11 MILLION LITRES A DAY: THE TAR SANDS' LEAKING LEGACY

For the first time, this report, from Environmental Defense, uses industry information to arrive at a conservative estimate of what the overall leakage from the tar sands tailings ponds is today and also what it would likely be if proposed projects go ahead. The results are staggering....

DROUGHT AND DEFORESTATION ACCOMPLICES OF GLOBAL WARMING

Check it out here!

SUN, WIND & WATER BEAT BIOFUELS, NUCLEAR AND COAL FOR CLEAN ENERGY

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(Credit: LM Glasfiber)

HUMAN DEBRIS CAUSES MASSIVE HARM TO MARINE LIFE - GREENPEACE

The hurt we continue to inflict on the natural world has sunk to new depths, as our filth fills up the seven seas. Read more here.

Plight of the Humble Bee. Canadian regulators refuse to protect a priceless pollinator from a known toxin.

by Larry Powell

A honeybee forages on a flower. A PinP photo.  

The crop chemical, clothianidin, approved almost five years ago by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, has since been found to be "highly toxic to the honeybee, apis mellifera." Despite knowing this for at least four years, the PMRA, a division of Health Canada, has kept the product's temporary license in place. So it continues to be used. 

Clothianidin is a member of the chemical family, neonicitanoids, used, among other things, to treat canola seed to ward off flea beetles. Another "family member," imadacloprid, has been used in Canada for more than 25 years. 

Bees are dying from toxic chemicals and the feds won't save them.

In 2004, the PMRA and its American counterpart, the Environmental Protection Agency, jointly reviewed data on clothianidin. In addition to their conclusion of high toxicity, they found that other studies, which  found the product had "no significant impact," had been "deficient in design." 

Despite all of this, a PMRA regulatory officer, Iulia Popa, insists in email exchanges with this writer, beginning last September, there had been "rigorous pre-market evaluation processes. The current scientific consensus is that residues of neonicitanoids do not pose a serious threat to honey bees or other pollinators." 

Addressing this apparent contradiction, Ms. Popa explains, the PMRA also considered the amount of chemical the bees are subjected to. If used in spray form, concentrations might be a problem. But, "as a seed treatment (the registered use in Canada), concentrations are not likely to cause acute mortality or other short-term effects." 

But the 2004 report sounds another cautionary note. "Questions remain about the possibility of long-term effects on honey bee colonies. A chronic, multigenerational field study has been requested to clarify this risk." 

In recent years, honeybees have been vanishing in huge numbers, around the world. 

Authorities have dubbed this phenomenon, "Colony Collapse Disorder." They paint CCD as an extremely complex problem, because it may be caused by mites, parasites, viruses, malnutrition, stress, pesticides, lack of biodiversity, or a combination of some or all of these. 

Scientists and researchers far and wide have gone into overdrive, trying to solve the “mystery.” But, of all the many studies into this, those that do not implicate pesticides are rare. Last spring, Germany's Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food, suspended use of neonicitanoids, until further notice. The move followed a huge die-off of honeybees in Germany where clothianidin had been sprayed. Up to two-thirds of the colonies in one region were lost. Tests showed the chemical present in the bodies of many dead bees. 

France, Italy and Slovenia have now imposed suspensions similar to Germany's. 

In North America, however, it's a starkly different story. 

South of the border, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authorized the use of neonicitanoids about four years ago. This fall, a major U.S. environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, took the EPA to court to force it to publicly release studies, which may shed more light on their effects on honeybees. 

But some of those studies are already on the Agency's website. They are similar to the ones referred to earlier, but go into more detail. One reads, "Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees on an acute contact basis. It has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators, through the translocation of clothianidin residues in nectar and pollen. “In honey bees, the effects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal &/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects in the queen." 

Despite all of this, the EPA insists there's still not enough evidence to ban these products. In a news release this summer, entitled "EPA Acts to Protect Bees," it claims the incident in Germany doesn't fit the profile of Colony Collapse Disorder. For example, in typical cases of CCD, bees just disappear. In the German case, the bodies were found. The EPA also notes that the formulation in question did not contain a polymer coating, which keeps the chemical stuck to the seed. 

The Agency promises, if more information comes to light, to "examine our practices with respect to label requirements for seed treatment pesticides," 

Scientific consensus? 

Meanwhile, the internet is full of articles by credible scientists, implicating these products in the deaths of honeybees. For example, in the spring of last year, an article called "Requiem for the Honeybee" appeared online with the subtitle, "Neonicotinoid insecticides are harmful to the honeybee!" It goes on to say, flatly, widespread applications of the neonicotinoids are "highly toxic to insects including bees at very low concentrations." 

The author, Prof. Joe Cummins, is a geneticist at the University of Western Ontario and an adviser to the international, non-profit, "Institute of Science in Society." 

Unlike the EPA, which believes the chemicals have not played a role in CCD, Cummins writes,"A team of scientist led by the National Institute of Beekeeping in Bologna, Italy, found that pollen obtained from seeds dressed with imidacloprid contains significant levels of the insesticide, and suggested that the polluted pollen was one of the main causes of honeybee colony collapse." 

Not only does the PMRA continue to license the chemicals in question, it approved a similar product "Movento" (another Bayer product) just this summer. It is suspected of having the same effects! For example, the headline in the October 9th edition of the Manitoba farm paper, Co-operator reads, reads, "New systemic insecticide (Movento) worries beekeepers." Earlier this year, the Co-operator reported that commercial honey producers in Canada lost over a third of their colonies last winter! 

Beekeepers in Atlantic Canada, where the neonicitinoids are used on potato crops, are among the hardest hit by these losses in Canada, so far. 

Honeybees – a History. 

Honeybees appeared on earth more than 100 million years ago. 

For centuries, beekeepers have known their value as makers of honey, the world's first sweetener that never spoils. It has even been found in Egyptian tombs. 

Honeybees are the world's best pollinators of food crops, ranging from apples to blueberries to cucumbers. 

Without them, these plants would simply not produce. It is believed that fully one third of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by insects, mostly honey bees. 

As the bees fly from flower to flower, gathering nectar, pollen sticks to their legs and is then deposited on other plants. The fertilization cycle is thus completed. 

While figures for Canada are not immediately available, the US Department of Agriculture estimates the products bees produce there are worth $15 billion dollars a year. 

Recently, the annual Earthwatch debate in the UK actually voted the bee the most valuable species on the planet. In the words of one debater there, Dr. George McGavin of Oxford University, “Bees are irreplaceable. Their loss will be catastrophic.” 

Lake of the Prairies – The New Lake Winnipeg?

New Report Expresses Water Quality Concerns - by Larry Powell

"Clean, potable drinking water is critical for human life and, therefore, a necessity for prosperous, sustainable communities." - Shell River State of the Watershed Report - 2008

A study of western Manitoba’s Shell River watershed points to the buildup of nutrients as the most serious water quality problem in the region.
The 2008 "State of the Watershed" report by the Lake of the Prairies Conservation District is a report card on the health of our surface and ground water.
Its verdict? It could be better!

Autumn in the Shell Valley - photos by L.P.

The Shell River rises in the Duck Mountains and meanders southward for almost 80 kilometers before emptying into the Lake of the Prairies at Asessippi Park.
The watershed stretches well into Saskatchewan. In Manitoba, it covers almost 3,000 km2, and includes parts of the Duck and Riding Mountain Parks, and the communities of Roblin, Inglis and San Clara.
The study by technical experts, says farming and other activities are adding excess sediments and nutrients to waterways in the region.
These nutrients cause harmful, sometimes toxic algae to grow, robbing those waterways of oxygen and killing fish in both summer and winter.
Mucky green messes caused by algal blooms are often seen in the Shellmouth Reservoir in late summer and early fall.
The report calls the buildup of these nutrients, especially phosphorous, the most critical water quality issue in the region.
But there are others.
People are channeling or trenching waterways to improve drainage.
This increases both the speed and volume of water in them.
Erosion of the banks and even more rapid movement of nutrients and sediment are the result.
The report’s authors express concern that human activity is damaging or destroying “riparian areas.” These are natural buffers like trees along the shorelines that protect waterways and provide wildlife habitat.
Governments have long encouraged farmers to preserve such riparian cover and keep livestock back from the edges. (Manitoba even offers tax breaks to farmers who do this.)

A common sight. (r. & below) Trees bulldozed around waterways - Livestock with easy access. Banks slumping. Cattle manure washing in, reducing water quality, not only for humans, but for the cattle themselves.

Photo (r.) courtesy the Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District.

Photo by l.p.
Despite programs such as the Riparian Tax Credit, the report estimates that at least 30 kilometers of riparian areas in the watershed are at risk of erosion. Streams flowing through cropland are of special concern.

Test Results Are Revealing

Tests for pesticides and bacteria show these to be mostly within provincial drinking water quality guidelines.
Silt and suspended solids were occasionally higher than the guidelines.
Levels of dissolved salts and minerals, like calcium and sodium, often exceeded objectives for irrigation. The report suggests both industrial and municipal discharges can adversely affect such levels.
Iron and manganese, which can give water an unpleasant taste and colour, were found to be consistently above recommended levels in both the Shell and Assiniboine Rivers.
But the most troublesome finding has to do with nitrogen and phosphorous, mostly the latter.
Phosphorous is a common nutrient in sewage and livestock waste. Once it gets into waterways, it promotes the growth of algae.
Tests show phosphorous levels in the Shell River watershed consistently violate Manitoba’s guidelines for drinking water quality.
Ironically, people are destroying natural features of the landscape that could improve the nutrient problem. The report finds that people are draining wetlands “without regard to negative ecological consequences.”
A study by Ducks Unlimited, quoted in the report, suggests up to 70% of wetlands in the watershed have been either lost or degraded since 1968.
Wetlands act as nutrient “sinks.” They filter out up to 90% of sediment, nutrients and bacteria from receiving waters.
They also allow water to percolate through soils, recharge groundwater supplies and buffer the impact of both floods and droughts, by capturing water and releasing it slowly.
Yet drainage and infilling continue to damage these wetlands.

Groundwater Also Vulnerable

But surface waters aren’t the only concern in the report.
Bacteria that indicate the possibility of contamination from the surface are commonly found in private water wells.
The serious kind, E.coli, was found in 6% of water samples taken. E.coli can be found in human and animal feces.
The study warns that water from almost all of the public drinking water sources within the watershed, while safe to drink, are at “high or moderate” risk of pollution.
Places falling into this category include Inglis, Asessippi Park and East Blue Lake in Duck Mountain Park.
The appearance of some public groundwater sources is also being affected.
For example, the public water supplies of Ricker's Campground on Lake of the Prairies, as well as the Towns of Roblin and Inglis, exceed the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Aesthetics for factors such as manganese, hardness, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

Wildlife

The report goes on to say, several species of birds, fish and plants face an uncertain future in this area. That’s because their habitat is being lost more quickly than it is being restored.

Spragues’ Pipit (l.)is one of the species in the Shell River Watershed at risk. (Photo courtesy GoogleImages.)

Recommendations

The report calls for several steps to be taken to improve the situation. Among them;

• No more net loss of sloughs, wetlands or potholes.
• Neglected, abandoned or unused wells should be sealed because they can act as a direct pathway for contaminants from the surface.
• New drainage projects should be done using Best Management Practices, with careful regard for the environment,.
• Solve the lack of long-term planning by creating a watershed-wide Surface Water Management Plan.

The Conservation District will hold public meetings on the report in Roblin and Inglis next week.

Future Hog Barn Development Will Be Less "Extreme." Minister

ROBLIN, MB. Oct. 20-'08 by Larry Powell

Manitoba's Conservation Minister, Stan Struthers, promises that past mistakes in the way factory hog barns have grown up in parts of the province, will not be repeated elsewhere.
Struthers makes the remarks in an interview with "Paths Less Travelled" today.
(Struthers Photo Courtesy Gov of MB)
In the face of sustained and sometimes vicious opposition from the hog lobby,
Struthers (also the Minister responsible for the environment) recently piloted a law through the provincial legislature, freezing the development of new factory hog barns in three areas of the province; the Interlake, the Red River Valley and the southeast.
But new ones will still be allowed in the rest of the province!
In that regard, Struthers has reassuring words for people in these areas (like myself) who might fear they will be adversely affected by new barns.
He says a working group will bring recommendations back to him that will address such things as spread fields, nutrient levels and the ability of crops to take up those nutrients from the soil.
Environmentalists and others have complained in the past that too much slurry (the waste from millions of hogs in these barns), has been applied too heavily as fertilizer on "spread fields," where crops like corn or forage are typically grown.
This practice creates as excess of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. These then build up in the soil and wash off into rivers, streams and lakes, notably Lake Winnipeg.
There, they promote the growth of algae which deprives waterways of oxygen. (Lake Winnipeg is one of the world's largest fresh-water lakes with one of the biggest drainage areas.)
At least one scientist said recently, Lake Winnipeg is in danger of becoming a "dead zone,"in which waterways become so polluted they choke out all important aquatic life, including fish.
Several huge dead zones already exist in many parts of the world. And, they're growing. Fed by things like synthetic farm fertilizers, livestock, industrial and human waste, they wipe out commercial fisheries and often provide homes for nothing more than jellyfish!
Struthers referred to the many pig factories that have sprung up around La Broquerie and Hanover in the southeast over the past several years, for example, as "extreme."
But he believes many existing big barns in such locations will now start installing state-of-the art sewage treatment plans, even better than some already in use in urban centres. He says they will have to make such improvements, if they want to expand those facilities.
He also thinks more and more companies will harness the methane from their own operations to generate power and thus keep their costs down.
And he hints that improvements proposed in a report of the Clean Environment Commission, (into hog industry "sustainability") will be incorporated into the report from his working group. That, he says, will mean that the mistakes of the past, will not be repeated.
Big changes could also be on the way in the process surrounding future project approvals, the Minister hints.
Technical Review Committees have gained the reputation of being rubber stamps for barn applications in the past.
Struthers says those committees have been "worse than rubber stamps. They have simply rammed projects through!"
The Minister also suggests ways must be found to take the pressure off smaller farmers, the kind exerted by the big industrial-style barns, so they can continue to survive. He suggests organic farming could be a solution.
Struthers believes the trend toward the large factory-style hog barns began several years ago, when the previous Tory government did away with the Hog Marketing Board.
He confesses he would have liked the subsequent NDP government to have held a vote, to decide whether farmers wanted it back. No vote was ever held.
Struthers did not say when the working group will get back to him with recommendations on the future course of hog industry development. But, as he puts it, "The sooner, the better."
====================
Footnote: I believe Stan Struthers and his government ought to be congratulated. He navigated the "moratorium bill" (the one which put a hold on hog barn construction in 3 areas of the province already saturated by them) through the Legislature under tremendous, often frenetic pressure from the hog lobby, represented by the Manitoba Pork Council. The Council, already the recipient of mounds of "corporate welfare" from all levels of government, continues to howl that it has been "picked on" & that it is not really to blame for pollution problems associated with its industry.
Manitoba's hog population has ballooned from about 2 million in 1990 to more than 9 million today!
As the Minister himself puts it, "How much is enough?"
Having said all that, I believe the real test of government sincerity will unfold down the road. If the hog industry is allowed to "saturate" the rest of the province, as it has already done in the 3 areas mentioned, (also under the watch of Struther's government) before being reigned in again, good will for this government, at least in my circle of friends, acquaintances and others who actually value the quality of our land, air and water, will quickly evaporate. L.P.