Areas of Concern

Boat Tour Stops in Erie, PA

The boat tour sails on. Erie, PA – home of Presque Isle Bay, the first Area of Concern to be designated by citizen petition, and the first to reach “Area of Recovery” status – hosted the Earth Voyager earlier this month. Checkout press hits below: http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/stcasx/va92win15111/VOYAGER061108.wmv/play.asx http://www.wicu12.com/news/index.vnss?newsid=5664 http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/NEWS02/806130377 http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS02/806120386/-1/NEWS

Don’t forget to sign the petition to the presidential candidates.

Almost There…

Fish in Deer Lake, Michigan have so much mercury running through their gills that they were banned from dinner plates in 1981, a century after Ropes Gold and Silver Company used liquid mercury to recover gold from ore just north of the basin of the Lake. But more recently, mercury salts were used by Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company in iron ore assays and made their way into the waters during this century. And that is just the mercury - we haven’t even mentioned the decades of untreated waste that was sent into this watershed. The fish weren’t the only Read More » »

Can’t Fish, Can’t Swim, What Can You Do?

Folks in Green Bay, Wisconsin only get a few months a year to enjoy the summer sunshine, but even then they can’t fish, boat, swim, hunt or recreate without restrictions. The mallard ducks and a dozen species of fish can’t be eaten and birds aren’t reproducing either. The economy is hurt by the fact that the harbor and channel can’t be dredged due to all the contaminated sediments. Eighteen counties and forty watersheds lie within this Area of Concern yet it lingers on the list and moves ever so slowly toward any restoration.

To read more about this Area of Concern, Read More » »

The Mystique of Manistique

A hundred years ago, lumber jacks rolled logs on the Manistique River that ends at the mouth of Lake Michigan. Today, the sawdust still sits in the riverbed and in the Lake harbor along with eroded sand from the years of log drives. Since those days, the river hasn’t fared much better, instead paper mills deliver PCB’s, small industry pollutes it further as does the waste water treatment plant and ferries, recreation boats and commercial fishing vessels. The result has been numerous beach closings, restrictions on eating fish or wildlife and the actual destruction of wildlife habitat.

To read more about Read More » »

Dirty Deal

Swaths of rich farmland and vibrant industrial areas dot the Saginaw River and Bay area – Michigan’s largest watershed- and they have used the abundant waters as a catch all for agricultural run-off and industrial pollution. The area drains 15 percent of Michigan’s land and contamination has led to degraded fisheries, a loss of recreational activities and an inability to eat the fish. The main problems with the sediments are nutrients from farm run-off, soil erosion and PCB’s. It is time to speed up the cleanup of this vital resource.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here Read More » »

Pollution Potion

The Sheboygan River AOC sits at the crossroad of three watersheds including itself, the Mullet River and the Onion River. This means that decades of agricultural and industrial pollution from three cities, eleven villages and seven towns gather in the Sheboygan River AOC making it a virtual cauldron bubbling with a disgusting stew of dangerous chemicals. The toxic recipe has created nuisance algal blooms, contaminated sediments and made the fish inedible. This AOC empties into Lake Michigan threatening the ecology of the Lake as well.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s Read More » »

Blame the Pioneers

You can blame American Pioneers for starting the destruction of the St. Louis River and Bay habitat, and later generations piled on the assault with industrialization, hazardous waste sites (that have since been abandoned), carelessly designed landfills that leak into the groundwater, chemical spills, overflowing untreated sewage and runoff. Nice! Nearly 8,000 acres of wetland and open water habitat have been destroyed since the first settlers arrived. Isn’t it time we take responsibility for our actions and return this AOC to its original pristine state before it is too late?

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here Read More » »

The Come Back River

At the turn of the last century, White fish would literally jump into hoisted nets of fishermen on the rapids of St. Mary’s River, but today, even if there were abundant fish willing to be netted they couldn’t be eaten. St. Mary’s River AOC has been contaminated with oil, grease, metals, ammonia, phenols, bacteria, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, cyanide and lead, and PAH’s by Algoma Steel, Ontario water pollution Control plants, sewer overflows, St. Mary’s Paper mill, industry and municipal discharges. The river also suffers from the ravages of the sea lamprey. To date, the worst aspects of this AOC Read More » »

A Copper for Your Lake?

Torch Lake sits in the midst of Copper Country – where copper was mined, milled, smelted and leached from the mid-1800s up to just 40 years ago. The production of 10.5 billion pounds of copper left in its wake stamp sands and slags and surficial materials melted into nearby waters. Researchers estimate that 200 million tons of copper ore tailings have been deposited into Torch Lake displacing nearly a quarter of the lake’s original volume. But remediation of this site is underway and progress is evident – another reason why the Great Lakes Legacy Act is instrumental and should be Read More » »

No Swimming, No Fishing, No Fun!

First it was the car makers polluting the River and watershed with PCBs and metals, and then there was the untreated poo flowing directly into the water, now the area is threatened anew by quick urban expansion – Oakland County leads Michigan in new construction – leaving wetlands and wildlife habitat nearly annihilated. Over the years, pesticides, PCBs and metals as well as other organics have been found in the sediments from Pontiac to the River’s mouth.

To read more about this Area of Concern, click here to go to the EPA’s website.

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