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Study debunks claims of EPA's Great Lakes Initiative
One of EPA's most highly touted programs, the Great Lakes Initiative (GLI), is delivering far less than advertised, costing US
businesses and taxpayers $1 million for every $5.00 of benefits, according to a landmark study released Aug. 21 by the Chicago-based
Heartland Institute.
With a cost-benefit ratio of 185,000 to 1, the GLI - dollar for dollar- may surpass Superfund as the agency's most
wasteful program. Ironically, when it was launch-ed by EPA in 1995, the GLI was heralded by the agency and by a host of environmental
groups as an example of EPA's commitment to cost-benefit analysis in issuing more sensible regulations.
The GLI tightens pollution controls across the Great Lakes Basin by requiring manufacturers and municipalities in the region to spend
between $80 million and $380 million every year to reduce point-source emissions of certain chemicals into the Lakes.
EPA's cost-benefit analysis of the GLI is "based on a number of incorrect, unlikely, and even impossible assumptions that
dramatically inflate predicted benefits," the study notes.
"The errors are not random," writes Daniel W. Smith, Ph.D., author of the report, "but show evidence of a systematic bias that consistently
overestimates benefits."
EPA's cost-benefits analysis projected the GLI would prevent between 25 and 47 cancers over the next 70 years in the Great Lakes
Basin, but Smith finds that "at most, only one cancer is likely to be averted in the next 6,000 years or so."
The Heartland report identifies five flaws in EPA's analysis which, together produce an astounding 312,000% error:
- EPA assumed a rate of fish consumption three times higher than possible given the actual fish catch from Lake Michigan.
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- EPA assumed that all fish are as contaminated as lake trout, thus overestimating the chemical concentrations in fish, the risk of fish
consumption, and the benefits of avoiding those risks by approximately 250%.
- EPA assumed that point sources contribute between 5 and 10% to the pollution in the Great Lakes; an estimate too high by
at least 630%.
- EPA assumed that chemical concentrations in fish would respond immediately to reductions in loading, thus overestimating the
GLI's impact by about 200%.
- EPA relied on center slope factors - conservative estimators of cancer risk - and thus overestimated by 3,200% the
cancer risk that would be reduced by implementing the GLI.
Smith notes that EPA used values widely known to be inaccurate; failed to verify its estimates using readily available data; used
methods of analysis that violate its own policies; and used data contradicted by its own studies.
"As regulations become ever more costly and controversial," concludes Smith, "we need an EPA with a reputation for competence,
veracity, and common sense. Analysis such as those developed to support the GLI only give substance to accusations that the agency
twists the science and data to fit politically driven policies and squanders large amounts of societies resources on minor
ecosystem threats."
Smith's 44-page report is available for $10 pre-paid from the Heartland Institute (312) 377-4000. The study is also available on
the Internet at: http://www.heartland.org
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| Lake Michigan perch update; bad-good news
Reproduction of yellow perch in Lake Michigan is encouraging: biologists have found what may become
the biggest year class of the decade.
But the results vary widely throughout the lake, and depending on where you look, could amount to
another extremely poor year of reproduction or a banner year class.
DNR fisheries personnel conducted annual beach seining surveys at sites from Sheboygan to Kenosha.
This year from Aug. 10 to Sept. 7, crews made 153 seine hauls.
They found 466 YOY perch compared to one in 1997, four in 1996 and zero in 1995. The 466 YOY were
caught at sites in the following counties: 186 in Kenosha, 23 in Racine, 3 in Milwaukee, 75 in Ozaukee and
179 in Sheboygan.
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However, this year's catch, about three perch per seine haul, is poor when compared to 1989, the
last good year. Then DNR crews found 18.2 YOY perch per seine haul.
Green Bay crews reported the average YOY catch per hour was 849.
Biologists said it was the best finding of YOY yellow perch since 1991 and the sixth-best catch since 21
years ago.
In Indiana waters, Ball State University researchers found 629 YOY perch per hour, third highest on
record.
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Forest Service catching heat
Congressman demands info on staffers belonging to environmental groups
The Chicago Tribune reports: Charlotte Sasonkin works for the US Forest Service and belongs to two
environmental organizations, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. Working for an agency that
manages public lands while belonging to an environmental group can be a conflict-of-interest.
The question has been raised by Don Young, Alaska's lone representative in Congress, and the
Republican who chairs the House Committee on Resources. In a letter to the Forest Service's
Southwestern Region, he asked a series of questions about whether the agency's employees are
members of environmental groups.
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Is the Forest Service aware of any employees who are members of, or contribute money to, environmental
organizations, he asked. How does the Forest Service prevent conflicts of interest? Young also demanded
the names of any employees who had contact with two environmental groups in the days leading up to a
controversial settlement of lawsuits filed against the Forest Service.
Young said his questions were intended to find out whether the Forest Service has become a "captive"
agency that favors environmentalists, and leaking confidential information to aid in their lawsuits.
"If Forest Service employees in the political loop are involved in radical environmental groups, it's
a direct conflict," says the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, representing farmers and ranchers.
The same goes for anyone working for the federal Bureau of Land Management or the US Fish and
Wildlife Service.
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Hog and chicken farms = dirty water
They feed the world but are a threat to our rivers and resources. Tyson Foods recently paid a $6 million
settlement to the federal government for dumping ammonia, phosphorus and fecal pollutants from a
chicken factory into a Maryland river that drains into Chincoteague Bay. |
Part of the settlement will be
used to prevent similar runoffs into Chesapeake Bay from Plants and farms in Delaware, Maryland,
Pennsylvania and Virginia.
And in Illinois, two state agencies are at odds over the development of huge hog farms. Agriculture has
approved their permit for construction; DNR opposes.
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Another threat to our waters: Aquaculture industry
Anglers are being imitated worldwide. The agriculture and restaurant business community are finding out
fishing is big business and fish are good to eat.
Aquaculture simultaneously spawns big hopes and equally big fears. Water is plentiful and free, but is
easy to abuse and difficult to keep clean. Fish are an easy commodity to raise, but their waterborne
wastes can quickly spread to the surrounding ecosystems.
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Intensive fish farming increases the use of antibiotics, pesticides and colorants. Residues of those
chemicals may be on seafood and left in the water. Antibiotics are used to control disease, and pesticides
are used to control weeds, algae and parasites. Farmers apply chemicals by putting them directly in water.
There is also the danger of so-called "biological contamination." Farmed fish escape from net pens and
breed with or compete with wild stock. Nonindigenous fish can escape and dilute the local gene pool.
They can disrupt the spawn cycle of native salmon.
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Zebra mussels invade Connecticut,
NY: New Fish Chief, ...
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Scientists have confirmed that the zebra mussel has shown up for the second time in New England, this
time invading a new state - Connecticut. The discovery was at East Twin Lake in Salisburg, CT.
New York: Doug Stang new Fish Chief
As Bureau of Fisheries Chief for NYSDEC, Doug Stang will oversee 9 regional fishery management units,
12 hatcheries, a fish health lab, and 2 research stations.
Stang has worked for the department since 1985, first as a biologist, then as the supervisor of the
statewide warmwater fisheries program, and since 1997 as acting chief of the bureau.
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Stang holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry and Wildlife from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
a Masters in Fisheries Science from Iowa State.
- Minnesota: Payer replaces Skrypek as Fisheries Chief
Ron Payer has been named new Fish Chief for the Minnesota DNR.
He began his career with the DNR in 1977. His formal education is in fisheries biology and zoology and he
holds a master's degree from South Dakota State University.
Jack Skrypek was named by the DNR to the position of DNR's Lakes Policy
Director.
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Oil-rich fish combat depression
Eating fish can aid depression, so says the British medical journal The Lancet, which has published a
report suggesting that eating fish can aid depression. |
Happiness is believed to stem from the presence of docosahexaenoic acid in Omega-3 polyunsaturates,
mainly found in fish oil. The report recommends that fish, especially oil-rich fish, be eaten at least twice a
week.
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30-year-old sturgeon found in farm pond
SANDUSKY, OH- A Lucas County resident got quite a surprise recently while draining his farm pond
when he discovered a 5 ft. long, 30-year-old lake sturgeon. The state endangered fish, a native of Lake
Erie, had survived in the 2-acre pond after being placed there more than 30 years prior.
Al Michalak was pumping water from his pond and removing small panfish to transfer to other ponds
when he found the large lake sturgeon swimming in the shallow water. Michalak, an avid angler, knew
immediately the primitive-looking fish was a sturgeon. |
Michalak contacted the Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit in Sandusky. They transported the fish to the
research unit in a large fish truck, placed an identification tag on the sturgeon and released it in Sandusky
Bay.
Lake sturgeon were plentiful in Lake Erie and other large lakes and rivers throughout the Great Lakes
basin a century ago. Only scattered, small populations of these fish now
survive.
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