Pollution in the Great Lakes: An Historical Perspective Alison L. Spongberg, Ph.D. Professor Department of Environmental Sciences The University of Toledo
Take Home Message • The Great Lakes are… – Not Lakes • These ‘lakes’ are uniquely huge and young.
– Not Great • Not ‘infinite’.
– Not Ageless, or Unchanging • 4000 years ago we had whales and walruses
Early Exploration – 1600’s “Get the hell through the God-forsaken place and reach the Orient, where the money was, as rapidly and efficiently as possible.” Great Lakes were a 3000 mile long cheap and easy transportation route
Coronelli’s map of western New France -1688
Mid-1600’s – Infinite Furs One day’s catch of herring (1919)
One day’s kill of waterfowl (1880s)
Loss of beaver dams:
Beaver pelt
-
flow rates of rivers, spawning beds and marshes, fish and birds, siltation and flooding, rivers widened, trees fell, erosion increased, waters were muddied.
Inexhaustible fish and wildlife One day’s catch of herring (1919)
One day’s kill of waterfowl (1880s)
8 million whitefish were taken from L. Superior in 1903 alone.
By 1960’s < ½ million for all lakes 167 lb. Sturgeon (c. 1915)
Trees that went on forever
1835 - 1 mill needed 3 days to process 1 pine tree. 1890’s - 100 mills cutting > 1-billion board ft/year One pile of sawdust at Cheboygan was 40 feet high and one mile across Forests were played out by 1920’s
Mills were hydraulic: Atlantic salmon, whitefish, chub, blue pike gone or greatly diminished.
Recovery of forest at first brought a totally different ecosystem of trees…and the land they cleared wasn’t that good for agriculture anyway.
So clear cut were the forests that Frank Leverett did his landmark field work on Pleistocene glaciation in Michigan by horse and buggy.
Chicago – 1830 – 12 families Within 10 years – 5000 Within 20 years – 100,000 1900 – 2 million (second largest city – not surpassed until 1980)
Earliest fur cities Fort/trading post
• After the War of 1812 America’s Fifth Coast was opened for settlement – “Free Land”
Early Settlement Consequences • • • • • • • •
Sewage Pits – leaked into groundwater ‘Modern Conveniences’, Central Plumbing – Garbage piped to one location ‘Disposal’ – dumped directly into the lakes Just plain dirt LOTs of horse manure Smoke Soot Continued Logging Breaking sod
Maumee Bay State Park beaches were posted for high fecal bacteria (E. coli) levels a total of 288 days from 1986 through 2004.
Watershed is 80-320 x health standards following rain
Research of Daryl Dwyer, U. of Toledo
Problems are confounded by two unusual geographic features 1. Drainage systems are small with uncertain watersheds. – Streams wander – 100 rivers flow into L. Michigan, only 8 have flows > 1000 cu. ft./sec • Potomac = 12,000 cfs • Ohio @ Louisville = 114,000 cfs
Small sluggish streams do not have the capacity or power to move sewage from even a little city.
2. Huge size of the lakes leads to a sense of ‘invulnerability’ With 10,000 miles of shoreline, just move elsewhere!! - Chicago’s water intake is >4 miles offshore - Toronto’s is >5 km.
http://ensia.com/f eatures/for-greatlakes-sakes/
1850 – Rivers were ‘turgid’ Cities were in protected harbors and river mouths – precisely where we find the richest environmental diversity and value Direct environmental alteration: Filled wetlands Constructed breakwaters Paved soil
• By the 20th Century, nearly every water course along US North Coast had been dredged • Many had been straightened • Mouth bars had been removed – Major modifications in Chicago
1840’s – Great Lakes Mining
• Iron Ore discovered by accident, along with copper, – Ohio and Erie Canals and early railroads.
Hull-Rust Mine at Hibbing “Grand Canyon of the Mid-West” Steel manufacturing requires:
Coke: from coal, (which produces ammonia, coal tar, methane) Mo, Cr, V, Ni, cyanide, acids, etc. Fluorite Limestone
Water and Power
http://www.investmentu.com/article/detail/32414/usnuclear-power-plants-going-the-way-of-coal-plants
Coal-fired power plants
- Current mining projects
http://web.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/mining/Minneso ta_mining/images/BasinMinesMap_GreatLakesIndianFishAndWildlifeCo mmission_450.jpg
Mercury
GLEAM
http://www.briloon.org/mercuryconnections/greatlakes
Other Industries
• Glass manufacturing since the late 19th century. • Steel and automobile industries remain important. • The first large oil and gas field in North America was discovered in northwest Ohio (1885)
Glass manufacturing at Libbey Glass
The greatest industrial concentration on the North American continent. Once was destined to become a National Sacrifice Area for both nations.
www.epa.gov
Cut and Run, again
Agriculture • Large population, and • Development of labor intensive industries http://mercury.bio.uaf.edu/
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/glwqa/usreport/part4.html http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/glwqa/usreport/usreport.pdf
Phosphorus
US EPA
Biodivcanada.ca
Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products
PPCPs
GLEAM project Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project
We have exploited our natural resources with the belief that they were endless. We have treated the lake as if it was invincible. We should now remove the ‘cut and run’ attitude, review all aspects of obtaining and using these resources, with the ‘superlative’ uniqueness of our Great Lakes in mind.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ss8LLM8B9IC&pg=PA158&lpg=PA158&dq=priority+pollutants+in+the+great+lakes&source=bl&ots=h9RHtIiIYw&sig=wlIPz5RolAleFE_NmnSv NmIZrRY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R9M5U29H4nmyQGMvoGIBA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=priority%20pollutants%20in%20the%20great%20lakes&f=false
http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/monitoring/fish/toxaphene.html
