A study due out today by the Sierra Legal Defense Fund today grades various municipalities who live on the Great Lakes for their collection, treatment and disposal of sewage. The results were abysmal. Some 90 billion liters of raw sewage is pumped into the Great Lakes basin every year. Untreated effluent is, as this article on the report notes, is more than merely what is flushed down our toilets or poured down our drains. It ”is a foul cocktail of human waste, micro-organisms, disease-causing pathogens and hundreds of highly toxic chemicals.” Other recent studies have found trace levels of antibiotics and the chemicals used in the birth control pills in Lake Ontario.
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The obvious problem is that the Great Lakes also supply drinking water to the millions of people who live on the shores of its lakes. Similar to the global warming issue, or perhaps much more grave in terms of the direct health implications that polluted drinking water presents, we cannot continue to tamper recklessly with the delicate ecosystems that supply life for us on this planet without it catching up to us as a species.Â
Whooee! I hang my hat ’bout 8 miles due north o’ Lake Erie. Lucky fer me, my water comes from the creek an’ not from down at the lake. Most o’ the towns near here like Port Dover right on the lake get their water from that dirty ol’ toilet.
‘Round here, folks remember the 70’s when Lake Erie was declared “dead”. Since then, things seemed t’ be gettin’ better. The zebra mussels came in an’ ate up all the green slime. Sum fish, like pickerel, started makin’ enuff of a comeback that there’s a commercial fishery. The “No Swimmin’ ” signs ain’t been posted fer a few years.
Humans is dirty. And cheap. People ain’t willin’ t’ pay more taxes jest so’s they don’t poison the water with their shit an’ piss. First nations folks been livin’ with bad water fer generations. When folks in Ontariariario Nation an’ Q-Beck Nation an’ Michigan, Ohio an’ Noo York start dyin’ off in big enuff numbers, they’ll change their tune. By then, it’ll be too late.
JimBobby