When one thinks "wildlife refuge," one doesn't usually picture a Superfund site. Yet the Aberdeen Proving Ground is both. This former military installation in Maryland, where the Army once trained for chemical warfare, harbors a toxic stockpile of World War II-era mustard gas, threatening local neighborhoods through contaminated soil and tainted groundwater.
As the military continues efforts to clean it up, wildlife, including bald eagles, have made the site their home. It's an incongruous connection - yet military lands here and elsewhere have become some of the nation's most important havens for threatened plants and animals.
CEJ Director Len Ackland learned more about Aberdeen and similar sites on a field trip during the 12th annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference, held in Baltimore Oct. 9-13. Ackland's tour was one of several up-close excursions organized for journalists, in addition to an array of panels on key environmental issues. The Aberdeen visit, entitled "Hold the Mustard: Greening of the Military," was co-hosted by former Ted Scripps Fellow Dave Mayfield ('00-'01) of the Norfolk Virginian Pilot, where he covered military issues before his fellowship.
This year's Ted Scripps Fellows joined Ackland, CEJ staff members Tom Yulsman and Wendy Redal, and two CU environmental journalism master's students for five intensive days in and around Baltimore. While Redal studied the near-demise of the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery on a journey to the EasternShore, Fellow John Flesher and MA student Josh Blumenfeld learned more about another body of water in peril: Washington, D.C.'s polluted Anacostia River, which they explored from canoes.
Flesher, an AP correspondent based in Traverse City, Mich., said the Anacostia offered "a cautionary tale for those who fail to protect rivers from storm sewer and agricultural runoff - a matter of concern in my stomping ground of northern Michigan."
Other field trips visited British Petroleum Solar's manufacturing facility, redeveloped industrial "brownfields" sites and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where scientists are working to reduce the U.S. food supply's "environmental footprint" through such developments as technologies to treat dairy manure and keep hormones in livestock waste from entering streams.
At conference headquarters in the Wyndham Hotel, journalists examined a broad range of environmental subjects. Panels and roundtable meals allowed for lively, sometimes heated, conversation between participants and presenters.
Fellow Elizabeth Bluemink, who covers environmental health issues for the Anniston (Ala.) Star, said the conference sessions she attended "were packed with vigorous debates about topics such as particulate pollution, cancer clusters and global trade. It was stimulating to sit and talk with other journalists who deal with similar issues."
A keynote event at the conference was a spirited exchange between two key members of Congress and President George W. Bush's top environmental advisor about politics and policy, especially with regard to energy, in the post-9/11 era.
Other sessions focused on the craft of environmental reporting, including "blind spots" on the beat, better ways to pitch stories to editors and ways to make complex science accessible and intriguing.
Yet the conference wasn't all serious study: CEJ staff, Scripps Fellows and former fellows met for beer and crab cakes at a couple of local watering holes, indulged in cannoli and cappuccino in Baltimore's Little Italy and discovered the impressively rejuvenated Inner Harbor by water taxi. An evening reception hosted by SEJ at the Baltimore Aquarium was also a highlight, as conference participants listened to a live jazz combo and marveled at seahorses, sharks and myriad creatures of the deep in spectacular aquatic settings.
Friday, November 1, 2002
A Trip Down Washington's "Forgotten River"
By Josh Blumenfeld
The weather was appropriate for a trip down one of the most polluted rivers in America, and a steady drizzle fell from a gunmetal sky.
The temperature hovered in the 60s as we arrived at the Bladensburg public boat ramp near the Maryland - Washington, D.C., border for a five-mile canoe trip down the Anacostia River toward its meeting with the Potomac.
This trip was one of several field excursions planned for the first day of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting in Baltimore, Md., October 9 - 13. Our group was composed of about two dozen journalists from across the nation, and we huddled at the water's edge for a briefing before hitting the water.
Our guides down the river were Robert Boone, founder and president of the Anacostia Watershed Society, and Jim Connolly, director of the Anacostia Watershed Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the Anacostia River.
Along the way, we were joined by David Baron, an attorney with Earthjustice, and Bob Nixon, founder and executive director of the Earth Conservation Corps. These two organizations also have worked to stem the degradation of what was once one of the most important trading rivers in colonial America.
Native Americans were living at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers long before European settlers arrived in 1608. According to the Anacostia Watershed Toxics Alliance, the name Anacostia is derived from the Native American term anaquash, which means "trading center."
Four hundred years of clear-cutting, development, sewage, and sedimentation led to the virtual death of the Anacostia. By the 1980s, the river was choked with garbage and raw sewage, and many of the remaining native plants and animals were contaminated with PCBs and chlordane.
Unlike the Potomac River, which has received more than $5 billion worth of clean-up funds over the past four decades, according to figures compiled by the Earth Conservation Corps, the Anacostia has been Washington's "forgotten river." This is partly due to the fact that the Anacostia flows through some of the poorest neighborhoods in the District of Columbia.
As we paddled down the slow tidal current, Bob and Jim described some of the work done to restore the river.
Since the late 1980s, Anacostia Watershed Society volunteers have removed more than 400 tons of debris and more than 10,000 tires from the river. Tens of thousands of trees have been planted, and improvements to sewage and storm drains have significantly reduced the amount of waste entering the river.
In the 1990s, the Earth Conservation Corps began an ambitious project to reintroduce bald eagles to the Anacostia. Under the direction of Bob Nixon, executive director of the Earth Conservation Corps, a small group of inner city youth devoted several years to cleaning the river and creating suitable eagle habitat.
The first eagles were released in the mid-1990s, and today almost a dozen bald eagles once again reside in the nation's capital.
However, the bald eagle reintroduction came at a high price. Several members of the Earth Conservation Corps were killed in gang-related violence during the project. Some of the released eagles bear the names of the dead youth - "Tink," "Bennie," and "Darrell."
After three hours of paddling we pulled off onto a side tributary for lunch at the Kenilworth Marsh and Aquatic Gardens. "Don't touch your mouth, wipe your nose, or rub your eyes before washing your hands thoroughly," we were admonished, a reminder that the river is still a long way from being free of sewage and other toxic substances.
Over lunch, Bob Boone described some of the problems he encountered when he first ventured into the neighborhoods along the Anacostia to solicit volunteers for his clean-up efforts.
"Being white, I wasn't too welcome at first," he said. "But, once the residents and community leaders saw that our mission was to clean the river, they came around."
Today the Anacostia Watershed Society relies on thousands of local volunteers for its clean-up efforts and has a strong working relationship with the community.
Almost 200 bird species call the Anacostia home, and great blue herons and egrets stalked the river's edge while ducks, gulls, terns, and kingfishers floated and flew between the banks. We finally saw one of the bald eagles as we paddled past the National Arboretum after lunch.
Just before the take-out point at Anacostia Park near RFK Stadium, we paused to look at one of the reasons for the Anacostia's troubles. Recessed into the bank behind some scraggly bushes was a large concrete opening. The concrete around the opening was chipped and weathered, but the large red warning sign over the opening was still quite fresh.
This was one of several sewage overflow openings that line the Anacostia and through which stormwater and raw sewage are flushed into the river during periods of heavy rain.
While improvements have been made to the Maryland and District of Columbia sewage and runoff systems, the water of the Anacostia still has high concentrations of fecal-coliform bacteria and other wastes.
By the time we reached the Anacostia Park take-out point next to Pennsylvania Avenue, the rain had stopped and a weak sun was fighting through the clouds. Over the past six hours we had covered five miles, almost 85 percent of the Anacostia River's navigable length. As we took our canoes out of the river, we also took out mounds of trash we had collected -- our small contribution to the on-going restoration of America's "forgotten river."
Josh Blumenfeld is a Master's student in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The weather was appropriate for a trip down one of the most polluted rivers in America, and a steady drizzle fell from a gunmetal sky.
The temperature hovered in the 60s as we arrived at the Bladensburg public boat ramp near the Maryland - Washington, D.C., border for a five-mile canoe trip down the Anacostia River toward its meeting with the Potomac.
This trip was one of several field excursions planned for the first day of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting in Baltimore, Md., October 9 - 13. Our group was composed of about two dozen journalists from across the nation, and we huddled at the water's edge for a briefing before hitting the water.
Our guides down the river were Robert Boone, founder and president of the Anacostia Watershed Society, and Jim Connolly, director of the Anacostia Watershed Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the Anacostia River.
Along the way, we were joined by David Baron, an attorney with Earthjustice, and Bob Nixon, founder and executive director of the Earth Conservation Corps. These two organizations also have worked to stem the degradation of what was once one of the most important trading rivers in colonial America.
Native Americans were living at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers long before European settlers arrived in 1608. According to the Anacostia Watershed Toxics Alliance, the name Anacostia is derived from the Native American term anaquash, which means "trading center."
Four hundred years of clear-cutting, development, sewage, and sedimentation led to the virtual death of the Anacostia. By the 1980s, the river was choked with garbage and raw sewage, and many of the remaining native plants and animals were contaminated with PCBs and chlordane.
Unlike the Potomac River, which has received more than $5 billion worth of clean-up funds over the past four decades, according to figures compiled by the Earth Conservation Corps, the Anacostia has been Washington's "forgotten river." This is partly due to the fact that the Anacostia flows through some of the poorest neighborhoods in the District of Columbia.
As we paddled down the slow tidal current, Bob and Jim described some of the work done to restore the river.
Since the late 1980s, Anacostia Watershed Society volunteers have removed more than 400 tons of debris and more than 10,000 tires from the river. Tens of thousands of trees have been planted, and improvements to sewage and storm drains have significantly reduced the amount of waste entering the river.
In the 1990s, the Earth Conservation Corps began an ambitious project to reintroduce bald eagles to the Anacostia. Under the direction of Bob Nixon, executive director of the Earth Conservation Corps, a small group of inner city youth devoted several years to cleaning the river and creating suitable eagle habitat.
The first eagles were released in the mid-1990s, and today almost a dozen bald eagles once again reside in the nation's capital.
However, the bald eagle reintroduction came at a high price. Several members of the Earth Conservation Corps were killed in gang-related violence during the project. Some of the released eagles bear the names of the dead youth - "Tink," "Bennie," and "Darrell."
After three hours of paddling we pulled off onto a side tributary for lunch at the Kenilworth Marsh and Aquatic Gardens. "Don't touch your mouth, wipe your nose, or rub your eyes before washing your hands thoroughly," we were admonished, a reminder that the river is still a long way from being free of sewage and other toxic substances.
Over lunch, Bob Boone described some of the problems he encountered when he first ventured into the neighborhoods along the Anacostia to solicit volunteers for his clean-up efforts.
"Being white, I wasn't too welcome at first," he said. "But, once the residents and community leaders saw that our mission was to clean the river, they came around."
Today the Anacostia Watershed Society relies on thousands of local volunteers for its clean-up efforts and has a strong working relationship with the community.
Almost 200 bird species call the Anacostia home, and great blue herons and egrets stalked the river's edge while ducks, gulls, terns, and kingfishers floated and flew between the banks. We finally saw one of the bald eagles as we paddled past the National Arboretum after lunch.
Just before the take-out point at Anacostia Park near RFK Stadium, we paused to look at one of the reasons for the Anacostia's troubles. Recessed into the bank behind some scraggly bushes was a large concrete opening. The concrete around the opening was chipped and weathered, but the large red warning sign over the opening was still quite fresh.
This was one of several sewage overflow openings that line the Anacostia and through which stormwater and raw sewage are flushed into the river during periods of heavy rain.
While improvements have been made to the Maryland and District of Columbia sewage and runoff systems, the water of the Anacostia still has high concentrations of fecal-coliform bacteria and other wastes.
By the time we reached the Anacostia Park take-out point next to Pennsylvania Avenue, the rain had stopped and a weak sun was fighting through the clouds. Over the past six hours we had covered five miles, almost 85 percent of the Anacostia River's navigable length. As we took our canoes out of the river, we also took out mounds of trash we had collected -- our small contribution to the on-going restoration of America's "forgotten river."
Josh Blumenfeld is a Master's student in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Lawyers say Activist Judges are Undoing Environmental Protections
By Kathleen O'Neil
Several Supreme Court judges have recently narrowed their interpretation of important environmental laws that had allowed federal agencies to protect disappearing habitats and species. One such decision has left federal agencies unable to protect wetlands, as they had for 30 years, and no new law is in sight to restore those protections.
A panel of lawyers discussed the trend Oct. 12 at the Society of Environmental Journalists 12th Annual Conference in Baltimore. They said while some states- and landowner-rights activists applaud the new interpretations, the change could have a big impact on at-risk species.
"Little-known decisions have put environmental regulatory protection of wetlands and endangered species at risk through court activism," said Eric Glitzenstein, an environmental attorney based in Washington, D.C. "Extreme conservatives who get that chance are trying to re-make the law," he said.
Judges engage in activism when they strike out in a new direction in interpreting laws passed by Congress, something liberal judges have traditionally been accused of using to broaden environmental laws, he said. But several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions are reversing that.
Steve Nickelsburg, also an attorney for a D.C. law firm, explained that many environmental protections evolved from a clause in the U.S. Constitution that grants Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce. Since pollution, habitats and animals do not recognize state boundaries, and have economic implications, the federal government's right to regulate and protect them has usually fallen under this clause, he said.
Federal protections for wetlands, for instance, were established in 1972 as part of the Army Corps of Engineers' right to control dredging and filling of navigable waters in addition to the Environmental Protection Agency's wetland protections under the Clean Water Act.
"Over the last 25 years, the Corps and the EPA expanded it to cover areas further and further upstream," Nickelsburg said. However, a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling last year invalidated the Corps's authority to protect isolated, non-navigable waters and wetlands used by migratory birds.
"The court said Congress didn't intend to protect migratory birds," Nickelsburg said. The recent decision allows the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) to fill more than 200 small ponds and lakes to create a large municipal landfill, according to a National Resources Defense Council report to which Glitzenstein contributed.
The court's decision indicates that Congress should create a specific wetlands protection statute, instead of leaving wetlands under the Clean Water Act's protection of navigatable waters, Nickelsburg said.
Glitzenstien said he and other environmentalists are very concerned about the long-lasting, permanent effects the new interpretation will have on wetlands throughout the country.
"As a result of this Supreme Court decision, we are losing thousands and thousands of acres of wetlands," he said, since no state regulations are being created to take over their protection.
The Supreme Court is also scheduled to hear a similar case this year that may indicate the court's intent to also cut back on the Clean Water Act's protections, according to Steve Quarles, an environmental attorney practicing in Washington, D.C.
"Much of our law is not specific enough to not allow extensive judicial interpretation," Quarles said, but added he doesn't think there is enough political support now to create stronger environmental laws, because landowners don't want to have to restrict development or make modifications at their own cost to protect species.
"The federal government doesn't want to coerce landowners to save habitat," Quarles said. "The only other choice you have is to pay for it, with a dedicated source of funds to protects those lands and those species."
Patrick Parenteau, professor of environmental law at the University of Vermont Law School, agrees there is little political support for a new national wetlands law or even new state laws.
"Thirty-five states have no laws protecting wetlands; 15 states do have them. The ones that don't want to pass them haven't," Parenteau said. Of the nation's 105 million acres of wetlands, 60 percent could fall under the SWANCC decision as isolated waters that are no longer protected, he said.
The best alternative, said Glitzenstein, is to educate people about judicial activism and to encourage them to participate in elections of judges.
"Judges can be from many backgrounds, but their alignment with a particular ideology - like when private property rights and maximizing profits are held more highly than other rights including community rights, or the Endangered Species Act - these are fundamental beliefs that should be debated in the open," Glizenstein said.
Kathleen O'Neil is a Master's student in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Several Supreme Court judges have recently narrowed their interpretation of important environmental laws that had allowed federal agencies to protect disappearing habitats and species. One such decision has left federal agencies unable to protect wetlands, as they had for 30 years, and no new law is in sight to restore those protections.
A panel of lawyers discussed the trend Oct. 12 at the Society of Environmental Journalists 12th Annual Conference in Baltimore. They said while some states- and landowner-rights activists applaud the new interpretations, the change could have a big impact on at-risk species.
"Little-known decisions have put environmental regulatory protection of wetlands and endangered species at risk through court activism," said Eric Glitzenstein, an environmental attorney based in Washington, D.C. "Extreme conservatives who get that chance are trying to re-make the law," he said.
Judges engage in activism when they strike out in a new direction in interpreting laws passed by Congress, something liberal judges have traditionally been accused of using to broaden environmental laws, he said. But several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions are reversing that.
Steve Nickelsburg, also an attorney for a D.C. law firm, explained that many environmental protections evolved from a clause in the U.S. Constitution that grants Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce. Since pollution, habitats and animals do not recognize state boundaries, and have economic implications, the federal government's right to regulate and protect them has usually fallen under this clause, he said.
Federal protections for wetlands, for instance, were established in 1972 as part of the Army Corps of Engineers' right to control dredging and filling of navigable waters in addition to the Environmental Protection Agency's wetland protections under the Clean Water Act.
"Over the last 25 years, the Corps and the EPA expanded it to cover areas further and further upstream," Nickelsburg said. However, a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling last year invalidated the Corps's authority to protect isolated, non-navigable waters and wetlands used by migratory birds.
"The court said Congress didn't intend to protect migratory birds," Nickelsburg said. The recent decision allows the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) to fill more than 200 small ponds and lakes to create a large municipal landfill, according to a National Resources Defense Council report to which Glitzenstein contributed.
The court's decision indicates that Congress should create a specific wetlands protection statute, instead of leaving wetlands under the Clean Water Act's protection of navigatable waters, Nickelsburg said.
Glitzenstien said he and other environmentalists are very concerned about the long-lasting, permanent effects the new interpretation will have on wetlands throughout the country.
"As a result of this Supreme Court decision, we are losing thousands and thousands of acres of wetlands," he said, since no state regulations are being created to take over their protection.
The Supreme Court is also scheduled to hear a similar case this year that may indicate the court's intent to also cut back on the Clean Water Act's protections, according to Steve Quarles, an environmental attorney practicing in Washington, D.C.
"Much of our law is not specific enough to not allow extensive judicial interpretation," Quarles said, but added he doesn't think there is enough political support now to create stronger environmental laws, because landowners don't want to have to restrict development or make modifications at their own cost to protect species.
"The federal government doesn't want to coerce landowners to save habitat," Quarles said. "The only other choice you have is to pay for it, with a dedicated source of funds to protects those lands and those species."
Patrick Parenteau, professor of environmental law at the University of Vermont Law School, agrees there is little political support for a new national wetlands law or even new state laws.
"Thirty-five states have no laws protecting wetlands; 15 states do have them. The ones that don't want to pass them haven't," Parenteau said. Of the nation's 105 million acres of wetlands, 60 percent could fall under the SWANCC decision as isolated waters that are no longer protected, he said.
The best alternative, said Glitzenstein, is to educate people about judicial activism and to encourage them to participate in elections of judges.
"Judges can be from many backgrounds, but their alignment with a particular ideology - like when private property rights and maximizing profits are held more highly than other rights including community rights, or the Endangered Species Act - these are fundamental beliefs that should be debated in the open," Glizenstein said.
Kathleen O'Neil is a Master's student in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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