Article published November 30, 2008
ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Michigan scores a victory in war against lake invaders
As the tail that wags the Great Lakes policy dog, Michigan scored a big win for the region on Nov. 21.
A three-judge panel agreed the state darned well does have a right to check oceanic freight ships for unwanted critters. Expect programs from other Great Lakes states to follow.
The decision by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld Michigan's 2005 law that requires saltwater ships to either hold onto untreated ballast water or else show how they will kill off whatever micro-organisms might be lurking in their tanks.
In the big picture, Michigan got the green light to move ahead with its solo effort to tackle one of the biggest problems facing the Great Lakes region during this era of globalization.
None of this would have been necessary if the federal government had been doing its job. One could surmise that Michigan has been trying to embarrass the feds into showing the leadership on this issue that the region craved.
More than 180 exotic species have slipped past the nation's borders and into the Great Lakes, with the ballast tanks of ships presumed to have been harboring the majority.Many have wreaked havoc upon the aquatic food chain, particularly in shallow western Lake Erie - the region's warmest and most biologically diverse area. Some, such as zebra and quagga mussels, have cost industry billions of dollars by clogging water intakes.
Much of the damage is irreversible and occurred even after the nation's borders were tightened in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Researchers such as the University of Windsor's Hugh MacIssac once dreamed that money spent to beef up our borders would have the spillover effect of keeping out invasives. That hasn't happened.
A big, fat zero: Here's how area legislators fared in the 2008 National Environmental Scorecard published by the League of Conservation Voters: Perfect scores for U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D., Dearborn), U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich); a 92 for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) and a 91 for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio); an 18 for U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio), and a big, fat zero for U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green).
It's certainly not a foolproof rating system, yet it's one worthy of inspiring discussion. The league tallied votes on 11 Senate and 13 House energy-environment bills it picked as priorities.
Nuke news: Former Davis-Besse engineer David Geisen's appeal of the five-year suspension the Nuclear Regulatory Commission imposed on him is expected to last a week and will be heard by the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board starting at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 8.
Geisen, you may recall, was fined $7,500 on May 1 after being convicted last fall of endangering northern Ohio six years ago by deceiving the NRC about Davis-Besse's old reactor head. The massive steel lid got so rusty it nearly burst open and allowed radioactive steam to form in 2002.
High-tech junkies can watch the first day live on their computers at www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=53643. The NRC hasn't decided if it'll post the rest of the proceedings yet.
That same week, at 1 p.m. on Dec. 11, Judge David Katz of U.S. District Court in Toledo will hear attorneys argue whether the August conviction of Geisen's co-conspirator, Andrew Siemaszko, should stand. Each side gets 45 minutes.
Geisen and Siemaszko were convicted on three of five counts at separate trials held 10 months apart. Their alleged accomplice, Rodney N. Cook, was acquitted of all four counts against him.
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