DEAD CROWS AND MOSQUITOS

Only a few years back crows by the hundreds would gather in the trees behind a house my family owns on the northeast side of town.  They would chatter among themselves for several hours and then decamp en masse for another place only to return the next day.  The crows don't come back now.  The West Nile virus, which has decimated bird populations across the country, is a likely culprit.

West Nile virus is also a threat to human beings.  It can cause meningitis, encephalitis, and now poliomyelitis (swelling of the spinal cord which can results in paralysis) in sufferers.  There have been thousands of cases in the United States over the past few years.  Michigan has been, fortunately, spared the worst of the disease.  Only sixteen cases were reported in the state in 2004.  West Nile has been most virulent in California and the Southwest.  (Click on the map for details.)

Nevertheless, every summer still presents of risk of contracting West Nile virus, because the disease is spread by mosquito -- and the little bloodsucker is not jokingly known as the Michigan state bird without reason.  Local mosquito control programs have been effective in suppressing these pests, but Grand Rapids City Manager Kurt Kimball wants to ax our program to deal with the City's $135 million five-year budget deficit.

The disease's northeasterly march towards the Great Lakes region is still over the horizon, so maybe the need for the program is not urgent.  However, Kimball's proposed elimination of the City's mosquito control program is in concert with eliminating groundskeeping for City parks this summer.  One can imagine the rich breeding grounds for mosquitos that a lack of park maintenance around the lagoons of Riverside Park, for example, will produce.

The things that directly benefit the residents and taxpayers of Grand Rapids, like mosquito control and mowed parks, are not what is sinking the City into the red.  It's payroll for unnecessary administrative staff, free healthcare insurance for City employees, and an underfunded pension program that is the problem.  The City used to be able to keep the parks open and clean and free of pests with a whole lot less in tax revenues.  The one big thing that has ballooned over the past thirty years, while the City's population has remained stable, is the City's payroll.

It's time for City Manager Kimball to get back to some old-fashioned priorities:  Residents and taxpayers first, City staff second.  Tell Mayor Heartwell and the City Commission to keep our parks and neighborhoods healthy and safe this summer.

Comments

[Charlene Truszkowski]

I wrote to Corky Overmyer regarding the proposal by Kimball to stop mosquito spraying for WNV in Grand Rapids. Here is my first response to Mr. Overmyer's e-mail which is below.
(I will send my second e-mail response next)

To Corky Overmyer:

It would seem to me that the numbers speak for themselves. Before the control program in 2002 the County had 57 reported cases -
After the control program was implemented in 2003 the County had 0 cases.

Now you are going to wait until the numbers go up before you take action again?!!!

This is totally irresponsible.

I can only hope you don't regret this decision.

If the case of WNV begin to rise again, I promise you, I will personally organize and spearhead a public-interest organization of concerned citizens and heads will roll!

Charlene Truszkowski
chartist@myexcel.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Overmyer, Corky
To: 'chartist@myexcel.com'
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 2:36 PM
Subject: FW: West Nile Virus Inquiries

Thank you so much for your interest and questions concerning our WNV Plan. I would like to provide you with some important information about this matter that you may or may not have access to. My department (Environmental Protection Services) was assigned the responsibility for addressing this matter within the City of Grand Rapids several years ago and I believe that I should be the one to provide you with the rationale we used this year to make the decision to delete this program.

We have worked diligently and cooperatively as a partner with the Kent County Public Health Department and its Environmental Health staff since WNV appeared in our region. We routinely partner and cooperate with other agencies whenever we possibly can since this type of strategy provides the best service for our citizens and maximizes the benefits when expenditures of limited public dollars are required. These County agencies are directly responsible for managing public health in the County and were the experts concerning this disease and its causes when it appeared in the metro area. I personally attended several mosquito abatement workshops and seminars with the County Drain Commissioner and his staff as well as the County's Environmental Health staff to gain more knowledge about this health problem and we all heard many excellent research papers on the causes/effects of this disease. Staff at Michigan State University and Michigan Department of Public Health all seemed to be sending a strong message that the disease was manifested primarily in urban areas and that dirty stormwater catch basins in these areas were one of the main breeding locations for the particular strain of mosquito that was found transmitting the virus. However, when these "experts" were pressed for the scientific evidence supporting this theory, that urban catch basins were any more responsible for this problem than private catch basins in parking lots, dirty gutters and downspouts in residential neighborhoods, bird baths, discarded tires, and other typical wet urban environments, they were not able to substantiate that this source was any more liable than any other. As a result of our supposition that the City's catch basins might be a real cause for the problem and given the highly publicized risk to our citizens, we immediately decided to develop a science-based integrated pest management plan that worked in conjunction with the normal maintenance and housekeeping practices we already applied to our stormwater system. The County obligated their staff to public education activities and monitoring as well as informing other governmental agencies in the County that a comprehensive larvaciding program might be in order. We presented the City's plan at a City Commission work session and had the City Commission formally adopt it to demonstrate to our citizens that we were taking responsible actions to address the health agencies' warnings about the disease. While no funds were budgeted for this effort, the matter was treated as an emergency operation and the necessary funds were provided from the City's General Fund by the City Commission so we could proceed with our work. Our program was based on monitoring data collected on random catch basins throughout the City that would tell us when to trigger our control procedures and when to stop. We believed this data would help health agencies and the scientific community determine if urban catch basin treatment would have any impact on the spread of this disease. The Environmental Protection Service Department (EPSD) contracted with a private business working with Kent County to collect water temperature data and monitor catch basins for mosquitoes in areas known to have "positive" dead birds and known human cases of WNV from the preceding year's data in Kent County. We targeted our efforts where we knew the virus was detected the previous year and we reasoned that by cleaning all the catch basins within a 1000-1500 ft. radius of these locations, we could eliminate the "dirty water" habitat known to breed the mosquito and might put off the need to spend the extra dollars for larvaciding. We continued monitoring water temperatures and the cleaned catch basins until we found mosquito larvae present and then began treating catch basins in the targeted areas. We researched the most environmentally safe product available and made the decision to only use this product in an effort to not upset the ecological balance or cause environmental damage with harmful chemical treatments within our neighborhoods. Over the past couple of years, this strategy has produced good control of mosquitoes in public catch basins and provided a cost-effective and science-based approach to the benefit of our citizens. My staff and I knew that we could scientifically prove to the public that the City's catch basins were not producing mosquitoes that might spread WNV in the City.

As you probably know, the virus has seemingly been "under control" here over the past couple of years but still infected two (2) residents in Kent County last year in spite of spending approximately $200,000 in Grand Rapids. Our WNV plan is science-based and built on the concept of continuous improvement and best management practices. In order to keep refining and improving it, feedback is necessary from the health and scientific communities as to what is making the most impact and where should we be spending this money for the best impact. This scientific feedback has not generated any evidence that demonstrates whether control of urban catch basin habitat is having any impact on public health other than a demonstrated absence of mosquitoes in the public Rights-of -Way. Scientists have not been able to accurately state what is happening to the virus, the mosquito populations, or avian carriers yet and therefore leave us with many questions. There is no way to know where someone may contract WNV given the wide ranging travel boundaries of humans, and unless everyone does the same treatment everywhere, the best solutions for controlling this problem seems lie with individual prevention measures no matter where they are.

Logic begs answers for these questions as we wrestle with how to handle this issue in the most responsible manner to the largest benefit for our citizens:

n What about all the other urban sources that do not get treated and are breeding the same mosquitoes, maybe in higher concentrations than City catch basins?

n What about other governmental jurisdictions that do not treat and that abut City boundaries?

n What about private sources of mosquito habitat that receive no treatment and that lie outside the public Right-of-Way?

n What if a Grand Rapids citizen travels into an "uncontrolled" State, County, City, neighbor's back yard, or his/her own backyard, and contracts WNV?

n In 2002, the County had 57 reported cases of WNV with 4 deaths; in 2003, the County had 0 reported cases and 0 deaths; in 2004, the County had 2 reported cases with 0 deaths; what is causing the reduced WNV threat and does our expenditure of over $200,000 relate to these reductions in a positive way?

n Are the weather conditions different; the bird population more immune to the disease; the mosquitoes no longer tolerating the virus in their systems, or are humans becoming immune to the disease over time?

n Where should monies be spent to achieve the greatest public benefit?

I hope this information provides you with some assurances that the decision not to fund this program was not made without careful evaluation of the scientific data we have available to us at this time nor was it an easy decision to reach. WNV is a scary and illusive disease as is the case with most public health threats. At this time, we believe that the various agencies responsible for protecting public health have the tracking and monitoring systems in place to control the spread of this disease like others that have suddenly presented a potentially large threat to our citizens. State statistics drop from 644 reported human cases with 51 deaths in 2002 to approximately 13 cases with no deaths in 2004, which documents the good work of citizens and public officials alike to control this disease until more is learned about it in the scientific community. We will continue working with the State and County's health agencies to stay on top of this threat and should the need arise, we are prepared to again initiate emergency measures to fight the spread of this disease across our City. Again, thank you for your interest in this important issue and I trust that you will contact me (456-4636) or my Assistant Director, Randall Fisher (456-3638) if you have any other concerns about this matter.

[Charlene Truszkowski]

Here is me second response to Mr Overmyer:

City of Grand Rapids, MI
Director EPSD
Cortland Overmyer


Dear Corky,

Your wrote:


Money, that's what this is really all about - isn't it? Not about protecting the populace - just about having to cut spending.

You mean to tell me that the folks of this city aren't worth protecting at only $1.00 per person for the whole year? This is exactly what taxpayer monies should be spent on!!!! - especially since this could lead to an epidemic outbreak if not controlled by the simple means we have available to prevent such an outbreak from occurring.

Your reasoning is backwards. Read my lips, "the numbers speak for themselves, the numbers speak for themselves, the numbers speak for themselves". They are the proof that shows a huge decrease in the amount of mosquitoes in town by well over 90% in each of the last 2 years as a result of treating the catch basins with a larvicide.

If I got a look at the city's books I'll bet I could find a lot of things that will be kept in place and that us poor chumps will end up paying for which are so trivial compared to the importance of this one single issue.

I'll tell you what. Since you can't be sure whether "our residents might not get bitten by a mosquito coming across our border from another community" then I suggest you spend our tax money to hire guards and place them along the border to protect our citizens from illegal mosquitos.

I am sorry for being so cynical and nasty, it really isn't my nature to be like this but your lack of logic and reasoning ability just completely astounds me.

I am not proposing that we need to maintain the program indefinitely. But we should continue it for a few more years at least.

I think we better keep in touch about this issue because I intend to watch over it very closely. I have a plan in mind for keeping tabs on any new cases of WNV and making sure they are immediately reported to the news media.

Sincerely,
Charlene Truszkowski


----- Original Message -----
From: Overmyer, Corky
To: 'Charlene Truszkowski'
Cc: Heartwell, George ; Jendrasiak, Jim ; Kimball, Kurt ; DeLong, Eric ; Fisher, Randall ; Dave Kraker (Dave.Kraker@kentcounty.org)
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 4:46 PM
Subject: RE: West Nile Virus Inquiries

Thanks for your quick reply. I'm afraid that I may not have clearly articulated my point. Through the expenditure of significant public dollars on something we don't even know contributes to the problem for sure, we may have accomplished something that no one can verify. (Sorry, I just wanted to see what my thoughts about this actually looked like in writing-what a mess! HA!) I'll try again...

My staff and I have to account for every dollar we spend-the monies belong to you and other taxpayers and I believe it is my responsibility as a department director to insure you someway that I have diligently carried out my responsibilities so that you trust me and the work of my staff and you know that we are working on your behalf to accomplish the greatest benefits for the least amount of money. My frustration is that I can't seem to document anything positive from anyone in this project to know beyond the shadow of doubt that we did the right thing-and no one in the science or health communities can seem to prove that either. We don't even know that the 57 cases we started with in 2002 were contracted in Kent County, St. Louis, or Israel-this is only where the victims ended up becoming ill! Michigan has mosquitoes that carry the virus-we know that for fact. We know that Kent County has mosquitoes and birds that have tested positive for WNV as do many other places across the country. We know that over the past 3 years, confirmed cases have dropped-WHY? That's all I'm trying to determine so I know whether to continue spending your money on this work. Lots and lots of governmental agencies, including the State, have taken the approach to simply educate citizens to be careful and have not spent anything on better data collection, more research, or prevention. No one has offered to provide any monies to local governments for helping to control this state-wide problem. While residents in Grand Rapids spent close to $200K last year, residents in other surrounding townships and cities spent nothing because of the news that the cases were low again! Where did the confirmed cases in GR/Kent County come from last year? What species of mosquito bit them? Where did it bite them? Did anyone else get bit in the same area and not get the disease? Do you see why this is so hard to know what to do and in the right amount?

Last year, to my knowledge, Grand Rapids was the only community that chose to apply larvacide in its catch basins. In 2002 everyone did around us-in 2003 only a few applied, and in 2004 only GR did, I think! Should we continue spending our taxpayers' money without knowing that it is doing any good or that our residents might not get bitten by a mosquito coming across our border from another community that chooses to spend their monies elsewhere?

Again, if you would like to discuss this further, please call me and we can discuss this further. I don't want you to make the effort on organizing any group without knowing all the facts and allow yourself to sit in my chair for a moment. Given all the data available to me at this time, this is the right decision for the monies Grand Rapids has available for next year.

Please remember to wear long sleeves and mosquito repellent when outside and tell your neighbors and family to do the same-I'm doing this for my family and friends too and advising my 135 employees to do the same as they work outdoors. Thanks for your input.