hotjava66

I understand this concern, but why no outcry about the ongoing pollution issues? Every time we get heavy rains hundreds of millions of gallons of raw or partially treated sewage gets dumped in the lakes. Very few seem to care, we get a notification on the back page of the paper, beaches closed a few days, then back to business as usual.

JrCRXHF

http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/maco...-lake-st-clair

I have not looked into much of this but it keeps showing up on my feed. It seems like we have some things that need to be cleaned up with our waste water discharge.

http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,4561,7...715---,00.html

Interceptor

You St. Clair guys know about the polluted canal between 10 mile and Michigan Harbor ?

kidturbo

Good points about stopping the run off. Algae can't grow without something feeding it, so somewhere there is a huge source of nitrogen that needs cut off. Canada doesn't feel the effects like say Port Clinton, cause wind is blowing offshore for most of their coast line.

The silver carp however could be a cure for the algae blooms. Ya know those are raised over here as grass carp correct? Same fish ya put in a pond to eat algae... However according to my ODNR buddies again, they must be certified sterile before sold by the hatcheries. I lost 5 to a big flood some years back, all ended up in the Ohio. Before buying any more, I inquired about that being a source of them in the rivers.

27sedan

I saw a presentation by the Army Corps of Engineers 2 years ago with the results of their 5 year study on the Asian carp problem. Their proposal was to spend $15 billion over 25 YEARS.
I walked out. We're screwed.

caseyh

We have the same kinda thing happing in Louisiana. But they seem to screw up more then help.

Indy

Agree, huge problem even on the coastal waters out here. Also fertilizer run-off from farming, I know that it's been affecting the Chesapeake for a while now. I'm aware it's been a publicized issue there and it's affecting the commerce of the watermen big time. Wondering if any of the Chesapeake crew could comment on the issue.

Interceptor

Fish farms are the next man made problem.

BlackJack58

I’d like to know more about where the Federal money goes too. Little or nothing goes to cities that are trying to fix their sewer overflow problems. We are trying to get the Cuyahoga River cleaned up, (it’s far better than it was) and to do that Akron is spending about $1.1 billion (yes billion) over the next 10 years to solve its 100-year old combined sewer problem. The EPA hands out a court-ordered consent decree but the Federal Government provides absolutely no financial support. There are about 700 cities with the same problem nationwide.

Some of that Federal money could go a long way to help ease the burden – especially for older homeowners on a limited income who are seeing their local sewer/water bills soar to pay for the EPA mandate. I don’t mind paying a fair share to keep the river (and Lake Erie) clean. It’s tough on some of the older folks, though. Enough with spending money on endless “studies”…

Indy

Send a few platoons of Marines from the bloated military budget to the board rooms of some of these corporations and it'll get cleaned up real fast. I think we all know that anyone can take a position, so if a study comes out corporations come up with a defense, tie it up in courts, and let the lobbyists go to work. It's really not that complicated, get rid of the lobbying efforts and this country does a 180.