The Water Chronicles

March 10, 2010

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The Great Lakes -- Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario -- and their connecting channels form the largest fresh surface water system on earth. If you stood on the moon, you could see the lakes and recognize the familiar wolf head shape of Lake Superior, or the mitten bounded by lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie. Covering more than 94,000 square miles and draining more than twice as much land, these Freshwater Seas hold an estimated 6 quadrillion gallons of water, about one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water supply and nine-tenths of the U.S. supply.

This system greatly affects all aspects of the natural environment, from weather and climate, to wildlife and habitat. Yet for all their size and power, the Great Lakes are fragile. In the past, this fragile nature wasn't recognized, and the lakes were mistreated for economic gain, placing the ecosystem under tremendous stress from our activities.
Great Lakes Information Network

After years of struggle by leading environmental activists, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact was finally legalized in December 2008 after all eight states and the two provinces of the Basin had signed. Still, many people feel that the Compact has too many loopholes which facilitate commercial exploitation of the water. While it virtually outlaws large-scale water diversion, so long as the water is exported in containers of 20L or less - such as in plastic bottles - then other states or countries have relatively easy access to the water.

However, with the inauguration of president Barack Obama, many hope that the senator from Illinois will understand the need to protect these important resources. He has already pledged $475 million to the rehabilitation of the Great Lakes. If Congress gives the okay, then the money will be spread among various organizations and agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation.

The money will be used to deal with some of the biggest issues recently concerning the Great Lakes. This includes cleaning up toxic substances and “areas of concern?(31% funds allocation), habitat and wildlife protection (22%), prevention of near-shore pollution such as farm runoff and erosion (20%), and keeping out or removing invasive species (13%). The rest of the money will also go towards monitoring progress and accountability.

Ontario authorities have also made steps in the right direction. At a summit in Toronto on May 5, Ontario ministers and mayors from the Great Lakes region officially banded together to work towards the rehabilitation of the Great Lakes. Arising from the mayors' five-point report, the main issues that they will be working towards are improving and promoting their beaches and shorelines as great tourist spots, dealing with and controlling the explosive algae growth, reducing untreated storm water and sewage discharges, encouraging business investment, and making a cross-governmental co-operative group to manage policies and actions.

The federal government is also being invited to participate, as are non-governmental organizations, other municipalities, aboriginal communities and businesses around the Great Lakes. Previously, local governments had largely been the ones investing in the Great Lakes?health, at approximately two billion dollars a year.

While water levels and climate change are still controversial concerns, the problem of invasive species is also appearing prominently on the environmental agenda. When oceangoing vessels drop off their cargo, they have to take in ballast water to maintain stabilization. Organisms get taken in as well, and when the weight is dumped into the lakes as the ship picks up a new load, all those foreign plants, animals, bacteria and viruses get put into the ecosystem as well. Invaders such as zebra mussels, quagga mussels, round goby fish, and the spiny water flea then proceed to snuff out local species and carpet the once clear lake floor, clogging industrial and municipal water intake systems. The Asian carp is another formidable fish that starves out native creatures by eating all the food. They were introduced to fish farms in the south to suck up excess plankton, but they escaped into the Mississippi River system and eventually made their way to the Great Lakes area.

There are now 188 identified invasive species within the Great Lakes. Each year, they cost tax-payers hundreds of millions of dollars. Luckily, the Canadian federal government and a few of the lakeside American states have been slowly implementing regulations that require incoming ships to exchange foreign ballast water for salt water or that the water must be treated prior to dumping.

As a major point of trade, transportation, tourism and recreation, the lakes are an essential component of our economy and society, and need to be protected. They are invaluable and irreplaceable mines of what is now commonly being referred to as blue gold.

Update: Sabrina Jade Doyle - 5/25/09