What's the issue? Who is affected by this?
Large bodies of water like the Great Lakes are suffering due to pollution. This causes loss of fresh, clean water for all species and human use.
There are three different types of sources of pollution, according to Wikipedia:
Point-Source Pollution: Pollution that enters bodies of water directly.
Nonpoint-Source Pollution: Pollution that enters bodies of water through runoffs, streets, streams, etc. This is the hardest source of pollution to regulate and reduce.
Atmospheric Pollution: Pollution that enters bodies of water through the sky, like smoke or debri from plants or buildings.
Some interesting facts from the EPA website concerning our Great Lakes:
-"Each year, 24 billion gallons of sewage pollution are dumped into the Great Lakes".
-"According to the EPA, during 2009, U.S. Great Lakes beaches had 3,300 days of closings and advisories. Water quality monitoring showed that bacteria levels exceeded health and safety standards. In many cases, the bacteria came from city pollution and under treated sewage".
-" Recreational swimmers using any of the Great Lakes are cautioned about exposure to chemical pollutants and disease-causing microorganisms from sources such as untreated and poorly treated sewage".
That is really icky that we dump sewage into the great lakes. In my hometown, we had that problem with one of the small lakes. It was a particularly dry year so pipes were exposed and people found out what was happening with their sewage. The town had to pay to get them fixed. Many of the people didn't even know that it was where their sewage was going. The citizens of cities need to do their part and find out what is really going on with the lakes around them because if no one says anything than the people in charge can keep hiding secrets from the public.
ReplyDeleteI agree this is really disturbing actually. It's unfortunate to think that even though you may not pollute, or help to conserve the earth that others are not, so you are still suffering because of that. Just the other day i was driving to work, and I saw someone throw a MCD bag out of the window, and all I could think was, "are you kidding me?!"
ReplyDeleteNiki, your interesting facts were more than just interesting, they were shocking. 24 billion gallons of sewage pollution sounds really horrible. It's still scary to think this caused 3,300 days of closings or advisories in 2009, but not hard to imagine when you're talking billions of gallons of pollutants. People really need to know this information, because one you do, you really want to do something about it.
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