Advocacy Project: Fact Sheet

Many Pollutants threaten the Great Lakes. 

Facts about raw sewage threatening our water.

What we need to know…
The Great Lakes provide 30 million Americans with drinking water and support a huge multi-billion dollar recreation and tourism industry. (EPA – United States Environmental Protection Agency)

Many pollutants that get in to the Great Lakes remain there because it is a relatively closed system. (EPA Quality of Our Nation’s Water report)

Where does this pollution come from?
Pollution in the Great Lakes comes form multiple sources. A few of which are landfills, urban runoff, and combined sewer overflow. (EPA Quality of Our Nation’s Water report)

A study for the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition reports in 2009 five U.S. cities on the Great Lakes - “Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Gary, Ind.-discharged 41 billion gallons of untreated sewage and filthy storm water into the lakes”.

A 2006 study revealed that 20 cities containing one third of the regions population produced three trillion liters of waste a year equaling 1.2 million Olympic swimming pools of waste a year or 100 pools a day.

Every year beaches are closed due to combined sewer overflow contaminating lakes. (Great Lakes Commission)

Why does this happen?
Heavy rains often overwhelm combined sewer pipes, forcing cities to discharge untreated sewage and storm water into the nearest lake or river. (Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition report and safewater.org)

What is happening around this issue?
The EPA is suggesting “blending”, allowing untreated sewage blended with rain water to be dumped in the lakes. Currently the clean water act strictly prohibits this due to the health risks raw sewage imposes. (FreshWaterFuture.org and the EPA)

What is being done to help preserve our water and resources?
There are bills H.R.425 and S.147 proposed to more easily assess fines currently in place for breaking the law, and to instill new fines giving 20 years to upgrade sewage treatment infrastructure. (Illinois Review)

What can we do to help?
All or any of these…
Ask your House Representative to vote yes on bill H.R.425 or your Senator to vote yes on S.147, the Great Lakes Water Protection Act.

Contact your local environmental agency and let them know this is important to you.

Nationally, contact the EPA directly. Ben Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water is the point person for blending. 202-564-5700 or email grumbles.benjamin@epa.gov.



SOURCES

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/491FE2D9B0BB77CF852578E600640125

http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/cwa/305b/upload/2002_04_08_305b_92report_92summ.pdf

http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article96926.ece/BINARY/Healing+Our+Waters+-+Great+Lakes+Coalition+report

http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=5

http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/integratedplans.cfm

http://freshwaterfuture.org/news/glnews429.html

http://www.great-lakes.net/humanhealth/other/bacteria.html

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2011/01/kirk-durbin-lipinski-dold-stop-dumping-in-great-lakes.html