Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

           

           The issue at hand is that water is becoming less of a necessity to sustain and keep fresh, and companies and people are polluting our waters.  This makes water unlivable for life in the water, like fish, and undrinkable for humans.  The Great Lakes are a huge source of freshwater for Americans that live near them, so we need to keep them fresh and safe for all life.  The legislation has been proposed to address this issue with the H.R.425 Great Lakes Water Protection Act, which is to “amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to establish a deadline for restricting sewage dumping into the Great Lakes and to fund programs and activities for improving wastewater discharges into the Great Lakes”.

            Everyone is affected by the issue of polluting freshwater sources like the Great Lakes.  It may affect those living near the Great Lakes sooner than other Americans, but it would eventually affect everyone if the Great Lakes ever became too contaminated to use and drink.  This also obviously affects all the wildlife that may live in the Great Lakes or drink from them.  Life in the Great Lakes can grow tumors, become deformed, get sick, and even die.  Humans that consume life living in the Great Lakes can become sick with Persistant Organic Pollutants, too.  Children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems are affected the most.  We ultimately, as Americans and humans, lose a huge resource for freshwater if we keep polluting it.  The only thing anyone can “gain” from this issue is that large companies or people that are polluting them can “get rid” of the junk they are dumping in the lakes (1).

            The biggest consequences for people that live close to the Great Lakes is we would have to find other resources of drinking water and take that from somewhere else, which will affect the people we are taking from as well.  Losing such a large amount of freshwater would affect families because some may want to move away from their homes near one of the lakes, since the water is not safe to use.  As a society, it would affect the towns near the Great Lakes because, as I said before, we would need to find another source of safe water to us (1).

            Economic costs concerning pollution in the Great Lakes would be loss of commercial fishing, which causes problems for the fisher and the public.  There is less local fish available for the people to purchase, and fishermen are either limited to what they can catch or may not be able to fish at all depending on how much pollution there is.  There can be higher costs to treating the water to make it consumable for humans, and if there is a large spill of a harmful chemical or substance in the Great Lakes, it would cost a lot to clean that up.  The only people that “benefit” from the Great Lakes being polluted would be the companies.  These companies might not have to pay a large fee (if anything) to dump their waste into our lakes, streams, or anywhere else that the pollutants might someday reach our lakes, which makes it very desirable for them to do so (2).

            As for social impacts, this affects the public and their health.  People living near the Great Lakes may not be able to swim or do other activities in the lakes, and they might not be able to drink the water if it was polluted enough.  Higher health services would be needed if the pollutants became a health issue to humans, too.  In my opinion, no one socially “benefits” from the Great Lakes being polluted (2).

            The barrier of this issue is trying to monitor what goes into the Great Lakes and who puts it there.  In reality, anyone could just go up to Lake Superior and dump some sort of nasty chemical into it.  This makes it difficult to point the finger on who the exact culprit it.  One way this can be overcome is by enforcing the Great Lakes Water Protection Act.

            As for overcoming this water pollution problem, we (Great Lakes locals) can be the resources to help correct this issue.  There is a website I found that offers 12 great ways to help clean up our water.  Some of the tips include properly disposing of hazardous wastes, using natural fertilizers, and be an activist.  Being an activist is probably the best way to get new laws and regulations built for water pollution control (3).

            The Great Lakes becoming polluted is actually what caused the Great Lakes Water Quality Act and the Clean Water Act to come into action in the 1970’s.  Pollution became a huge issue in the summer of 1969 when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire due to the high pollution.  This river runs from Cleveland, Ohio, which makes its way to Lake Erie as well.  Although these two agreements have been put into order and water pollution has gone down since then, there is still pollution that exists in our Great Lakes (1). 

            I believe that all local residents in Duluth would approve of fixing this issue by voting “yes” for the Great Lakes Water Protection Act, as well as all the other local residents living near any of the Great Lakes.  The only people who I believe would be opposed to this issue would be any large factories or companies that are actively dumping their wastes into the Great Lakes.  I think the best way to get a “win-win” situation out of this issue is to get companies that are dumping waste into the lakes more aware of what they are doing to the Great Lakes.  Communities living around these lakes should become more aware of the issue, too.  I think creating better resources for companies and other people dumping waste into the Great Lakes would help the pollution problem.  If these people knew of a place where they can get rid of their waste without harming the environment, this would help the pollution problem immensely. 

            My recommendation is that everyone should vote “yes” for the Great Lakes Water Protection Act.  Tighter restrictions on water pollution control will benefit our communities and the Great Lakes.

Resources:

1) http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/pollution/water/water1.html

2) http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch8en/conc8en/table_waterpollutionexternalities.html

3) http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/gsteps.asp

4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Water_Act

5) http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/glwqa/usreport/part2.html