GREAT LAKES ISSUES

INVASIVE SPECIES

About every eight months, a new, non-native specie comes into the Great Lakes, challenging the natural ecosystem.  They are suspected to come in through ships’ ballast.  Recently, the invasive zebra mussel has significantly decreased the amount of Diporeia shrimp present in Lake Michigan.  Ninety-four percent of this major food source has been killed in the past ten years and now Lake Huron has seen a 57% decrease in its Diporeia population in the last three years.  Not only do they hurt the natural ecosystems of the Great Lakes, invasive species like the Zebra mussel clog pipes and drains, causing detrimental harm to utility and manufacturing industries.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service believes that the economic impact of the zebra mussel in the next ten years will be around $5 billion.  Water fleas, sea lamprey, and Asian carp also threaten the Great Lakes.  To combat further invasion of Asian carp into Lake Michigan, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal set up an electric fence to keep them out, as these fish spread quickly across the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

POLLUTION

A major threat to the Great Lakes is pollution.  There is a lot of harmful runoff from soil and farm chemicals as well as waste from cities.  Discharge from industrial areas and disposal sites negatively impacts the Great Lakes as well.  Also, because a relatively small amount of water flows out of the Great Lakes, the pollution that enters stays there and becomes more concentrated over time.  In 2007, BP Amoco was granted permission to increase the amount of ammonia by 54% and industrial sludge by 35% it dumps into Lake Michigan each day.  It still fell under federal regulations, but many Chicago environmentalists protested the permission of toxic dumping which resulted in BP promising not to take advantage of the newly granted permission.  In May 2011, environmental groups sued the Chicago Water Reclamation District for the release of untreated sewage into the local waterways.  They claim that this release causes algae blooms, which end up inhibiting any other growth in Midwestern rivers as well as contributes to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

GREAT LAKES WATER USE AND DIVERSIONS

Because so many people, states, and countries rely on the water and ecosystems of the Great Lakes, the use of that water and plans to divert it can cause international dispute.  Some diversions are permitted, including a diversion through the Chicago River for the Illinois Waterway.  There was a plan in 1998 for the Canadian company Nova Group to take 158,000,000 US gallons of Lake Superior water each year and bring it to Asia.  However, due to great public opposition, the plan was discontinued.  Since then, the Great Lakes governors and the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have agreed to prevent almost all future diversion proposals, especially long distance ones, through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.  In 2005, those agreements were signed.

COAST GUARD LIVE FIRE EXERCISES

In 2006, the United States Coast Guard proposed a plan to have a practice range for machine guns 5 miles off shore in 34 areas in the Great Lakes.  Their plan was to designate this area as live fire shooting range and hold practices there after a two-hour warning to the pubic was issued.  When the USCG would not be using the area, it would be open to the public.  According to studies done by the USCG, lead level impacts as a result of firing practice would be negligible over a five-year period.  However, because people opposed the plan due to unknown longer-term results of the firing practice, the USCG withdrew the plan in late 2006.

GREAT LAKES COLLABORATION IMPLEMENTATION ACT

In 2006, US Senators Mike DeWine and Carl Levin and US Representatives Vern Ehlers and Rahm Emanuel introduced the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act into Congress in order to restore and maintain the Great Lakes as recommended by the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.  As evidence for the need for restoration and maintenance, the bill used the closing of over 1,800 beaches, the 6,3000 square mile dead zone in Lake Erie, and the $500 million yearly damage that the zebra mussel causes.  The bill also was designed to stop the spread and introduction of invasive species including Asian carp, phase out mercury, restore animal ecosystems, and prevent sewage contamination.  Unfortunately, the bill did not pass.  Subsequent efforts to pass the bill have also failed.

ADDITIONS TO THE FIVE GREAT LAKES

In March 1998, President Clinton named Lake Champlain the sixth of Great Lakes.  However within the month, that name was rescinded due to public opposition and skepticism, both Canadian and American. 

AREAS OF CONCERN IN LAKE MICHIGAN

• ·      Manistique River
• ·      Menominee River
• ·      Fox River (Southern Green Bay)
• ·      Sheboygan River
• ·      Milwaukee Estuary
• ·      Waukegan Harbor
• ·      Grand Calumet River
• ·      Kalamazoo River
• ·      Muskegon Lake
• ·      White Lake

Additional Links for Great Lakes Issues

From the Chicago Tribune
Flooding likely to spread Asian carp
Mississippi flooding may have spread invasive fish
Chicago river cleanup required
New season, new weapons in Asian carp battle
Feds probe chronic sewage overflows into lake, streams
Asian carp battle lands in federal courtroom
Toxic sites take years, decades to clean up
BP dumps mercury in lake
EPA backs BP dumping
EPA will ask BP to offset pollution

From the Post-Tribune: A Chicago Sun-Times Publication
Raising Lakes Huron, Michigan would be costly

From the New York Times
The Round Goby, an Uninvited Resident of the Great Lakes, Is Doing Some Good
Fight Against Asian Carp Threatens Fragile Great Lakes Unity
Water Levels in 3 Great Lakes Dip Far Below Normal
Ban Near on Diverting Water From Great Lakes
Fish-Killing Virus Spreading in the Great Lakes
Great Lakes Article Collection