Sewage Contamination and Beach Closings

New Report: Solving Region’s Sewage Crisis Will Create Jobs, Restore Great Lakes

Reversing federal wastewater infrastructure deficit, investing in “green” solutions key to tackling sewage overflows—serious public health threat

Failure to Address $23 Billion Backlog Could Hamper Restoration Efforts

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (Aug. 9, 2010) —The Great Lakes are under siege from sewage pollution, four decades after Congress passed the federal Clean Water Act, according to a new report from the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. (Click here to download the report.)

According to the report, “Turning the Tide: Investing in Wastewater Infrastructure to Create Jobs and Solve the Sewage Crisis in the Great Lakes,” communities that rely on the Great Lakes for Read More » »

Congress Considers Opening the Spigot for Safe Drinking Water

The Great Lakes serve up drinking water for 40 million people, but the region’s infrastructure is old and in need of improvement. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the Great Lakes need about $75 billion to fix our aging system that controls our drinking water.

This week, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce introduced legislation that would increase funding for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund – a program that gives states loans for drinking water treatment, storage facilities, transmission and distribution systems and for consolidation of the systems.

Congressmen Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Read More » »

IJC meeting to focus on sewage overflows and other water quality problems affecting the Great Lakes

Fish on pharmaceuticals, alien invaders and poo in the Great Lakes will be on the agenda  Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 7-8) when the International Joint Commission hold its  biennial meeting in Windsor, Ontario.

The commission, which mediates Great Lakes and other border issues between the U.S.  and Canada, will discuss several weighty issues facing the lakes, including: Invasive  species, chemicals of emerging concern (fish on Prozac and other drugs), sewage  overflows and water quality.

The commission’s meeting will focus largely on its 14th Biennial report on Great Lakes Water Quality.

It was fitting that a photo of a sewage treatment plant graced the Read More » »

Good Vibrations

Good vibrations are rolling across Capitol Hill as the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee prepares to take up the reauthorization of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 tomorrow. HOW and the NRDC are collecting signatures on a letter regarding this legislation until noon today so sign on if you have time.

The legislation funds beach water monitoring programs that update the public on health issues associated with beach activities. We support the legislation and hope no amendments weaken it. Beach tourism is big business in the Great Lakes States during the summer months and provides numerous Read More » »

Caution: Great Lakes may be Hazardous to Your Health

With her dying breath, Nancy Nichols sister asked her to write a book telling the world that her rare ovarian cancer was the result of years of living near, swimming in and eating fish from Waukegan Harbor on Lake Michigan.

Not only did Nancy write Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town’s Toxic Legacy but she also learned she had pancreatic cancer while researching for the book. Ms. Nichols recently discussed her story with National Public Radio host Diane Rehm–you can listen to the interview here. There is no prior history of Read More » »

Sewage and Beach Closings

During one week in May 2004, more than ten billion gallons of raw sewage and stormwater were dumped into the Great Lakes by the cities of Milwaukee and Detroit through Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). Heavy rains overwhelmed the sewer systems, exceeding the capacity of the treatment plants and requiring the operators to bypass the treatment systems and send the stormwater and sewage mixture directly into the lakes.

Sewage overflows put bacteria like e. coli and cryptosporidium directly into the lakes, resulting in closed beaches and potential drinking water contamination. In 1993, Milwaukee suffered the Read More » »

Sewage Report Card: Not Looking Good for Great Lakes

The Sierra Legal Defence Fund based in Canada released a new report today that details how Great Lakes cities are fouling the lakes with sewage.

Here’s an eye-opening (and nose-pinching) clip from the press release:

“The Great Lakes basin is one of the most important freshwater ecosystems on the planet – holding one fifth of the world’s freshwater,” said report author Dr. Elaine MacDonald. “Yet, the twenty cities we evaluated are dumping the equivalent of more than 100 Olympic swimming pools full of raw sewage directly into the Great Lakes every single day.”

The report grades municipalities on their efforts to Read More » »