Environmental success stories need noting

Last week was the 56th observance of Earth Day, which was a Nationwide public demonstration of concern about the environment. The demonstration worked and soon politicians agreed on an environmental policy to live in harmony with nature. Along with the policy came laws such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, and regulations to support the Acts.

Whatever happened? Have the environmental ills been cured? A Scientific American Magazine article asked and answered that very question — Whatever happened?

The article covered four environmental issues that were in the National news in the 1970s: 1) the ozone hole, 2) smog, 3) acid rain, and 4) DDT.

The magazine apparently could not find the work done by some grad students at SDSU that basically asked and answered the question — Is the Big Sioux River cleaner 25 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act? First, a look back in time at the Big Sioux.

The Big Sioux was healthy and clean when James Audobun parked his boat in the mouth of the Big Sioux River in the spring of 1843 to get away from the flooded, muddy Missouri River. He wrote that the Big Sioux was “clear and full of fish.”

The Captain of the Sioux Queen, a river excursion boat out of Canton, called the river the “Silvery Sioux.” In the early 1900s, the water was clear enough that people could see the bottom.

Early fish surveys were minimal, but always found fish species that were called “clean water fish.” However, in 1967, a SDSU grad student, James Sinning, did a survey of fishes at 13 sites throughout the main channel of the Big Sioux. He found only 12 species that were mostly the kinds of fish that were tolerant of poor water quality, like common carp and black bullheads. The river fish habitat had apparently degraded.

In the early 1970s, Time Magazine published an article titled “A Look at Pollution in U. S. Rivers.” The Big Sioux was on the short list of polluted rivers. The magazine was using EPA data on river water quality.
In the 1990s, another SDSU grad student, Douglas Dieterman, wondered if the fish community told a different story 25 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act.

He collected fish at the same sites that Sinning sampled in 1967. He used statistics to compare the two surveys, but it is enough to know that species richness increased from 12 species in the 1960s to 17 species in the 1990s. That doesn’t sound like much, but the story is in the kinds of fish he found. The 1990s fish community was mostly species that were intolerant of degraded water conditions (i.e., clean water species).

The walleye is of course a clean water species, but perhaps more important was the presence of chubs and minnows that need clean gravel as habitat.

The water quality measurements and other data indicated that there was more to the story, but basically the Big Sioux had improved from a fisheries standpoint. Other studies of rivers in surrounding states reported similar trends.

Dieterman was doing “biomonitoring,” which means asking the stream critters to report on the water quality and habitat. Fish, water bugs and algae all have a story to tell a biologist who knows how to listen.

The fish were saying that things in our backyard river were improving.
Back to the Scientific American article

— Whatever happened to the National issues, 1) ozone hole, 2) smog, 3) acid rain, and 4) DDT. Following is long-story-short.

The ozone hole — the stratospheric ozone layer has a lot of — ozone, that’s good! Ozone filters out ultraviolet rays that are harmful to human skin. In the 1960s we were using CFCs (chlorinated hydrocarbons) for refrigeration and sprays (hair, deodorant, etc.). The CFCs went up to the stratosphere and broke down the ozone. New laws required new, harmless chemical propellants. The current data shows that the ozone layer is healing — Good for air quality standards.

Ground-level smog — it has a lot of ozone, that’s bad! The ozone is created when sunlight reacts with organic compounds from vehicle exhaust pipes, so big cities have a lot of smog, which is a human health hazard (think respiratory troubles).

Today smog has been cut by 30%, but more and more vehicles have retarded progress. Remember, this is U. S. data. There are horrendous air quality problems in big cities elsewhere.

DDT — this insecticide bioaccumulates in the food chain, and the top predators (think eagles, ospreys) get a big pesticide dose from their food. The top predator birds weren’t having any chicks because their egg-shell-making-gland couldn’t make proper shells, so shells were breaking in the nest. The DDT was banned and less persistent pesticides were manufactured (better living through chemistry). In the 1960s, North America had only 700 pairs of Bald Eagles, now we have thousands. There are several eagle nests along the Big Sioux River near Brookings and ospreys at Lake Campbell.

Acid Rain — burning fossil fuels releases sulfur dioxide, which combines with water and oxygen to make atmospheric sulfuric acid. Acid rain is tough on stone statues — I remember those weird pictures of statues without faces. But mostly I recall the report from fishery scientists in northeastern states that were finding pristine mountain lakes without any aquatic life — acid rain had acidified the water. Power plants were required to equip their tall smoke stacks with “scrubbers” to take out the sulphur. Today, atmospheric Sulphur is down 90%. — Good for the Clean Air Act.

Heads-up! A metal mine is proposed for the Boundary Waters Area. Opponents say that such mining always produces acid runoff. The Chinese mining company says it will protect the environment with better mining practices. And the beat goes on.

There have been positive environmental changes because of our nation’s environmental policies. It is not so in many other countries, and there has been an ongoing effort to weaken our environmental laws.

But finish reading this article with a good thought — perhaps from the lines of a Big Sioux River poem by Sam Travers Clover who traveled Dakota Territory when the Big Sioux was clear and full of fish.

O winding Sioux! O Winding Sioux!
For many a mile I’ve followed you;
Far from the dusty traveled way.
From prairies bare of shrub or tree
I turn, O sinuous stream, to thee!
An in thy leafy shade I find
A solace for the careworn mind.