Posts Tagged ‘Great Lakes’


This Very Cold Winter is Good For the Great Lakes

Monday, February 10th, 2014


When you are outside and it is below zero and you are shoveling the latest snowfall in this record snowfall winter you don’t usually stop and think how all this cold and snow will affect your boating and swimming next Summer; but you should. The Great Lakes have been under significant strain the last few years with lake levels at historic low water levels.

Interestingly, the recent record low temperatures and the ice coverage that is the most in over 20 years will probably lead to higher lake levels next year. A recent satellite image from he National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that the ice coverage on the Lake Michigan is way above normal due to the extreme cold weather.

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According to NOAA’s Great Lake Coast Watch, about 45 percent of Lake Michigan is considered to be frozen. Lake Erie is about 95 percent ice-covered. Lake Superior is about 85 percent ice covered. Lake Huron is about 70 percent frozen and Lake Ontario is about 25% frozen.

A recent post by Lisa Borre in National Geographic’s Water Currents cites a report released by the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA), a federally funded collaboration between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, a team of American and Canadian scientists explains the relationship among evaporation, ice cover, and water temperature.

Prior to this year winter ice cover has declined by 71 percent over the last 40 years, on average. Summer water temperatures and annual evaporation have increased due to climate change. Apparently water temperature and evaporation are important factors that affect the lakes water levels. While you would think that the ice cap by itself reduces evaporation, the study states that it is the fact that the ice cap makes the lake cooler, so it delays the evaporation until later in the summer instead of July, when it usually begins.

So, as you shovel that latest snowfall, just think warm thoughts of boating and swimming next summer in healthier and deeper Great Lakes thanks to the largest ice cover in 20 years.


U.S. Now World’s Largest Petroleum Supplier

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

frackingAccording to many reports, the U.S. has passed Saudi Arabia as the largest petroleum producer in the world. Reuters recently quoted the PIRA Energy Group’s report that stated that the U.S. has passed Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest oil and gas producer.To make matters even more bizarre, the U.S. is no longer the largest importer of crude oil. That title now belongs to China.

This has been made possible because of the growth in shale oil and gas production. According to PIRA’s October 15, 2013 Press Release, over one-third of U.S crude oil production and almost 1/2 of U.S. natural gas production is from shale. In the last four years, U.S production has increased over 3.2 million barrels per day. PIRA went on to say that this rapid growth is unparalleled in the history of the world, has covered most of the world’s growth in demand for the last two years and that the U.S’s position as the world’s largest petroleum producer should be secure for many years.

The Wall Street Journal said that this growth in U.S. production has affected U.S. imports of natural gas and crude oil. They have fallen 32% and 15%, respectively, in the past five years, narrowing the U.S. trade deficit.

On the surface this all sounds good. However, like many issues in the energy sector, things are not that simple and are not always what they seem. While some call this type of oil and gas product “non-conventional sources”, others call it “fracking”. Public support for this type of oil and natural gas production is waning. A poll last month by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that opposition to increased use of fracking rose to 49% from 38% in the previous six months.

In a new report, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) warns about the dangers of producing transportation fuel from oil shale. According to NRDC, studies conducted so far suggest that oil shale extraction would adversely affect the air, water, and land around proposed projects. The distillation process would release toxic pollutants into the air. The NRDC also states that in a well-to-wheel comparison, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil shale are close to double those from conventional crude, with most of them occurring during production.

Closer to home here in Michigan, things get even stranger. In 2012 and 2013 the state of Michigan auctioned off oil and mineral rights to state owned land in Oakland County. Oakland County is just north of Detroit and is home to over 1.2 million people (including my family) according to the 2010 census. It has 62 cities, villages and townships in its 908 square miles, 35.49 miles of which is water.

According to one newspaper, Jordan Development of Traverse City, paid the state of Michigan $33 per acre during an auction in May of 2012 for 18,347 acres of state owned mineral rights inside Oakland County. Unfortunately, many of these acres are either in parks or under the many lakes that dot Oakland County. Jordan has sunk one well in Indian Springs Metro Park and has leases in Kensington Metro Park.

In addition, Michigan Oil and Gas regulations allows “compulsory pooling“. Under this regulation, in some circumstances, a landowner may not prevent the development of oil and gas reserves that underlie their property. Instead, they are compulsory pooled with neighboring acreage to permit drilling. Furthermore, if hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is used, there can be significant adverse effects on local water sources. According to Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality, Fresh water is needed to hydraulically fracture a well. The quantity of water needed varies based on the type of well being completed with hydraulic fracturing. A vertical well that is hydraulically fractured may use about 50,000 to 100,000 gallons of water while a horizontal well that is hydraulically fractured may use up to 20,000,000 gallons of water or more. Withdrawal of water for oil and gas operations is exempt from the requirements of Michigan’s water withdrawal statute (Part 327 of Act 451 Natural Resources Environmental Protection Act (NREPA))

Traverse City-based West Bay Exploration Co. operates several wells in Southeast Michigan, including the Schoolcraft Well in Livonia, one under the former Northville Psychiatric Hospital and one under Eisenhower High School in Shelby Township. A West Bay spokesman has said that they have been 90% successful drilling in Southeast Michigan, averaging at least 200,000 barrels of oil at each site. Despite environmental concerns, the region’s benefits include jobs, royalties to the cities, state and landowners and locally produced oil and natural gas. According to one article in Crain’s West Bay sells its crude oil yield from the region to Marathon Oil Corp. to refine at its Detroit facilities and feeds its natural gas from sites such as Livonia and Novi into the pipeline of Consumers Energy Co. for distribution to other buyers. (It should be noted that both Marathon Oil Corp. and Consumers Energy are customers of Maxi Container.)

According to some reports, Jordan Oil of Traverse City, the company that bought all of the Oakland County leases at the 2012 auction, states that they will not use the water intensive “fracking” in Oakland County. However, they are only offering landowners $100 per acre for the mineral rights and can use Compulsory pooling to force landowners to accept a 1/8 royalty, which is reduced by the cost associated with drilling. According to some commentators, it can take up to 11 years before the pooled landowner sees any profit, provided, however, that the well is still producing. In fact, the Schoolcraft well used compulsory pooling to assemble the necessary 80 acres. Fourteen homeowners and the County Road Commission had a total of 11.85 of the 80 acres pooled under Order 10-2011 of the Commissioner of Wells. The pooled owners we also assessed with a 300% penalty, in essence they were charged with 300% of the drilling cost, 200% of the completing costs and 25% of the actual equipping costs. The Supervisor of wells capped production at 200 gallons per day and the costs at around $3,000,000. The pooled owners 1/8 royalty is paid after the cost and penalties are recouped. A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. If oil is $100 a barrel, 200 gallons is just under 5 barrels or around $500. If I did my math correctly (and please let me know if I didn’t) it would take over 17 years to recoup the $3,000,000 and that does not include the 300% penalty, 200% penalty or 25% penalty.

It seems to me that while the economic benefits to the economy from increased oil and gas drilling is significant, we need to take a better look at the environmental issues and the provisions forcing homeowners to allow drilling on their land without reasonable compensation. I would support having the amount of groundwater used for fracking to be part of, and not excluded from, Michigan’s Water Withdrawal Statute. I would also support a requirement that the drill operators be required to have evacuation plans,and more stringent safety protocols when drilling near schools, highways, parks, etc., especially in such densely populated areas as Southeastern Michigan. Finally, I would be in favor of the State of Michigan being required to spend part of the oil and gas royalties to further development of alternative energy sources, including solar and wind power.


S.S. Badger Owners Try Landmark Status and Earmarks to Scuttle EPA Coal Rules

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

The owners of the S.S. Badger, the last coal fired ship on the Great Lakes are at it again. Since 2008, they have known that their permit to dump over 500 tons of coal ash annually into Lake Michigan would be expiring this month. Yet they have done nothing to resolve the issue. Instead they have asked the EPA for a permit extension while they study a possible conversion to Liquefied Natural Gas.

Now, according to the New York Times the owners of the ferry have enlisted friendly congressmen to bury in a Coast Guard re-authorization bill now in final negotiations between the House and the Senate:

Curious language saying a “qualified vessel” shall continue to operate for its entire lifetime, “without regard to any expiration dates” on the permit it operates on.”

Since the S.S. badger was placed on National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2009, the language in this bill would allow it to continue to dump over 4 tons of coal ash per day into Lake Michigan without a permit.

While the re-authorization bill does not reference the S.S. Badger by name, the enumerated qualifications — including that it be nominated for or on the list of National Historic Landmarks — apply to only one vessel, the Badger.  As the Times points out,  Republicans supposedly put an end to special-interest language slipped into bills to benefit projects or employers in their districts when they took control of the House last year.  However, the sponsors of that language, two Republican representatives, Tom Petri of Wisconsin and Bill Huizenga of Michigan, say it is not an earmark because it does not mandate the expenditure of any federal money.

I may not be able to parse the nuance of congressional political speak as to what is or isn’t an earmark, but to me, the James Whitcomb Riley’s adage regarding looking and walking like a duck applies. Here is a piece of legislation that is slipped into a Coast Guard re-authorization bill that only applies to one entity and that would overrule the EPA permitting process. To me, that’s an earmark. The hypocritical argument that it is not an earmark because no federal dollars are expended  does not take into account the cost of cleaning up the 500 tons of coal ash that the Badger dumps each year.

Apparently at least one Senator,  Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, agrees with me. The Times quoted him as saying:

“If it walks like an earmark and talks like an earmark, it’s an earmark.”

Hopefully the Senate will stand firm and prevent the S.S. Badger from making a mockery of the EPA permitting process and finally take the steps necessary to either store the 4 tons of coal ash they create each day until it can be offloaded or convert to diesel power as have it’s competitors. No business should be protected from competition and allowed to continually pollute the Great Lakes because of it’s historic nature. We didn’t know better, or have better options than coal when the S.S. Badger first sailed on Lake Michigan. We know better now.

Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing and scuttles the offensive language.


S.S. Badger – Last Coal Fired Ship on the Great Lakes

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

For anyone who has used the car-ferry between Luddington, MI and Manitowac, WI there are numerous benefits to the trip. The trip, by ferry, is 4 hours.  By car it is 7.5 hours (not including stops). Travel by ferry has a nostalgic aspect to it. You get out of the car, walk around, get something to eat, gaze out at the beauty of Lake Michigan. There is a snack bar, a dinning room, video arcade and children’s playroom. When the weather is good, you can sun on a lounge chair on the deck. It sounds idyllic, so what can be bad.

Usually, any form of mass transit is better environmentally than using your own car. This is not the case with the S.S. Badger. The Badger is the last coal fired ship on the Great Lakes. It dumps 4 tons of coal ash per day into Lake Michigan. According to environmental groups, the ashes contain lead, mercury and arsenic and potentially could contaminate the drinking water supply of over 10 million people.

In 2008 the E.P.A. gave them 4 years to comply with the Clean water Act. Now the owners of the S.S. Badger filed for a 5 year extension of their permit to dump coal ash in Lake Michigan. They are basing their request on the complexities of conversion to liquefied natural gas at a cost of over $8 million, even though LNG is not readily available in the Michigan market.

The owners of the S.S. Badger have tried other tricks to prevent them from having to spend money to convert to a cleaner fuel. They tried having the ship declared a National Landmark and have pressed legislators in Congress from both Wisconsin and Michigan to grant it an exemption to the Clean Water Act rules.

As reported at MLive.com Alliance for the Great Lakes President Joel Brammeier thinks he has a simple solution to the Badger problems that will end the historic 50-year-plus coal ash discharges into the lake and keep the Badger operating and providing an economic boost to both states.

Instead of granting the Badger the five-year permit while Lake Michigan Carferry owners explore converting the 410-foot ferry from coal to liquefied natural gas, Brammeier made two suggestions.

• Convert the coal-powered steam ship – the only remaining one in the United States – to diesel engines.

• Develop a means to store the hot coal ash in the Badger’s hull to be offloaded and disposed after the ferry arrives in port.

Both these suggestions make more sense to me then trying a complex conversion to LNG. Diesel conversion has been done by other ship owners in as little as 6 months. Conversion to diesel could be completed in the off-season and be ready for next summer.  The EPA does not need to grant a 5 year extension to keep the $40,000,000 impact to the port communities and the jobs this makes possible. Instead they should deny the permit and demand either a conversion to diesel or the storage of the ash on board until it can be safely offloaded at port for proper treatment.


Nothing but a Barrel

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

A few years ago, when we set out to get involved in making Rain Barrels and selling other Home and Garden products at Metro-Detroit Green Fairs, we never thought it would turn out so incredibly well. The community involvement with green fairs, charities, school and churches has helped shape our business, continuing over a hundred years of Rubin family involvement in the drum and barrel industry. Now, at Maxi, as the summer comes to a close, so does a chapter of our lives. The Green season is over, there no more events until next Spring/Summer. We all set our sights on the numerous things we have neglected due to the hustle and bustle of the season. We won’t be hibernating this winter, but a part of us will. The Green part.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the events we were involved in (a list is provided at the end of this post). However, certain moments, or days, stand out when looking back from the corner of the autumn and winter seasons. I want to share my favorite “highlights” from this summer with all of you.

Two tents down! Currently, both of our tents need repair. One, we have no idea what happened to, and the other a storm almost swept away! At the St. Clair Shores Green Fair in the Park it was a beautiful day until warnings of a oncoming storm started to spread across the fair (since the Dream Cruise was happening on Woodward Ave. simultaneously, we just checked their twitter feed) Even though the vendors and patrons were advised to leave a little early in hopes of missing the brunt of the storm, we were among the last out of there, and our tent nearly didn’t make it out at all. I went to grab the truck for our final load of Rain Barrels, and when I arrived to our location I find my father (Richard) holding onto a tent that was in shambles. He looked like he was holding onto it for dear life, in high winds and heavy rain. This was a very intense end to a great event.

HOT, HOT, HOT! All of you remember that heat wave in June? Well we can’t forget it. We had three events planned almost simultaneously for that weekend of heat. Friday I spent in Armada while the rest of the Maxi staff was at the Ferndale Live Green Fair. I guess this is one time I lucked out, since at the Lavender Festival in Armada we had a location in the shade and the fair was on grass, not pavement. The staff at the Live Green Fair said it was sweltering hot as the intense sun reflected up from the ground. Also, the way the booths were set up didn’t allow a lot of airflow. On Sunday, I made my way to Ferndale, my father and I did the best we could, but I was definitely suffering during tear down, and was afraid I was going to pass out. My Dad had to stick me in the car with the AC on to get me to stop acting loopy. I am pretty sure I was a second away from heat stroke.

We enjoyed all of the events this year, these two weekends were exceptionally interesting, check out the list below for all of our events this year, and watch out for even more next year! Hope to see you next summer at some of our Green Events!

I tried to remember them all and hopefully, got them all of them here. Click on each to learn more. This list doesn’t include all of the Rain Barrel workshops we have done, just a few of them.

If you know of an event in Metro-Detroit (really anywhere in Michigan) that you would like us to bring our sustainable living setup including Rain Barrels, Composting, and Container Gardening, please let us know. Drop me an email at joshua@maxicontianer.com with the details.

Enjoy this slideshow of photos from our “Green Fairs” Collection of photoset’s on Flickr!

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Sierra Club Rain Barrel Workshop – Riverbend Community Association

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Maxi Container has begun working with the Sierra Club Great Lakes program to help reduce storm water runoff, and teach Detroiters about rainwater conservation. We exaplined how it is useful for your garden and your pocketbook! Melissa Damaschke visited our office a month ago to work out an arrangement where Maxi would help supply the Sierra Club Great Lakes workshops and other events with Rain Barrels. The Sierra Club Great Lakes also partnered with one of our favorite Customers, The Greening of Detroit. The Greening are long time activists in Detroit and have been at the heart of Detroit’s urban gardening movement. Their goal is to improve the quality of life in Detroit by guiding and inspiring the reforestation of Detroit’s neighborhoods. They help by educating and empowering citizens, teaching them lessons like the advantages of growing their own vegetables, rain barrels, and composting.

On Thursday March 24 at 6:30 PM at the Riverbend Community Association, Kido Pielack, from the Greening of Detroit, was there to lead the workshop. Prepared to show the attendees how to make their own rain barrels from start to finish. After he went through the complete process, the floor was opened up for questions. The crowd had many questions varying from how to use the rain barrels, the advantages of using them, and how to prevent mosquitoes. To complete the evening the Sierra Club raffled of three of our Terra Cotta Rain Barrels. Some happy attendees went home ready for spring with their new rain barrels. Also one barrel was donated to the church, which is starting a garden as well this spring. Thank you Kido and The Greening of Detroit.

Please Check out the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program Blog.

Here are some photos from the event. Enjoy!

Rain Barrel Workshop - Riverbend Community Association

Sierra Club Great Lakes Program, Greening of Detroit and Maxi Container collaborate on a Rain Barrel Workshop at the Riverbend Community Association in Detroit.

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#Detroit 6:30 Thurs. the Sierr…

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

#Detroit 6:30 Thurs. the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program will host a #RainBarrels & Garden #WaterConservation workshop http://t.co/3VBxhmZ


Check out what @SC_Great_Lakes…

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Check out what @SC_Great_Lakes is up too…this month #RainBarrel workshop…check out their blog for upcoming events: http://t.co/13dmhKT


Nestle Hires Sustainability Director – Too Late to Save Michigan’s Water

Monday, February 21st, 2011
Water Bottle
On February 17, 2011, Nestle Waters North America announced it had hired a new Director of Sustainability. We wish Michael Washburn well in his new role and in his efforts “To increase recycling rates in the United States.” We applaud Nestle for hiring someone who has worked in the nonprofit sector, and held a senior position at The Wilderness Society working on public lands advocacy.
Here at Maxi Container, however, we still hold Nestle responsible for two of the most egregious environmental policies and practices of this era.
First, they sell millions of plastic water bottles, consuming inordinate amounts of energy and raw materials to deliver a product that most of us in the U.S. has at our fingertips, potable water.
Second, they are one of the largest companies diverting a precious resource from our home state of Michigan, paying little or nothing for it, and making a large profit by selling it at a ridiculous mark up.
Nestle Waters U.S. brands include, Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deep Park, Ice Mountain, Nestle Pure Life, Ozarka, Poland Spring and Zepherhills. Nestle has had a series of battles in and out of court in both Mecosta and Osceola, MI regarding its plans for its bottling plant to bottle over 720,000 gallons of water pumped from the Great Lakes Basin and aquifer per day. Water which is never replaced and has led to drying of wetlands and streams and lowering of lake levels.  It has also severly affected nearby homeowners and farmers who depend on the aquifer for their drinking water and irrigation.
In 2009, after 9 years of litigation, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation reached an out of court settlement with Nestle to reduce Nestle’s pumping to 218 gallons per minute.  Over an 8 hour day that is still 104,640 gallons. Over 24 hours, that is 313,920 gallons of water per day taken from our precious Great Lakes and never returned. Add to that the cost of the resources used to bottle and truck that water all over the country and you now have the makings of one of the greatest environmental villains ever!
To learn more, see our Oprep article and watch The Story of Bottled Water (2010)
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