Environment

Eat lead, robots!

Filed under: Environment

Last week the Minneapolis City Council gave the wink-and-nod to an agency looking to assemble an army of robots. Agency staff wanted The Council's go-ahead to request $1 million in Federal money for the development of these droids and their deployment in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"We all love robots," says Lisa Smestad of the city's Department of Environmental Services and master-planner of what she hopes will be a robot revolution.

Continue reading "Eat lead, robots!"

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at July 3, 2008 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

 

A fool's paradise: America's aging infrastructure and the Midwest floods

Filed under: Bridge Collapse , Bridge Collapse

Bridges fall down. Muskrats destroy levies. Steam pipes blow up.

America's aging infrastructure has been making headlines since Katrina. Minnesota came into the frame with the bridge collapse. Now it's the floods.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated the cost of modernizing U.S. infrastructure at roughly $1 trillion--and that's above and beyond current spending levels to modernize its infrastructure.

The group says its estimate is outdated, writes Reuters' Andrew Stern, "and does not count the price of new roads, rails, and sewers required by a growing population, nor the cost to repair damage inflicted by the recent Midwest floods."

Continue reading "A fool's paradise: America's aging infrastructure and the Midwest floods"

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at July 1, 2008 3:52 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Alf Defense: Don't open the e-mail, and it never happened

Filed under: Environment

The Supreme Court gave the EPA an important, but fairly easy, job in 2007. The high court issued a ruling that required the federal agency to formally state whether greenhouse gases were pollutants representing a danger to health or the environment.

EPA complied, shipping its findings to the White House via electronic mail. It was then, according to the New York Times, that the Bush administration chose peculiar course of action: If we don't open the e-mail, White House officials reasoned, then the response never really happened, and we won't be bound to act on its findings. So they simply let the correspondence languish, forever highlighted, in the "New Mail" category.

That's right. In defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, the Bushies ran out the clock on their administration so they wouldn't have to do anything about fuel efficiency, pollution, and climate change. This is a strategy I refer to as "The Alf Defense."

Continue reading "The Alf Defense: Don't open the e-mail, and it never happened"

Posted by Jeff Shaw at June 30, 2008 7:04 PM | Comments (2)

 

Santa gets a tan: the North Pole is melting

Filed under: Environment

Rudolph's nose is about to get a lot redder: scientists say that the North Pole could briefly lose all its ice this summer. According to senior researcher Mark Serreze from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, via CNN:

Continue reading "Santa gets a tan: the North Pole is melting"

Posted by Jeff Shaw at June 27, 2008 11:30 AM | Comments (1)

 

MPLS City Council Passes 'Idling' Ordinance

Filed under: Environment

The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak approved an ordinance Friday that puts a three-minute limit on the time drivers are allowed to let their cars idle. The goal is to cut back on emissions and improve air quality.

The ordinance does not apply to cars stuck in traffic or to police cars idling in speed traps.

Continue reading "MPLS City Council Passes 'Idling' Ordinance"

Posted by Matt Snyders at June 9, 2008 11:29 AM | Comments (2)

 

Local weatherman doesn't know which way the wind blows on global warming

Filed under: Environment

The earth is not flat. We know this from science. Germs cause disease. We know this from science. The world is warming, and human-emitted greenhouse gases play a huge role in that process. We know this from science. Well, most everyone knows this except WCCO meteorologist Mike Fairbourne, that is.

Fairbourne publicly pronounced that the environmental movement uses "squishy science" on climate change, and signed a petition that claims there "is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."

This is Flat Earth Society stuff at this point. Really.

Continue reading "Local weatherman doesn't know which way the wind blows on global warming"

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 20, 2008 8:44 AM | Comments (23)

 

Video: Wolf puppies from the Wildlife Science Center

Filed under: Environment

For a rare look at two-week-old wolf puppies, visit our text-rich photo gallery of a wolf litter born April 27 at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake.

It's extremely uncommon to see wolf pups this young. Generally, they don't leave the den for months. If you weren't lucky enough to see them today, here are two videos:

Continue reading "Video: Wolf puppies from the Wildlife Science Center"

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 9, 2008 1:00 PM | Comments (1)

 

That south Minneapolis dirt

Filed under: Environment

If you live in south Minneapolis, you've probably given some thought to arsenic. I have. Like the other day--you know, the one that was warm--when I turned my back on my two-year old just long enough for him to shove some of that south Minneapolis dirt into his mouth. Given all the attention the EPA has given our dirt in recent years (high arsenic levels have put parts of Corcoran, Longfellow, Midtown Phillips, Powderhorn, Seward, Ventura Village, and all of East Phillips on the list of contenders for federal Superfund money).

Continue reading "That south Minneapolis dirt"

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at May 2, 2008 2:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

Water sports

Filed under: Environment

In 2001 the United States Supreme Court ruled that many non-navigable, "isolated" waters are not covered by pollution protections in the Clean Water Act. Five years later the country's top court considered the issue again. This time it split 4-1-4, with three different and seemingly conflicting opinions about which bodies of water are subject to federal regulations. Environmentalists fear that these rulings, coupled with recent determinations by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have put the nation's waterways at serious risk. Since 2004 environmental groups have been lobbying Congress to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act, arguing that such legislation is needed to ensure that the original intent of the landmark 1972 legislation is enforced.

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Posted by Paul Demko at April 15, 2008 3:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

Get ready for another E-Junk Tsunami

Filed under: Environment

Even after last year’s "electronics tsunami," environmental activists are again trying to help Minnesotans get rid of their dusty TVs, VCRs, DVD players, computers and other dubbed E-Junk for free.

Continue reading "Get ready for another E-Junk Tsunami"

Posted by Beth Walton at April 4, 2008 11:35 AM | Comments (2)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Artist takes on destructive plant

Filed under: Environment

You don’t have to be an artist to make a statement. And, you most certainly do not have to spend your time like Jim Proctor, creating giant faux dandelions to fix a problem.

Continue reading "Reporter's Notebook: Artist takes on destructive plant"

Posted by Beth Walton at March 26, 2008 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

 

Where and How to Watch the Eclipse (Updated)

Filed under: Environment

I'm a sucker for celestial phenomena, but then, who isn't? Tomorrow night brings us a total eclipse of the moon. Not only is this rare, but the time and manner in which the lunar extravaganza will occur -- reasonably early in the evening, in a spot where most of North America can see it -- makes it all the more special.

During these events, the moon can turn colors ranging from bright orange to blood red to dark brown or dark gray. Assuming the sky's not totally cloudy, you've got to check out. Here are three suggested spots (indoor and outdoor) to do so.

Continue reading "Where and How to Watch the Eclipse (Updated)"

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 19, 2008 10:09 AM | Comments (7)

 

Suppressed Report: Great Lakes States at Great Public Health Risk

Filed under: Environment

An exhaustive federal study about the health of boundary waters between the U.S. and Canada was supposed to come out last July. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suppressed the report, perhaps because of the disturbing information it contains.

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 18, 2008 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

 

Rays of Future Present: Solar in Southeast Como

Filed under: Environment

It's hard to pick the one best reason to transition away from fossil fuels -- minimizing climate change, forestalling environmental degradation, ameliorating the inevitable economic dislocations as oil starts to run out. Instead, we should start selecting technologies with the highest chance of extracting us from these assorted messes.

Minnesota Monitor has an interesting item about solar power generation in the Southeast Como neighborhood, where the Green Institute worked with neighbors and a local solar installer to jump start solar thermal energy in the Twin Cities. Solar thermal energy, designed in this case to heat water, is technologically distinct from the more high-profile photovoltaic electricity generation projects, but the upshot's the same -- building a workable ecological alternative to oil and gas power.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 7, 2008 1:54 PM | Comments (4)

 

Murky Waters

Filed under: Environment

Will the 35W bridge collapse have serious environmental ramifications? With bodies presumably still in the water, it may seem a rather churlish question to pose. But the massive heap of concrete, steel, vehicles, and lord knows what else would seem to be a poor development for the well-being of the Mississippi River.

Environmental concerns initially focused on three railroad cars that were crushed by the collapsed bridge. There could have been serious ecological harm if those cars had been carrying a highly toxic substance, such as benzine. But as it turned out one of the cars contained plastic pellets, while another held plastic powder. The third was empty. "There was a little bit of spillage," says Sam Brungardt, public information officer for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. "Nothing that would pose an environmental or a health threat."

Continue reading "Murky Waters "

Posted by Paul Demko at August 6, 2007 1:17 PM | Comments (1)

 

Former U of M researcher bestowed highest civilian honor awarded by Congress

Filed under: Environment

A former University of Minnesota scientist received the Congressional Gold Medal Tuesday during a ceremony held in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C. Dr. Norman Borlaug—who earned bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees while studying plant pathology at the U of M—was honored for developing high-yield strains of disease-resistant wheat in the 1960's, an achievement that sparked the Green Revolution and helped to alleviate hunger throughout much of the Third World.

"He has long understood that one of the greatest threats to global progress is the torment of human hunger," said President Bush during the ceremony. "Dr. Borlaug, I thank you for your vision and dedication." (A full transcript of Bush's speech can be found here.)

In conducting his research, Dr. Borlaug confronted what he called "the Population Monster"—mankind's inability to produce enough food to keep up with worldwide population gains. He saw various social ills, such as war and terrorism, as consequences of this phenomenon. As Borlaug explained in 1970 upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize: "You can't build peace on empty stomachs."

Read more about Dr. Borlaug and his accomplishment here.

Posted by Matt Snyders at July 18, 2007 9:22 AM | Comments (2)

 

Doh! A Deer!

Filed under: Environment

The Department of Natural Resources has a question: What do you think of Minnesota's population of cloven-hooved rats?

Ecologists have indicted the species—better known to the public as the white-tailed deer—for all manner of crimes against humanity and the natural world. (See "Bambi Must Die," 11/04/04.) The species' rap sheet includes: spreading bovine TB, plundering crops, consuming gardens, stripping new growth in forests, devouring ground-nesting birds, and spoiling the grills on 20,000 Minnesota vehicles each year.

In response, Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources has started to take the first toddling steps toward getting the state's deer population under firmer control. This has mostly involved expanding the hunt for antlerless deer—that is, reproducing does.

Continue reading "Doh! A Deer!"

Posted by Michael Tortorello at June 29, 2007 9:32 AM | Comments (1)

 

Save a bird, turn off your skyscraper lights

Filed under: Environment

Among the many detractors of modern architecture, the party with the most legitimate beef may be the migrating songbird. Researchers have noted that lit skyscrapers disorient birds at night in roughly the same manner that bus stations waylay runaways: They both have a bad habit of ending up on the sidewalk in morning.

This year, a working group led by Audubon Minnesota kicked off a project to dim office lights at night during the migratory season. At worst, the experiment would be harmless. The voluntary effort promised real estate managers a way to save energy and money—only Joe Soucheray found cause to complain—and tall buildings like the IDS Center, U.S. Bankcorp Center, and Riverplace joined the effort in mid-March.

Joanna Eckles, a St. Paul Audubon member, helped launch the experiment, and has trained a team of a dozen volunteers to collect data each morning. "Data," in this case, means the tiny carcasses of crashed birds and the occasional survivor.

Continue reading "Save a bird, turn off your skyscraper lights"

Posted by Michael Tortorello at May 25, 2007 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Evils of Ethanol

Filed under: Environment

It is a universal axiom of modern politics that no politician with presidential ambitions can talk honestly about the very real problems of the government's slavish promotion of corn-based ethanol. In the corn belt states, of course, it is impossible to talk honestly about corn-based ethanol if you want to get elected dog catcher.

This why we occasionally need to listen to professors.

Continue reading "The Evils of Ethanol"

Posted by Mike Mosedale at April 25, 2007 4:10 PM | Comments (2)

 

Blood and gas: Welcome to the Twin Cities sewer system

Filed under: Environment

After he got sprayed with a face full blood while on the job last month, Minneapolis sewer work Ron Huebner—like a lot of the people who heard about the incident— responded with a mix of shock and repulsion. How could such a thing happen?

You can count geologist Greg Brick among those not appalled by the incident. Of course, Brick has more experience with such matters than the average citizen. For much of the past decade, the inveterate explorer has crawled and waded his way through the storm drains, sanitary sewers and caves of Twin Cities' netherworld.

"You get a lot of weird fluids in the sewers. There's a lot more stuff down there than people realize," says Brick, whose has written extensively about his subterranean explorations. (His forthcoming book on the Twin Cities underground will be published by the University of Minnesota Press).

Continue reading "Blood and gas: Welcome to the Twin Cities sewer system"

Posted by Mike Mosedale at April 16, 2007 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

City Pages presents the Global Warming Day of Action

Filed under: Environment

The Global Warming Day of Action will take place on Saturday, April 14, from noon to 4:00 p.m. at the Minnesota State Capitol Mall in St. Paul. Learn more about ways reduce global warming and hear from speakers including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Keith Ellison, Mayor R.T. Rybak, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Cities 97's Brian Oake, and others. The event will feature information booths and music by Cosmic Railroad, Gold Standard, and Jenny Dalton. To volunteer call (612) 659-9124.

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 6, 2007 9:49 AM | Comments (2)

 

Just Don't Inhale

Filed under: Environment

With the attention paid to the hazards of coal-fired power plant recently, you asthmatics might want to blame Xcel Energy and other power producers for your hacking and wheezing. Think again. According to a report released last week by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the big bad utilities don't top the list when it comes the release of so-called "respiratory toxicants" in Minnesota.

That dubious distinction belongs to an agricultural outfit, CHS Oil Seed Processing in Mankato. In 2004, according to U.S. PIRG's review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory data, CHS released a total of 520,000 pounds of respiratory toxicants at its Mankato plant. Statewide, the report says, industrial facilities released almost 12 million pounds of respiratory toxicants.

Meanwhile, Flint Hill Resources, an oil refinery in Rosemount, tops the list for reproductive toxicants, release an estimated 10,561 pounds of the worrisome chemicals. Another Rosemount company, Spectro Alloys Corporation, which manufactures aluminum alloys, is the state's leading emitter of dioxin (at a modest 2.4 grams). Super Radiator Coils in Chaska leads the overall carcinogen release category at 125,250 pounds.

Continue reading "Just Don't Inhale"

Posted by Mike Mosedale at March 27, 2007 8:56 AM | Comments (0)

 

Bird brains

Filed under: Environment

This month the Twin Cities became a safer place for migrating birds. The Department of Natural Resources' Nongame Wildlife Program, in cooperation with other conservation groups, launched the Lights Out Twin Cities Project, an effort to reduce building collisions from birds that migrate during the night in the spring and fall. According to the DNR, millions of birds die each year from flying into highly reflective or brightly lit buildings, or drop dead from exhaustion after circling a bright lights for hours.

The project, similar to programs in New York, Toronto, and Chicago, asks that tall buildings dim or turn off all unnecessary lighting during peak nighttime bird migration hours—midnight until sunrise from March through May. Minneapolis' Wells Fargo Building and the Accenture Building have both signed on. Street-level lighting would be unaffected.

"Reducing bird deaths from collisions will have a positive effect on bird conservation," states Mark Martell, director of Bird Conservation for Audubon Minnesota. "The Lights Out program costs building owners or managers little or nothing to implement and will save energy and money at the same time it saves birds."

Volunteers will also be collecting dead birds around highly trafficked buildings along the West Bank and both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul for further research.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at March 26, 2007 4:56 PM | Comments (0)

 

Slate calls BS on the wind chill factor

Filed under: Environment

Daniel Engber has a piece at Slate.com, the topic of which speaks to our hearts and extremities—the wind chill factor. In our part of the country, where chatting about the weather goes beyond small talk and television meteorologists are considered celebrities, Engber's piece gives the reader a bit of insight into the history of calculating the wind chill factor, and, quite frankly, how meaningless it is: "The updated model patches over the worst flaws of the old wind chill system, but it's not anything close to perfect. [Randall] Osczevski and [Maurice] Bluestein made a set of new assumptions to determine wind-chill-equivalent temperatures. Namely, they geared their calculations toward people who are 5 feet tall, somewhat portly, and walk at an even clip directly into the wind. They also left out crucial variables that have an important effect on how we experience the weather, like solar radiation. Direct sunlight can make us feel 10 to 15 degrees warmer, even on a frigid winter day. The wind chill equivalent temperature, though, assumes that we're taking a stroll in the dead of night." Read the article here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 12, 2007 1:59 PM | Comments (1)

 

Sprawl of the Wild Part II: Northwoods for sale

Filed under: Environment

For anyone dismayed by the real estate bonanza that has so radically transformed Minnesota's north woods over the past decade, one question has long loomed at the forefront: When will it ever stop? Answer: Barring nuclear war or economic catastrophe, no time soon.

Continue reading "Sprawl of the Wild Part II: Northwoods for sale"

Posted by Mike Mosedale at January 12, 2007 2:33 PM | Comments (1)

 

Liberal global warming threatens Christmas 2014

Filed under: Environment

The Associated Press reports the tree-growing operation owned by John and Jan Donelson "has lost 27,000 young Christmas trees to the drought" that hit Minnesota this summer. The Donelsons own 300-acres of faith-based forest near Clear Lake, Minnesota that, despite a new irrigating system, met an inconvenient truth that could affect the Christmas tree supply in eight years. Ironically, the more secular Santa's Forest nearby lost no trees because new trees weren't planted this year.

Posted by Corey Anderson at August 23, 2006 3:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Who Didn't Kill The Electric Car?

Filed under: Environment

Tuesday, as the Edina theater marquee asked Who Killed The Electric Car? and gas station marquees hailed the highest gas prices in the history of the Twin Cities ($3.105 for unleaded), I turned the ignition key on one of the few known electric cars in the state, clicked the switch on the control panel to "reverse" and put my foot on the accelerator as the vehicle's owner, Pete Bonahoom, nervously cautioned, "Just remember, this is a $25,000 car."

Not to mention the future of everything, chick magnet, tonic for the troops, dude magnet, the answer to all our problems, kid magnet, hope for the planet, motorcyclist magnet, the only way to go, skateboarder magnet, big fun, and, as one slack-jawed Earth-loving cat with an Amoeba Records Hollywood T-shirt on Lake Street put it, "a very sweet ride."

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Posted by Jim Walsh at August 9, 2006 5:36 PM | Comments (6)

 

Minnesota by the numbers: Top 20 polluters

Filed under: Environment

So you want to know what companies are releasing the most pollutants into Minnesota's air and water? The ugly answers can be found in the recently released Right-to-Know Chemical Information Report, which is posted on the Minnesota Department of Public Safety website. Among other things, the report lists the top 20 pollution producing facilities in the state. As usual, Xcel Energy's coal-burning power plant in Becker occupies the top spot; according to the report, the Sherco plant emitted more than seven million pounds of pollutants during the 2004 calender year. That's more than three times as much as the number two polluter, Minnesota Power's Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset. The full report is larded with useful tables and other data. Below are the Dirty 20, ranked top to bottom.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at July 31, 2006 2:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

The ethanol conundrum

Filed under: Environment

For Minnesota politicians, ethanol is the classic no-brainer issue. You are either pro-ethanol or don't want to get re-elected. For Minnesota environmentalists, it is a more complicated matter. While everyone with any green in their blood agrees on the need to develop alternative fuels, ethanol remains controversial because of the long running debate over whether its production requires more energy than it actually creates. "What I would really love is to get all the researchers in the same room and watch them duke it out and see who convinces me," says Jeanette Brimmer, legal director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at June 30, 2006 2:22 PM | Comments (3)

 

D'oh! A nuclear blunder and a one-day story

Filed under: Environment

Last week, Michael Keegan, an anti-nuclear activist out of Indiana, was scouring the fine print on the website of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when he came across a curious item: on May 3, according to the website, approximately 100 workers at Xcel Energy's Prairie Island nuclear power plant had been exposed to an unfiltered radioactive gas called iodine 131. Keegan forwarded the news to Bonnie Urfer, co-director of the Wisconsin-based group Nukewatch, who disseminated the report to colleagues in the environmental movement, who then notified reporters. All told, six days had passed between the blunder at the plant and its first public airing.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at May 12, 2006 10:51 AM | Comments (0)

 

Instant follow-up: 3M's bluegill problem

Filed under: Environment

My story in today's City Pages about former Minnesota Pollution Control Agency researcher Fardin Oliaei merits a quick footnote. As the piece relates, Oliaei's 16-year employment at the MPCA came to an end last month--an outcome the scientist attributes to institutional opposition to her efforts to focus public attention and research dollars on pollution from a ubiquitous and highly persistent family of synthetic chemicals known as PFCs. In particular, Oliaei has been concerned with a PFC called PFOS, which was long manufactured by the 3M Company at its facility in Cottage Grove for use in such products as Scotch-Guard.

Well, yesterday, the Minnesota Department of Health announced that it was issuing new fish consumption guidelines for a nearby stretch of the Mississippi River (Pool 2) because of research findings that show unusually high levels of PFOS in the fillets of bluegill sunfish.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at March 29, 2006 10:00 AM | Comments (2)

 

The Awful Truth: The grim prospects for Minnesota's great outdoors

Filed under: Environment

In recent years, the juggernaut that is the Minnesota real estate industry has inspired plenty of jeremiads. It's no mystery why. Minnesotans have long taken pride in the natural beauty of the place, and it is vanishing before their eyes at an appalling pace. With so much formerly pristine countryside being subdivided, paved or otherwise degraded, the time to act is now. Actually, the time to act was a decade or two back. But, as the man says, better late than never.

All this is addressed in considerable detail in a 56-page report released yesterday by the Minnesota Campaign for Conservation. The report opens on an optimistic note. The first passage, titled "Minnesota's Past Points the Way to a Proud Future," makes the usual high-minded points about the state's legacy as a leader in conservation and its ample natural resources.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at February 24, 2006 9:09 AM | Comments (1)

 

Department of Boondoggles: The Great Wall of St. Paul

Filed under: Environment

Usually when the words "boondoggle" and "Mississippi River" are uttered in the same sentence, you can bet that the phrase "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" will follow in short order. As has been well-documented, the Corps loves to pour tons of concrete (and billions of dollars) into the Mississippi for projects with lousy economic justification and dire ecological consequences.

But the Corps is not alone in this proclivity. The latest competition comes courtesy of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (or MAC), which dearly wants to construct a one-and-a-half mile dike around the St. Paul Downtown Airport, otherwise known as Holman Field.

Continue reading "Department of Boondoggles: The Great Wall of St. Paul"

Posted by Mike Mosedale at February 10, 2006 1:03 PM | Comments (1)

 

Aqualung

Filed under: Environment

Not every executive has the opportunity to write a letter to the Star Tribune touting her job performance. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency commissioner Sheryl Corrigan, however, sent out her Christmas card early this year in a December 5 op-ed titled "Environmental Successes Have Taken Wing in Minnesota."

The news pages hadn't been kind to the agency in 2005, with stories suggesting the MPCA favored industry over environmental groups in setting new state mercury regulations. Meanwhile, state senate hearings have been investigating whether the agency persecuted a whistle-blowing MPCA scientist who'd targeted 3M, Corrigan's former employer. Yet Corrigan saw happier signs in the air. Specifically, during a river swim with her two kids, Corrigan saw bald eagles, whose population has increased 28 percent, Corrigan writes, from just five years ago.

Granted, the recovery of this great carrion bird started with the federal ban on DDT in 1972. But Corrigan found much else to be excited about in the state's air and water: "The Twin Cities is one of only three major metropolitan areas in the country that meets all federal ambient air quality standards, and Minnesota is among only 11 states meeting those same stringent standards."

It was an interesting statistic to champion given that in 2005 Minnesota also registered its worst air day ever. In fact, a review of the MPCA monitoring data from last year suggests that Minnesota does not have "good" air. What it has most days, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index, is "moderate" air.

Continue reading "Aqualung"

Posted by Michael Tortorello at January 18, 2006 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota by the numbers: The nation's biggest importer of electricity

Filed under: Environment

A few weeks ago, Ken Bradley was poking around one of the more obscure corners of the Department of Energy website when he came across an eye-popping table. Minnesota, Bradley discovered after scrolling through the chart, is the United State's single biggest importer of electricity.

For Bradley, who works for the non-profit advocacy group Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy, that fact wasn't so shocking; but the margin was. According to the DOE numbers, Minnesota's net imports of electricity--28.2 trillion BTUs in 2001--account for more than a third of the entire nation's imports.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at December 30, 2005 10:30 AM | Comments (6)

 

Coming soon: "Redneck fishing at its finest"

Filed under: Environment

As environmental menaces go, the arrival of Asian carp in Minnesota waters may not seem particularly alarming. But the two main species of concern--the voracious bighead and silver carp--could radically alter the composition of fisheries in the Mississippi River watershed. They could also prove a real headache, literally, for boaters.

This is due to one of the fishes' more peculiar habits: idling boats trigger a wild leaping response in Asian carp. Because these species are so powerful--they can jump six feet out of the water--boaters in infected waters are sometimes struck by airborn fish. Such collisions can result in considerable trauma. Asian carp typically weigh 10 to 20 pounds and, occasionally, tip the scales at more than 60 pounds.

Continue reading "Coming soon: "Redneck fishing at its finest""

Posted by Mike Mosedale at November 1, 2005 10:07 AM | Comments (1)