I tell you, there is no end to the misadventures that are possible. We are in the midst of the annual Flight of the Miserable Little Black Helicopters. I do not know what they are, but I’d be glad to have a name to pin to them, so that I could curse them by it. They don’t bite, but they do fly about in great clouds, getting into nostrils and eyes and hair and generally making a nuisance of themselves, especially down on the beach. The other day they they made life miserable for Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and me while we were at the Torch Bay Nature Preserve. Looky here. Not dust on the lens—a battalion of bugs.
There’s a very-much-enlarged closeup of one of ’em on my hand. (If you’re really into bugs, there are more photos on Blasted bugs at the TBNP.) I think the only thing they’re good for is fish food or bird food, which I suppose is a sufficient reason for being. The Nature Preserve is full of birds, and they were in fine voice the other day, especially the red-winged blackbirds.
Then there is the issue of the Possibly Invasive Phragmites. I took some pictures of the patch that’s growing in the beach pond at the Nature Preserve. Here’s one, but you can find more on Phragmites at the TBNP beach pond.
I don’t know that we ought to be worried about such patches. I don’t know that we ought not to be worried, either. Here’s the thing. I’m pretty sure that most of the people making all the noise about the issue—there have been at least three separate presentations to the Township Board on the subject—don’t know a whole lot more than I do, and I would like to have some testimony from someone with some real expertise on the matter. There’s an interesting Forum piece in this morning’s Record-Eagle (Fear of phragmites? Patience needed) by Roger M. Knutson, a PhD in Botany. The same essay was published in fuller detail in the Charlevoix Courier. If you’re going to go to the trouble of reading it at all, I recommend the fuller version: New fear of old plants.
The entire issue is going to get a going-over in July, when the Township holds a public hearing on a proposed Special Assessment District to fund a phragmites eradication effort along the bayshore. Banks Township and Milton Township have also hared off in that direction. It isn’t clear to me that the spraying program is phragmites-specific, and I rather suspect the guiding hand of those who prefer their beaches to be deserts rather than areas of diverse vegetation and habitat. Well. As I say, I’d like to know a whole lot more about all this.
While I was at the Nature Preserve, I also took pictures of a tire dumped under the observation platform overlooking the beach pond, and of a couple of areas where the landscape has been torn up by an off-road vehicle of some kind. At the moment I’m a lot more concerned about this stuff than I am about the phragmites. Again, here’s one image; you can find more on Trash and Tracks at the TBNP.
After taking the pictures of the bugs and the phragmites and the tire tracks defiling the Nature Preserve I took myself off to Sonny’s for comforting. It worked pretty well, too, right up until Chris looked out the window and said, “Oh, they’re testing the well over there for gasoline contamination.” What???
Beginning in the 1950s there was a filling station on the property at 2748 N US 31, south of Sonny’s. Eventually the underground gasoline tanks deteriorated and leaked, thus becoming Leaking Underground Storage Tanks (LUST). The State of Michigan had a LUST remediation program in place to remove contamination from “orphaned” sites (those where the original contaminators were nowhere to be found and later owners were not to blame for the contamination). The program ran out of money in short order, as there are many, many such sites. Anyway, the leaking tanks were removed from the former filling station, but apparently the leakage itself was never cleaned up.
According to the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) website, the wells remain contaminated with: 1,2,4 TMB; 1,3,5 TMB; Benzene; Ethylbenzene; Isopropyl benzene; Methylene chloride; Naphthalene; Styrene; Toluene; Xylenes; n-Butylbenzene; n-Propylbenzene; sec-Butylbenzene. Those wells and another across the street are being monitored by AECOM, a private international engineering and environmental consulting firm with offices in Lansing, retained by the DEQ for this purpose. Several wells in Bay Harbor, about a quarter mile due west of the site, were replaced at considerable expense.
I went over and chatted with David Dryburth and John Panco, the AECOM project scientists in charge of this particular day’s testing. They put me onto the person at the DEQ who can tell me more about all this, including additional sites in the Township and in other townships around Torch Lake. I will definitely have more on all of this. I don’t believe I’ll put a pretty picture here to take your mind off it. I want your mind on it for a bit if you don’t mind.
Torch Lake Views 
Scott Thomas Photography
May 29, 2009
In places in the US, we are paying for past mistakes. Most because technology back in the 50’s and 60’s was good enough to keep toxic chemicals from leaking into the environment. Owners of old filling stations had no idea and certainly would not have the money to clean up after leaking tanks. Now, the oil companies sure do have the money but they were very careful NOT to own filling stations, weren’t they?
It is something that happens even today. Farms are another source. If fertilizers and pesticides are not correctly applied, they end up in our water systems and wells. Look up non-point pollution for more information. It will add another worry to your list of them.
Invasive plants can take over an ecosystem. It’s happening in my area where the Water Chestnut is clogging rivers and canals pushing out native species and the fish and insects that lived off them. The chestnut is not good for our native wildlife with little nutritional value. If these Phragmites are true invasives and they can be gotten before they become a huge problem, I say you should support those efforts.
As for people being stupid…alas, only the law can fix that. Complain to the proper authorities and use those photos to show them where it is happening.
Good luck! It’s a never ending battle but one that is worth the effort.
Gerry
May 29, 2009
I agree that most messes out there were made without conscious thought for the long term consequences. That’s why I liked the original LUST program. Public resources used to “Just clean it up.” Better than arguing about whose fault for sure.
The DEQ’s list of sites includes fuel oil spills from home heating tanks. We have continuing disputes in the region about cement kiln dust leacheate, residues from cherry and blueberry processing, and septage disposal. Over in Boyne City Friends of the Boyne River went to court to prevent the City from discharging effluent from its new sewage treatment plant into the river. Then there are the pharmaceuticals we flush into the water supply when we can’t even test for them.
I’m deeply conflicted over invasives in general. I just wrote two stories for local papers in which I referred to Phragmites as an “aggressive reed.” At the same time, I don’t know whether the reeds growing on our shoreline are aggressive invasives or just plain ol’ native reeds. Either way, I don’t know that we’ve made a case for a spraying program that will kill a lot of other things, too.
Um, I don’t know that the vandals who tracked up the Nature Preserve are stupid. Heedless. I’ll go with heedless.
Am I on a tear today or what? I’m on a tear. I’d just like us to stop making the same old mistakes over and over. Make new mistakes, I say.