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:
