The Dynamic Great Lakes is available on Kindle

Now available on Kindle

To learn about the Great Lakes and their interesting features, The Dynamic Great Lakes is for you.

Now updated in a fourth edition, Amazon has made the book available on the Kindle e reader as well as in paperback. The book is concise and suitable for all readers.

Life Thrives in a Clean Environment

Photo by Steve Damstra

If we could experience the Great Lakes as an eagle or a fish we would feel the mighty air streams and currents in their waters. We would know the change of seasons: winter with its icy blasts, spring with the thawing of ice on the lakes, summer with the hatching of new life in nests, and autumn with the running of anadromous fish from lakes to river beds.

Life in and around the Great Lakes thrives when we take good care of the air and water. Our lives will thrive also with clean air and water.

Yesterday people picked up trash on the beach in Grand Haven Michigan coordinated by Alliance for the Great Lakes and a local business. Way to go!

Continual weakening of standards threatens public safety

the Michigan Messenger
by Eartha Jane Melzer

For the last 18 years environmental groups in Michigan have been warning that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has weakened or ignored safety rules in order to allow the Palisades nuclear power plant to keep operating, and a new study seems to support that contention.

“Palisades is an accident waiting to happen because of deferred maintenance,” said Kevin Kamps of the watchdog group Beyond Nuclear.

In a major series on nuclear safety last week the Associated Press detailed a phenomenon that has long troubled watchers of the nuclear industry — wear and tear at the nation’s many old nuclear power plants has caused them to fall out of compliance with rules for leaking valves, cracking on steam generator tubes, metal corrosion and more, and rather than require repair federal regulators have relaxed the rules to accommodate the deteriorating plants.

In the case of Entergy’s 40-year-old Palisades plant which sits on the shore of Lake Michigan 45 miles west of Kalamazoo, the major problem is embrittlement of the reactor vessel, environmental groups say.

Palisades is a 798 Megawatt pressurized water reactor that has been operating since Dec. 1971. The plant is owned by Entergy which bought it from Consumers Energy in 2007.

Since the early 90s Michigan environmental groups have warned that neutron radiation from the nuclear chain reaction in the reactor core has reduced the ductility (capacity to deform under stress) of the metal in the reactor vessel.

In 2005 when the owners of Palisades applied for a 20 year extension of the operating license for the plant these groups warned that this embrittlement represents a catastrophic risk.

“If, during an emergency, cooling water is pumped into the thermally hot and highly pressurized reactor core, the “pressurized thermal shock” (PTS) could rupture the brittle reactor vessel like a hot glass under cold water, releasing catastrophic amounts of radioactivity into the air and waters of Lake Michigan, the source of drinking water (and so much more) to tens of millions of people downstream,” they said.

Between 2005 and 2007 most of Michigan’s environmental groups signed on to a legal challenge to the relicensing of Palisades, Kamps said, but the effort proved unsuccessful after a retired NRC employee who planned to serve as an expert witness on embitterment of the plant’s reactor withdrew from the process under threats of retaliation from his former employer.

“We got so steamrolled,” he said.

According to AP the NRC lowered the safety margin for acceptable radiation damage to reactor vessels for the second time last year.

The standard is based on a measurement known as a reactor vessel’s “reference temperature,” which predicts when it will become dangerously brittle and vulnerable to failure. Over the years, many plants have violated or come close to violating the standard.

As a result, the minimum standard was relaxed first by raising the reference temperature 50 percent, and then 78 percent above the original — even though a broken vessel could spill its radioactive contents into the environment.

Kamps said the he believes NRC has actually reduced the embrittlement standards around six times and he said that the reactor vessel status at Palisades has been specifically mentioned by the agency as a reason for changing the standards.

Palisades has been out of compliance for decades, according to Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes in Monroe.

“Palisades first violated NRC’s pressurized thermal shock regulations in 1981, just ten years into operations,” he said back in May as the NRC prepared for its annual meeting on performance of the Palisades plant. “Rather than deal with its embrittlement or else shut down, Palisades has instead successfully pressured NRC to weaken the safety regulations time and again in order to allow it to keep operating, despite the risks.”

The onsite storage of the spent fuel at Palisades has also been identified as a problem.

In Sept. 2005 as part of the regimenting process at Palisades Ross Landsman, a retired NRC Nuclear Safety Engineer and Palisades Dry Cask Storage Inspector testified that the pads where Palisades stores casks of spent fuel rest on top of sand and would not be stable in the event of an earthquake.

Landsman said that his superiors opted to ignore repeated communications about violations in the seismic design of Palisades’ spent fuel storage area.

“They turned me down again because I was retiring and officially couldn’t bother them any more, but the point is, the pad is not safe to hold any loaded casks,” he said.

On Tuesday the legislature will hear testimony on safety issues at Michigan’s three nuclear power plants during a joint meeting of the House Energy and Technology and Military and Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security Committees.

Officials from DTE Energy, owners of the Fermi 2 nuclear power facility near Monroe; American Electric Power, of the Cook facility in Bridgman; and Entergy, of the Palisades plant, will make presentations.

“Whether threatened by natural disaster or human attack, the tragic events at Fukushima have stressed our need for caution and certainty when it comes to protecting our nuclear energy facilities,” said state Rep. Kurt Damrow (R-Port Austin), chair of the House Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security. “To ensure the safety of our residents and communities, we must make protecting these facilities a top priority for Michigan.”

“… [T]his is the nuclear industry defending themselves against what’s been in the press lately on U.S. nuclear safety and Fukushima,” said energy activist Kay Cumbow.

Cumbow pointed out that in addition to damage to the reactor vessel at Palisades, DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 is a GE Mark 1 reactor of the type that melted down at Fukushima and some are calling for all such reactors to be shut down due to unresolved safety flaws.

“… [A]s many of the concerned public who are able, should attend this meeting to let these committee members know that Michigan citizens are very concerned about safety issues that present with these aging, problem-ridden reactors … and expect the Michigan legislators to take action to protect the public.”

Great Lakes Influences

I live on Lake Michigan and I have lived on Lake Huron. I have traveled to Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario where I watched a meteor shower while camping. All this freshwater has led me to write. I wrote a non fiction book, The Dynamic Great Lakes that is critically acclaimed. It shows how each lake has changed and changes. It is especially about what lies under water. These lakes are magnificent.

I have included many Great Lakes inspired poems in my books, The Wilderness Within and Sophia’s Lost and Found: Poems of Above and Below

Think Globally; Act Locally

“Think globally, act locally.” This is how we can improve our environment.

The Dynamic Great Lakes is a good book to read for Earth Day, or any day of the year. One reviewer called it “empowering” since it showed how people have been successful in bringing needed changes to improve our environment.

I wrote the book after working on grassroots committees for the improvement of th place where I live. Through the democratic process, our groups brought about needed changes. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring was a wake up call. When I taught classes at Grand Valley State University, I developed a writing class around environmental issues. These classes read the books, A Sand County Alamanac, Blue Highways, essays by Barry Lopez, Al Gore and others.

We still have a long way to go to improve the places where we live and the first step is education. In order to make good changes, we need to understand the ecology of the place where we live and how it fits into the global ecosystems. This is why I wrote The Dynamic Great Lakes.</em

Wind Power Muskegon and GVSU

MUSKEGON –
A timely article from the Muskegon Chronicle

When the head of the Grand Valley State University alternative energy center asked for the city of Muskegon’s help in establishing an offshore wind research buoy in Lake Michigan, there was no controversy.

Axys Technologies Inc.A deployed Axys WindSentinel Offshore Resource Assessment Buoy that is similar to what GVSU plans to place in Lake Michigan.
Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center Director Arn Boezaart asked the Muskegon City Commission for the city to be a co-applicant on state and federal environmental permit applications.

Commissioners quickly voted the city’s support and heaped praise on Boezaart for the activities of the energy center in downtown Muskegon.

Anyone who sat through last year’s hearings on offshore Lake Michigan wind farms proposed by Scandia would be hard-pressed to see the Ludington City Council or the Pentwater Village Council taking such quick action.

The offshore wind turbine issue simply is not as controversial in Muskegon County as it has been in Oceana and Mason counties. County boards in both Oceana and Mason voted against the Scandia proposal, while Muskegon officials remained relatively supportive.

So when Boezaart approached the city of Muskegon this week for a hand on a $3.7 million offshore wind research buoy project, no one asked if the wind testing effort would eventually lead to huge wind turbines being placed on Lake Michigan off the coast of Muskegon.

There was no debate about turbine blades killing birds or about low-frequency turbine noise — topics that would have likely been part of the conversation with Muskegon’s northern neighbors.

“Muskegon has had a willingness to look at offshore wind,” Boezaart told The Chronicle after receiving the city’s support on the research buoy project. “It goes right back to what we saw with the Scandia issue. In Muskegon, offshore wind is viewed as a potential source of jobs and represents new business for the region.”

Boezaart told city commissioners that the offshore wind buoy project is progressing but still has several hurdles to clear before a unit can be placed in Lake Michigan, maybe as soon as this summer.

Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, secured an initial $1.4 million federal “earmark” from the U.S. Department of Energy to explore offshore wind on the lakes. GVSU has received further financial support from the Michigan Public Service Commission, the public utility Wisconsin Energy and the University of Michigan’s Phoenix Energy Institute.

As the research project grew and evolved, the group is now seeking to place a floating buoy with sophisticated wind measuring devices in various locations in Lake Michigan from April through December. GVSU also is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to place the research buoy.

To get federal and state approval to put the 5-by-18-foot anchored platform in Lake Michigan, a permit is needed, including a co-applicant with riparian rights to the lake. The city of Muskegon has extensive park property on the lake, giving it riparian rights.

The city has agreed to be a co-applicant with GVSU to win approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. The buoy project also needs the approval of the U.S. Coast Guard, Boezaart said.

The city’s involvement is that of co-applicant and will not cost the city any money and minimal staff time, City Manager Bryon Mazade said. The city has a longstanding partnership with GVSU to locate the college’s energy center in a business park on the city’s Muskegon Lake waterfront.

“The city being on board with this project puts out a strong message for the community and the region,” Boezaart said of the city’s willingness to explore offshore wind development.

GVSU and its research partners are working on final negotiations with a potential vendor of the buoy and test equipment. Much work needs to be done to get a buoy placed yet this year, Boezaart said.

Muskegon city commissioners quickly gave their approval and credited Boezaart with creating positive activity at MAREC since he was appointed to head the energy center in 2009.

“MAREC is a valuable thing,” Commissioner Clara Shepherd said. “I want to commend MAREC for the great job being done.”

Vice Mayor Steve Gawron told Boezaart that the city stands as a partner with GVSU on energy issues and would like to see as much develop from the energy center as possible.
Published in the Muskegon Chronicle
Email: dalexander@muskegonchronicle.com

Watercolor of an American Bald Eagle

Eagles will begin their courtship this month. The male and female play a daring game in the air. They fly high, grasp talons and plummet to earth unclasping at the last moment before hitting the ground and then they fly up.

Read about the environmental success story in my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes The success was that eagles made a comeback after Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring . The book made people realize what they must do to bring about good changes to the environment.

Eagles around the Great Lakes: an Environmental Success Story

photo by Steve Damstra

The return of eagles to the shores of the Great Lakes is an environmental success story. Read more about what impact environmentalists had through the democratic process in The Dynamic Great Lakes now available through Barnes & Noble.

How The Eagles Happened to Return to the Great Lakes

A Critically acclaimed book about the Great Lakes and their ecosystems.

I wanted to let people know, you can fight city hall and win. It takes time and patience, but sometimes the results are spectacular. Let me explain.

Years ago we lived across the street from the city park in Grand Haven, Michigan where the elm trees were sprayed with DDT to fight Dutch elm disease. Before the spraying started we were told we could move our car–the sticky spray clung to everything. We had two pre school children at this time and no mention was made of protecting them. When they went out to play, they were exposed to it for a long time after each spraying.

Long after the spraying we would see robins trembling in their death throes. DDT is a long lasting pesticide that magnifies through food chains and the robins fed upon earthworms and died before our eyes. The fish in nearby Lake Michigan were affected even more since food chains in water are long. DDT builds up in plankton, small fish and larger fish. The bald eagle that feeds upon fish is at the end of a long food chain. Subsequent to the spraying eagles began to disappear due to the effects of DDT. Their young did not hatch.

I was reading Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring at this time and I showed it to my husband. His reaction was visceral. He had to do something about it. He marched down to city hall and asked that the DDT program be stopped in our city park. When it was not stopped, he brought experts to explain. City hall countered by bringing agriculture department experts. This went on for three years before he convinced city hall to stop the DDT program. Then people from a neighboring city came and asked how he had managed to get DDT stopped. Together they formed the Michigan Pesticides Council. We met at M.S.U. with Dr. Ted Black, Dr. George Wallace, Dr. Howard Tanner, Joan Wolfe and others. We marshaled citizen support. Other groups joined in and by 1972, DDT was banned in Michigan.

It took many years for DDT to purge from Lake Michigan, but in recent years we have seen bald eagles along the beaches and the Grand River that flows through Grand Haven, Michigan. Even the peregrine falcons and ospreys that were also once decimated by DDT have returned.

The Return of the Eagle

Read about the return of the American Bald Eagle to the shores of the Great Lakes in my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes

Banning DDT was responsible for their return. I often see them near the shores of Lake Michigan. It is illegal to shoot them.

http://www.publishamerica.net/product23502.html Where to order an updated copy of The Dynamic Great Lakes.