Category Archives: Clean Water

Line 5 advisory board meeting 3/13 – Wear blue!

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Line 5. We all know the 63 year old oil pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinaw. (Well, most of us. More and more each day.)

We all know how this line is operated by Enbridge, the same company that let nearly one million gallons of oil spill into the Kalamazoo River. We all want Line 5 shut down. This is the summer we turn up the heat; beginning March 13th at noon.

Show up and demand or support a decision for the immediate shut down of line 5! The rally will begin at noon, the meeting begins at 1:30.

WEAR BLUE!!! – Wear blue clothing in support of a healthy Great Lakes Basin!

The meeting will be held at 7109 West Saginaw Highway Lansing, Mi in the Lake Michigan Room. 

Previous agendas and meeting minutes can be found here

A facebook event has been created by Fen Valley Earth First!, and can be found here

Oil And Water Don’t Mix have also put out a public call-out

Want to speak during the meeting? Email simonsh@michigan.gov to register for the public comment session. Check out FLOW‘s new fact sheet for some ideas. Even if you can’t or don’t want to speak during the meeting, showing up and holding a sign outside will help, and let’s pack the meeting hall with people dressed in blue as a show of solidarity for clean water!

Thanks to models from the Graham Sustainability Institute at University of Michigan, we know what a Line 5 spill would look like. Devastating. Watch below:

Line 5 Postcard Series

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Announcing the hot new postcard series for the 2017 summer season!
These attractive designs carry a powerful message.

Download the pdf below. It works with Avery postcard 4 per page templates, or you can just print it onto card stock and cut it out yourself. Not rocket science. Use the postcards to write comments to your representatives, agencies accepting public comments, agencies not accepting public comments, Heidi’s house, wherever.
We can’t tell you what to do. It’s open source.   

Line 5 postcards 4/page PDF

CACC Line 5 Postcard Series 1: anticopyright N©!2017
The publishers, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, humbly put this post card series at the disposal of those who, in good faith, might circulate, plagiarize, revise, and otherwise make use of them in the course of making the world a better place. Possession, reproduction, transmission, excerpting, introduction as evidence in court and all other applications by any corporation, government body, security organization, or similar party of evil intent are strictly prohibited and punishable under natural law.

Road salt changes sex ratios in frog populations

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According to a new study co-led by scientists at Yale and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, salts commonly used to de-ice roadsurfaces can alter the sex ratios in nearby frog populations.

The new research, published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, concluded that salt had a “masculinizing” effect that triggered a “sex reversal” mechanism during the early life of the frog.

The researchers believe that sodium binds to the amphibian’s receptor cells, mimicking the actions of testosterone or estrogen and altering the sex of the frog.

“There is a very small testosterone-like effect with one salt molecule,” said Max Lambert, who led the study.

“But if you’re dumping lots and lots of salt on the roads every winter that washes into these ponds, it can have a large effect.

“The health and abundance of females is obviously critical for the sustainability of any population because they’re the ones that make the babies, so if you have a population that is becoming male-based, the population might be at risk.”

The team performed a series of experiments where frogs were isolated in tanks containing water with varying levels of road salt and leaf litter from maple and oak trees. Some tanks mimicked natural pond conditions. The natural tanks produced an average 63% female population. Significant presence of road salt reduced the proportion of female frogs reared in the 500-liter tank by one in ten.

“You’re not only seeing fewer females but smaller females that may not be able to produce as many eggs, and the eggs are probably going to be lower quality,” said Mr Lambert.

Co-author Rick Relyea added: “The potential consequences to amphibian populations are interesting, including the continual masculinzation of frog populations for many generations in habitats contaminated with high concentrations of road salt, which could potentially affect the abundances of frogs in these habitats.”

What can you do?

  • Go easy on the salt at home. Learn more here
  • Contact your county road commission
    – Let them know you support reducing use of salt on your roads
    – Use the information in this article to articulate why
  • Take it to work!
    -Use less salt on the job
    -Tell the businesses you support to use less salt
  • Practice driving on ice!