Another Snake-Bit
Outing
By Dave Cooper
A few months ago in Lexington I ran into Russ Miller who I knew from working together on the Bottle Bill. He mentioned that he had read my article in The Cumberland about the disastrous canoe trip on the South Elkhorn Creek last year. He suggested that the Sierra Club and the Elkhorn Paddlers participate in a canoe trip to remove old tires from the Red River in the Gorge.
It seemed like a fine idea to me. I remembered from a canoe trip down the Red with my father a few years ago that there were a distressingly large number of tires laying in the riverbed. This was a job that badly needed to be done, and I agreed to lead the trip, visualizing a leisurely float down the river, stopping to pick up a tire or two along the way. Red River Outdoors, a new outfitter in the Gorge, volunteered to provide eight canoes for the trip, and Russ picked National Trails Day, June 2, for the trip.
Saturday dawned cool and threatening to drizzle, but seven Sierrans and Elkhorn Paddlers showed up along with a large group from Powell and Wolfe Counties for the cleanup. Several folks brought kayaks and inflatable boats for floating out the biggest tires.
My visions of a leisurely, relaxed trip evaporated quickly when I saw the first tire pile. Russ had worked the river for several days before the canoe trip, pulling 250 tires out of the riverbed and stacking them on the bank. Now, if you have never pulled a tire out of a river before, you should know that this is not a fun job. The inside of the tire is filled with wet goop and the tire is very heavy. But if you stand the tire on end and bang it up and down, while slowly rotating it around, the muck eventually loosens and drops out. Then you rock the tire back and forth to slosh out the remaining water. It’s a frustrating job because the water doesn’t really want to come out of the tire, and a lot of times when you rock the tire the water sloshes out one side - directly into the opposite side of the tire.
The worst thing is the truck tires, and the tires still mounted on steel rims. I’m talking about tires off of eighteen-wheelers, farm tractors, mining equipment, and so on. These babies weigh at least 150 pounds. We made lots of macho grunting noises while lifting these, but everyone pitched in and worked without complaining. It was a filthy job, but I was very proud of the group. One of the most amazing workers was Russ’s son Miles, who threw himself into the job with abandon, and pulled many additional tires from the riverbed.
The plan was to throw the tires into the canoes, then float them down to a designated drop along the road, where Forest Service personnel would meet us with a truck. We initially used the truck’s winch to pull up the tires, but eventually figured out that it was faster and easier to form a human chain and pass the tires one by one up the steep, slippery mud bank. I was just hoping no one would get hurt.
It was hard work, but we passed the time joking about “tire snakes” as we handed the tire to the next person up the chain. “They’re black and they live inside the tires - and they camouflage themselves to look like inner tubes!” and so on.
After about six hours of work in an intermittent rain, we removed 260 tires from two miles of the Red River, from the concrete bridge below Sky Bridge down to the Gladie Historical Site. That’s right, 260 tires in two miles. It was painful to see one of Kentucky’s most beautiful streams a State Wild and Scenic River - being so mistreated by humans. Some of these tires had been there for twenty years or more, judging by the wide whitewalls and weird tread patterns. Why are people throwing tires in the river? Doesn’t anybody care, we wondered. I loudly quoted Jerry Redden: ‘The Human Being is a Disgusting Creature!”
As Russ and a few others remained behind to finish up the job at the last tire drop, the rest of the group paddled down to the takeout point at Gladie. As we grunted and strained to push the canoes up the cliff, someone paddled up and said “Didja hear what happened to Russ?” Oh boy, here we go, I thought. “He got bit by a copperhead!”
It turns out that at the last tire drop Russ was standing in a weedy area halfway up the bank when he apparently intruded on someone’s homeplace. The snake escaped but left one fang mark on Russ, who was wearing a wetsuit and rubber boating shoes. Russ initially thought he stepped on a nail or was stung by a yellowjacket, but others saw the snake sliding away and determined it was a copperhead. He was taken to a doctor and treated, but his leg swelled up to the knee and he was ordered to stay off it for a week or so until the swelling subsided.
I spoke with him a few days later and he was in pain but otherwise doing OK. It seemed really unfair to me. Russ works really hard cleaning up the environment, and the thanks he gets is being bit by a copperhead.
A few days after our trip, a column by Dick Burdette appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader about the challenges of living in the Red River Gorge. The story profiled Dell Sasser, a naturalist who lives with his family in the woods near Slade and teaches at the Lees campus of Hazard Community College in Jackson.
In his article, Burdette stated that in the Red River Gorge, “copperheads abound - an estimated 100 per acre”, without attribution. That figure seemed kind of high to me. 100 per acre? That would mean there are about 500,000 copperheads in the Gorge!
So I called Kristin Wiley, a herpetologist at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade to ask her opinion.
“Copperheads are very common” in the Red River Gorge, she said. “But I don’t think anyone has done any research to determine the number of copperheads (per acre in the Gorge). It’s possible, but I couldn’t justify saying that without doing some research”.
Although copperhead bites are very painful, Ms. Wiley informed me that no one has ever died from a copperhead bite in Kentucky.
So if you’re going to be walking around in the river weeds or near old log piles or other snaky areas of the gorge, I guess it’s best to wear heavy boots and carry a snake bite kit. And if you see some yokel cutting switchbacks or otherwise abusing nature in the Gorge, be sure and tell them there’s 100 copperheads per acre. That’ll straighten ‘em out!
White House Meeting on Energy
Policy
By Carl Pope
Tuesday morning Dan Becker, the leader of our Energy and Global Warming Team, and I, joined by staff from NRDC, UCS and USPIRG met with the Vice-President and energy staff from the Bush Administration to discuss whether or not we could find common ground on those aspects of energy policy which relate to efficiency, renewable energy, and such clean fossil options as new, combined cycle natural gas power plants.
The meeting lasted for an hour and a half, of which Vice-President Cheney attended about twenty minutes. The meeting was exploratory, but we did agree to a further round of meetings at the technical staff level.
The meeting arose from statements over the past several weeks by the VP that the Bush Administration had incorporated into its energy plan 11 of 12 energy supply proposals advanced by the Sierra Club in its response to the Bush energy proposals of three weeks ago. While we did not, and do not, believe that the Administration has even come close to incorporating these proposals, we felt it was important to see if there was an opening here, and if the Administration as rethinking its extremely narrow and crabbed approach to renewables and efficiency. We asked for a meeting. When the Administration responded positively, we asked the other three groups to join the Club on the basis of their expertise in the energy policy areas around which the meeting was organized.
It is important to understand that the meeting was not focused on a wide array of energy options on which the Sierra Club and the Administration disagree in principal; drilling in the Arctic, the Rocky Mountain front, in frontier areas off-shore and other environmentally sensitive areas; reprocessing of plutonium and other nuclear energy technologies; weakening clear air enforcement. The discussions were only on renewables, efficiency, and such fossil technologies as new gas plants and technologies to increase the efficiency of transmission lines. (The twelve points that served as the basis for the discussions are on our website.)
While it is likely that a major reason the Administration asked for the meeting was to create an impression of greater balance, moderation and openness around energy issues than they deserve (the day we met the Washington Post released a poll showing public approval of the President’s approach to energy plummeting to 36%), the meeting did suggest that at least some in the Administration are reconsidering their approach.
I have attached excerpts from a Los Angeles TIMES article on the meeting itself. We will be following up with staff level conversations with the Administration. If I was to guess I believe that we have the greatest hope of making substantial progress with the Administration on renewables, because while Governor of Texas Bush adopted a mandatory renewables portfolio, although a very modest one — but at least he does not object to the mechanism in principal. I think non-automotive efficiency measures are the second area where the Administration may be open to real change. They still seem very resistant to incorporating carbon clean up in their plans for utilities and I have no read on where they will come down on CAFE standards.
Green Groups Get White House’s
Ear
by Elizabeth Shogren, Times Staff Writer
After four months of open warfare between the White House and environmental groups, Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday solicited their leaders’ advice on how to incorporate more green ideas into the administration’s comprehensive energy plan.
No promises were made during the private session between the vice president and other senior White House officials, and representatives of the Sierra Club and three other organizations.
But in Washington, where access is everything, the 1 1/2-hour meeting in the Roosevelt Room appeared to signal a fundamental shift in the White House’s approach to the environmental community.
White House officials said their energy blueprint is a work in progress and could be expanded to include environmental priorities such as tougher fuel economy standards for vehicles and stringent targets for use of renewable energy.
Specifically, environmentalists pressed the administration to add three elements to their energy plan:
• Tougher standards requiring auto makers to produce cars, sport-utility vehicles and light trucks with an average fuel economy of 40 miles per gallon, which they say would save 50 billion barrels of oil over 50 years.
• A nationwide standard requiring electricity suppliers to obtain at least 20% of their power by 2020 from renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power, or from credits purchased on a nationwide trading system.
• New restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions, as specified in legislation regulating four key pollutants generated by electrical power plants.
The two sides remained at loggerheads over carbon dioxide, but White House officials said the other two issues were “on the table,” according to participants.
The White House will not announce its policy on fuel efficiency standards until after the National Academy of Sciences issues a report on the subject, due next month, according to a senior White House official.
Tuesday’s meeting was requested by the Sierra Club, which took issue with Cheney for repeatedly stating on television news shows that the Bush energy plan incorporated 11 of the organization’s 12 energy proposals. Cheney participated in the meeting for about 20 minutes.
The meeting followed two visits by President Bush to national parks, Sequoia and the Everglades, in less than a week.
Bluegrass Group News
Bluegrass Book
Group
We hope you can join us at our next
meeting. Our July selection will be “A River Runs Through It.” The discussion
group meets at the home of Ray and Mary Barry, 3415 Snaffle Rd. in Lexington at
7:30 p.m. The next meeting will be on Thursday, July 19th. Contact Ray &
Mary at (859) 223-0180 or Katherine Ginting at (859) 299-7446 for more
information
Meeting
Updates
If you are interested in getting
involved with the ‘workings’ of the Bluegrass Group, then we invite you to
attend our monthly Business Meeting. These are held on the first Monday of each
month, and the next one is on July 2nd, 7:00 p.m. The meeting location is at the
Faith House, 836 Melrose Ave. Call Group Chair Joey Shadowen at (859) 252-3422
for more information. The meeting is free and open to the public.
Our General Meeting is always the third Monday of each month. The next one will be held on Monday, July 16th, 7:30 p.m. at Shriner’s Hospital, 1900 Richmond Rd. in Lexington (one mile inside New Circle Road). Our program will be a National Sierra Club presentation on the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. Please come join us for information on this timely topic. Check the Weekender section in the Friday, July 13th Herald-Leader for more information, or call Program Chair Lewis Warden for directions and program details, (859) 271-9102. The meeting is free and open to the public.
Our Conservation Committee meets on the last Wednesday of the month. We invite you to join us and increase support from our volunteer base. The group has been VERY busy on a multitude of topics, including the Bush energy policy and how it relates to Kentucky, regulations of coal slurry waste, the proposed Trimodal Transpark, Governor Patton’s “Smart growth” initiative, and the renewal of the Town branch corridor in Lexington. With so many issues, we welcome any and all interested parties to attend this meeting and learn more about the issues. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 25th, 7:00 p.m. at the home of Hilary Hopper, Conservation Chair, 720B Aurora Avenue, Lexington. We are currently working on issues with the Martin County Coal Company, the building of I-66 through the Daniel Boone Forest, as well as other important conservation issues. If you are interested in attending, please call Hilary at (859) 255-8216 for more information, or contact her at hlhopper@prodigy.net.
Group Picnic in
August
The Bluegrass Group holds its annual
picnic in August in place of their monthly general meeting. Watch for
details in the August Cumberland,
and mark your calendar for August 26 at Masterston Station Park.
Greater Louisville Group
C’Mon -- Get
Involved!
Join us for an outing, help with a
festival booth, come to a monthly program, tell us what you would like to hear
about! Check out our web page at
http://kentucky.sierraclub.org/groups /groups.htm. Volunteer to help with mailings,
communicate with the media, plan a fundraising event or get info to
students/campuses!
Fourth of July (Wed) we will be at Crescent Hill Festival Peterson-Dumesnil House, 301 S. Peterson Ave. 895-7975 Crescent Hill throws this old-time celebration, which spills over into neighboring streets, kicked off by a parade of antique cars and brought to a rousing conclusion with fireworks in the evening (some of them fired from the roof of this National Register house, built in 1868). There’s also a popular children’s pet show, arts and crafts and a variety of festival food and drink.
Tuesday July 17th, 7:30 p.m. at First Unitarian Church. Naturalist Bill Adams will present a program on how to attract wildlife to your backyard. Over the past five years, Bill and Maggie have constructed “Turtle Island” in their backyard. This one-eighth acre of concentrated wildlife habitat has been the subject of several news stories. Bill was also responsible for laying out the original design of the bird viewing area at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. The presentation will include a question and answer session.
July 19 (Thursday) we will have an informal gathering at the Bristol Restaurant on Bardstown Rd. at 7 p.m. It is most helpful if you will let Becky know you plan to be there (454-4595). Dining will be on the patio (weather permitting) followed by music at the Heine Bros. Coffee Shop afterward.
Kentucky Music Weekend, July
27-29
For the 26th consecutive year Kentucky
Music Weekend brings together the finest performers of Kentucky traditional
music.
This year the festival includes three days and two nights of concerts, workshops and so much more, celebrating our rich musical traditions.
Evening concerts are on Friday and Saturday evenings, 7:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Daytime activities include “Close-Up” Concerts, Workshops and much, much more.
Daytime activities are on Friday, noon - 6:00 pm; Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm and Sunday, noon-5:00 pm.
One of the highlight of the Kentucky Music Weekend for the past 18 years has been a high-quality, juried crafts festival specializing in unique crafts. More than 75 booths dot the tree-lined area around the Amphitheater where craftspeople demonstrate techniques used to create their works. Some of the region’s finest dulcimer and hammered dulcimer builders will also be on hand.
For more information or to volunteer, contact John at 454-4820.
Clear cut for war
games
The Public comment period on the draft
EIS for the Fort Knox northern training range complex ends July 9.
Northern Kentucky Group
Maifest a
Success
The Maifest Fundraiser was a success
with 21 volunteers working 114 hours. Thanks go to members Ron Colwell, Julie
Moore, Bruce & Pat Schultz, Deana Roberts, Heather McKay, Pam Hardesty,
Marilyn Hoffman, Jerry Junker, Barbara O’Connor and Ron Lusby for their help.
Several of these folks recruited friends or family to come help. More
fundraising activities are being planned for this year including Sierra Club
Calendar sales.
Our new Conservation Committee, co-chaired by Susan and Larry Patton, recently submitted a grant proposal to the National Sierra Club for a Water Guardian Program in Northern Kentucky. If approved, the grant will support water quality monitoring on several streams in Boone, Campbell, Kenton and Pendleton counties. Several Sierra Club groups nationwide have applied for the grant, and an announcement is expected sometime this month. The Conservation Committee is to be congratulated on their efforts on this proiect.
The next Northern Kentucky group meeting will be on Monday, July 31st at 7:00 p.m. at Thomas More College in the Chancellor's Room. An agenda will be e-mailed to members on our e-mail address list. If you would like to add your name to this list, send your current e-mail address to chilligoss@yahoo.com.
Mammoth Cave Group
GREAT Monthly
Programs
The Mammoth Cave Group has lately
enjoyed some excellent programs at their regularly scheduled monthly meetings.
Dr. Steven Grimes, Instructor of Safety and First Aid at Western Kentucky
University, led a very informative program on outdoor recreational safety at the
May monthly meeting. Dr. Grimes covered many topics, including proper equipment
and clothing for backwoods hiking, the importance of pre-planning, risk factors,
periodic assessment of gear, proper nutrition, and environmental concerns.
June’s outings included a fun-filled canoe trip on the Red River, led by outings leader Tom Nida. The June 2 Service Outing was postponed due to wet trail conditions at Mammoth Cave National Park, and will be rescheduled. Carolyn McMillan will lead a sailing trip/camp-out at Barren River Lake on July 14-15. If you are interested in going and want more details, call Carolyn at 888-586-7121. Upcoming outings include another canoe/camping trip, on the Barren River, on August 4-5. Sightings of Bald Eagles have been found through the section of the river this outing will cover. Canoe rental is available for this trip, but the outing is limited to 6-8 canoes. Outings leaders are Tom Nida (270-781-4009) and Roger Hankins (270-843-1381). Please contact either one of them for additional information concerning this outing. The trip is rated easy to moderate, suitable for beginners with some canoeing experience. Fourteen miles will be traveled in two days.
Coleman Smith and Dorothy Wilson recently informed group members about the May regulatory meeting for the proposed Trans Air Park. It was the first regulatory meeting ever held and was open to the public. Dorothy said that 90% of the people attending the regulatory meeting were opposed to the airpark. Coleman told group members that this meeting was the first time that testimony was entered into the administrative record. Western Kentucky professors came forward and gave compelling reasons for not moving forward with airpark plans, as did several environmental groups, including the Fish and Wildlife Commission and Mammoth Cave National Park officials.
It was Coleman Smith’s opinion that the tide of public opinion is definitely swinging against the Intermodal Transportation Authority.
The June group meeting was held on Thursday, June 21. The program speaker was Michael Hughes from REI, who spoke on backpacking skills. July’s speaker is still undecided, as of this writing.
Regular monthly meetings are held in the Basil Griffin State Park Educational Building, Bowling Green, on the third Thursday of each month, at 7 p.m. For additional information on meetings or upcoming events, please call Donna Leach, at 270-725-8581.
Pennyrile Group
Watch that Poison
Ivy
The Pennyrile Group meets on the second
Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Owensboro-Daviess County Public
Library. The June meeting featured local naturalist and storyteller Joe Ford, a
young-at-heart 70-something employed with the Daviess County Parks Department,
who spoke on precautions to take when visiting local and state parks. Tip: The
more likely afflictions from the great outdoors are sunburn and allergic
reactions from poison ivy, rather than snakebite.
The program at the July meeting on Thursday, July 12, will be on the environmental impacts of coal-burning power plants (a program that was originally scheduled for May).
The Pennyrile Group also meets on the Friday before our regular meeting for a social, urban outing in Owensboro. The next event is Friday, July 6.
• • •
No news was received from the Great Rivers Group. Call Bob Lewis at (270) 388-5697 for information.
• • •
The Highlands Group is presently inactive.
Letter to the Editor
To whom it may concern,
Man is so cruel to our environment. Come to Glenmary, the most unique and beautiful place in Louisville. A place to relax and enjoy God’s natural beauty. A family community of retired people and young people with children looking for a place like this to call home.
Man wants to destroy a pool built in 1 948, a beautiful
waterfall, our aged trees for a golf driving range. They want to take away the
charm of Glenmary and make us function like all the other country clubs in
Louisville. Different is special, that is the reason most of us are here to
appreciate the difference -- for instance, beautiful stone walls. It makes one
want to cry at man’s cruelty and insensitivity. This is a classic example of
urban sprawl. Our pool setting may be gone by the time you read this but I felt
the need to express my feelings about man’s ability for destruction. In the
words of John Muir, “If people in
General could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for
themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would
vanish.”
Dorothea Ruth Ashley,
Sierra Club Member
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a proposal by the owners of the Glenmary Country Club in Louisville to make major changes on their land for a driving range which impact mature trees and an old springhouse used as a swimming pool.
Early Summer in Martin
County
by Dave Cooper
On Sunday (May 13) I made my fourth trip out to Martin County to check out the status of the sludge spill clean up operation. Don Pratt of Lexington and his foster son Chris came along for the day.
It was nice to finally see Martin County on a beautiful warm spring day. The trees are in full bloom, the sky was clear blue, the air was crisp and the mountains looked spectacular. The Coldwater Creek area was especially comfortable and we spent quite a while sitting on Larry Preece’s front porch discussing the latest developments. On our previous trips, we were surrounded by the obnoxious and continual roar of the heavy equipment, an that annoying beeping sound they make when backing up. Sunday we only heard birds singing - quite peaceful for a change.
We walked around Larry’s backyard for a while and went down to the creek. Chris amused himself by throwing rocks in the creek and watching the plume of black that followed the impact. Larry’s backyard still looks like a reclaimed strip mine site, very poor quality rocky soil and a thin cover of grass growing in little bits and pieces. There were still some bald spot in the yard, but of course this spring has been rather dry. The yard is still rippled with the treads of bulldozers and heavy equipment.
We talked to a neighbor a few houses down the road, Mrs Delbert Moore, who has started a vegetable garden near the area that was formerly covered in sludge. Some visitors to Coldwater Creek may remember seeing the blue tractor that was parked next to the bridge at the turnoff to Mullins Fork.
In November it was hooked up to some kind of spraying device that was churning up the water in the creek. This is next to the present location of the vegetable garden, where they are now growing tomatoes and peppers.
The Martin County Coal Company brought in some topsoil for the Moore’s garden and it looks pretty good, although I personally would be reluctant to grow anything for a few years.
Report on
Toxins
I guess I wasn’t too surprised to hear
that a government agency has finally admitted the presence of toxins in the coal
slurry. People in Martin County
have been told that “it’s just mud” and “you could eat it” for so long that most
residents have just stopped raising the issue. Larry mentioned that he had been feeling
a little silly to keep bringing this up.
So when he finally got a copy of a report dated March 28 from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR), an agency of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services listing the presence of heavy metals “above the level of health concern”, he made sure that everyone in Martin County knew about it. Both the Martin County Sun and the Mountain Citizen carried the story on the front page. Unfortunately the Sun’s webpage is under construction as they have just joined with the Big Sandy News so I will try and quote the important parts. If anyone would like a copy of the stories please let me know.
According to the ATSDR analysis, “in some samples of the source coal slurry material, copper, vanadium, manganese, barium, arseni,, and cobalt were above levels of health concern”. The report also indicated a slightly elevated level of copper in the raw (untreated) water at the Martin County Water Plant in Inez.
The report also states “in some forms, barium, arsenic, and vanadium can produce health effects by skin contact. In most cases, these effects can occur after prolonged exposure lasting a year or more. Like most heavy metals, all of these compounds effect the digestive system, the kidneys (except manganese), and the liver (except vanadium). Many of these compounds produce effects on the central nervous system and some of them produce effects on the cardiovascular system”.
Arsenic, cobalt and barium can also produce swelling of the eyes. The concentration of arsenic found in the slurry can also cause skin irritation. Exposure to high levels of cobalt can also lead to skin rash. (quoted from the Mountain Citizen).
“Betrayed by
EPA”
Larry Preece stated in the article that he
“felt betrayed” by the comments of EPA Region 4 cleanup head Art Smith, who
seems to have downplayed the toxic danger of the sludge material to Martin
County residents. In his letter to
the Mountain Citizen, Larry Preece wrote “We do not understand why the EPA never
told us of the potential danger we were living with. Mr. Smith of the EPA told
residents that everything in the slurry was below the safe limits”.
Numerous residents have complained of skin rashes since the slurry spill, and as I reported in my last trip report, there is still a considerable amount of sludge left in the “reclaimed” backyards and the creeks. Larry stated again his overall dissatisfaction with the cleanup operation, and his desire for the cleanup operation to be done right. He feels that the job still is not complete.
We traveled over to Wolf Creek, the other creek that got a watery slurry, and it appears that the cleanup operation there is finally over. The hydromulch and the heavy equipment are mostly gone, and all along the denuded creek banks there is a swath of bright new green grass and a few weeds, but little other plant life in many stretches. There are thousands of new stumps along the creek where the riparian vegetation has been removed for the cleanup operation, and the creek bed is full of silt.
Basically Wolf Creek will just be a muddy trench baking in the sun for the next ten or fifteen years until the trees can grow back. Although the large blobs of sludge are gone, there is still a lot of black silt in the creek bed and along the banks. Martin County Coal has installed black plastic fences about 18 inches high along both sides of Wolf and Coldwater Creeks to reduce the amount of soil erosion, but this seems kind of absurd and ironic in light of the amount of silt already in the creek, and the level of damage that has already been done to the creek by the spill and the cleanup operation.
We followed a gravel road next to Wolf Creek up the mountain farther than we had ever been before (we were stopped at a roadblock during our first visit in October) , and were surprised to find ourselves on top of the mountain in the middle of a huge mountaintop removal site. The devastation was incredible on top of this obliterated mountain. Apparently this is a county road and open to the public. It ends up on Highway 3 on the other side of Inez and is a good scenic shortcut home. This might be a good road for mountain biking.
We didn’t see the sludge pond (to Don’s great disappointment), but the road turned away from Wolf Creek about a mile from the top. At this point Wolf Creek was only a few feet wide. The creek has been scraped fairly clean, and once again I am stunned at the enormity of the cleanup operation. A job lasting for at least four months, costing over $40 million, and the time of hundreds of state and federal employees overseeing the operation.
It makes it all the harder to believe that slurry ponds are still under serious consideration in Kentucky and West Virginia. Will we ever learn? The Brushy Fork impoundment near Whitesville, West Virginia that was approved a couple months ago is hundreds of feet deep and has thousands of residents living below the dam. And a new slurry pond is being seriously considered by the DSMRE in Perry County Kentucky (near Hazard) that would be almost 250 acres, or four times the size of the Martin County impoundment, and only 1/3 mile away from the North Fork of the Kentucky River, the drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of people, including Lexington and Frankfort. And of course the proposed Perry County impoundment has underground mines beneath it. I’m not sure about the Whitesville impoundment, but it seems incredible to me that MSHA, the DMSRE, the West Virginia DEP and the NAS haven’t done more to ban slurry impoundments.
The EPA wouldn’t allow a 250 acre open waste pit near Pittsburgh or Cincinnati or any other major city - why should it be any different in Appalachia?
Outings
July 2001
July 6 (Fri. eve.) Urban Outing: Dinner/Movie/Evening
Hike, near Owensboro, KY. Our
activity will depend on the weather and whim of the group. Rating: easy,
suitable for beginners Leader: Mary Kay King 270-683-5798.
July 13 (Fri. eve.) Evening Hike: Charlestown State
Park, IN Last year it was only 105 degrees for this hike! Join me again this
year for a slosh through the creek (or puddles) or hike along a trail. Bring
your dinner and we will eat afterwards at the picnic ground. Rating: moderate,
suitable for beginners. Leader: Patricia Perryman 502-452-9809.
July 14-15 (Sat-Sun) Gourmet Canoe Trip, Licking
River, Butler, KY. This will be our fifteenth annual “Licking your Chops on the
Licking” Gourmet Canoe Trip. This dam-fed Licking River is runnable throughout
the summer, even when most other streams have gone dry. The vehicle access to
the campsite means that you can forget about the freeze-dried food and Sierra
cups. So get out your crystal and do it up right! Rating: easy, class I, 18
miles. Leaders: Mary Carol Cooper 859-277-0656 and Herb Petitjean
859-236-5573.
July 20 (Fri.) Urban Exploration: Riverbats Baseball
Game, Louisville, KY. Join us for this summer’s evening at Louisville’s new
baseball park. Pre-game tour is of this urban re-development project. Post-game
walk will be along the Ohio Riverfront. Rating: easy, suitable for beginners,
RSVP by July 13, tickets $7 Leader: Martha Berner 502-459-7773.
August 2001
Aug. 3 (Fri. eve.) Urban Outing: Dinner/Movie/Eve.
Hike, near Owensboro, KY. Our activity will depend on the weather and whim of
the group. Rating: easy, suitable for beginners. Leader: Mary Kay King
270-683-5798.
Aug. 3 (Fri. eve.) Eve. Hike: Iroquois Park,
Louisville, KY. Join us for an eve. hike through Iroquois Park and enjoy the
view of Louisville from the lookout on top. There is a good chance that we will
see (and hear) owls and possibly some deer. We will have dinner after the hike
at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Rating: easy, but expect some hills on the
way to the lookout, suitable for beginners. Leader: Barbara Thompson
502-363-4730.
Aug. 4 (Sat.) Chapter Excom Meeting: Nolin Rural
Electric Cooperative, 411 Ring Rd., Elizabethtown, KY. Did you ever wonder how
all those issues were discussed, meetings planned, strategies considered,
decisions made and various other Sierra Club business was conducted at the state
level? Well, this is your chance to find out! All interested members are
encouraged to attend the bi-monthly meeting of the Chapter Executive Committee.
For details, call: Alice Howell 859-266-1532.
Aug. 4-5 (Sat.-Sun.) Backpack: Cane Creek, London, KY.
The Bluegrass Group sponsored backpacking class at Lexington Community College
will take their class trip this weekend in the London, KY area. Anyone
interested in a beginners’ backpack is welcome to join us (subject to space
availability, i.e. how many students go. If you are interested in taking the
Backpacking course, see details under the July 11 listing in this book.) Rating:
easy, suitable for beginners. Leader: Lane Boldman 859-252-3422.
Aug. 4 - 5 (Sat.-Sun.) Canoe/Camping Trip: Barren
River, Barren County, near Glasgow, KY. Beginning below the dam in a section of
the river 40-70’ in width, we will experience gravel bars, islands with lush
vegetation and hardwoods that are suitable for camping at low water. As with
most rivers, by canoe one will experience wildlife viewing that will be
exceptionally pleasing. Sightings of Bald Eagles have been found through this
section of the river. Canoe rental available. Limit 6-8 canoes Rating: Easy to moderate, suitable for
beginners with some experience. 14 miles in 2 days. Leaders: Tom Nida
270-781-4009, Roger Hankins 270-843-1381.
Aug. 17 (Fri. eve.) Bicycle Trip: River Walk,
Louisville, KY. End your week with a relaxing ride along the Ohio from the
historic wharf, past the locks, and down the streets of old Portland. Wind
through a grove of hundred year old cottonwoods to the famous Lily Pond at
Shawnee Park. Rating: easy to moderate, suitable for beginners. Leader: Greg
Zahradnik 502-429-6299.
Aug. 17 (Fri. eve.) Urban Outing, Lexington, KY. Join
us as we get together for dinner and then wine tasting from a local winery on a
summer’s eve. Rating: Easy,
suitable for beginners over 21. Leader: Carol Von Lanken 859-268-4014.
Aug. 18 (Sat. eve.) Bird Identification Walk, Near
Lawrence, IN. This is an eve. walk into the Oxbow area. Paul Wharton, volunteer
for Oxbow Inc., will be a guide on this hike. The Oxbow area is a unique wetland
at the confluence of the Great Miami and the Ohio rivers. It is the site for
seasonal migrations of waterfowl. Bring binoculars and field guide and Paul will
help us identify the waterfowl and other birds we see. Rating: easy, suitable
for beginners, about 2 hours. Leader: Pat Schultz 859-781-6505.
Aug. 18 (Sat.) Aug. 25 if high water. Conservation
Trip: Licking River at Quiet Trails State Nature Preserve, Sunrise, KY. Collect
fishes and mussels in the cool Licking River and learn about their ecology and
conservation status. These are the most imperiled organisms nationally and among
the most beautiful! Bring a change of clothes or your bathing suit, and wading
shoes, pack a lunch, and hope for normal river conditions! Rating: We will hike
0.9 mile one-way to the river and walk on the uneven river bottom. Participants:
10 minimum and 20 maximum. Leader: Ronald R. Cicerello 502-573-2886.
Aug. 19 (Sun.) Mountainbiking, near Cumberland, KY.
Beat the heat on 5000-ft. high Black Mountain. We will mountain bike on one of
the many trails/logging roads criss-crossing the ridge. Moderate pace, 15-20
miles, occasionally rocky terrain, beautiful views. Reasonable lodging nearby
for Sat. night (optional). Rating: moderate. Leader: Dave Cooper
859-275-1610.
Aug. 24 (Fri.) Eve. Hike: Deam Lake, Borden, IN. Enjoy
a pleasant eve. hike to a high rock inscribed with 19th century graffiti. Pack a
picnic supper and enjoy a panoramic view of the Ohio Valley and Knobs. Rating:
easy, suitable for beginners. Leader: Wally Mastropaolo 812-944-1652.
Aug 26 (Sun.) Chapter Fundraising Event Each year the Cumberland Chapter holds a gala event to help raise funds for our conservation work. Previous year’s events have included the President’s Dinner and the Fall Fowl Fundraiser, where we have had good music, good food, a silent auction, films, and other entertainment. What will this year’s event be? Watch for details in The Cumberland for details-it’s sure to be a grand eve., and you will be supporting the work of the Cumberland Chapter. Contact: Alice Howell, 859-266-1532.
Hidden Costs of Decline in Can
Recycling Rate
by Pat Franklin
Misleading reports by industry associations on aluminum can recycling rates mask a growing problem with serious energy, environmental and economic implications.
The Aluminum Association last month reported a 62.1 percent aluminum can recycling rate in 2000, the lowest in 12 years. The rate is much lower when one examines the data closely. The trade groups are inflating recycling rates by including imported cans in the domestic recycling rate. When the 7.8 billion imported scrap cans are deducted from the number recycled domestically, the rate drops to 54.5 percent.
The Container Recycling Institute expressed concern about calculating the aluminum can recycling rate in 1999 in letters to the Aluminum Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging them to deduct the imported cans because they were not sold in the U.S. The EPA said it agreed and delayed the release of its annual Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste report to revise the recycling data. Still, the trade groups persist in using a calculation method that the EPA has rejected. Last year, 101 billion aluminum beverage cans were sold in the U.S. Of those, 45 billion, with a scrap of value of $800 million, were wasted. That is, they were sent to landfills and incinerators, or ended up as litter. From an environmental perspective, the adverse impact of wasting so many cans is measured in terms of energy needed to make new cans, pollution resulting from manufacturing aluminum from virgin resources/ and habitat destruction.
Primary aluminum smelting uses large quantities of electricity. The energy required to smelt aluminum for one can would keep a 100-watt light bulb burning for two hours. The 45 billion cans not recycled last year wasted enough electricity and fossil fuel energy to power 3 million homes for a year.
About half of the aluminum smelted in the U.S. uses hydroelectric power. The damming of rivers to produce hydroelectricity damages habitats and fish populations and displaces hundreds of thousands of indigenous people from their homes around the world.
It takes four times as much energy to make new cans by mining bauxite, refining aluminum and smelting primary aluminum ingot than it does to make new cans from recycled cans. Making four cans from recycled scrap uses the same amount of energy it takes to make one can from virgin material.
Disposing of 45 billion cans instead of recycling them also has economic implications. Recycling supports more jobs than trash disposal, strengthening local economies and reducing taxpayers burden of disposal and litter costs. In states where refundable deposits are required, aluminum cans and most glass and plastic bottles are recycled at rates above 80 percent. The rate in non-bottle-bill states is less than 40 percent.
Financial incentives play a critical role in achieving high recycling rates. Aluminum's scrap value of 1 to 2 cents per can gives it an advantage over other materials in non-deposit states. The highest rates of aluminum recycling are in states with refundable deposits.
It is time to take a close look at
aluminum can recycling, both to develop a more accurate picture of recycling
rates and to address the growing waste problem. A collaborative approach
involving industry, recycling professionals, government and environmental groups
is needed to solve these problems and move the U.S. toward sustainable packaging
practices.
Franklin is executive director of the Container Recycling Institute.
Gov. Patton’s “Smart Growth”
Forums
Coming Your Way
Over the next two months, Gov. Patton’s
“Smart Growth” task force will be conducting a series of community forums across
the state to solicit public comment on how Kentuckians feel about growth and its
related issues, including clean water. A schedule follows below. We encourage
Sierra Club members to participate.
Prestonsburg
July 9, 6:00 p.m.
Big Sandy ADD
Board Room
100 Resource Dr.
Hazard
July
10, 6:00 p.m.
Kentucky River ADD Board Room
917 Perry Park
Rd.
Princeton
July
16, 6:00 p.m.
UK Research
and Education Center
1205 Hopkinsville Rd. (KY 91 S)
Mayfield
July
17, 6:30 p.m.
Purchase ADD
Board Room
1002 Medical Dr.
Catlettsburg
July 19, 6:00 p.m.
Fivco ADD Board Room
3000 Louisa
St.
Lexington
July
23, 6:00 p.m.
Bluegrass ADD
Board Room
699 Perimeter Dr.
Maysville
July
24 6:00 p.m.
Maysville Community College
1755 US 68
Highland
Heights
July 30, 6:00 p.m.
Otto Budding
Theater
Northern Kentucky University
Louisville
July 31 6:00 p.m.
KIPDA Board
Room
11520 Commonwealth Dr.
All times local. For further
information:
http://smartgrowth.state.ky.us/
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