Site 41: stopped for now

For those not from around here, Site 41 refers to a proposed dump up in Simcoe county, an hour or so north of Toronto, above what protesters call the world's most pristine water. It looked like the dump was going to be pushed through regardless of any environmental risk and regardless of the protests. However dogged grassroots protest has led to a one-year moratorium on construction, and according to the Globe and Mail, after that vote, "even the die-hard supporters of the dump were changing their tune. It's time to move on and forget about Site 41 entirely, Warden Guergis said."

$11 Million has already been spent on the ill-fated dump. The plan was to use a gigantic rubber barrier to stop toxins from leaching into the aquifer. The proposed dump has some history. It was initially rejected as environmentally unsound, then reassessed. County council approved the dump in 2007 by a narrow margin.

No Water to Waste
Next Council's Problem
Cops Raid Site 41
Protest Against Dump Site 41

It goes to show that organized protest can be successful, sometimes even when the deal seems done. One question remains unanswered....if they need a dump, and it isn't going here, where will it go?

bags

There has been a movement afoot around here for some time to reduce the use of plastic bags, and now Loblaw is charging a nickel a bag. The new bags are bigger and sturdier than the old free bags. I like using the large reusable bags when I grocery shop, but I haven't been as consistent about it as I should be. I often stop on the way home from work for groceries, but many times I forget to keep a couple reusable bags with me. In time, I'll improve.

When I was a kid, there were few plastic bags. Groceries were typically packed in paper bags or sometimes in boxes. Paper bags were biodegradable, but then again trees were chopped down to produce them, with all the associated pollution. I have no idea how much energy is used and pollution created in the making of reusable bags but they can be used many many times over and that has to be a good thing.

Do you bring your own bags when you shop?

St. John's stops new drive-thrus

The city council in St. John's has ordered a moratorium on new drive-thru applications, amid concerns that long lineups at some coffee shops are posing persistent traffic and safety hazards.

This must be a big problem in St. John's because that's a city with a lot of Tim Horton's outlets. On top of the traffic safety issue, there's a lot of idling going on at drive-thrus as well.

I guess our drive-thru culture is starting to catch up with us. Do we really need the convenience of a drive-thru? Really? I like a morning coffee as much as the next guy. I have a French press, some coffee beans, a grinder, a thermos and a kettle at work and I make my own coffee each day, which I enjoy in my own mug. I go into work a little early each day, make a cuppa and take my time drinking it before my job even starts.

Are there any drive-thru fiends out there? What do you think about what St. John's is doing? Do you want to see the same steps taken in your city?

Wind in the news....

I've been hearing a lot of fuss made over a proposal to build wind turbines in Lake Ontario, off Leslie St. spit. I've seen plenty of turbines in action in Southern Alberta, when I've been out there chasing trout with a fly. I figured the same high winds which played havoc with my back-cast must be doing a good job generating power.

Then one day my brother offered up some strong negative opinions about the wind farm up in Shelburne, several miles west of his farm. I thought maybe he was having a bad day. Then I read a piece by Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail, Who Could Object to Wind Power?. She offers some insights.

It seems that one of the reasons we have these wind turbine proposals is that subsidies are dangled by the government. Wind doesn't always blow, though, and Wente asserts that wind farms can't survive without subsidies anywhere.

While some environmentalists love the things, there are apparently a number of environmentalists who fight them. Wente writes, residents..."fear the 90-metre turbines will chop up birds, disrupt migration routes, destroy views, lower property values, even make them sick". I'd like to read more about the environmental effects. I wonder if there are any studies available? I've heard that some people complain about so-called white noise from turbines, and it would be valuable to read about this effect as well.

For sure it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on turbines, and then build coal-fired generators to supplement them. If the wind were reliable enough, I wonder what the environmental comparison would be between turbines and coal (and nuclear for that matter).

What do you think? Should we be building wind turbines off Toronto's Lake Ontario shore?

We are so hard on our planet

Pennsylvania has been blessed with beautiful mountains and streams but it seems that in their pursuit of the resources that come with the package, they have done just about everything possible to mess it all up. The part of the Allegheny's I was recently in used to be all hemlock. The following is a quote from East Fork Revisited, the memoir of Alfred Borelli, who grew up in nearby Potter County.

"The foundation for all of this commercial activity was the seemingly endless forests of hemlock trees. Mountains were denuded of these magnificent trees. There was no regard for water runoff or decimation of habitat for the many varieties of creatures who lived in these forests. Hemlock was king, green gold, there for the taking."

"In the space of a very few years the "endless" forests were gone. The party was over. The tram roads were pulled up, and like a giant receding wave the economy of the region went bust. Gone were the stave mill, the roundhouse, and the blacksmith shop. The exhausted forest had no more to give. The stately hemlocks were gone for good and in their place a second growth of trees, with a mixture of species began to dress the bare mountains. The new growth was lush but economically unimportant. By the time I was born, the mountains, which were the foothills of the Allegheny Chain, had hid the ravishment of the early part of the century."

Then there was mining. The photo above this post shows Babb Creek flowing into Pine Creek. The following is from the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources, publication called The Resource, published on-line in 1998. The contribution is by Denise Kelly:

As a result of a decline in Pennsylvania's extensive coal mining activities in the 1800s, there are now many abandoned small mining towns as well as associated mine tailing "spoil piles" throughout the state. One of these towns was the town of Klondike, located southeast of Wellsboro in the Tioga State Forest. Mine tailings (a spoils pile) at Klondike consisted of a large, unsightly pile of shale, waste coal, and sand cut with large gullies which funneled water into the Babb Creek watershed.

Years of unrestricted acid mine drainage (AMD) adversely affected the water quality in this watershed. As a result, the Babb Creek Cleanup Project was established in 1990 to develop an AMD treatment system. This project represents a cooperative effort between the old DER (now DCNR and DEP), several other state conservation organizations, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (EDF). Funding is provided by the EDF which also acts as the overall coordinator of this ongoing project.

In order to help improve the water quality within the watershed, the Klondike spoil pile was regraded, and drainage terraces were constructed to maintain a stable slope. Additionally, alkaline sludge from the tannery in Westfield, Pa. was mixed with the spoil in order to create a less acidic site. Seed mix was then applied to this surface, and the annual rye grass quickly took root and began to thrive. The Klondike project appears to be successful, increasing the pH of the stream in some areas from 3.5 to 7.0.

Acid mine drainage is a ubiquitous problem throughout the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Although the Klondike spoil pile is just one element of the Babb Creek cleanup project, reduction of AMD from this area and noticeable water quality improvements to Babb Creek and the lower Pink Creek valley are a tribute to the coordinated effort between agencies to improve the natural resources of the state.

A few years ago, some people we met down in Pennsylvania told us of another plan to add limestone bars to the creek bed to help neutralize the acidity of the water which flowed over them. I have no idea if that project ever happened, or how accurate that information was.

I do know that the trout fishery in this section of Pine Creek remains a "put-and-take" trout fishery. I don't know if the water quality has improved enough for the trout to hold over and survive winters, but they don't seem to be reproducing. In fact stocking is ubiquitous in the area, except for a smaller number of streams like Slate Run and Cedar Run which are managed as wild trout fisheries. The fellow who runs the store and fly shop in Slate Run told us he has personally bought and stocked brown trout to enhance the Pine Creek fishery in the area of his shop. All this seems perfectly reasonable to the fishermen in the area, and in fact I can tell you that in my experience, you see lots of fishermen on the stocked streams and very few on the wild trout streams.

Once, East Texas Red and I were in the Poconos chasing trout, and we stopped into a local fly shop to buy this and that and talk to the proprietor. This fellow suggested we fish a local creek...but he said we had to walk up two miles. Apparently at the start of season, they stock the whole creek, and the local fishermen start fishing them out at the bridge and work upstream, taking out all the stockers along the way. At the point in the season we visited, it was necessary to walk two miles upstream to find a trout. We spent the rest of the trip trying to find a wild trout stream. We finally found a lovely little stream in a valley filled with rhododendron, loaded with small wild brown trout.

One night a the campsite, Idaho Ken and I were enjoying a cold beer in the rain, and Ken told me about an enterprising fly tier who invented a fly that imitated the liver pellets they use to feed trout in hatcheries. Necessity, it seems, really is the mother of invention.

Ducks Die

Hundreds of ducks died in oil giant's tailing ponds. So very sad.

Don't Build It So They Don't Come

It's been a while since I've posted here at Mr. Anchovy's. Usually, I write about flora and fauna here in my little corner of BC, and today I'm going to not going to deviate from that too much by bringing to your attention a local Rossland controversy: the building of a huge new golf course in a currently wooded area near Granite Mountain on our local ski hill.

Already, Red Mountain has seen enormous development with something like 3000 units (i.e. condos) either built or going to be built. The effects of this are both aesthetic and impact negatively on the environment, as well as pissing of some locals because of a rise in taxes. Aesthetically, the abundance of condos now blocks out any decent view of the mountain and makes the area look like a high-priced, exclusive slum, with buildings on top of buildings and very little room for anything else (like, say, a parking lot for hill users to park while they ski). Environmentally, 3000 units requires enormous sewer upgrades and a huge increase in water consumption. Locals are pissed because their property taxes have increased in order to fund the upgrades. Housing prices have also risen sharply due to development and Rossland is swiftly becoming a place where only the wealthy are going to be able to afford to live. The rental market sucks and there is no affordable housing for those who need it.

So now, a new golf course is being proposed for the ski hill. This will involve clearing a huge swath of land, obviously, but there is also more development proposed as well, including 310 new homes, a conference centre/hotel/spa, and a golf academy.

This is the most ludicrous, environmentally irresponsible idea you could possibly put forth in this area. The proposed golf course will be built right in Rossland's watershed. The current watershed, predominantly coming from Topping Creek, barely provides enough water for the town as it is. By August, reservoir levels are extremely low and water restrictions become especially keen for those of us in town. According to this, the average North American golf course consumes 400 million litres of water annually. For six months (the other six being ski months at Red), that would be 200 million litres of water. Where is this supposed to come from? Not to mention the pesticides and crap they use to keep the greens unnaturally green. The runoff from that will also go into local creeks and waterways.

This is in no way a viable project. We already have way too much development up at the ski hill as it is (it's hideous, too), and recently the local golf course has just expanded to 18 holes from 9, and put in a new housing development. Do we really need another golf course? I say NO. There is a lot of rhetoric in town about this proposed golf course, and there is a petition at many downtown businesses for people sign. I have put my name on it, and I hope it makes the statement to city council it needs to.

Mercury taints trout in famed Silver Creek

My friend East Texas Red sent me this article via our pal eken2. The Silver Creek Preserve is a remarkable place, one of my favourite spots in North America. It's so sad to read that there is mercury pollution even in this beautiful spring creek. They don't seem to know how it got there.

Update: here is some more information

Can fire slow down the pine beetles?

Here is a follow-up to posts made by WC a while back about the beetle problem in mountain west forests. This article talks about Alberta burning an area of forest to stop the spread of the pine beetle.

Kawartha Lakes dead carp

I had heard about bacteria-related carp kills in the Kawarthas lately - particularly in Scugog and in Sturgeon Lakes. I spent today at my father-in-law's cottage on Pigeon Lake and I saw for myself that the problem has spread here too. I counted half a dozen large dead carp afloat within a few yards of where I was standing.

We were looking for something to watch on TV and....

came across the broadcast of that weird long earth concert yesterday....not quite sure what it was supposed to accomplish but....

....we saw a bit of an interview with a band called Black-eyed Peas, and one of the fellows in the band was telling us he took the environment very seriously, and even decided to sell his Hummer.

Admirable contribution.

Eastern Slopes battle looms

This article, from the Calgary Herald talks about the reality of a development boom in the hills of Southern Alberta. I'm glad I've had an opportunity to spend some time in the Crowsnest Pass, because things are changing fast. The article quotes Cowboy songster Ian Tyson: "The current policy of liquidating oil and gas resources as quickly as possible is not in Alberta's best interests. It is destroying agricultural communities, wildlife diversity, recreational tourism, and the signature landscapes all along the Cowboy Trail".

thanks to eken2 for sending the article.

Green Bins

Early this morning, I heard a radio talk show host ramble on about how bad our green bin program is in Toronto. For those who live elsewhere, we have a program in place to separate organic waste away from the landfill using green bins. The guy was complaining how much they smelled for the most part.

We use the green bin as extensively as we can. We don't have any significant problem with smell. When the bin is closed, it doesn't smell. It gets picked up once each week. We've heard people say it is a problem because animals get in. Once, a raccoon knocked ours over, but left after it coundn't get in.

It took a week or so to get in the habit of separating. Now we separate organic waste and recylable waste from garbage, and it is just no big deal to do it. The problem Toronto has is not with recycling; it's with figuring out what to do with what is left, since the Keele Valley landfill closed. In my mind, driving it to Michigan was crazy. Now we've bought a landfill site only a couple hours away - better, but still too far. Ideally, we should be dealing with Toronto trash close to Toronto, not exporting it elsewhere.

I've heard plenty of politicians talk about burning trash, but I'm not convinced they have any idea even what the process entails. Some communities around Toronto burn garbage. Has anybody measured emissions? Let's get the science on the table. If it poisons the atmosphere, let's close the door on it now, and if it doesn't, we need to do some serious analysis.

Should we have a new landfill site in the Toronto area? The challenge is that nobody wants it in their backyard. At the same time, people are buying new homes built on the very edge of the Keele Valley site.

What do you think of the green bin program?
Do you separate organics and recyclable material in your community?
How does your city deal with garbage?