a coastal state, tour- lands from sewer service areas. from the environmental community, in- ism at our ocean beaches is a large part of The recently proposed Flood Hazard cluding our four New Jersey Waterkeep- our economy. Our inland water resources Area Control Rules seek to clarify and re- ers who work in concert with us and also are not only critical to ocean water qual- organize New Jersey’s regulations to limit focus their efforts on protecting their in- ity but also serve as a drinking water and new development in flood plains. -Cur dividual rivers. recreational resource to people who live rent buffer zones of 25 to 50 feet would near them. increase to 50, 150 or 300 feet depending Global Warming and Water Resources on the category of the waterway. This will Over the summer, global warming was in Clean Water Initiatives streamline activities as complicated as us- the forefront of the news with the release Over the past few years, we have launched ing machinery to remove major obstruc- of the Union of Concerned Scientists Re- a number of major Clean Water Initiatives tions from waterways or elevating build- port on Climate Change in the Northeast to protect New Jersey’s water resources. ings above flood hazard areas, as well as and the Live Earth Concerts for a Climate This past Earth Day, Commissioner Jack- activities as simple as building a fence or in Crisis. In light of the lack of federal ac- son proposed special protections for more a patio. tion, I signed into law the Global Warm- than 900 miles of waterways and 1,300 The Department of Environment Pro- ing Response Act, strengthening our acres of reservoirs that supply drinking tection is in the process of updating the commitment to this priority issue for the water to millions of New Jerseyans. Ad- State’s Water Supply Master Plan, which is state. New Jersey is now the third state in

22 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Live Earth

On July 6, 2007, Andy Willner, New York/New Jersey Baykeeper (right), and Captain Bill Sheehan (left), Hackensack Riverkeeper, joined Governor Corzine in his box at Giants Stadium for the Live Earth concert. The Waterkeepers thanked the Governor for signing New Jersey’s progressive new Global Warming legislation into law that morning, B illie J o S heehan the nation to mandate Greenhouse Gas are expected to lead to more intense rain selected waterways throughout the state reductions by law and the first to codify events, and increase the likelihood of looking for solid waste, water and land long-term reductions. The goals set forth droughts and floods. use violations. are the most ambitious in the country, re- Another productive partnership with quiring a reduction of Green House Gas NJDEP and Local Waterkeepers our Waterkeepers involved the case of emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (20 per- In New Jersey, the Department of Envi- the Passaic River. Occidental Chemical cent reduction) and further reductions of ronmental Protection has developed a Corporation discharged a form of dioxin emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels productive and long-lasting relationship known as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo- by the year 2050 (80 percent reduction). with our state’s Waterkeepers. p-dioxin (TCDD), one of the most toxic We have already made significant prog- In 2004, the Athos I oil tanker ran chemicals ever developed, and other con- ress in evaluating policies and measures aground in the Delaware River and taminants from a Newark plant into the to achieve these goals and build on the re- leaked an estimated 265,000 gallons of lower Passaic River. Because of tidal move- ductions we anticipate from the Regional oil. Over the next months, the depart- ment, the high concentrations of dioxin in Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a ten state co- ment’s Watershed Watch Volunteer sediment are an ongoing source of con- operative effort to implement a regional Monitoring Program worked closely tamination to other areas of the river and mandatory cap and trade program in the with the Delaware Riverkeeper to moni- the New Jersey/New York harbor estuary. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic addressing tor and assess impacted segments of the The department continues to be frus- CO2 emissions from power plants. New river. Volunteers reported these prob- trated with the slow pace of the EPA’s Jersey plays a leadership role in this ini- lems to the department to assist with cleanup of the contaminated site, but Wa- tiative, the first mandatory market-based clean-up efforts. This data continues to terkeepers have been helpful in educating program to reduce carbon emissions in be used for assessing long-term impacts the public about the problem and keeping the U.S. It will cap regional power plant to natural resources. it in the public eye. The state’s partnership CO2 emissions at current levels from In 2002, the department initiated with Waterkeepers also built credibility in 2009 through 2014 and mandates emis- the Waterways Enforcement Teams in our argument to clean up the contamina- sions reductions by 10 percent in 2019. conjunction with our Waterkeepers tion. Together our voices have been much The Clean Vehicle Program, Cool and other cooperating organizations to more effective. Andy Willner and Bill Cities and other clean energy policies strengthen our enforcement efforts. Wa- Sheehan remain important allies in our and programs are part of a full suite of terway Enforcement Teams in Northern struggle to restore the river. programs to move New Jersey towards and Southern New Jersey were estab- Partnerships with organizations like achieving these reductions. Long-term lished to address concerns voiced by en- members of Waterkeeper Alliance allow success, however, will require the coop- vironmental groups regarding the acces- us to leverage the abilities of these public eration of every business and individual sibility and ability of enforcement staff to interest organizations with the abilities of in the state. focus on their priority areas. The teams government and individuals. I look for- Natural ecosystems and our water sup- are comprised of land use, water and ward to continuing our strong working re- ply will be affected by warmer tempera- waste inspectors who partner with local lationship as we work together to protect tures and associated changes in the water Waterkeepers and environmental groups New Jersey’s environment for future gen- cycle. Additionally, warmer temperatures to conduct boat and foot surveillance of erations. w www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 23 waterkeeper: Talking Water

Greening

Environmental Lawyer M.C. Mehta Indiawith Bandana Malik, Waterkeeper Alliance

sides making money.” I looked ing fresh air, drinking clean water, eat- at him and said, “What is your ing safe food, then we cannot be healthy problem?” He said, “The Taj strong citizens regardless of who we are. Mahal is dying. It is loosing its luster and no one cares.” MALIK: Many of the cases you argued I went home very per- were based on the Indian Constitution’s turbed. I always believed “Right to Life.” Could you tell me more that lawyers had ethics and about why you used this article to argue the responsibility to be for a “Right to a Healthy Environment”? good, conscious citizens. I began reading about the Mehta: In 1984 someone had thrown Taj and was fascinated by a match into the Ganga, India’s holiest the human skill involved river, and it burst into flames. The level in its creation. But then I of effluents from polluting factories was also read about the found- so great that the fire stretched one mile ries, chemical industries and reached 20 feet high. I filed a case the and refineries that were following year against some of the facto- throwing thousands of ries. It was a landmark case because the kilograms of toxins into Supreme Court agreed that the “Right to the atmosphere hourly. Life” really means that we should live a P ri z e G oldman E nvironmental I thought, “If the Taj life with clean air to breathe, safe water to M.C. Mehta can get marble cancer, what is the fate of drink and natural resources to enjoy. Only human beings, who are much more sus- then can a citizen remain healthy and that ceptible to pollution?” From there I filed is the real “Right to Life.” ften referred to as the one-man my first environmental case in 1984 in the environmental brigade, M.C. Supreme Court of India. It was very risky MALIK: The Waterkeeper movement is OMehta has battled India’s worst because public interest litigation was not rooted in the Public Trust Doctrine, the environmental offenders in the Indian common in India at that time. principle that the shared environments, Supreme Court and emerged victorious. the water, air, fisheries and commons be- The 1996 Goldman Prize winner speaks to Malik: You defended many social justice long to the public. Can you tell me how Waterkeeper about his work, the environ- cases before defending your first envi- the Public Trust Doctrine has been used in ment and what it takes to create meaning- ronmental case. Were the environmental India to protect the environment? ful change. cases a logical progression of the social justice cases you handled? Mehta: The Public Trust Doctrine has Malik: Mr. Mehta, you are one of the most become the law of the land in India. This widely-recognized and highly-esteemed Mehta: People often speak about human happened in one of my cases after I chal- environmental lawyers in the world. How rights as if each right exists in a sepa- lenged the former Minister of Forests and did you find your way into this work? rate category. They speak of the women’s Environment. He owned a motel on the rights, children’s rights, worker’s rights banks of Beas River in north India. The M.C. Mehta: I was at a social gathering and so on. I believe that all of these things minister diverted the course of the river one day when a stranger approached me are interrelated. At the top of everything to beautify his property. I challenged him and said, “I have a poor opinion of lawyers is the environment. If we are not living in in the Supreme Court, because if every- today. They don’t care about anything be- a safe environment and we are not breath- one did this, natural resources would only

24 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org be available to the few, and all others will water from 100 to 200 miles away and are be deprived of them. realizing that their activities are unviable. The court ordered that the Public The individuals who run the industries, Trust Doctrine will be the law of the land, they need oxygen to breathe and they and said that public resources cannot be need water to drink. All of us need natural used for private purposes. These public resources to survive. I’ve also resources are gifts of nature for all living beings. The river which was diverted was MALIK: Right now India’s waterways are realized that the to be restored to its real glory. facing extinction because of pollution, dams, privatization, over-extraction and environment MALIK: India has very strong environ- climate change. Is there an issue that con- mental laws on the books, and in some cerns you most? cannot be cases, more advanced than any nation in protected unless the world. However, there is a huge gap Mehta: The situation in the entire coun- between the laws on paper and respect for ty is very bad. All of our rivers, lakes and it is a people’s the law. As citizens, how do we work to groundwater are polluted beyond con- bridge that gap? tamination. All of the issues are impor- movement. tant, whether it is dams, climate change Mehta: Yes, these laws are toothless or pollution. I am concerned about all the wonders in many ways. I believe that the issues because we really can’t afford to government of India and the state gov- keep quiet about anything. ernments will never be able to protect the have had a profound influence on me. environment as long as they are playing in MALIK: After winning the Magsaysay They have carried a wealth of knowledge the hands of the big and vested interests. Award, you used the prize money to set for generations and they are trying to pass Unless they change their policies and at- up the M.C. Mehta Foundation. Could it down to future generations. They un- titude towards the environment, they will you tell me more about the activities of derstand that there are great challenges not be able to protect it. The government the foundation? coming our way. Our politicians and should be pro-people, pro-environment many of us can learn a lot from them. and pro-natural resources. Mehta: We have worked with over 500 I’ve also realized that the environ- non-governmental organizations on en- MALIK: What are your visions and hopes ment cannot be protected unless it is a vironmental issues, sharing our experi- for India’s environment? people’s movement. It is very important ence in environmental law, information that lawyers, non-governmental organi- and policy. These organizations are the Mehta: I want India to realize its own zations, legislators, parliamentarians and nation’s hope for the protection of the en- greatness. We have a rich culture, with our leaders are sensitized about these is- vironment. We also train young lawyers tradition, wisdom and knowledge that sues. If people become aware and know from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka has been passed down through centuries. what is happening to their life and health, and Bhutan. We organize conferences and The country is still very vibrant in its own then people will raise their voice. Once talks and host an eco-camp for children. way. But it will become even greater if we they raise their voice, the government will These children are taken deep into the Hi- come back to our own ways. We should think green. If the people are empowered malayas, to see the flora and fauna, to see not copy the Western model of develop- through information, through knowledge, the animals so they can create a bond of ment. My dream is also that the younger through education, then they will be able affection toward the environment. We are generation comes forward. The politi- to counter the mighty industrial and po- working in many different areas and are cians have a very old way of thinking. The litical giants. doing whatever is possible. younger generation should replace the older generation, and they should be re- MALIK: India is fascinated by growth and MALIK: Who are some of the individuals or ally dedicated to the cause. industry. How do you deal with some of thinkers that have influenced you the most? the criticism that comes from individu- MALIK: Would you like to offer any words als who believe that as an environmental Mehta: There are many, many people to our Waterkeepers in India? advocate you are against development who have influenced me. I don’t think it is and industry? a question of confining it to a few individ- Mehta: I have a deep respect for those uals. People who do social service work or who are involved in the conservation of wa- Mehta: I am not against development at environmental work have had the greatest ter and the protection of rivers. All civiliza- all, but this development should be sus- influence on me. And, in our country we tions have been groomed upon the banks tainable. I have seen industries that were have many people who are poor and illit- of rivers. The work that they are doing is polluting, and are now running short of erate, but are protecting the environment really important and in working on these the resources they need to run their op- and the people in their own humble way, issues they are bringing forward the truth, erations. These same facilities now bring at the pure grassroots level. These people and this makes me very, very happy. w www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 25 the coal truth

The Clean Coal

Since 2000 the coal industry has contributed millions to political campaigns. The industry’s investments in politics have paid huge dividends. Now, under the guise of “clean coal,” Con all of our 2008 presidential frontrunners support subsidizing coal companies with billions of dollars in taxpayer money — corporate welfare for one of the dirtiest industries on earth. Our unbridled use of coal is killing us and our environment; coal will never be safe and it will never be clean.

By Scott Edwards, he past six years of political “leadership” in ing stands in the way of the never-ending search Legal Director, the White House has wreaked unprecedent- for coal to burn in our nation’s 1,100 coal-burning Waterkeeper Alliance Ted havoc on our country’s environmental power plants. And to preserve this legacy into the health. The onslaught on our nation’s environ- future, the Bush administration and coal companies mental laws and regulations for the greater glory have rallied their immense influence to promote a (and profit) of the American energy industry has confused belief in “clean coal” as an acceptable and been relentless. Unfortunately, just as ecologically- viable part of our nation’s energy future. minded Americans look desperately towards the Despite the utopian promise of advanced tech- 2008 presidential elections for positive changes in nologies that scrub CO2 and other toxins out of the environmental landscape, disturbing messages coal smoke, coal is never clean. From cradle to are being sent from both sides of the aisle, signals grave coal devastates the environment and human that perhaps no leading candidate is going to pro- health. Coal mining destroys our mountains and vide the environmental leadership that this coun- pollutes our precious drinking water. Transporting try so urgently needs. coal spreads toxic coal dust and produces sludge Over the past seven years President Bush and that ends up in our waterways. Mercury pouring his Environmental Protection Agency, Department from the smokestacks of power plants poisons our of the Interior and Mine Safety and Health Admin- waterways and fish — EPA estimates that 410,000 istration have given a free pass to the coal indus- newborn infants are born each year with danger- try to ignore safety and the environment. Mines ous levels of mercury in their blood. Miners and operate despite safety violations that put miners their families live in fear of mine collapses and at grave risk. Federal law is twisted to allow coal slurry impoundment failures that can wipe out companies to blow up mountains and bury streams river valleys for miles, and any homes or commu- with rubble, undercut and destroy homes and nities in the way. And at the end of the destructive farms, and decimate our rural landscapes. Noth- day, piles of coal combustion waste leech arsenic

26 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org G iles A shford

and selenium into our drinking water. Even if you hand, orchestrating a “clean coal” dog and pony One of several daily believe that burning coal could be made clean — show to drive corporate profits and pull the wool scheduled explosions at a mountaintop removal coal mining, transporting, processing and disposing of over the eyes of the American people. mine in West Virginia. coal waste never will be. And leaders who should know better are buying Nor will it ever be cheap. We pay dearly for its it. The frontrunners on both sides of the aisle each use in so many hidden and unaccounted for ways. support handing over billions in taxpayer dollars to The ecological and human health costs — the dev- the coal industry. A recent article in The New York astation of our natural landscapes, the contamina- Times cites wide bipartisan support for an “energy tion of our water resources, the loss of our fisheries independence” bill that will funnel billions of dol- and the neurological impairment of our children lars in corporate welfare to the coal industry, tout- — makes coal perhaps the most expensive source ing coal as the “king of alternative fuels.” So even of energy we have. as we finally recognize the folly of our reliance on Yet the “clean coal” con flourishes thanks to the oil, we’re simply handing over our future to anoth- same formula that has driven so many of the Bush er equally dirty industry — changing our drug of administration’s other disastrous environmental choice instead of curing our addiction to harmful policies: rhetorical sleight-of-hand, fear mongering energy sources. and a false sense of patriotism. No longer do we True environmental leaders recognize that it’s talk about switching to renewable energy sources. time to move away from destructive and inherently Instead, our political leaders talk of developing dirty fossil fuels like oil and coal. What we need “alternative fuels” — which include both coal and is a strong commitment and public investment in nuclear power. The new catch phrases driving this clean, renewable energy sources. “Energy indepen- misguided shift are “energy security” or “energy in- dence” should mean freedom from pollution, de- dependence” from foreign sources of fuel. Recent nuded landscapes, toxic fish, poisoned water and ads from Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal corporate manipulation of our nation’s energy poli- corporation and one of the world’s biggest pol- cies. Wind, geothermal, solar — that’s where our luters, urge the public to “imagine a world where taxpayers’ dollars should be going, not to coal. Our our country runs on energy from Middle America candidates need to wake up to the dark future that instead of the Middle East.” Corrupted public of- coal brings and offer real clean energy and environ- ficials and the coal industry are working hand-in- mental leadership. w www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 27 Sludge

By Doug Martz, Saint Clair Channelkeeper

I live on Lake St. Clair, the most beautiful freshwater lake in the world. I was out on that lake spring, summer, winter and fall. I couldn’t get enough of it. I was an avid fisherman. It was my way of life…

28 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Sludge busters

ne day in 1994, I was working on the We decided we would enter the parade in John’s 36- Clinton River, childproofing my friend foot boat. Our design – a toilet. OJohn’s backyard when a rainstorm hit. We found a nursery that had 30,000 lights left Rainstorms, of course, are pretty normal events, over from Christmas. The owner of the store of- but I’ll never forget this one. The river turned dark fered them to us for $1,000. We asked a welder to brown and, two hours later, raw sewage, condoms build a toilet frame on the boat. He looked at us and tampons were piled up seven feet thick along like we were nuts, but when we got pictures of toi- the boat tied up behind the house. The air smelled lets out, he said, “Yeah I can weld something up out like rotten eggs and my eyes started watering. I of chicken wire to hang lights on.” He welded the couldn’t breathe. monstrosity over the top of the boat. But it didn’t It turns out a nearby sewage treatment plant had look right. He said, “We need a seat.” He welded it dumped 300,000 gallons of sewage into the river and we added an additional 2,000 green lights to because the sewer system could not withstand the make it stand out. It took us ten days with the help The night of rains. Within two weeks, all that sewage had flowed of ten volunteers to hang all the lights. And when the parade, into Lake Saint Clair. Seaweed sprouted like it had we plugged the lights into my 5,000 watt generator, been sprayed with Miracle-Grow, inundating the they blew the generator right out. After consulting when we fired shoreline. The stench was awful — rotting weeds an electrician, we rented four more 5,000 watt gen- up the Sludge and sewage. erators and put all five in a Boston Whaler that we I went to an emergency meeting in City Hall towed behind the boat. Buster, was with hundreds of residents to find out what was Though the toilet looked spectacular, it needed unbelievable going on. The official word from the Macomb some more life. John’s kids put on rain suits and County Commissioner was that the problem was gasmasks to dance inside the toilet bowl. We went — 32,000 the result of people throwing grass clippings in the to a funeral home and bought a casket, loaded it up lights,music river, and water quality’s biggest nemesis — birds. with kids beach toys and fishing poles. We dressed I couldn’t sit down any longer. “What about all the up a friend as the grim reaper in a black suit and blaring, kids sewage that was dumped two weeks ago?” I asked. sickle. He stood on the back of the boat with that dancing inside Finally, two state officials looked at each other and big casket. We chose the theme of Sludge Busters, then said, “Oh yeah, by the way, during that rain- after the popular Ghost Busters movie. We even the toilet bowl. storm the city of Mount Clemens dumped 300,000 redubbed the Ghost Busters theme music so it said, gallons and an Oakland County plant dumped an- ‘Who you gonna call, Sludge Busters!’ and hooked other billion gallons of raw sewage into the river.” up John’s stereo to the boat. We had a sign made The audience listened in shock. that said Stop the Flow In the days that followed, the paper never men- Before It’s Too Late. tioned anything about sewage overflows. I started Now we were ready to attending more hearings, and the only support register the boat for I had was from health department officials who the parade. handed me stacks of paper and reports on sewage When the parade overflows at wastewater plants on the river. They managers asked us were scared to speak out, but they knew I would. what our theme was, In 1994, the lake shoreline was closed to swim- we told them it was ming for the entire summer. The seaweed was a toilet. “We can’t let floating three feet deep. People would blow their you in the parade,” engines trying to get through this stuff. It got so they said. “It’s sup- bad that the governor flew in and hired a crew with posed to be a South barges and cranes to scoop the muck up and haul it Pacific theme.” I said away. The project cost $3 million. that we would ride My friend John, whose yard I had been child- down the river no proofing, worked his whole life to have a beautiful matter what, be- boat and home on the water. He had a wife and five cause legally, the riv- kids and he loved where he lived, just like I love er was navigable and

where I live. We would attend these meetings and open to the public. . C lair C hannelkeeper hear the same old story — but nothing about the The parade officials S t real problem. We were talking about what we could gave in. St. Clair Channelkeeper Doug do to get the real story out to the public. Then it The night of the parade, when we fired up the Martz with wife Patty. hit us. Each August our community has a parade of Sludge Buster, it was unbelievable — 32,000 lights, lights that attracts about 200,000 people. Residents music blaring and kids dancing inside the toilet turn their boats into all sorts of beautiful designs. bowl. We went down the river and people just www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 29 Sludge busters

cheered. Meanwhile, the township supervisor and toot their horns wherever I went. We felt like the the judges were appalled. But we ended up on all real Ghost Busters stars, Dan Akroyd and Bill Mur- the TV stations and the front page of all the lo- ray. And in just a few weeks we gathered 22,000 cal newspapers. A few weeks later we entered the signatures on a petition against the dumping of Sludge Buster in another parade in a community raw sewage. But we still weren’t done getting the downstream. A marina owner hid it in his marina word out. for a surprise appearance. We floated down the Every Labor Day, the Michigan governor walks river once again, lights glowing, music pumping the Mackinac Bridge. That year President Clinton and kids dancing inside the toilet bowl with plung- was going to walk with Governor Engler. Since ers in their hands. And to our surprise, out of the the opposite side remained open for cars to drive 110 boats in the contest, we came in third and took over, we thought we would drive over the bridge home a $1,500 prize. alongside the governor and the president in our We finally felt like we were making a mark, but Sludge Busters mobile. We drove the 300 miles to the newspapers still ignored the sewer overflows. the Straits of Mackinac. When we got to a town, The shore still smelled like sewage. By this point, we turned on the lights and the sirens, and every car around us would come to a halt as we drove through downtown. Even the police pulled over. When the Bridge Walk began, we paid the toll and drove over the bridge six times. We used four quarts of oil to get up there and four more to get back. It was really not an environmentally sound car, but we made our point. And it worked. People cheered and the National Guard and state police waved. I thought we’d end up in jail, but we made it into all the news coverage that day. Back home in St. Clemens, I kept receiving data on sewage spills from public officials, despite being seen as a troublemaker, or maybe because of it. I handed this data over to Carl Marlinga, my county prosecuting attorney. One day, he took me to his office and asked, “Where did you get all of this? Did you make these papers up?” I told him what it was and where I had gotten it. We found out that the sewage treatment plant in Oakland County that had dumped a billion gallons hadn’t had a Clean Water Act permit in 18 years. “I would like to sue Oakland County,” Marlinga told me. “But you will have to come with me to the Ma-

. C lair hannelkeeper C comb County Board of Commissioners. I’ll need S t Toilet boat lit with 32,000 no one could go to a restaurant in the marina. their permission.” The next thing I knew, I was at Christmas lights, complete The stench was hurting homeowners, boaters and the county board meeting and the County Com- with dancing children in the bowl, Sludge Busters signs everyone along the shoreline. We needed some- missioner asked me what I had to say. I had always and music. thing more. We thought, ‘What did Ghost Busters been the crazy bastard running around town in have that we didn’t have?’ The answer, of course, a rusty limo with a toilet on the roof. Now I was was an ambulance. explaining the grounds for a lawsuit against the So I bought a 1972 Cadillac limousine. When I neighboring county. The 26 members of the Board pulled in my driveway it almost ran through my of Commissioners voted unanimously to sue. house because the car had no breaks. But we fixed The county put together a Blue Ribbon Com- it up, bolted a toilet to the roof, put plungers on mission on Lake St. Clair with the Governor’s and the fenders, and made a sign for it that read — Fe- Senator’s offices, Congressmen, mayors, state repre- cal Front Properties, 444-sewer. The sign company sentatives and professors. And I got an invitation to loved the idea and donated all the signs for the car. serve on the commission addressed to Doug Martz, We mounted flashing lights and sirens and put Sludge Buster. loudspeakers on top of the car. We would drive The Blue Ribbon Commission met for six down the road and blast the Sludge Busters music. months and came to the conclusion that the prob- The car became my family car. We would drive it lem was sewage. After three years of fighting, that’s to church and the supermarket, and people would what I was after. The commission made 100 - rec give me the thumbs up, turn on their lights and ommendations, including a requirement that the

30 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org The Sludge Busters 1972 Cadillac limo was effective at generating attention for our waterway’s sewage overflow problems. . C lair C hannelkeeper S t

Health Department check every tributary in the ery time it rained. After we did that we sent a letter county so we knew where the sewage was com- to the other cities in the county asking them to turn ing from, and hire an environmental prosecutor to themselves in to us if they were dumping sewage. look at permits. The next step was to put together Six cities responded and took action to address the a Water Quality Board to advise the county as it problem. Meanwhile the state saw what we did and implemented the commission’s recommendations. put out their own letter to cities around the state I figured my mission was over now that they ad- — 213 cities turned themselves in. Sewage over- mitted the sewage problem. I could go back to my flows were an epidemic. Each of these cities had to normal life. upgrade their sewer systems. It cost millions, but I received an application in the mail to join the it has stopped many billions of gallons of sewage Water Quality Board but I didn’t fill it out. But the from reaching our waters every year. next thing I knew, I received notification that I was Surely we were making progress. But unless on the board. Evidently, the county executive, the you monitor the water, you can’t really tell what’s state prosecutor and a senator’s office each filled going on. I decided that we needed to give our out an application for me and sent it in. But it didn’t watershed a complete physical. The price tag was stop there. At the first meeting of the Water Qual- $2.5 million. I took the plan around for five years ity Board they decided they needed a chairman, and finally convinced the state legislature. The and everyone pointed to me. I didn’t know what to state of Michigan allots $3 million to monitor the do. They handed me a mallet and I went up to the waters of the entire state. We got $2.5 million just podium. I just stood there for a minute and then I to monitor one county. But we monitored every hit the gavel down and said, “Health Department, tributary on the St. Clair River in dry and wet do you have anything to report?” They started re- weather. And today we have data on sewage over- porting the data they were collecting. This was in flows that’s irrefutable. Now we know precisely 1998. I’ve tried to quit three times and they keep what needs to be fixed. telling me I’ve got the job for life. This year, the current county executive, the pre- Around that time I was talking to Carl Mar- vious county executive and I decided it was time linga, the county prosecutor. He said, “Doug, I’m to do a new Blue Ribbon Commission. The last not going to be able to sue some polluters because one was only for Macomb County. The new one I’ll never get reelected. We need an independent would be regional, and include Macomb, Oakland, group.” A professor I knew from Oakland Univer- St. Clair, Wayne Counties, plus the City of Detroit, sity had read the book The Riverkeepers. This pro- Canadians across the St. Clair River and the Na- fessor said, “I’ll fill out the application for Water- tive People of Walpole Island. This new panel, with keeper Alliance and send it in.” Before I knew it, St. three nations and four counties, will start meeting Clair Channelkeeper joined Waterkeeper Alliance, this fall to develop new regional water quality plans and I was appointed Channelkeeper, giving me an- to keep our Lake St. Clair open. other powerful tool to clean up the lake. Our entire fight started with a group of friends Next we went after combined sewer pipes with who knew we needed to get the word out about illegal connections and no permits. In one pipe, pollution. We made a serious problem seem hu- our worst, we’ve permanently eliminated 70 mil- morous so the public would know what was going lion gallons of raw sewage each year from entering on. And because of our efforts, Macomb County the St. Clair. We busted a city with illegal overflow and the State of Michigan now take sewage very pumps that dumped raw sewage into the river ev- seriously. w www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 31 Undisturbed algae, Blueheart Springs, Snake River, Idaho. This fall photographer Alex Kirkbride will publish American Waters, a collection of photographs from all 50 states, available at www. alexkirkbride.com

32 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Emerald green is the new hue of our waters, and it isn’t a healthy one.

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 33 the rise of slime

The Consequences of Overfeeding our Oceans

By Mary M. Cerullo and R. Michael Doan, Friends of Casco Bay

»Nitrogen pollution is on an insidious rise and is changing the very ecology of our oceans. We pump so much nitrogen into the ocean that the diverse ar- ray of microscopic plants that form the base of the food web are being replaced by nitrogen-devouring blue-green algae. And when life at the bottom of the food chain experiences such a dramatic shift, the entire system changes, all the way up to animals we like to eat, like scallops, clams, lobsters and fish. The constant deposition of nitrogen to our oceans is changing the fundamental structure of our ma- rine ecosystem in ways we can’t predict, but are apt not to like. Nitrogen is everywhere. It makes up 78 percent of the air we breathe and it is an essential nutri- ent that stimulates the growth of terrestrial plants. Healthy amounts of nitrogen are needed to jump- start the growth of tiny plants that form the base of the ocean food chain, which nurture fish, clams, oysters, crabs, lobsters and whales. Rivers wash melting snow and rain, and the nutrients they car- ry, into our waters in a natural process that pro- vides the ocean food web with a balanced diet, an alphabet soup of nutrients. Plants bloom, animals eat the plants and smaller animals are eaten by big- ger animals. When all these organisms die, they are broken down by bacteria, recycling the nutrients to support the growth of new marine life. But an overdose of nitrogen has tilted the cycle Too much of a of life dangerously off balance. This overdose is good thing. killing the ocean as we know it. Two recent assess- Nutrient pollution spurs ments of the health of the coastal oceans by the U.S. the growth of algae. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans C asco B aykeeper /A lamy © K ike alvo C

34 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Moon jellies in the Caribbean Atlantic Ocean. As oxygen An Evolutionary levels plummet jellyfish and other animals and plants adapted to low-oxygen environments take the place of the diverse, rich variety of sea life that used to thrive Step Backward there. Scientists have called this shift “the rise of slime.”

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 35 the rise of slime

Commission agree that nitrogen is a principal ways. Emissions from tailpipes and smokestacks threat to the marine environment. Too much ni- also introduce nitrogen into the ocean through at- trogen triggers excessive growth of nuisance, even mospheric deposition. harmful, seaweed and algae. This organic matter Fast-growing algae are best adapted to take ad- eventually decays, consuming the oxygen dissolved vantage of the excess nitrogen we are adding to our in the water. And when dissolved oxygen goes, so oceans. When the bumper crops of algae die, bac- does life. teria suck up the oxygen as they break down the detritus. This process creates dead zones where Consider the Source levels of dissolved oxygen are so low that they Although nitrogen is extremely abundant in our stress or kill marine life. Around the world there atmosphere (about four times more plentiful than have been nitrogen-induced low oxygen events — oxygen), only a fraction of the nitrogen on earth called hypoxia — where fish have died by the mil- is in a form that is available to plants. A century lions or billions. ago, natural fixation by species of algae and legu- minous plants, and lightening strikes, were the Today’s Oceans only way that the gaseous nitrogen could be con- The number of dead zones in the ocean has been verted to a form that could be used by plants. The doubling every decade since the 1950s. The largest, absence of nitrogen limited plant growth on land in the Gulf of Mexico, is result of nutrient pollution and in the water. from the Mississippi River and extends from the In the 1950s, scientists were working to remove coast of Louisiana to Texas. It varies from 6,000 to this limit to feed the burgeoning human popula- 7,000 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey. tion — enter the green revolution. By applying Commercially desirable fish leave these hypoxic high pressure and temperature they were able to dead zones. produce mass quantities of nitrogen fertilizer from Animals that are adapted to living in low-oxygen nitrogen gas in the atmosphere. Today humans waters, such as jellyfish, appear to do fine in these make as much nitrogen available to growing plants dead zones. Moon and lion’s mane jellies are ap- as Mother Nature does. This ability to manufacture pearing in greater numbers and earlier in the sea- large quantities of fertilizer has led to an imbalance son in Maine’s cold waters. As a result of a glut of of nitrogen in our environment. jellyfish in 2002 that threatened salmon farms and Some of this excess nitrogen reaches our crops, swimmers alike, the Canadian province of New- but much of it pours into our coastal waters from foundland and Labrador commissioned a study to rainstorms washing excess fertilizer from neighbor- assess the feasibility of developing a new fishery hoods and farms. Nitrogen also seeps out of septic for jellyfish. Newfoundland’s fisheries department tanks and pours from sewage treatment plants and hoped that the stinging sea creatures could be sewage overflow pipe discharges into our water- harvested commercially for sale to Asian markets,

The ocean is in my blood. I always felt that we could sustain and protect it, but now I am terribly worried. The whole ocean ecosystem is under attack, and no one seems to be paying attention. All the signs are there. Manatees with blood streaming out of their noses are washing up on the coast of Florida. Crazed sea lions are biting people in San Francisco. Fishermen off the coast of North Carolina are pulling up nets filled with thick swarms

of jellyfish. Right here in Casco Bay, some clam-flats are so C asco B aykeeper Casco Baykeeper Joe Payne has devoted his career to finding thick with green slime that mussels and clams are being reasoned, science-based solutions for environmental threats to his part of the ocean realm, Casco Bay, a beautiful, bustling smothered. What will it take to get people to act? estuary in southern Maine. Casco Baykeeper Joe Payne

36 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org A sign posted at Walker Creek in Essex, Massachusetts, prohibits shellfishing due to red tide in June 2005. That summer Governor Mitt Romney declared a state of emergency, allowing the state to seek federal disaster aid for the devastated shellfish industry. AP P hoto /L isa P oole

Animals that feed on these small aquatic organisms, such as birds, larger fish and marine mammals are affected by toxic algae. Eighty-eight manatees along the west coast of Florida died from red tide in 2005. They breathed the concentrated brevetoxin fumes at the water’s surface, which caused neurological and respiratory damage. This aerial view shows Coquina Beach, Florida, with an algae bloom in August 2006. ampa T rib u ne -N ews C hannel 8, a u l P L amison AP P hoto /T www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 37 the rise of slime

The Birds On August 18, 1961, the Santa Cruz Sentinel (California) reported, “A massive flight of sooty shearwaters, fresh from a feast of anchovies, collided with shoreside structures from Pleasure Point to Rio del Mar during the night. Residents… were awakened about 3 A.M. by the rain of birds slamming against their homes… When the light of day made the area visible, residents found the streets covered with birds. The birds disgorged bits of fish and fish skeletons over the streets and lawns and housetops, leaving an overpowering fishy stench.” The newspaper noted in a brief article three days later that the Hollywood producer Alfred Hitchcock, who owned a home nearby, had requested a copy of the article as research for his latest thriller. It seemed that he was preparing to film a short story by mystery writer Daphne DeMaurier that, ironically, dealt with an attack by millions of birds on a town in the England countryside. Hitchcock sited his classic movie, The Birds (1963), in a seaside California community. Scientists have attributed the probable cause of the bizarre behavior by seabirds near Capitola to domoic acid poisoning from a red tide algae bloom.

which use processed jellyfish in a variety of meals. have closed the U.S. Northeastern coast to shell- A similar shift away from traditional fisheries, such fish harvesting in recent years. These closures and as shrimp, to jellyfish has also been considered outbreaks of toxic microorganisms have created along the Southeastern coast of the United States. severe financial hardships for commercial fisher- With traditional fisheries disappearing, we may not men and are a threat to coastal communities. Joe have any choice but to develop a taste for jellies. Payne talks about the “snowbirds,” people who Some scientists have compared today’s nitro- escape Maine’s frigid winters and muddy springs gen-polluted waters to conditions in the primordial by retreating to the coast of Florida. Some return seas, when primitive life such as bacteria and jelly- home to the Northeast coughing and complaining

L ong I sland S o u ndkeeper fish predominated. Jeremy B.C. Jackson, of Scripps of cold-like symptoms. What they are likely ex- Waterkeepers around the Institution of Oceanography, calls this pattern of periencing are the lingering effects of brevetoxin U.S. operate pump out evolutionary regression “the rise of slime.” exposure, an airborne toxin found in red tides on boats, collecting sewage Commercially valuable fish and other marine the west coast of Florida. When there is a red tide from pleasure boats at life are not the only ones to go; plant life that outbreak, coastal communities see a stark rise in marinas and at anchor. thrives in clear, clean ocean water is also disap- emergency room visits. Long Island Soundkeeper pearing. Sea grasses, for example, are the ocean Domoic acid is an example of harmful, micro- operates five pumpout nursery grounds for two-thirds of all commercial- scopic algae at its worst. Exposure to the power- boats in cities along ly and recreationally important marine species. ful toxin that this algae produces causes memory the sound. Last year Sea grass beds are disappearing in many places, failure, disorientation and even death. Domoic alone, Soundkeeper’s as they are shaded out by algae. Waquoit Bay in acid was first identified in 1988 when four Cana- Clean Boater Program Massachusetts is a prime example of the problem. dians died after eating contaminated mussels from prevented 40,000 gallons Since the 1950s, research on eelgrass and nitro- Prince Edward Island. Survivors suffered perma- of raw sewage from gen pollution has allowed scientists to document nent memory loss. Their illness is now called am- entering Long Island the steady loss of important aquatic habitat. The nesiac shellfish poisoning. This same harmful algae Sound. Pumpout boat connection is quite clear, as nitrogen pollution in- caused the deaths of 21 large whales in the Gulf of operators — including creases, eelgrass beds disappear. Today, eelgrass Maine in July of 2003 and was suspected to have Jack Backer, pictured — beds cover only a fraction of their historical area. poisoned at least nine whales and dozens of seals play an important role In nearby Buzzards Bay, 65 percent of the histori- along the coast of Maine later that same year. Do- by providing pollution cal eelgrass beds are gone. This loss of critical hab- moic acid is now widespread throughout U.S. wa- prevention education to itat has ramifications throughout the food web. ters, from New England to the Gulf of Mexico and yacht clubs, commercial Some of the algae that are blooming contain up the West Coast all the way to Alaska. passenger boat captains, potent poisons that can kill. Harmful algal blooms, civic groups and the commonly called red tides, are increasing around What can we do about it? media. the world. Their proliferation can be blamed at Americans have a love affair with the coast. More least partially on nutrient pollution. Red tides than half the U.S. population lives in coastal coun-

38 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org ties. Ocean managers and environmental advocates tain different pesticides and fertilizers. BayScaping like Waterkeepers recognize that excess nitrogen teaches homeowners how to grow a healthy lawn in coastal regions is one of the principal threats to without chemicals.” the environmental health of the oceans, but until Over the course of the campaign, Casco Baykeep- everyone else recognizes this too, our coastal wa- er has found that most people want to do the right ters will continue to deteriorate. Joe Payne notes, thing. When people know their wastes are destroy- “Coastal development has taken away the wetland ing the oceans, they are eager to find solutions.w plants that filter out the nitrogen before it gets into the ocean. Our activities directly impact the very resource we are crowding ever closer to enjoy.” Data collected by Casco Baykeeper in its long- term water quality monitoring program was essen- tial to identifying and documenting the problem. “You can’t convince elected officials, the general public and even other researchers that we are fac- ing a serious nitrogen dilemma unless you have the data to back it up.” Using this data Casco Baykeeper pushed for a state law setting legal limits for nitro- gen and other nutrients. In June 2007, Maine enacted the law and di- rected the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to set nutrient limits for coastal waters in state law. The legislation, written by Friends of Casco Bay, instructs the department to work with wastewater treatment facility operators to figure out how to reduce nutrient pollution from sewage treatment plants.

Casco Baykeeper has also encouraged munici- I stock palities and ocean-going vessels to stop pollution before it starts. Casco Baykeeper has kept pres- sure on municipalities to remove their combined Beware Phosphorus! sewage overflows, which divert nitrogen-laden Nutrient pollution — primarily phosphorus — is a problem in freshwater. Toxic algae stormwater and raw sewage into the bay during plaguing the Great Lakes and other lakes and streams across the country have health heavy rains. And since 1995, Friends of Casco Bay officials warning residents to keep their pets and themselves away from the water. has operated a pumpout boat that visits marinas Just as marine systems are limited by nitrogen, primary productivity in and moorings to remove sewage from recreational freshwater systems is limited by phosphorous. Most phosphorous is found as a boats. It has emptied more than 5,500 marine toi- component of rock, which over time weathers and is released into the environment, lets, preventing 95,000 gallons of sewage from en- where it becomes available to plants as a nutrient. Phosphorous is extremely tering Casco Bay. During the same time, we have critical to life on earth. It is a primary part of DNA and ATP, the “energy currency” worked with marinas, town landings and boat- of all living things. Sources of excess phosphorous include fertilizers, wastewater, yards, offering technical advice and encourage- agricultural runoff and detergents. Excess phosphorous in the aquatic environment ment to increase the number of shoreside sewage stimulates algae blooms. pumpout facilities. A new Maine law restricts the sale of phosphorus-containing fertilizer. Beginning Community education and outreach, such in 2008, retail stores must post a sign that indicates that fertilizers containing as Casco Baykeeper’s BayScaping campaign, phosphorus threaten water quality of nearby lakes and rivers. It recommends that also proves effective in stopping nitrogen from consumers avoid using fertilizer that contains phosphorus unless the user has done reaching our waterways. BayScaping encourages a soil test that shows that additional phosphorus is needed. Proponents had hoped homeowners, municipalities and businesses to to place a ban on selling lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus unless there was reduce their use of fertilizers and pesticides. De- a proven need, such as if the purchaser is establishing a new lawn or reseeding veloped in partnership with the Maine Board of an existing lawn or turf. Unfortunately, the law is just an educational message Pesticides Control, BayScaping recognizes the con- to consumers and lawn care professionals and does not contain enforceable nection between your lawn, stormwater and down- restrictions on the application of excess phosphorus. Does your fertilizer have stream waterways. Homeowners who follow a six- phosphorus? Look at the middle number describing the fertilizer blend (N-P-K); it step plan of environmentally-friendly lawn care can should be zero. become certified BayScapers. “Most homeowners In 2002, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to regulate the use don’t realize that what they put on their lawns of- of phosphorus fertilizer on lawns and turf. New Jersey, Florida, Wisconsin and ten ends up in the ocean. Many don’t even know Michigan have local ordinances. that the lawn and garden products they use con- www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 39 the rise of slime

Waterkeepers Chesapeake

By Michele Merkel, Chesapeake Regional Coordinator

Ninety percent of Chesapeake Bay and its tidal SIL facility exceeded their phosphorous pollution limits by an astounding 900 percent. Tests showed waters are impaired from nutrient pollution. In phosphorous levels in the river 140 times greater the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, leaders from below the outflow for SIL than above. These viola- tions continued into 2006. As a result of the no- Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of tices of intent to sue, the Virginia Department of Columbia and the federal EPA pledged to get Environmental Quality stepped in and is requiring the facility to install treatment technology that will the bay off EPA’s list of impaired waters by 2010. slash pollution. Current predictions for meeting this goal are dire. However, the Shenandoah and Potomac River- keepers’ work is far from over. The Virginia Fish Kill Task Force recently hypothesized that poultry litter is a likely contributor to the substantial num- »Every year nearly half the Chesapeake Bay has too ber of fish kills that have occurred each year since little oxygen to support most aquatic life, creating a 2004 in the Shenandoah River. dead zone stretching for hundreds of square miles. To the North, in Pennsylvania, the Lower The Chesapeake Bay Program, a federal-state agency Susquehanna Riverkeeper is also hard at work charged with directing bay restoration, recently re- tackling industrial agriculture. Earlier this year, ported that there are no prospects of likely recov- the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and Penn ery. They predicted continued harmful algal blooms Future threatened to sue five industrial agricul- causing beach closures and fish kills like the one this ture operations for operating without a Clean June that caused 7,000 menhaden to go belly up in Water Act permit. Those actions compelled three the Baltimore Harbor. Why have the federal and of the facilities to obtain permits. One of the state governments given up on the bay? facilities chose to reduce their livestock below We know what the problem is. We know what numbers that require a permit. The fifth facility is the solutions are. Stop nutrient pollution from in- still under the Riverkeeper’s watchful eye — they dustrial agriculture, sewage systems and stormwa- claim that their facility is really two separate facil- ter runoff from reaching the water. We have piles of ities, neither of which is large enough to require reports and initiatives, strategies and assessments. a permit. More recently, Lower Susquehanna Now it’s time to start at the top of the list and cut Riverkeeper in coalition with other state groups the sources of pollution. With government moving successfully pushed Pennsylvania legislation that at glacial speed, the Waterkeepers Chesapeake are makes tax credits available to farmers and busi- picking up the pace of our efforts to protect the bay nesses who install conservation projects that re- from nutrient pollution using litigation, regulatory duce water pollution. and legislative strategies. Waterkeepers Chesapeake are also working to keep human waste out of the bay. One of the pri-

S o u th R iverkeeper Keeping Waste Out of the Bay mary sources of nutrient pollution in the West and Algae bloom at Betterton Earlier this year, Shenandoah Riverkeeper, Poto- Rhode Rivers is from recreational boaters. Because Beach on the Sassafras River, mac Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance put the Coast Guard and the state have failed to en- MD. This algae, microcystis, produces a toxin that can two companies, Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation and force the laws that prohibit the dumping of waste- cause illness, including Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation, on notice that water from boats, the West and Rhode Riverkeeper gastroenteritis, and has killed we will sue them for dumping poultry waste into decided to take matters into his own hands, con- livestock and pets. the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in Tim- vincing the city of Annapolis to donate a pump- berville, Virginia. out boat. With operating assistance from the state PPC and Cargill send 360 million gallons of and with help from many volunteers, the West and poultry processing waste to the failing SIL waste- Rhode Riverkeeper now operates the pump-out water treatment facility each year. In 2005, the boat “Honeydipper” on the West and Rhode Riv-

40 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org S evern R iverkeeper Monitoring the Severn

By Allison Albert, Severn Riverkeeper Good News? Program Director EPA predicted a ‘moderate’ year for the Chesapeake’s anoxic dead zone. Little comfort for fishermen, boaters and wildlife Severn Riverkeeper with of the bay. Hint: the blue water is healthy and safe. the help of Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center U.S. EPA Chesapeake Bay Program has been monitoring dissolved oxygen levels in Maryland’s ‘capital ers. As of August 1, 55 boats had been serviced by charges of contaminated stormwater in violation river’ for the past two the Honey Dipper, properly disposing of more than of Maryland’s General Permit conditions and the summers and has 1,000 gallons of sewage. Clean Water Act. gathered some unsettling data. Surface dissolved Protecting the Bay from Urban Development We Will Restore the Bay oxygen measurements Stormwater runoff has a significant impact on Despite the failure of government to step up to the taken from 18 stations on water quality in the Chesapeake. This spring the plate, the Waterkeepers of the Chesapeake region the river generally showed Maryland legislature passed the Stormwater Man- refuse to accept the current health of our bay. We healthy levels. In summer, agement Act, which will drastically change how know what the problems are and how to fix them. however, oxygen levels developers plan for and handle polluted runoff The relevant question becomes — do we have the near the bottom all scored from new developments. The Patuxent Riverkeeper, will to restore the Chesapeake? below the EPA designated along with the South Riverkeeper, the Baltimore As Tom Horton, an environmental journalist, “healthy” threshold, Harbor Riverkeeper, the Severn Riverkeeper and has said, “Public support often seems like the estu- measuring at low oxygen the Assateague Coastkeeper, marshaled a broad- ary itself, impressively broad but deceptively shal- levels characteristic based coalition of groups to assist the state to de- low.” The Waterkeepers Chesapeake will continue of a dead zone. These velop regulations that require environmental site to play their unique role of connecting communi- conditions were easily design practices to mitigate stormwater pollution ties, our laws and our values to the well-being of confirmed by detectable from development. the bay so that citizens will hold themselves, pol- levels of hydrogen sulfide, But regulations — no matter how strong — are luters and their elected officials accountable. Only a product of anaerobic only as good as their enforcement. Last month, then will we restore the bay’s oysters and crabs, put bacterial metabolism. South Riverkeeper Drew Koslow put a developer our watermen back to work, and preserve a way of Dead zones normally on notice that he intended to sue him for 179 dis- life that makes the bay unique. w exist only in deep water where little mixing of layers occurs, not flowing rivers. Sadly, the Severn is proving that A wild celery and water star rivers are suffering from underwater grass bed. At the low oxygen levels. Last turn of the century, an emerald spring the Riverkeeper cloak of underwater grasses presented this important lined the Cheseapeake Bay and finding along with policy its tributaries, providing hiding recommendations to places for blue crabs and Maryland Governor spawning fish. Today, nutrient Martin O’Malley and the pollution has killed about two- Anne Arundel County thirds of the bay’s underwater Executive. We continued grass beds. Without these our monitoring effort beds crabs, fish and waterfowl this summer with similar disappear. With them go the preliminary results. fresh, plentiful seafood, jobs for watermen and safe places Photo: Severn Riverkeeper for our kids to fish and swim. monitoring team detects smelly hydrogen sulfide in

L ange AP P hoto /K athleen bottom sample. www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 41 the rise of slime Chicken waste — shown here stored illegally in an uncovered two story high ‘poop hill’ at a factory farm in Maryland — is particularly high in phosphorus.

State Secrets: What Are They Hiding On Maryland Chicken Farms? R ick D ove

By Bill Gerlach, »Maryland poultry farms raise 270 million chick- culture — is hiding the polluters. The department Waterkeeper Alliance ens each year and produce more than one billion refuses to allow public access to the operational pounds of poultry manure. This waste contains plans that detail how chicken farms dispose of their enormous amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and waste. No one actually knows where all this poop other toxins — including human carcinogens, ar- is going, except for factory farm operators, their senic and other heavy metals. And when it rains, bosses at large integrators such as Perdue, Tyson this waste doesn’t stay on the farm. Stormwater and Montaire, and a few privileged state bureau- washes it off farms and fields straight into Chesa- crats. Maryland’s policy of keeping factory farm peake Bay. Today, agricultural runoff is the single pollution a state secret poses a huge obstacle to largest source of pollution in the bay. citizen efforts to hold poultry operations account- But the state agency responsible for managing able for water pollution. And federal requirements this waste — the Maryland Department of Agri- are little help. Federal law requires that large-scale factory farms operate under a Clean Water Act permit. Theoretically, these permits should detail The business model of a factory waste plans and be available to the public. Unfortu- nately, in clear defiance of federal law, the State of farm simply doesn’t work unless Maryland has not required that these large opera- tions obtain permits. they are able to pollute. Waterkeeper Alliance and Waterkeepers Chesa- What we’ve found in the Eastern Shore of Maryland is peake are exploring litigation to open up the secret poop policy of Maryland’s tight-lipped chicken ca- that many chicken factories are in the tidal zone. The bal of big poultry, their allies in the state assembly chicken factories and fields where they spread their and pro-chicken state bureaucrats. It is only a mat- waste are underlain with pipes and ditches. The waste ter of time before this information is made available to citizens. Litigation has already been successfully flows into these ditches. When the tide comes up, brought by Delaware Riverkeeper challenging New these ditches are connected to the bay. We have found York State’s refusal to make similar factory farm plans available to the public. And a federal court fishermen’s bait boxes floating up the ditches, we’ve has ruled in a case brought by Waterkeeper Alli- seen minnows swimming in chicken factory pipes. ance against U.S. EPA that factory farm waste man- agement plans must be made available for public Poultry factories use the bay to dispose their waste. review. The time is coming soon for big poultry to Rick Dove, Waterkeeper Alliance face the music for their waste disposal practices. w

42 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Central Valley Dairy Factory By Sejal Choksi, San Francisco Baykeeper

»California’s Central Valley is a powerhouse of agricultural production, supplying a famed abun- dance of fruits, vegetables and dairy. More than six million acres in the Central Valley are devot- ed to irrigated agriculture, producing $13 billion worth of food annually. Farms there thrive on wa- ter supplied by a single, vast estuarine system, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The delta’s watershed, which drains more than 40 percent of California’s landmass and empties into San Fran- cisco Bay, provides drinking water to more than 22 million people. After decades of heavy fertilizer application, as well as the proliferation of high- density animal factories, agricultural pollution is directly threatening California’s drinking water, devastating aquatic habitat and contributing to the B aykeeper dramatic collapse of fisheries. The shift to industrial agriculture in the Central tories in the Central Valley. With the help of Wa- The three million dairy Valley has resulted in fewer farms, more cows, and terkeeper Alliance, Baykeeper launched a Central cows statewide excrete much more wet manure and polluted runoff. Fed- Valley Factory Farm campaign in June 2006 by more waste than all eral law requires factory farms to prevent runoff announcing lawsuits against three polluting dair- the people in California of manure and contaminated rainwater. Factory ies in the Central Valley. These suits succeeded combined. This cow farms must implement basic controls such as keep- in forcing these industrial dairies to obtain Clean manure is not treated ing stormwater away from the areas where cows Water Act permits and increased the pressure and much of it ends are crowded together. Further, farms must ensure on the state to implement federal environmental up in our waterways. that manure used as fertilizer is applied slowly so law. More recently, Baykeeper has challenged the Farmers usually promise nutrients can be absorbed by the plants, without state’s entire illegal factory farm program. Mean- the manure will not be running off into creeks or soaking quickly into while, we’re working to preserve state rules that af- used as fertilizer for crops groundwater. Although federal law required pollu- ford at least minimal protection for groundwater, that feed humans, but tion control plans for these animal factories, Cali- the source of drinking water for many rural resi- California’s rules make it fornia regulators have refused to enforce the law. dents. With sustained pressure, we believe we can very hard to keep spinach Baykeeper is vigilant in enforcing the law to clean up the delta while protecting and preserving and other crops out of protect the watershed from industrial dairy fac- family farms. w manure’s way.

Stream Team Santa Barbara Channelkeeper’s Stream Team has identified chronic nutrient and algae problems in several watersheds that feed California’s Santa Barbara Channel. In the Goleta Slough watershed, some local creeks have nitrate concentrations more than double public health standards. Agriculture is the chief culprit. Channelkeeper supported a new regulatory program that requires farmers on California’s Central Coast to develop water quality management plans to reduce nutrient pollution from irrigated fields. P a u l J enkin www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 43 the rise of slime

Big Dams, Big Ag and Toxic Algae

By Regina Chichizola, Klamath Riverkeeper

»The Iron Gate and Copco reservoirs on the Kla- math River receive heavily-polluted water from Invasives surrounding agricultural lands. Excess nutrient pollution in Klamath reservoirs has given way to By Don McEnhill, a more ominous villain — toxic algae. In recent Russian Riverkeeper years, the reservoirs have had some of the highest On the Russian River levels of the toxic algae Microcystis aeruginosa in there is a massive the world. Microcystis aeruginosa can cause vomit- infestation of invasive ing, stomach pain, rashes and diarrhea, and in the Ludwigia Hexapetala Klamath, has impacted traditional Native Ameri- from South America. can ceremonies, whitewater rafting, swimming Opportunistic invaders and fishing downstream. like Ludwigia thrive on The blooms occur in the summer as the shal- imbalances in local low, nutrient rich water trapped behind the dams aquatic ecosystems. In heats up and spurs algal growth. For years, down- our case, the imbalance river Tribes, fishermen and conservation groups is caused by nitrogen and have called for the removal of the dams to restore phosphorus. Due to a dramatically declining salmon runs and alleviate flawed plan for the Santa these toxic algal blooms. Rosa regional wastewater While the state acknowledges that the algae is plant, the facility has indeed a serious health risk, it has refused to regu- dumped massive late water quality in the Klamath reservoirs, claim- amounts of nutrients into ing that the problem falls under the federal govern- a small tributary. Recently, ment’s jurisdiction. Likewise, the federal EPA has

Russian Riverkeeper refused to regulate toxic algae. The most EPA is iverkeeper R K lamath successfully argued for willing to do is issue the following statement: Susan Corum of the Karuk Tribe takes a water sample from a a new plan that would Northern California reservoir, bright green with the toxic algae that thrives in the heavily polluted water. greatly reduce the Recreational exposure to toxic blue-green amount of nitrogen and algae can cause eye irritation, allergic skin phosphorus entering the rash, mouth ulcers, vomiting, diarrhea, and tributary, and the presence cold and flu-like symptoms. Liver failure and of Ludwigia. death have occurred in rare situations where large amounts of contaminated water were and alfalfa. “Meanwhile, the endangered and en- directly ingested. demic fish in the Klamath are nearing extinction, and refuges that are supposed to be protected for Klamath Riverkeeper is working with leaders the largest waterfowl migration in the U.S. are in- from the Karuk and Yurok Tribes, recreational stead becoming industrial farmland and agricul- businesses and fishermen to make the Klamath ture sumps. It’s no wonder the high nutrient water dam owners — PacifiCorp and Warren Buffett’s coming into the reservoirs is stagnating. Berkshire Hathaway — clean up the Klamath. In Though the Klamath’s toxic algae situation is May, Klamath Riverkeeper and other affected com- related to nutrient pollution, the fact remains that munity members filed a nuisance lawsuit against Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp dams are creating and

Ru ssian R iverkeeper PacifiCorp over the role the dams play in creating releasing a toxin that is turning the Klamath into a This was open water 30 days algae blooms and other conditions lethal to salm- toxic stew. Klamath Riverkeeper remains commit- ago, now choked by invasive on. Klamath Riverkeeper is also taking on unregu- ted to working with all those who use the Klamath Ludwigia fueled by nutrients. lated nutrient pollution, water transfers and factory River to stop the toxic algae blooms that are killing farms on private and National Wildlife refuge lands it. Riverkeeper looks forward to the forthcoming upriver of the reservoirs. public nuisance trial as a means of forcing Buffett In the Upper Klamath Basin, agriculture has had and PacifiCorp to take into account not only the a free ride, leading to many of our wildlife refuges health of the river but also its health effects on the and wetlands being drained and farmed for cows people who swim, fish and drink it.w

44 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Georgia’s Precious Blackwaters Turn Green

»Georgia is home to hundreds of miles of black- We shared this information with the poultry plant, water streams. These unique stream systems start state regulators and the public. The communities in cypress and gum (tupelo) swamps and low-lying along the Canoochee River spoke out against re- By Chandra Brown, areas and get their names from the dark tea-colored suming spraying on this contaminated parcel of Ogeechee-Canoochee waters. Freshwater fish diver- land and the poultry plant Riverkeeper and sity is very high, with well over withdrew its application to re- Gordon Rogers, Satilla 50 species in some systems. open the old sprayfields. Riverkeeper Blackwater streams and rivers Satilla Riverkeeper gave are also hauntingly beautiful input to and now monitors a places to fish, swim, float, hike consent order issued to the or just sit and gaze at the dark City of Douglas on the chron- clear water contrasted against ic failure of the city’s waste- snow-white sand bars. water treatment plant, but However, the delicate bal- neither the order nor exist- ance that provides the tea- O geechee -C anoochee R iverkeeper ing permits address nutrient colored waters is shifting. The Smith family enjoys their Canoochee River levels, at all. Meanwhile, state O geechee -C anoochee R iverkeeper The streams are turning green property in the 1950s. regulators are reexamining Today, the Smith property is from sewage and stormwater permit limits for nutrients unusable due to excessive nutrients entering the river runoff entering the waters from aging or poorly- and other pollutants throughout the Satilla water- from a poultry processing regulated wastewater treatment plants, stormwater shed, and there is growing concern among citizens plant several miles upstream. systems, agricultural operations and septic tanks. that permits will be written to allow continued The slimy, green algae that covers the surface of the degradation as opposed to restoring the Satilla to streams chokes out native mussel species, shifts its natural state. In particular, we are working to productive insect assemblages (the prey base for ensure that we return the natural balance of nutri- fish) over to less-diverse species. As bacteria con- ents in the river, as opposed to accepting the cur- sumes the decaying algae, oxygen levels plummet, rent degraded state of affairs.w making the streams uninhabitable for fish. The sugar-sand bars are taking on a brownish hue and grasses and other terrestrial plants are moving in. Georgia’s Largest Water Supply Reservoir Despite this growing problem, Georgia currently Polluted with Excess Nutrients has no regulations to limit the amount of nutrients in blackwater streams. By Upper Georgia’s man-made Lake Lanier is located just 50 miles It is not too late for Georgia to reverse this Chattahoochee north of Atlanta. As the lake celebrates its half-century trend. Enacting stringent in-stream standards for Riverkeeper milestone this year it is also receiving notoriety for its high nutrients in blackwater streams can help restore Sally Bethea pollution levels. After years of investigations and advocacy the natural balance. A similar action was taken for by Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Lake Lanier was lakes in the state earlier this year. Ogeechee-Ca- recently placed on the federal impaired waterways list noochee Riverkeeper and Satilla Riverkeeper are when officials faced the facts that nutrients in the drinking working to document nutrient levels in blackwater water supply had reached unacceptable levels. Since streams and push the state to adopt standards that 2000, population in the Lanier watershed burgeoned, as are protective of these unique ecosystems. So far, has the lake’s algae. Polluted runoff from uncontrolled we have found excessive levels of nutrients leaving development has flooded the lake with phosphorus. sewage discharge pipes, surging out of stormwater For years, Georgia’s environmental agency revealed canals and seeping into streams from contaminat- excess nutrients in the lake, but the state failed to admit ed groundwater leaving land application systems. that Lake Lanier was impaired to the EPA. Finally in In early 2007, Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeep- 2006, after Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper repeatedly er succeeded in stopping a wastewater application brought the matter to EPA’s attention, Georgia officials on land next to the Canoochee River from Claxton iverkeeper R Upper C hattahoochee agreed to list the lake as impaired and draft a cleanup Poultry Farms. The poultry plant was proposing Upper Chattahoochee plan. In the next two years, the state will spend half to resume spraying wastewater with high nutri- Riverkeeper’s monitoring a million dollars to determine the source of the program has documented lake’s nutrient pollution. With millions of Georgians ent levels on fields already contaminated by previ- nutrient pollution in Lake ous operations at the plant. Ogeechee-Canoochee Lanier, an important depending on the lake for drinking water, the health of Riverkeeper documented contaminated ground- source of drinking water Lake Lanier is critical. water entering the river from the old sprayfields. for the Atlanta region. www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 45 the rise of slime

North Carolina

Hog Vigil »There are 10 million hogs in North Carolina being raised “industrial style.” Each day, those 10 million hogs produce the equivalent waste of 100 million By Heather Jacobs, Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper people. That’s all the citizens in North Carolina, and Larry Baldwin, Lower Neuse Riverkeeper California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Hampshire and North Dakota combined. The hog industry uses an outhouse system of waste disposal. Fecal waste, urine and wash-down water from swine operations are stored in open waste pits called “lagoons” (sorry no bathing beau- ties anywhere near these lagoons). When the waste pits fill up, the industrial swine producer sprays the untreated waste onto fields under the pretext of growing crops. But this waste runs off fields di- rectly to our wetlands, streams, creeks and rivers. The Pamlico-Tar River watershed is home to approximately 500,000 hogs, and in the Neuse watershed the number is two million hogs. These factories apply waste from the state’s 2,300 waste lagoons to the ground in a liquid form under the pretext of raising crops. The runoff pollutes our The vigil included a hog waters and creates a substantial human health risk factory model with a 40 to our communities. gallon lagoon that pumped real waste, exposing The fight to rid the state of these open cesspools the legislature to the dates back to the early 1990s when fish began dying awful smell that North by the billions (see Fish Able, the spring 2007 issue Carolinians must bear. of Waterkeeper). Today the fight continues.

R ick D ove On June 19, North Carolina Waterkeepers and a broad coalition of religious, environmental and The authors, Rick Dove (pictured) and hundreds of others labor organizations brought the fight to the lawn of spent 51 hours, from 3:00 p.m. on July 19 to 6:00 a.m. on June the state General Assembly. More than 125 people 21 in front of the North Carolina legislature speaking out on the need to ban hog waste lagoons. pitched camp in front of the legislative buildings in the state capital of Raleigh. We had simple de- mands: legislation to permanently ban hog waste lagoons and sprayfields, and safe drinking water for people whose groundwater has been contaminated by hog waste. We stayed 51 hours, for the entire legislative session. We brought with us a model of a hog factory with a working lagoon and 40 gallons of real hog waste. When the state discovered that we planned to have hog waste on the lawn, they sent a security official who informed us that if we spilled even one drop, it would be considered haz- ardous waste. The HazMat team would be called in to do an emergency cleanup and we would be fined. He provided no answer when asked why hog waste that is called fertilizer elsewhere is consid- ered hazardous material in Raleigh. The vigil didn’t accomplish all of our policy goals. Back-room deals lead to weak legislation that will essentially allow waste lagoons to remain Waterkeepers and community groups viewed the legislation as a promise unfulfilled. Governor Ea-

N e u se R iverkeeper sley himself has gone back on a promise he made

46 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org A Return to Our Roots N e u se R iverkeeper

In the piedmont region of North Carolina, a silent revolution is become the norm of today. Sows, with their piglets by their side, have growing. Within an hour of the hustle and bustle of Raleigh, farmers are room to roam, root, graze and, simply, act like pigs. The result? Healthy recognizing the possibilities of returning to the ‘small is beautiful’ way of animals that are sold to Whole Foods as local, organic meat for 20 farming and community economics. cents per pound more than industrially-produced hogs. While Mike On his 73 acres, Mike Jones takes care of 200 head of hogs. This can’t live on his hog farm alone, farmers across the state are turning hog farm is a far cry from the industrial animal operations that have back to sustainable farming.

while campaigning for office. Seven years ago he went on record to say that he would rid the state of lagoons and sprayfields within five years. But he was one of the main brokers of a deal that will al- low lagoons and sprayfields to remain in existence for years to come. The work of the North Carolina Waterkeep- ers and our broad coalition of community-based activists is far from over. We won’t stop until this archaic, outdated and destructive form of animal waste disposal is a thing of the past. w

Air Force Despite setbacks in the North Carolina state legislature, the federal Clean Water Act remains a strong tool. The Neuse and Pamlico-Tar Riverkeepers have stepped up efforts to catch illegal hog waste discharges through aerial patrols and on-the-ground water monitoring. This work is dependant on a team of 20 volunteers who have learned the tricks of aerial photography and water sampling. Since June, the Neuse and Pamlico-Tar Riverkeepers have flown Volunteer pilot Ron Smith more than a dozen sorties with volunteers, capturing flies patrol over a North several Clean Water Act violations that we will pursue. Carolina hog factory. R ick D ove www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 47 the rise of slime

Action on the Forge

By Kevin McAllister, »The Forge River in Moriches, New York, was the hundreds at press conferences and meetings in Peconic Baykeeper thrust into the public spotlight in June 2005 when an effort to save the Forge. Concerned residents a whitish-gray plume consumed the river. Fish and trained by the Peconic Baykeeper regularly tested crab carcasses floated on the water as juvenile eels the waters, recording dissolved oxygen levels and rose from the depths to breathe and blue crabs collecting samples for fecal bacteria. In September scuttled ashore to survive. The Forge was dying and 2005, Peconic Baykeeper petitioned the New York spreading its contagion into the greater reaches of Department of Environmental Conservation to Moriches Bay. Fred Chiofolo, a bayman for more classify the Forge River and its tributaries as im- than 40 years in the area, said, “This was a golden paired waters. Under the Clean Water Act, states place and always one of the great places to fish for are required to identify impaired waters where crabs, eels, clams, flounder, bunker, everything. It’s conditions prevent specific “designated” uses. In horrible what’s happened and, what’s more, most of this instance, the Forge failed to provide the water the recent shellfish closings in northern Moriches quality necessary for the survival of its fish popu- Bay are a result of the Forge.” lations. The river’s high level of bacteria also pre- The dire conditions set in motion a call to ac- sented a serious threat to the people who use the tion. The community quickly rallied, appearing by bay. In April 2006, after nearly a year of testing and the community’s clear demand for action, the state granted the petition and placed the Forge on the impaired waters list. No Swimming Already the designation has prompted new leadership and action at many levels. The Town of While there are many sources of nutrient Brookhaven has taken the lead to create the Forge pollution in the watershed, testing has revealed River Task Force, composed of government of- a significant source is nitrogen-enriched ficials, citizen leaders and public interest groups, groundwater. The culprit is most likely the including Peconic Baykeeper. The Task Force is thousands of antiquated cesspools present in analyzing the factors that caused the decline and high-density communities in the watershed. will make recommendations to guide restoration efforts. Ironically, the distinction of being an im- paired waterbody has been the impetus to reverse decades of neglect and indifference.w I stock

Massive Kill Prompts Changes in Rhode Island By John Torgan, Narragansett Baykeeper

Sometimes it takes an environmental disaster to create heavy rain washed millions of gallons of sewage into the political will to make real changes. This is certainly the bay, followed by a stifling heat wave and calm, neap the case in Rhode Island, where a hypoxic (low-oxygen) tide conditions which lead to widespread algae blooms. event in Greenwich Bay wiped out more than a million And then, a sudden drop in the remaining oxygen levels juvenile menhaden as well as countless other marine caused the fish to suffocate. It was a perfect storm of animals in August of 2003. This event set into motion a factors, including the nitrogen from sewage pollution, sequence of actions that led to the upgrades of most of which conspired to foul the bay’s waters. Narragansett Bay’s major wastewater treatment facilities. The public outcry was immediate and urgent. The In the weeks prior to the fish kill, Narragansett governor and environmental officials convened hearings, Baykeeper had been ringing the alarm about hundreds a legislative committee investigated the causes, and

T om A rdito of thousands of baby soft-shelled clams washing up promptly moved legislation aimed at cutting nitrogen In August 2003 oxygen dead along shores and bottom dissolved oxygen levels levels from wastewater by 50 percent by 2008. With depletion from nutrient approaching zero. Unfortunately there was little anyone 2008 approaching, we are thrilled that our advocacy on pollution in Greenwich Bay could do at that point to prevent the fish kill. Days of this has paid off: construction of advanced wastewater lead to a massive fish kill.

48 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Lake Champlain Quadricentennial — The Messy Anniversary or Funeral? By Tim Burke, Lake Champlain Lakekeeper Vocabulary Of Watershed Protection

»Every year, Florida’s St. Johns River receives 32 By Neil Armingeon, million pounds of nitrogen, the vast majority from St. Johns Riverkeeper human sources. The thick green carpet of algae that coats the river proves that the St. Johns is suffering

L ake C hamplain L akekeeper from acute nitrogen poisoning. Years of advocacy Liquid manure flows from a farm field into Lake Champlain. by environmental groups like St. Johns Riverkeeper have forced reluctant state agencies to admit the In 1609, Samuel de Champlain came up the river is in jeopardy. Richelieu River and found a big lake that he promptly For the past six years, St. Johns Riverkeeper has named after himself. Today, the lake is suffering from faced nutrient pollution head on. This has meant nutrient pollution. In 2002, Vermont and New York untangling a knotted mess of science, law and bu- adopted and EPA approved a pollution reduction reaucratic vocabulary called Total Maximum Daily plan for phosphorus. In the almost five years since Loads or TMDLs. A TMDL is a scientific calcula- the adoption of the plan, however, no significant tion of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a reductions in phosphorus have occurred in the lake. waterbody can receive and still meet federal water Riverkeeper This year the state legislature passed a law requiring quality standards for fishing and swimming. The and the Vermont, which contributes most of the phosphorus, mention of something like a TMDL makes most to reopen and rewrite the plan. Lake Champlain folks’ eyes roll back. But once you get beyond the Clean Water Lakekeeper and Conservation Law Foundation played jargon, a TMDL can be a useful tool in controlling Network a critical role getting this law passed and forcing the amount of pollutants that enter our waterways. the state to adopt an industrial stormwater permit For us, it was the best tool we had to decrease ni- successfully to stop polluted runoff. Plans to commemorate trogen pollution. So we jumped in with both feet. linked the Champlain’s arrival are now underway for 2009. Our journey began in 1998. A lawsuit brought by But without real progress on nutrient pollution, the Earth Justice had just succeeded in forcing Florida tangled celebration of the 400 year mark may be more of a to establish a nutrient TMDL for the lower St. Johns jargon of our funeral than an anniversary. River by September 2003. According to water qual- lawsuit and ity models, nitrogen would have to be reduced by 60 percent to achieve healthy nutrient levels in the the state’s river. But as soon as the state attempted to imple- TMDL to the ment this reduction, polluters threatened to sue. The state caved in to the pressure and weakened green water the TMDL. and toxic St. Johns Riverkeeper knew that if we were ever going to reduce nitrogen pollution in the river, we algae they needed to act. EPA approved the inadequate nutri- were seeing ent reduction plan and, in 2004, St. Johns River- keeper and Clean Water Network of Florida filed in their a lawsuit. Major polluters, including the American community. T om A rdito Pulp and Paper Association and our local utility, Sewer overflow pipes dump raw sewage directly into streams accused us of standing in the way of river restora- when inadequate sewer systems are overwhelmed by rain. tion. But we pushed through with our legal chal- lenge and community outreach. treatment facilities at three of the bay’s four As our fight against the state’s plan intensified, largest wastewater treatment plants are already the river health took a turn for the worst. In sum- underway. While our waters remain murky for mer 2005, a toxic blue green algal bloom — dubbed now, Narragansett Bay is on course for a cleaner, the Green Monster — covered over 100 miles of healthier future. w the river. Toxic algae levels were 300 to 1000 times www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 49 the rise of slime

worse than World Health Organization standards. Conditions worsened and the Department of Health issued an alert recommending that people refrain from recreational use of the river. Fish were dying in droves and new species of toxic algae were emerging. Nitrogen pollution was the cause. For the first time citizens began to recognize and understand the problems and risks associ- ated with nitrogen pollution. Riverkeeper and the Clean Water Network successfully linked the tan- gled jargon of our lawsuit and the state’s TMDL to Green Monster the green water and toxic algae they were seeing Wins National in their community. The tide began to turn; public Environmental sentiment turned against EPA, the state and the Award polluters. Their position began to crumble. EPA asked the federal judge to allow them to recon- The Green Monster: It sider the TMDL. In October 2005, as we were Came From The River, preparing to go to trial, EPA reversed its approval a TV documentary that of the nutrient TMDL. EPA later established a nu- compares algae blooms trient TMDL that required a 60 percent reduction in the St. Johns River in nitrogen loading. The new TMDL was strong to an alien invasion of enough to cut nutrient pollution and the river grotesque green goo, would meet water quality standards. took first place honors at Good guys win and the end of the story, right? the Awards for Reporting Well, not yet. As soon as the EPA announced its on the Environment, settlement, the Florida Department of Environ- held September 5 at mental Conservation began a campaign to dis- Stanford University in mantle the newly established TMDL. The depart- Palo Alto, California. The ment wanted to lower water quality standards awards, sponsored by the for dissolved oxygen, which would allow more Society of Environmental pollution to enter the river. The change was a gift Journalists, are the to polluters, who would be able to spend less on world’s largest and most wastewater treatment and discharge more nitro- comprehensive honors for gen into the river — an additional 830,000 pounds eco-reporting. of nitrogen over the scientifically-based standard. The take-off on 1950s Today, we’re back in federal court fighting the science-fiction films was state’s attempts to lower oxygen levels. This time, praised for focusing “not there are even more interveners lining up against just on the problem, but us including the Florida Chamber of Commerce also on common-sense and the Florida League of Cities. It seems that the solutions.” The program, entire government of the state of Florida is lin- sponsored by St. Johns ing up against clean water. Ultimately, though, we Riverkeeper, aired in will win. March 2006. Since then, We’ve already made great progress — the cur- St. Johns Riverkeeper rent TMDL is now almost triple what was origi- distributed 2,000 Green nally proposed. Just as important, we’ve used this Monster DVDs to local campaign to educate people about why something schools, homeowners as abstract as a TMDL matters to the river’s health. associations, civic We produced an award winning video called the organizations and Green Monster, which has been viewed by tens of ates elected officials. A thousands of citizens. We also developed the River B ill Y sequel — Revenge of the Friendly Yard program, which educates citizens on River — aired last May. how they can reduce algae-causing nitrogen from As Waterkeepers, we are constantly confronted Both documentaries are their yards and businesses. Last year, a $700 mil- with the multitude of issues that impact our wa- available for viewing at lion restoration plan for the St. Johns was begun; terways. We struggle to fix the worst things first. www.jacksonville.com. its main goal is reducing nitrogen loading to the These battles are usually the most difficult, but re- river. We know our TMDL fight led to the develop- sult in the most meaningful victories. Our TMDL ment of that program. struggle has established Riverkeeper as the true

50 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org voice of the St. Johns River. People know River- Algae choke Goodby’s Creek, keeper will go to the mat for what’s best for the St. a tributary of the St. Johns River, September 2005. Johns River. And that, after all, is what being the Waterkeeper is all about. w

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 51 the rise of slime

Lake Erie: Signs of Trouble NASA

By Sandy Bihn, »A green cup of water was the poster child of This satellite photo vividly shows algae and sediment pollution Western Lake Erie Lake Erie in 1970, and after nearly three decades, in the Great Lakes. Lake Erie (lower right) is the shallowest Waterkeeper and warmest of the lakes — making it the most susceptible to the same green water is back. Phosphorous in algal blooms. Lake St. Clair (just above Lake Erie) is also heavily Lake Erie waters has increased every year since impaired by sediment and algae. 1990. Researcher David Baker reports that the 2007 phosphorous readings are the highest in over 20 years. In 1978 the U.S. and Canada signed a treaty set- phorous levels dropped and the target was met in ting limits for phosphorous pollution. The agree- 1988. But the lowered phosphorous levels did not ment resulted in the elimination of phosphorous in last long. In 1990 phosphorous was again on the laundry detergents and discharge limits for waste- rise. Today, Lake Erie waters are showing the same water treatment plants. As a result Lake Erie phos- signs that harmed the waters and fish decades ago — dead zones and algae blooms. The invasive alga Lyngbya wollei Algae can take over a lake when fed too many piles up along the shores of nutrients and, in this case, too much phosphorous. Western Lake Erie. In Lake Erie, a new invasive alga that appeared in summer 2006 called Lyngbya wollei is doing just that. It looks like matted wool and most likely came from boats that winter in the Southeastern U.S. Researchers hoped the February freeze would kill the unwelcome weed. But in April, mounds of algae remained piled up along the shoreline. This algae clogs shallow marinas where it gets into boat intakes and causes engines to shut down. Lake Erie supplies drinking water to 11 million people and supports local economies with billions of dollars from sport fishing and recreation. But today Lake Erie needs help with phosphorous. Ef- forts in the 1970s to reduce toxics pouring into the Great Lakes have succeeded in reducing those pollutants. It’s now time to take nutrient pollu- tion seriously. w W estern L ake E rie aterkeeper W

52 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org »the way Forward

»Nitrogen and phosphorous are vital nutrients Nutrient pollution comes from agricultural, for plants and animals. But too much can over- sewage, urban runoff, air pollution and industrial Crystal whelm a waterway, causing massive algal growth waste. We know how to keep this waste out of our that smothers and poisons aquatic life, and robs waterways. It’s time we take responsibility for the oxygen from the water. Nutrient pollution is a seri- state of our waters, handle our fertilizers and waste Clear ous threat to human health — threatening drinking responsibly, and invest in our infrastructure. Im- water sources, and making recreation in waterways mediate action is necessary to stop our waterways and eating seafood dangerous activities. from turning toxic green.

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 53 the rise of slime: the way forward

Life holds many mysteries. But how nutrients end up in our water in harmful amounts is not one of Keeping Nutrient them. The uncontrolled flow of this pollution into our waterways is the result of irresponsible indus- try practices and lax enforcement of existing safe- guards by state and federal environmental agencies. Pollution Out Of In addition, EPA has refused to create enforceable limits on the discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus into our waters. We know who the main culprits Our Waterways are and we know what solutions are available. It’s time to take care of this problem.

Agriculture

Irresponsible agricultural are required to develop around the country. practices — allowing nutrient management In the case of factory animal waste and plans and implement farms, water pollution is fertilizer to run off fields best management a part of their economic and into surrounding practices to keep their equation. Industrial waterways — are the waste out of our waters. animal factories cannot largest source of nutrient But these requirements compete with family pollution nationwide. are inadequately farms if they are held to This pollution should be enforced or ignored by environmental standards. controlled. Large farms environmental officials For these facilities, dumping huge amounts Multiple rows of trees shrubs and native grasses form a riparian of animal waste into buffer that protect Bear Creek in Story County, Iowa. Wetlands surrounding waters is the R ick D ove and vegetation buffers absorb runoff and capture nutrient standard business model. A study by Dr. Mark Sobsey of the University of North Carolina pollution from farm fields. There are many found that the state’s industrial hog facilities, like this one, measures a farmer can produce more fecal matter each day than is produced by the citizens of North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, New York, take to keep nutrients Texas, New Hampshire and North Dakota combined. Yet none out of our water. In fact, of this animal waste is treated and much of it runs off directly methods to safely handle into our waterways. manure and prudently apply fertilizers are riparian. More advanced require that farmers common sense for family technologies also exist, cultivate less area or farmers. Some examples for instance “precision raise fewer animals, but are applying only as much farming,” which uses these measures ensure fertilizer or manure to a global positioning system that waterways are clean field as plants can absorb, technology and computer- and safe. Most farmers not spraying fertilizer on navigated tractors to — in contrast to animal water saturated or frozen ensure that fertilizers and factory operators — are fields, not storing waste manure are applied in the good stewards. We must in the open and keeping correct amounts and in empower farmers to animals fenced out of the right places to prevent protect the environment, streams. Sensitive areas excess from running into establish strong such as steep slopes waterways. environmental standards and wetlands should be There are federal and, and help with funding protected and restored. often, state and local when necessary. Establishing vegetation funds available to help ynn B etts along the banks of a farmers pay for pollution

U SDA/L waterway — called prevention. This may

54 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Human Waste by J im C agle . photo of P alm B each o u nty C R eef R esc u e , : C o u rtesy C redit

Though the water discharged from wastewater treatment Wastewater from sewage $10.95 per ratepayer per to help fund upgrades plants, like this one in Florida, has been treated, it still treatment plants and year — far below the ‘sky at wastewater treatment contains nutrients. septic tanks are another is falling’ estimates of plants. major source of nutrient sewage plant operators. Nutrient removal pollution. Sewage Yet only the most technologies for septic treatment systems advanced treatment systems remain relatively are mainly designed plants currently use expensive. But proper to disinfect waste, nutrient removal siting, installation and that is, to kill human technology. maintenance to ensure pathogens. Nitrogen That’s because EPA that septic systems and phosphorus in hasn’t changed the work correctly, along wastewater pass through standards for wastewater with nutrient removal most treatment plants treatment in more technologies, will help and are discharged than 20 years, despite protect groundwater. directly into our Congress’ requirement Our wastewater waterways. Today, that EPA occasionally treatment infrastructure technologies are widely reevaluate treatment is antiquated and our available that remove standards. It’s time to waterways are paying nutrient pollution from update federal wastewater for it in toxic algae. It’s

© PHOTOTAKE I nc . © / PHOTOTAKE lamy A sewage. EPA estimates treatment standards to time we include nutrient Sewage treatment plant technician with samples of treated that the cost of installing include nutrient removal, removal as a basic and untreated sewage. Nutrient removal technology is widely these technologies and increase federal and requirement for how we available and affordable — it should be a minimum standard for ranges from $1.82 to state grants and loans treat our wastewater. all sewage treatment plants. www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 55 the rise of slime: the way forward

urban runoff

Healthy wetlands Stormwater picks up wastes so they don’t and vegetation fertilizers, animal and end up in stormwater. buffers are nature’s kidneys, yard waste, detergents, The second is slowing capturing sewage from leaky sewer and treating stormwater runoff and systems, household before it reaches our breaking down chemicals and other waterways. Roads and and absorbing nutrients and nutrient pollution as it developments should other pollutants. flows over yards, rooftops be designed to manage and streets. In most polluted runoff so our cases, this runoff flows waterways are protected. into stormwater pipes In cities where health. Sewer systems — pipes and treatment will take federal and and directly into streams stormwater and sewer nationwide must be plants that are far state commitment and and other waterways. systems are combined, upgraded to ensure beyond their design life, investment. But we must There are two main sewage and stormwater that sewage makes it to operating beyond their maintain and upgrade approaches to stopping can be released into wastewater plants for capacity and relying on our infrastructure to urban runoff. The first, waterways when rain treatment, regardless of antiquated technology. keep pace with new is reducing the use of overwhelms pipes. Raw the weather. Our sewer It’s time that we upgrade technologies and growth. fertilizers and properly sewage in our water is a systems nationwide are our sewer and stormwater storing and disposing serious threat to public suffering from neglect infrastructure. This industrial air wastes emissions

Slaughterhouses, to have a permit to to our waterways. Like breweries, agriculture discharge waste into wastewater treatment product processing our waterways. Permits plants, new and facilities and other need to be strong and affordable advanced factories release nutrients strictly enforced to stop nutrient removal in their wastewater. These industrial plants from technologies should be facilities are required adding nutrient waste required. I stock

Nitrogen from air facilities burning fossil emissions is a significant fuels, and factory farms. source of nutrient The nitrogen is deposited pollution in water. onto water surfaces or EPA estimates that air land, where it is picked pollution is the source up by stormwater. Federal of 32 percent of the air quality standards man-made nitrogen load must be tightened and in the Chesapeake Bay. strictly enforced. This is Most of this nitrogen another good reason to comes from vehicle drastically improve energy emissions, power plants efficiency and switch to and other industrial renewable fuels. I stock

56 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Call to

I stock Action

State and Federal Priorities

All states should incorporate Many states have notoriously weak stormwater Congress must pass the Clean Water Restoration Act nutrient limits into all Clean permits, especially for nutrients; they need to be to ensure that all our waters receive protection from Water Act permits. brought to a high national standard. pollution and destruction.

Local Motion

Municipalities must ensure that their sewage City and town planners Communities should pass zoning rules that limit treatment plants are running at an optimal need to prioritize development in nutrient-sensitive areas, and restore level by testing effluents and upgrading eliminating combined and protect vegetation buffers and wetlands that systems where necessary. sewer overflows. filter pollutants from stormwater.

Individual Responsibility

Limit or Consider Ensure that organic wastes are stored Have your Ensure your Get involved. eliminate planting native properly and treated before release. Pet furnace and car is well Urge public officials the use of vegetation, wastes should be picked up and disposed of chimney tuned to run at to act. fertilizers on trees and properly. Septic systems should be inspected checked peak efficiency lawns. Use only shrubs to and pumped out regularly. When boating, and cleaned to reduce air Join your local phosphorus-free replace grass use pumpout facilities to annually. pollution. Waterkeeper fertilizers. lawns. empty marine toilets. program.

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 57 9th Annual Waterkeeper Alliance Conference

n June 2007, Waterkeeper Alliance held its 9th Annual Waterkeeper Conference in New IOrleans, LA. More than 225 attendees from around the world descended on Tulane Univer- sity in the Big Easy to show their support for the struggling city, the co-hosting Waterkeeper pro- grams (Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Louisiana Bay- oukeeper and Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper) and all the other Waterkeeper programs in the Gulf of Mexico region. This year’s conference in- cluded numerous advocacy panels and speeches, a restoration project in the urban Bayou St. John and a healthy dose of local music and food. Ev- eryone left New Orleans with a fond appreciation for the local community, energized for another year of fighting for clean water until we see each other again in Seattle in 2008!

John Wathan

Having all these powerful

shford A iles G Waterkeepers in one place is magical. Waterkeeper Alliance’s commitment to come to New Orleans, in spite of all our challenges, and assist in our recovery is a true blessing. We J ohn W athan hope everyone took the spirit of the land, water and its people back home with you. Thank you for leaving a piece of you with us. You are the best of the best. It is as simple as that. G iles A shford Marylee M. Orr Executive Director Louisiana Environmental Action Network/ Giles Ashford Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper

58 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Waterkeeper Alliance Conference

Giles Ashford

athan W ohn J J ohn W athan G iles A shford

John Wathan J ohn W athan

John Wathan J ohn W athan

John Wathan

athan W ohn J

Our conference wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of the following partners and sponsors:

AbTech Industries Equal Exchange Larry David Nicole Miller The Jane Smith Turner Avalon Natural Products French Market Larry’s Beans O.A.R.S. Foundation Bio Kleen Frey’s Vineyards Louisiana Fish Fry Organic Valley Tommy Moe Bob Horowitz Jay and Tracy Snyder MacGillivary Freeman Films Peet’s Coffee and Tea Tree Hugger Hammocks Café du Monde Jesse Fink Marmot Mountain RADIUS Turner Foundation CS Steens Syrup Mill, Inc. John Hoving and Moore Charitable Trust RE:VOLVE Waltzer & Associates David Conrad Kyle O’Brien Motorola Sierra Nevada White Water Adventure Dean’s Beans Julie Anderson Muesli Kribbon Kracker Tazo tea Outfitters EcoMedia Keeper Springs New Belgium Brewing Co. Terry Backer Environment Now Kokotat Newman’s Own, Inc. TEVA Thank you.

www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 59 waterkeeper guest column

The Cradle and Frontier

By Oliver A. Houck, grew up on the Hudson River, the cradle of the tween blue-blood aristocrats of the Hudson Valley Professor of Law, Waterkeeper movement. I skipped stones on and blue-collar Stripped Bass fishermen who didn’t Tulane University Ithe river off of Croton and crossed it, with my care what Con Ed did to the top of that mountain, father, on the open ferries between Manhattan and but cared a great deal about dead fish piled up on Jersey City. We traveled over the skuzzy, garbage- the grates of the water intakes of the plant like too strewn and foul smelling waters of the Hudson of much trash. They went to war, and out of the war that day and simply took them for granted. That came so many things: the Hudson River Fisher- was just the way rivers were. Finally, of course, man’s Association, Hudson Riverkeeper, the High- some rivers started catching on fire. lands Conservancy, the Natural Resources Defense What is striking, thinking back, is the extent to Counsel, the Pace Law Clinic and, from the Second which the environmental movement arose from Circuit Court of Appeals, a pivotal legal precedent. the water. At about the same time that Rachel Car- Ordinary citizens, they said, had the right to sue I have always son wrote Silent Spring, which had its own aquatic their government over environmental decisions. had hope for cast, she wrote The Sea Around Us, one of the first How insulting! That principle still boggles the literary adventures into the deep since Jules Verne. mind of government agencies, the business world water, lived Both brought the news of water in peril. Next came and their adherents on the bench, including the my life by it the reports from Thor Heyerdahl’s Ra expeditions, Supreme Court. his rafts trapped for days in oil slicks and plastic Think for a moment about the explosions that and I believe junk, and then Jaques Costeau, whose ocean expe- followed, coming out of the water like Polaris rock- that for all ditions and television programs alerted the world. ets. First there was Calvert Cliffs, brought by John Environmental awareness came from the sea. Hopkins University scientists worried about the ef- humans its It also came from water on land. It was the falls fects of thermal discharges from a nuclear power wellsprings of the Hetch Hetchy Valley that captivated John plant on Chesapeake Bay. The case established Muir, and the fight to save that valley from a huge the rigorous demands of just-enacted, completely are too dam converted Muir’s little collection of weekend opaque, National Environmental Policy Act. Then powerful to hikers (men in suitcoats and ladies in full skirts came a series of cases against Army Corps of Engi- deny. carrying wicker picnic baskets up into the Sierra, neers water projects, and equally celebrated fights imagine!) into a hard-charging and first-ever en- with other water bureaucracies in California, the vironmental organization, the Sierra Club. Half a Dakotas and Tennessee. Meanwhile, the notion of decade later they would be tested yet again by an- water protection and its primary tool — citizen liti- other dam, even bigger, Glen Canyon on the Colo- gation — was moving abroad. rado River. Their fight to save this stretch of river They popped up in the most unlikely places — led the IRS to cancel their tax exempt status, which countries not known for activism, independent they never recovered. Water projects were among judicial systems or environmental concerns. In the first causa bellae in America. Spain, citizens defeated water projects that would Then came the Santa Barbara oil spill and the have drained the north to build desert resorts in closure of California’s famous beaches, the Cayau- the south. In Greece, citizen suits stopped a plan to ga river in Cleveland caught fire, the Houston Ship drain the western mountains so that farms in the Canal caught fire, a jetport was proposed for the east would not have to treat their wastes. In India, Everglades, the water of New Orleans was pro- M.C. Mehta won a series of decisions forcing five nounced unfit to drink, Lake Erie was pronounced thousand factories on the sacred River Ganges to dead (they held a mock funeral for it in Cleveland), clean up or shut down. And in Canada, Waterkeep- and on the Hudson there was trouble over a pump ers played a key role in opposing, in court and out, storage plant at Storm King Mountain. It was all a hydro-electric project drowning the homeland about water, and it was coming to a boil. of the Cree Nation. You may remember the flo- It is also striking how environmental law, once tilla that paddled from Quebec province down the out of the water, hit the land like a walking catfish Hudson River in kayaks and canoes to rally in New and never looked back. The law was outlined by the York’s Central Park and persuade the state to cancel case at Storm King, from a remarkable alliance be- its power contracts and save their heritage. Which

60 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org New York did. The combination of water and peo- ple and litigation was proving very powerful. These victories duly noted, the water fight con- tinues against terribly long odds. Much of it is about money, but it is also about psyches. At one point, during a hearing on a Corps water project, an ex- asperated government attorney turned to me and said, “The thing that’s wrong with you is that you just like running water!” Of course, the man was absolutely right. But what was so startling about it was that he couldn’t conceive of such a person. To him, his accusation was a huge insult. His outburst told me that the idea of keeping waters goes up against a mindset so alien — and to which we, keep- ers of water, are in turn so alien — that it is hard to find a common bond. Over time in America, after decades of education on the impacts of pollution, we have forged part of that bond. We have now reached the point where pollution is “bad.” That is progress, and from this premise we can now move towards reform. But where the quantity of water and what passes for “water management” are at is- sue, we are no closer to finding common ground than we were fifty years ago. Water is money or wa- ter is wonder. The sides are drawn. Here, now, is a darker story, written in levees, drainage canals, pump stations, chains of dams and diversion canals the size of interstate highways, all designed to make sure that water is cheap for some humans, at just about everyone else’s expense. We the more legal right you have to consume. Water Oliver Houck is an continue to assert a non-negotiable right to every left in the river is “wasted”. This is law written for environmental law scholar and the founder of the liquid drop lest, God-forbid, any water escape to settlers and pioneers. It is as anomalous today as Tulane Environmental Law remain in the river, breed fish, cool bodies and indentured servitude. Whatever law we needed Clinic, which provides free reach the sea. The challenges here are on an order in order to settle this country, we need something legal representation and of magnitude greater than those with pollution. quite different, quite soon, before we bleed - our community outreach to more than 180 community Think: bragging rights. Nobody these days goes selves dry. Examine history. It would not be for the organizations, lower-income around boasting, “I dumped 20,000 pounds of first time. individuals and local phosphorous into the Apalachicola last week”. But Yet, I have hope. I have always had hope for governments throughout every politician wants his name on a water proj- water, lived my life by it and I believe that for all Louisiana. By representing ect — the Hoover Dam, the Thomas Bevil Lock, humans its wellsprings are too powerful to deny. clients who have historically been left out of governmental the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway (whose traffic Once upon a time, it is said, a sultan was asked to processes, the Clinic has is less than 10 percent of the benefits projected). identify, in his wisdom, the three most beautiful become a powerful force for We are building monuments, changing landscapes, sounds on earth. He replied: “the sound of coins environmental reform. doing manly things. These are the products of the tinkling, the sound of a loved one laughing and the U.S. Congress, tied by philosophy and campaign sound of water moving … in reverse order.” Water financing to the wealthiest industrial, agricultural is life. Every religion on earth knows it. It is where and municipal water users, with their entourages millions of believers in dozens of faiths go to wash of real estate developers and construction firms in their sins. It is where Siddhartha goes to lie down, close tow. Water conservation? Exactly who makes transcend and die. money doing that? No agency ever built a budget I believe that if we finally pass through this dark and no Congressman ever got reelected by not phase of treating the earth like a throw-away toy, if spending and not building something. we stop looking at cockamamie schemes like calci- And then there is the obdurate fact of the law fying the oceans and inhabiting the moon as a way here. Western water law, unlike pollution control, out, if we return to the natural world as a friend does not harmonize use with anything else. It does rather than a conquistador, it will be in large part not consider environmental impacts. Fish are irrel- because of the pull of water. It is drawing us for- evant. Rivers are irrelevant. In the parts of the U.S. ward even today to renew ourselves, to leave as our where water is the scarcest, the more you consume legacy, to lie down beside and transcend. w www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 61 62 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org www.waterkeeper.org Fall 2007 Waterkeeper Magazine 63

Ansel Adams said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” Jacksonville, Florida-based Bill Yates says, “A good photograph is knowing where to hover.” Bill’s two other shots featured in this issue are aerial photos On The Water (cover and page 51). This photo of the sunrise over the St. Johns River Bill Yates {is part of his burning daylight series. www.cypix.net ‹‹‹‹‹‹ All Hands On Deck ››››››››››››››››››››››››››››››››››››

On Thursday, September 6, 2007, the Waterkeeper Rick Dove U.S. Senate Environment and Public Senate Works Committee Testimony held a hearing on the public health and environmental impacts of factory farms and a proposal to further erode I stock

environmental ormer Neuse Riverkeeper and noted environ- 30 years they have protected Americans and their protections. Fmental advocate Rick Dove presented evidence environment, without misuse or abuse, and there is of the terrible toll that animal factory wastes have no justification for an exemption for any polluting wrought on the communities of North Carolina and industry, including factory farms. “A growing body of the nation. As the second largest producer of hogs in science clearly shows that dangerous gases – ammo- the country, North Carolina is home to thousands of nia and hydrogen sulfide – emitted from factory farms livestock factories, which release dangerous amounts are now wafting into surrounding neighborhoods, of air and water pollution into neighboring communi- putting the public at severe risk,” explains Dove. ties and waterways. “Animal factories have never had to report dangerous Proponents of factory farming want to carve out a air emissions – they hide behind status as farms. But loophole for this pollution from two federal environ- the evidence of their harm to public health, especially mental laws: CERCLA, also known as “Superfund” children, is growing. These exemptions are a preemp- and the Emergency Community Planning and Right tive strike to avoid responsibility.” to Know Act. These laws provide invaluable tools for Senate Environment and Public Work Committee communities and health officials concerned with the Chairwoman Barbara Boxer closed the hearing with a health impacts of factory farm pollution. Dove called vow to fight any effort to exempt factory farms from on the Senate to exercise caution when consider- pollution laws. “This is going to be a battle; I wanted ing proposals to weaken these laws, noting that for to have this hearing today to draw the lines of this battle,” said Boxer. “My first priority is to protect the health of the people.” Waterkeeper Alliance stands firmly behind Sena- Factory Farms Are tor Boxer. Factory farms produce 500 million tons of animal waste a day, and most of it ends up in our streams, rivers and lakes, polluting our drink- Big Polluters ing water and air, jeopardizing our health. Water- keeper Alliance is challenging factory farms across Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman, Oregon, a 52,000 dairy cow the nation, pushing state and federal agencies for operation, emits 15,500 pounds of ammonia each day, more than the strong regulations and strong enforcement to keep nation’s largest reported industrial source of ammonia air pollution industrial agricultural waste out of our waters. At the (fertilizer-maker CF Industries of Donaldson, Louisiana). Buckeye Egg’s same time we are also promoting sustainable food, facility in Croton, Ohio emitted 1,600,000 pounds of ammonia in 2003. because responsible farmers produce safer, tastier That’s roughly 44 times EPA’s public health limit, yet these emissions are food that does not destroy, but depends on, a healthy completely unregulated. environment. w

66 Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007 www.waterkeeper.org OVad_waterkeepers_COW.indd 1 good, it’s good for you, good for cows, and good for the local economy,local too. the for good and cows, for good you, for good it’s good, tastes only not milk our So systems. local build to helping we’re markets, local nearest the to farms cooperative our from milk shipping By fertilizers. or pesticides synthetic use never we And milk. more produce them make to Citizens of America of Citizens on our family farms. We never give our cows antibiotics or synthetic or antibiotics cows our give never We farms. family our on pastures organic in freely graze them let we why That’s machines. dairy not

Cows are beautiful creatures, beautiful are Cows hormones 9/13/07 4:27:10 PM

www.organicvalley.coop © 2007 Organic Valley Family of Farms “Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land." - Luna Leopold

AbTech Industries offers technologies to solve stormwater quality issues. These environmental technologies provide cost effective solutions that protect our critical water resources.

The Antimicrobial Smart Sponge technology has the capability to destroy dangerous bacteria contamination from stormwater while removing hydrocarbons.

There are solutions out there.

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