Allison McFeely

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The Pollution of
the Great Lakes

• Allison McFeely

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What will I be presenting?

• 18 of the worlds supply of water
• Largest fresh surface water system on Earth
• Supports many people and wildlife

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Lake Erie, The Detroit River and Lake St. Clair
Lake St. Clair
Detroit River
Lake Erie
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Objectives

• How did the Great Lakes become a degraded
  ecosystem?
• What was done in response to water quality
  concerns?
• How effective were those responses?

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How did this happen?

• Retreating glaciers 10,000 years ago
• Left behind sediment and nutrients that made the
  land fertile
• Native people lived with the ecosystem
• European settlers came in on tributaries, left
  with valuable natural resources

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• The Second Wave of European Settlers
• Logged
• Farmed
• Commercially fished
• Built sawmills
• Clear cut forests

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20th century

• Industrialization progressed
• New chemicals introduced to ecosystem
• 1920s PCBs (pesticide)
• 1940s DDT (pesticide)
• 1950s phosphorus (detergents fertilizer)
• Massive algae blooms
• Depleted oxygen levels
• Eutrophication (especially Lake Erie)

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• People began to realize the poor shape the
  environment was in

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Response to Water Quality Concerns

• Target loads established
• Areas of concern pin pointed
• 1972 The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

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1980s Target Loads

• The amount of a pollutant that may be assimilated
  by the environment
• Biological accumulation in the food chain
• Eating wildlife is more dangerous than drinking
  water

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Areas of Concern

• Uniform standard across jurisdictional boundaries
• 1981 Water Quality Board said
• Any locality where agreement
• objectives and/or standards of
• the local jurisdiction were
• exceeded or desired water
• quality objectives could not be
• obtained

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Detroit River (AOC)

• Lost over 95 of its coastal wetland habitat
• It still has one of the highest diversities of
  wildlife and fish in all the Great Lakes
• It is estimated that 300,000 diving ducks stop in
  this area to rest and feed during their fall
  migration from Canada

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Detroit River (AOC)

• Major sources of pollution
• Steel production
• Detroit Sewage Treatment Plant
• By establishing these sources, the pollution
  could be controlled

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Steel Mill on the Detroit River
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The Water Quality Agreement

• U.S. and Canada
• Emphasized avoidance of toxic substances
• Whole ecosystem approach

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1987 revisions

• Began to track which nutrients entered the lake
• Set a goal of unimpaired use
• Populations became more stable, indicating a
  better quality habitat

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How effective was this?

• Nuisance conditions were less frequent
• Oil slicks began to disappear
• Floating debris began to disappear
• Dissolved oxygen levels improved
• Fewer odors of decaying substances allowed
  beaches to reopen
• Algal mats depleted as nutrient levels declined

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A Problem that Requires a Whole Ecosystem Approach

• Invasive species a specie that takes over a
  habitat by out competing the native species
• Ballast tanks take up billions of tiny crabs,
  fish, clams, plants and other organisms that are
  then released into the Great Lakes
• Over a dozen invasive species of aquatic plants,
  fish, and mollusks already exist

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Atlantic Erie - Great Lakes Vessel
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What is being done?

• Michigan representative Candice Miller presented
  legislation that addresses the source of the
  problem
• Her legislation requires foreign ships to
  discharge 95 of ballast water in the ocean
  before entering the St. Lawrence Seaway.
• Do you feel this is a good approach?

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My view

• This legislation is effective for the entire
  ecosystem, so thats using an entire ecosystem
  approach, but
• It does not solve the problem of the dozen
  invasive species that are already present

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In Conclusion

• How did the Great Lakes become a degraded
  ecosystem?
• overtime, people abused the environment, and
  further degraded it when harmful chemicals were
  introduced
• What was done in response to water quality
  concerns?
• Many different techniques were used including
  legislation, and monitoring techniques.
• How effective were those responses?
• The Great Lakes ecosystem is doing much better,
  although some environmental damages are
  irreversible.

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The Future

• Weve come a long way, thanks to years of
  peoples dedication to the environment. It is
  only right to continue where they left off. What
  more can be done? The way I see it, our wasteful
  lifestyles threaten future life on this planet.
  Changing our lifestyles is the next barricade to
  conquer in the battle for a clean environment.