In this week's episode of We Love Outdoors with Rich Davenport, your humble host provides some insight into some recent discoveries and resulting orders concerning PFAS contamination detected in whitetail deer in Maine. An eat none order was issued for the Fairfield are when 5 of 8 deer tested showed high levels of PFOS, a chemical linked to several illnesses including cancers. This isn't the first such order, as in 2018 Michigan issued a similar order for a 5-mile radius around Clark's Marsh due to PFOS contamination from the old Wurtsmith Air Base, stemming from fire fighting foam used on the base. Michigan has since reduced the area to a 3 mile radius, but this recent announcement is disturbing, to say the least. Officials will be testing turkey as well.
The organization the Environmental Working Group, has an interactive map showing the identified PFAS contaminated sites across the 50 states and 2 territories of the USA, and as of October 2021, over 2800 such sites have been confirmed.
Similarly, the NYSDEC has announced that the new drinking water restoration plan for Hoosick Falls, a village just northeast of Albany, as this village has suffered with PFOA contamination in their drinking water after decades of pollution from factories in the village owned by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, Honeywell, 3M and DuPont. Remember, in 2020, Mayville, NY had to shutter their artesian wells due to PFOS from the fire training grounds nearby, forcing a new well be dug to restore services and water to the village.
Everyone's favorite subject, covid covid covid, is once again in the news with the discovery and predictable breathless reporting of the dreaded omicron strain, first detected in South Africa. DEC has gotten on the covid covid covid bandwagon, announcing the "Take Your Shot for Outdoors Adventure", which is an incentive program to get the jab, where the first 2,000 outdoors people that get their first shot between December 1 and 31, will be eligible to win one of several different prizes for taking the experimental vaccines. Five winners will be selected to receive the large prizes, valued at $2,000.00, and another 5 will win the tier 2 prizes valued at $1000.00. I am wonder where the money is coming from to do this, as all 2,000 will receive a free tree seedling, a $25 gift card and a subscription to the Conservationist Magazine.
We Love Outdoors congratulates ECO Steven Shaw for inning the ECO of the Year Award from Safari Club International, a new fishing access site has been announced for Lewis County, DEC summer camp registration opens March 6, the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo is coming up in February, as is the first free fishing weekend for the year in NY, which is the President's Day weekend, Feb 19 and 20, 2022.
Finally the offshore wind battles are heating up, both in the Atlantic and Great Lakes, with BOEM hosting some workshops for commercial and recreational fishermen, while NOAA issues slow go areas to protect migrating right whales moving through NY and NJ waters on their way south. I wonder if turbines will be offline during those migrations to spare them from the negative impacts of infrasound?
And the CEO of LEEDCO, the ones pushing the Ice Breaker Project in Ohio, has left the company and jumped to Diamond Offshore Wind, in a move that looks like he is throwing in the towel on the Ohio "demonstration project". The lobbyists pushing this meritless idea are flooding WNY with ADs seeking support. They will play the kabuki theater on this one, be advised. Opposition is very strong on WNY, and most are strongly opposed to screwing up the lakes - its our freshwater. Keep the turbines out!
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all my listeners! We will see you all next time on We Love Outdoors with Rich Davenport!
