Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Pollution problems could creep west

Paula DelGiudice

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at PDelGiudice@compuserve.com.

We take a lot for granted here in the West. With relatively few exceptions, we have clear blue skies and clean, clear waters free from pollution. We can catch our fish and feel safe eating them.

My family just returned from nine days of vacation in Michigan -- where that isn't the case.

You might say that if they pollute their own waters then they deserve what they get. But in many cases the pollution is a by-product of energy production west of the state.

Michigan is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Lake Michigan is the centerpiece of the state's beautiful waterways. We spent several days exploring several of them, as well as the Lake Michigan shoreline, where we hiked the sand dunes, swam, and enjoyed the shade of the maple, oak and beech trees (and all of the creatures that inhabit the forest, such as frogs and a downy woodpecker).

We even spent a day with friends from Las Vegas, Tom and Dawn Dudas, who along with their children were recreating the summer vacations of Tom's childhood in South Haven.

We canoed small ponds in the eastern part of the state when our travels took us to Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan Wolverines -- Go Blue!). Son Kevin took his first fly casting lessons there and loved the sport.

One day was spent driving into Windsor, Ontario, and then cruising the Detroit River. It was pretty much a water-centered vacation getaway -- a nice break from the 110 degree-plus temps here in Las Vegas and the half-year of no measurable precipitation.

Yet for all the resources Michigan has, and as clean as most of its waterways appear, the statistics tell a much different story.

Dangerous chemicals are being deposited in Michigan waters, causing concern for the health of sportsmen and women who eat their catch and those who use the fish for subsistence. The Department of Natural Resources in Michigan publishes a fish consumption advisory booklet. The list of tainted waters is longer than the entire fishing regulations brochure published by the Nevada Division of Wildlife.

PCBs, dioxin and pesticides are found in the fish in many waters, but it is the occurrence of mercury that is most widespread. The advisory for mercury in inland lakes reads, "No one should eat more than one meal a week of these kinds and sizes of fish from any of Michigan's inland lakes: rock bass, perch or crappie over 9 inches in length; any size largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike or muskie. Women of childbearing age and children under age 15 should not eat more than one meal per month of these fish."

The sad part about Michigan's polluted fish is that much of the mercury deposited in the state's waterways comes from the emissions of coal-fired power plants, incinerators and manufacturers of chlorine and caustic soda. The emissions are carried by clouds and deposited in the form of rain.

The concentrations of mercury measured in large cities in the upper Midwest are staggering. The rate in Detroit rains measures 65 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency's safe level; Chicago's is 41 times higher. We might expect those large cities to have polluted rainfall, but studies show that more remote locations are also at risk from polluted rain.

Mercury is a neurotoxin. Infants exposed to elevated levels of methylmercury often show greater signs of intoxication than the mother, with effects including cerebral palsy, mental retardation and delayed walking and speech. It is estimated that as many as 3 million U.S. children have elevated blood mercury levels, as was reported in the National Wildlife Federation's "Clean the Rain, Clean the Lakes" report.

Mercury also has a wide range of harmful effects on wildlife, including reducing the hatching success of common loons, mallard ducks and common terns inhabiting a contaminated system. Growth in trout is inhibited.

The results of these studies are the antithesis of what has always been a core belief: The rain would always clean the waters, providing relief and dilution from the contamination thrust upon it. We now know that's not true.

With this realization comes the knowledge that much of the power we depend upon in the West is from coal-fire power plants. The mercury emissions are causing pollution downwind of the pollution we create for our huge power needs here in the Southwest. Therefore, it's not someone else's problem. It's ours too.

After leaving Lake Michigan behind in Chicago as we headed for home last Sunday, we decided to drive by the major ballparks in the city -- just to say we'd been there. We had seen the old and new Detroit Tigers parks while in that city and were anxious to see Wrigley Field in Chicago. We ended up in a queue headed for a matchup between the Cubs and the Reds.

We drove by the park taking pictures, and even heard the singing of our national anthem from the stadium. We thought about changing our airline tickets for another flight and staying for the game, but work commitments beckoned.

We left behind a beautiful part of our country. But it's one that needs our help if it's going to stay that way.