Echo

On Golf Courses, Sensors Help Save Water

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(NY) The New York Times – In seven years of overseeing every root and blade of grass on the grounds at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., Matt Shaffer has built a reputation on innovation and conservation. An early advocate of course playability over aesthetics, he long lived by the maxim “the drier, the better.”

But when a stifling heat wave threatened the club’s greens before the 2005 United States Amateur Championship – a record 17th U.S.G.A. championship at Merion – Shaffer turned to his old boss, Paul R. Latshaw Sr., for advice. Latshaw told him there was one way he could continue to cut down water use while keeping his turf dry and as fast as a microwave: sensors. More

Echo

Suing to Stop Bottled Water From Getting a Deposit Fee

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(NY) The New York Times – A coalition of bottled water companies filed suit on Tuesday to block an expanded bottle deposit law scheduled to take effect next month, arguing that the law, which imposes a deposit fee on bottled water sold in New York State, is unconstitutional. The new law requires distributors to collect a 5-cent deposit per bottle of water, which can in turn be redeemed by consumers, provisions designed to encourage New Yorkers to recycle the billions of water bottles now thrown away each year. But companies that bottle water must affix a new universal product code label to bottles sold in New York. More

Echo

Georgia-Pacific Corp. agrees to new $13 million cleanup for Kalamazoo River Superfund site

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(MI) Kalamazoo Gazette – Georgia-Pacific Corp. has agreed to a new $13 million cleanup for the Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Allegan and Kalamazoo counties. The settlement was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court and announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific will install a landfill cap for a portion of the site, which includes an 80-mile stretch of river extending to Lake Michigan in Saugatuck, a three-mile segment of Portage Creek, closed paper mill properties and four landfills.  More

Energy

The Earth Wins One

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(NY) The New York Times – The nationwide automobile mileage and emissions standards announced by President Obama on Tuesday represent a huge step forward in the effort to limit greenhouse gases and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. They also represent a departure from the Bush administration’s indifference on these issues and an important down payment on Mr. Obama’s pledge to fashion an aggressive and imaginative energy policy. The standards, forged after weeks of negotiations orchestrated by Carol Browner, the White House coordinator on energy and environmental matters, may also mark the end of decades of wearying, unproductive legal and political combat between the automobile industry and environmentalists.  More

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‘Dangerous’ conditions at preserve

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Environmental groups are raising concerns about the restoration of Miller Meadow, contending that the site poses hazards to visitors and the environment. Specifically, they are concerned about numerous shards of broken concrete, glass, brick and metal pipes that are scattered across the site — and the erosion that is carrying debris and gray sludge, used to promote vegetation, toward the nearby Des Plaines River.  More

Echo

As Political Winds Shift, Detroit Charts New Course

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(NY) The New York Times – Why, after decades of battling, complaining and maneuvering over fuel economy standards, did carmakers fall in line behind the tough new nationwide mileage standard President Obama announced Tuesday? Because they had no choice. The auto industry is flat on its back, with Chrysler in bankruptcy, General Motors close to it, and both companies taking billions of dollars in federal money. Foreign automakers are getting help from their own governments. Climate change legislation is barreling down the track, and Congress showed last fall that it had no appetite to side with Detroit any more.

Echo

Michigan scientists push legislation to fix climate change

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – A group of 178 Michigan scientists from 11 universities have signed a letter backing legislation that would set up a national cap and trade system to curb greenhouse gases. The legislation is under discussion today in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee. More

Echo

Volunteers count crane flies in Stoney Creek

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Adam Rhein trudged through a murky branch of Stoney Creek in Washington Township in chest-high rubber waders on Tuesday and lowered a long net into the gentle water. Rhein and more than a dozen other juniors from Romeo High School joined the council’s effort to collaborate with communities, schools and businesses in order to test for pollution in the river and more than 1,000 miles of creeks. The rivers and streams meander through Oakland and Macomb counties then spill into Lake St. Clair, a major source of drinking water and recreation. More

Echo

Why songbirds stop in Toronto for a tune-up

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(ON) The Toronto Star – A magnetic formation running deep beneath Toronto might explain why songbirds head straight here on their spring migration. Instead of skirting Canada’s largest city, chirping birds by the tens of thousands hone in on the place as though following a compass. “For some reason Toronto attracts birds,” says Ralph Toninger, manager of Tommy Thompson Park, jutting into Lake Ontario south of downtown from Leslie St. More

Land

Spring opening at Isle Royale

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Ever wondered what it takes to open up a park, ever wondered why close a park? Well, Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, which is 70 miles from its mainland headquarters in Houghton, is closed to visitors from Nov. 1 to May 1 every year. This is due to the isolation factor and the severe weather and lake conditions during the long winters, which make it virtually inaccessible. The only exception is for scientists and park staff who participate in the wolf-moose study, which takes place annually from January through early March.