ACTION ALERT: Write Congress and USGS to fund studies of Susquehanna Smallmouth "Gender-Bending"!

I'm not sure if any reports have come out about this, but studies on the Susquehanna of intersex (male smallmouth with immature eggs forming in their sex organs) are very scary. According to USGS' Vicki Blazer who was one of the researchers, the amount of intersex in the Susquehanna is AT LEAST as bad as the Potomac, AND the severity is WORSE. This means that in the 150 smallmouth that they sampled in the Susquehanna nearly all showed signs of intersex and Suskie Smallmouth had more oocytes (immature eggs) than samples from any other mid-Atlantic river.

This problem has not been found in the Delaware or Allegheny systems. So we have the Potomac, Shenandoah, James, Cowpasture AND Susquehanna producing intersex smallmouth, but none in the Delaware, and only a few intersex suckers in the Allegheny. Who can tell me the difference in these systems? The most obvious difference is the amount of agriculture. Every spring, while the eggs are forming in the females, the Susquehanna gets a blast of pesticide runoff from ag. Atrazine, one of the most abundant herbicides has been shown to cause intersex in frogs in the Midwest. I'm NOT saying this is the cause, but it is certainly worth further investigation.

USGS is prepared to do more research on pre-spawn females, but their budget for this work was cut. Yesterday, I was in DC and met with staffers of 3 of our 4 MD and PA Senators, as well as 5 of our US Representatives. If we write to them and to USGS we may be able to get USGS on track. We need to get this money back into this research.

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I just got off the phone with the USGS Congressional liaison, and she said we have to ask for an earmark from Congress to specify the money needs to go to this research. The programs that should receive the money are the Toxics Substance Hydrology and/or the Chesapeake Priority Ecosystems program. We need approximately $400,000 to test the existing fish samples for a range of contaminants AND to sample the pre-spawn females and test them as well. We do this by writing the Acting Director of USGS and our US Senators and Representatives. Please copy all the parties listed below. Explain that you use the river for commercial use (guides) or recreation; you have seen the dead fish and heard that funding was "redirected"; and you need the funding to come back to find the cause and solutions to our sick rivers. You can send letters to other public officials also, but these are the main ones to focus the federal money in our direction. Here are the contacts for lower Susquehanna Senators and Representatives (perhaps Potomac, Shenandoah, and James Riverkeepers can put together a similar action alert with their US Congressmen):

For USGS write to:
Acting Director Suzette Kimball
U.S. Geological Survey
100 National Center
Reston, VA 20192

U.S. Senators (PA):
Senator Arlen Specter
Attention: Adam Tarr
711 Hart Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510

Senator Robert Casey, Jr.
Attention: Kasey Gillette
393 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

U.S. Senators (MD):
Senator Ben Cardin
Attention: Josh Klein
509 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Barbara Mikulski
Attention: Priya Ghosh Ahola
503 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

U.S. Representatives (PA):
The Honorable Todd Platts
Attention: Rebecca Wolfkiel
2455 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Timothy Holden
Attention: Liz Hermsen
2417 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Joseph Pitts
Attention: Betsy Christian
420 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Bill Schuster
Attention: Elizabeth Carter
204 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

U.S. Representatives (MD):
The Honorable Frank Kratovil
Attention: Jamie McIntyre
314 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Dutch Ruppersberger
Attention: Walter Gonzales
2453 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2002

07 APR 2009 - Factory Farms will not be allowed on prime farm soils in Peach Bottom, York County

After two hours of testimony against removing these protections from the township ordinance, an act that was nearly demanded by PA Attorney General Corbett, Peach Bottom Township Supervisors voted 2 to 0, with 1 abstention, to keep their ordinance protecting prime farm soils. Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper® made one major argument and that was that the Municipal Planning Code gave the townships authority to protect these soils because these soils must be protected to grow food for ALL future generations. You can put a hog factory anywhere, but once you develop the farm soils, they will never be the same again. Get the story here: http://www.wgal.com/news/19114491/detail.html

Be sure to read the entire York Dispatch article corresponding to this video on CAFO's & water quality in the York County area here: "Feeding Farm Regulations Tough Enough, State Says"

Townships join to challenge PA Attorney General Tom Corbett and his position that local people have NO control over sludge and factory farms polluting their communities!

Join us Monday February 9th at Noon in Harrisburg at the State Capitol Rotunda. Click here for details about Act 38 (ACRE).

Riverkeeper responds to PA Builders' Association on requiring 100 foot buffers on new construction

In response to the PA Builders' Association letter regarding stream buffers on new development, I think it is important to talk about why we need to stop fertilizers from getting into our streams; some of the ways we can remove this pollution; and the costs of the different plans for getting the fertilizers out of the water. I think this is particularly important when the Builders' Association is telling us how we should spend our tax dollars, while reducing their own costs of construction. Many groups, including some construction companies, are working to reduce pollution from many sources, and the Buffers 100 rule is another great tool for us to get the job done.

Right now taxpayers are being asked to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to stop fertilizers from getting into our creeks, the Susquehanna River, and the Chesapeake Bay... and for good reason. When these fertilizers get in the water they ruin the streams, river, and bay and make the water unlivable for fish, and crabs and oysters, costing the recreational fishing and commercial fishing industries billions of dollars.

Our tax dollars are being spent to help farmers pay for better farming practices like manure barns and stream buffers, upgrade our sewage treatment plants, promote septic system maintenance, buy trees so local volunteer groups can plant more buffers, and educate people and businesses on how to be more responsible with "cosmetic" use of fertilizers on lawns.

So everyone wants to know the cheapest way to fix the problem. Basically, new septic systems or connecting rural areas to treatment plants is most expensive. Next would be treatment plant upgrades, then better agricultural practices, including new buffers. Education is pretty cheap, but education only goes so far. Though we have to do some of each of these, the best "bang for the buck" is to keep the trees that are already there, and to add some trees as we develop areas.

Why are these trees so important? Many people look at stream buffers as a filter for what is washing off the land uphill from a stream. This is not the greatest value of stream buffers. Healthy, forested streams act like a filter that removes the extra fertilizers that have washed into our streams from farm fields, waste water treatment plants, septic systems, golf courses, suburban and commercial lawns, and, yes, construction sites (fertilizers are in the dirt at most construction sites). So here is how the trees and buffers do the job for next to nothing.

Forested streams create systems where the water is cool and the stream is shaded. This allows algae to grow at a normal rate. Plants along the stream take out some of the fertilizers. Algae in the stream also consume some of the excess fertilizers. The algae feed the bugs in the creek, and the bugs feed the fish and birds. When animals, including humans, take the fish and bugs for food, it removes the fertilizers from the water. On the other hand, streams that are open to sunlight are hot with 100% sunlight. This makes the algae grow thick so the bugs can't eat it. That ends the cycle of pollution removal and we end up with creeks, a river, and a bay that is choked with algae and other aquatic plants. If you doubt this, check out the Susquehanna this summer.

So without getting into details of how many construction sites our group, Stewards of the Lower Susquehanna, has had to report for illegal pollution; without going into the fact that New Jersey requires 300 foot buffers and we are only asking for 100; and without getting into how paving everything and developing the whole state makes a whole list of other problems; let me just repeat that "Buffers 100" is one of the cheapest ways to fix the fertilizer-pollution problem.

Michael R Helfrich
Lower Susquehanna RIVERKEEPER®

Keeping the Creek Clean

July 11, 2008

Water: Ours to Protect

"The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard

Please follow the link below to view the "The Story of Stuff", a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever – the electronics, toys, clothes, and other material goods that we in the United States use to express the meaning of the holidays and, at other times of the year, our very own personal value.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Mud in the Run: Failures at Construction Sites

Runoff from Factory Farms Makes News

• Read the New York Times Editorial article about antibiotic runoff here.
• Be sure to watch Sierra Club's animated video about factory farming practices and take action to stop the Tyson Dirty Water Bailout Bill!
• Also visit the Peach Bottom Concerned Citizens Group's website to find out how Peach Bottom citizens are fighting CAFO's.