Tuesday, January 13, 2015

FISH STICKS AND ICE dec 2014

WATERWORKS by Gordon Prickett  for the 12/3/2014 Aitkin Independent Age

TREES AND LAKES

There are some new terms that lake people are learning with the help of DNR Fisheries.  When a tree on the shoreline falls into the lake it offers a new opportunity. By leaving it in place the fallen tree provides shade and a place where a web of aquatic life can thrive.

This “Woody Habitat” is sometimes called “Woody Debris” or “Fish Sticks.” It becomes a place where a number of fish species are attracted. So the message from fish biologists is let these trees remain in the shallows. Their existing roots will hold the soil in place on shore. And you are building up your fish population. The trees and branches we leave in the water serve as a dock for turtles and kingfishers.

WALKING ON ICE

The early onset of cold weather saw the lakes freezing early. By mid November most of the Aitkin Area lakes were iced over. Without snow cover you could walk out and see the depth of cracks in the ice and look under the surface. When sunlight and temperature changes expanded or contracted the ice cover the lake began booming like a huge kettle drum. The sounds of the lake echoing around and around is one our winter pleasures.

Every year we hear warnings about the necessary thicknesses of ice for walking and skating, for driving ATVs or trucks. I like to wait until I can be certain that ice near shore is solid. With cracks and upwelling and pools of sludge, the idea of “safe ice” can be an oxymoron for snowmobiles after dark.



LOON WATCHERS Nov.2014

WATERWORKS by Gordon Prickett for the 11/5/2014 Aitkin Independent Age

LOON WATCHERS REPORT

It’s the time of year when loon surveys by volunteers are collected in Minnesota by the DNR. After a lower count of loons in 2013 on Nord Lake, our census was back up to seven adults and two chicks in July 2014. From three nesting pairs we had one juvenile loon survive into October. After instructing their young all summer it is surprising that the adult loons leave the lake in September, and the young instinctively can fly south on their own in October.

Kevin Woizeschke is the new nongame wildlife biologist in charge of the Loon Watch program. For Aitkin County he has openings for volunteer watchers on these lakes:

Cedar, Dam, Elm Island, Fleming, Ripple, and Wilkins.

BURNING GARBAGE

There was a time when many of us old timers carried out trash and garbage to a burn barrel. And we raked piles of leaves in the fall and burned them or dumped them on vacant land. Times change, and air quality and land use practices are different today.

Today’s garbage often contains plastics, dyes, and bleached paper. In the past it was mostly plain paper, wood or glass. Burning today’s garbage may seem to reduce volume, but cancer-causing toxins, heavy metals, and waste just move into the air and soil where they can enter our food and bodies. That is why burning garbage in Minnesota is illegal, since 1969.

Safe alternatives include recycling plastics, paper, and cardboard. And using garbage and solid waste facilities as well as composting.

AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES (AIS)

Applications for AIS funding from lake associations and other groups are being sought between now and January 12, 2015. The county board of commissioners adopted an AIS Plan on October 14th to use the new state funds. Activities to combat invasives include education and prevention and watercraft inspections. A local match of 20% is required.

For details about preventing and treating aquatic invasive species see Steve Hughes at the Soil and Water Office and Terry Neff, Director of Environmental Services, at the court house.



FRESH WATER Oct.2014

WATERWORKS by Gordon Prickett a monthly column for the 10/1/2014 Aitkin Independent Age

WATER AND MORE FRESH WATER

No longer in 2014 across the “Land of Sky-Blue Waters” (Minnesota), is there any talk about drought. Since the ice went out here in late April, regular rain events right up to the beginning of Fall have measured well above normal in every month at our rain gage. Six inches in May, eight in June. Four and a half in July, seven and a half in August. For three weeks in September, five inches! That’s a total thirty one inches. The normal annual precipitation for Aitkin County, according to the DNR is just under twenty nine inches. Our vegetation is lush and already Fall color intensity has never looked brighter.

Minnesota is harvesting bumper crops of corn, beans, and wheat this year, but in the Southwestern U.S. it is extremely dry and wild fires are spreading.

HOW WE MEASURE LAKE LEVELS

Over twenty lakes in Aitkin County have been selected to be in the DNR’s Lake Level Monitoring Program. At each chosen lake they install a lake level gage. Either a permanent gage is installed on a structure such as a bridge pier or dam abutment, or a temporary gage is fastened to a steel fence post and driven into the lake bed at a convenient location. Temporary lake gages are surveyed and checked by DNR crews in the Spring. Lake level gages are read by volunteers within 12 to 24 hours after a substantial rain event, and on a weekly basis.

USES OF WATER LEVEL DATA

Fluctuations of lake levels are important to document in permanent and credible public records. Lakeshore properties may be adversely affected by fluctuations causing either flooding or access problems. A lake level range of 1 foot to 2 feet each year is typical, but historically much greater fluctuations have occurred. Human activities like dams and culverts, as well as beaver activity may also affect lake levels. A ten-year graph of monitored lake levels can be found on the Lake Finder Page from the DNR website.



OIL AN WATER Jan.2015

WATERWORKS by Gordon Prickett   A monthly column for the 1/7/2015 Aitkin Independent Age

OIL AND WATER

Much ink has been used to describe what the Canadian firm Enbridge Inc. wants to do with its pipelines across Minnesota. As of December 2014 Enbridge is petitioning the Public Utilities Commission in Minnesota to allow a newly-proposed Sandpiper Pipeline Project to cross the center of Aitkin County. At first this new corridor was to transport light crude oil from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. In recent months Enbridge has added a replacement 36-inch diameter pipeline (Line 3) into the requested Sandpiper Corridor. This oil is diluted bitumen from the Athabasca Tar Sands of Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Our county commissioners are in favor of a positive decision by the Minnesota PUC, citing several millions in tax revenue from the North Dakota oil flowing through Aitkin County. Opponents testifying before the county board and the PUC refer to oil leaks and spills from Enbridge pipelines in recent times. Both the light crude oil and the heavy bitumen pose threats to Aitkin County’s rivers and wetlands when leaking from beneath the surface. Normal depth of pipe is about four feet, but when crossing the Mississippi River below Palisade, Sandpiper will tunnel down to 30 feet beneath the river bed.

Enbridge claims they operate their lines safely today and have invested in new technology and control centers to detect any interruptions. The Line 3 pipe is 46 years old and must be operated at reduced capacity on its 34-inch diameter pipe. Inspection digs are scheduled to check on its condition. When this line is replaced it will be emptied and cleaned; then left in the ground.

WHAT ABOUT REFINERIES?

Currently the heavy Canadian Oil is transported to the nearest refineries at Superior, Wisconsin, and Rosemount, Minnesota. However, the three native tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota have plans to build an oil refinery. The economics of the global oil marketplace are changing with increasing supply from North America. The price of a barrel of crude oil has been cut in half in 2014 - from $110 down to under $55 per barrel. Extracting the sand and clay from the Alberta open pits and piping light crude up to the tar pits so a diluted mixture will flow through a pipeline is costly.

Similarly, in North Dakota large quantities of water under high pressure, mixed with volatile organic compounds and quartz sand from Wisconsin sand mines, are injected in wells two miles deep to fracture or separate the tightly-bound shale and oil. Not the least of the costs for this new oil source is the production water required and the disposal and treatment of waste water.

Then there is costly “Off-shore oil,” raised from distant ocean platforms. Scientists have tracked our Common Loons from Minnesota to their winter homes in the Gulf of Mexico - the very region where the BP oil platforms exploded and leaked. The dispersants used on that fugitive oil made the harm to coastal wetlands worse than if it had sunk to the bottom. We have indications that BP’s spill may be responsible for recent lower loon counts.

Petroleum engineers can produce oil much cheaper from the vast shallow reserves in Saudi Arabia and Iran than from other global suppliers. As North America moves towards “Energy Independence” and starts producing oil and gas for export, we can begin to see the effect on some other natural resources - clean water and wildlife.