Chris Bentley

Indiana pipeline a 'mixed bag' for environment

By: Chris Bentley | May. 30, 2013

May. 30, 2013

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said a new pipeline that would ferry tar sands oil across Northwest Indiana poses no significant risk to water quality in the region. But local environmental groups see cause for concern in lax state and federal regulations, wary of energy company Enbridge’s checkered past.

In 2010 Enbridge’s Line 6B pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Mich., spilling more than one million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. Years later the cleanup drags on. With a price tag of $810 million, it is the most expensive oil pipeline spill in U.S. history.

Line 6B begins in Griffith, Ind., less than 10 miles from the Illinois border. The pipeline crosses three river systems in its 60-mile journey across Indiana, all within 20 miles of Lake Michigan through Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and St.

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Gang life to green shoots

By: Chris Bentley | May. 28, 2013

May. 28, 2013

Darius Jones grew up slinging drugs in West Garfield Park, a few blocks and seemingly a lifetime away from the garden beds he now tends with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture.

On May 1, the 21-year-old launched Urban Aggies, an incubator for urban agriculture enterprises that he hopes to parlay into a network of farms and small businesses.

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Solar pump moistens marsh to beckon rare birds

By: Chris Bentley | May. 23, 2013

May. 23, 2013

Although Chicago was built from a swamp, wetlands remain only in the city's most remote corners. Hegewisch Marsh is a prime example of a hemi-marsh, a mix of open water and stands of vegetation.

“A lot of the Calumet area used to be hemi-marshes, and there’s not much of that habitat left,” said Zhanna Yermakov, natural areas manager for the Chicago Park District, which acquired the 100-acre site from the Department of Environment when the city dissolved that department in 2011.

The Park District also found itself in control of a solar-powered pump that can draw water from the Little Calumet River to replenish a parched marsh during droughts. Though it was installed in 2008, the pump hadn’t been turned on until this year.

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Quigley floats bill to curb bird building collisions

By: Chris Bentley | May. 22, 2013

May. 22, 2013

When Columbia College called on Gensler to restore a historic Michigan Avenue façade, the design team put a bird on it.

They had previously discussed Chicago’s problem with bird collisions — due to the city’s location amid many major migratory routes, Chicago’s skyline kills more birds than any other in the country — but abandoned the idea of plastering a classic Michigan Avenue address with conspicuous bird decals.

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Buckthorn draws out coyotes, cripples native frogs

By: Chris Bentley | May. 20, 2013

May. 20, 2013

Ecologists have long known of buckthorn’s ability to push out native plants, but two new studies from Chicago scientists suggest the woody shrub also changes the distribution of large mammals like coyotes, and causes spinal defects in unborn frogs.

"We already knew that the buckthorn was outcompeting other plant species," said Seth Magle, director of the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute and author of one study currently in publication. "But no one had looked at the mammal community to see if they’re affected.

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Calumet brain trust crosses state lines

By: Chris Bentley | May. 16, 2013

May. 16, 2013

Although county lines parcel out the southern shore of Lake Michigan like garden plots, the environmental issues that unify people from Michigan City, Ind. to Chicago do not respect political boundaries.

Nor do most economic issues. Industrial decay and depopulation have left communities throughout the greater Calumet region with some common problems, as well as shared opportunities.

That was the message from the inaugural Calumet Summit, a conference convened this week in Gary, Indiana’s lakefront Marquette Park by the Calumet Stewardship Initiative.

The summit follows some major moves in the Calumet area, not least of which is the Millennium Reserve initiative, dubbed the nation's largest "open space" project.

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Taking on garlic mustard

By: Chris Bentley | May. 14, 2013

May. 14, 2013

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EPA reexamines potency of methane

By: Chris Bentley | May. 13, 2013

May. 13, 2013

In the debate surrounding the United States' natural gas resources, it is often noted that methane, the primary component of natural gas, is 21 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. There are two main issues with that statement, although that is the figure used by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Carbon dioxide, whose concentration recently reached a long-feared milestone, remains the most important greenhouse gas trapping heat in the atmosphere.

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