Billions of gallons of raw sewage flow into Great Lakes annually, report says

So That's Why the Bay is Green

The Great Lakes, subject of our favorite mnemonic device (HOMES), is being contaminated by homes -- and other places where people poo. According to a report released today, 20 cities release billions of gallons of raw sewage into the lakes every year, enough to fill 37,000 Olympic-size pools. The report's authors say that's just a taste of the issue; the cities they assessed represent only a third of the region's 35 million residents, many of whom rely on the lakes for drinking water. "It's appalling," says report author Elaine MacDonald, a staff scientist with Sierra Legal Defense Fund. "I think countries as wealthy as Canada and the U.S. can do a hell of a lot better." In many cases, outdated systems can't handle both sewage and stormwater, so cities divert sewage when it rains. The worst offenders are Detroit ("quite a quagmire," says MacDonald), Cleveland, and Windsor, Ontario. Among the best: Ontario's Peel Region and Green Bay, Wisc. Which, sadly, renders our headline inaccurate.

straight to the source: The Globe and Mail, Martin Mittelstaedt, 29 Nov 2006

straight to the source: Sierra Legal Defense Fund media release, 29 Nov 2006

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Uplake and Down

One thing that's interesting about this story is that it points up the fact the Lakes Erie and Ontario get hit particularly hard (the rest of the lakes are uplake from Detroit-Windsor-Cleveland). Since fresh water is a necessity of life and the Great Lakes hold 95% of the US's surface supply, the time for the resources of the federal and Canadian governments to be brought to bear on this problem is yesterday.

by mightymight at 4:55 AM on 30 Nov 2006

Yes Wisconsin is fairly green

All that sewage growing extra algae and weeds that then add to sediments, then those sediments undergoing aneroebic digestion from the increased nitrogen due to manure, chemical fertilizer, and human waste runnoff.

And the methane released is a greenhouse gas 20 times worse than cO2.

What is the alternative (practiced in Wisconsin)? Manure and farm waste turned into biogas that generates grid electricity, turning the methane into cO2 before it's released.

All sewage ought to be treated the same way and the organic fertilizer from these digestors should be used to replace chemical fertilier that runns off lawns and farm fields into the lakes. that organic fertilizer locks itself into the soil, unlike chemical fertilizer.

Of coures it would be even better to use that biogas in fuel cell/turbines at three times the normal efficiency of a power plant and recycle the CO3 through algae solar collector biofuel systems.

And harvest weeds and algae overgrowth in the lakes to feed the digestors and make even more biogas as it cleans up the more polluted parts of the lakes.

This sort of renewable backup for the grid saves chemical fertlizer, oil by producing biodiesel, coal by replacing regular power plant capacity, the lakes, and lots of methane and cO 2 GHG emissions.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 7:11 AM on 30 Nov 2006

This is Very Old News

Activists in Michigan have been yelling about this for decades. It's about time you guys listened. Here in Grand Rapids we have regular overflows of the sewer system which pours into the Grand River and eventually flows in to Lake Michigan. Our congressman, Vern Ehlers (a Republican!) launched a $20 Billion plan to fix these infrastructure problems 4 years ago. The Bush Administration nixed the plan in the final stages after years of hearings and public meetings in all the Great Lake states with EPA officials. I was present at a meeting at Grand Valley State University here in Grand Rapids with about 300 other folks, state of Michigan DEQ and DNR, the mayor, EPA and more. Everyone in West Michigan is aware of this, the vast majority voted Democrat. We can see the sewage and we can smell it. Do you know what undigested corn looks like floating downstream? The ducks and seagulls do! Don't pass this off as NEWS Grist, you've already missed the boat.

Jerome Alicki Black Bear Speaks http://blackbearspeaks.blogspot.com

by Black Bear Speaks at 8:01 PM on 30 Nov 2006

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