"It is estimated that the 20 cities — home to about one-third of the 35 million residents of the Great Lakes basin — dump more than 90 billion litres of untreated sewage into the lakes each year, the report says.
Since only about 1 per cent of the Great Lakes water changes each year — when flows coming in are combined with the outflow through the St. Lawrence River — the pollution tends to remain."
I’ve lived on Lakes Michigan or Erie all my life. This is regular problem during rainy periods.
Disgusting, yes, surprising, absolutely not (I wish it was).
During the summers we have to check the E coli levels in Erie every Tuesday before our open water swims. Didn’t check one week and ended up with a UTI. Gross.
What I love is that Torontonians won’t swim in Lake Ontario around Toronto because it’s “dirty”, but will drive three hours to their cottages around Kingston and swim in the same lake, just much more poluted part, freely…
The sad part is that raw sewage dumping is not just limited to Great Lakes but fully accepted practice in number of Canadian and US cities.
Vancouver does the same thing Toronto does with their Lions Gate treatment plant.
The worst offender has to be pictoresque Victoria. They dump their sewage straight into the ocean, no treatment whatsoever.
I recall my first trip to Key West with similar disgust. I took three bathing suits and hoped to do some sun bathing. Upon arrival and a short bike to the “beach” we found a cable across the entrance “closed” and little more than a half acre of gravel, dirty sand and rocks.
This was around 2000, and further investigation lead to the discovery that 100% of the Key’s sanitary sewer ran directly to the water! The average # of days that the water bacterium level was safe for swimming was around twenty or less per year? Apparently, they were in the midst of a major sanitary sewer overhaul and planned on converting the island one quarter at a time to water reclamation package treatment facilities. The major problem was realestate to put the facilities on! I have not been back, but understand that things are much, much better now.
Our pre paid snorkelling excursion involved a twenty minute boat ride, up current from Key West to find water clear enough to snorkel! I was looking over my shoulder constantly for Baby Ruths.
Many quaint little inland lakes are just as bad, if not worse than the Great Lakes. Poorly maintained septic systems in cottage country, can put a lot of raw sewage into a small lake, and don’t forget about farm runoff.
What I love is that Torontonians won’t swim in Lake Ontario around Toronto because it’s “dirty”, but will drive three hours to their cottages around Kingston and swim in the same lake, just much more poluted part, freely…
The sad part is that raw sewage dumping is not just limited to Great Lakes but fully accepted practice in number of Canadian and US cities.
Vancouver does the same thing Toronto does with their Lions Gate treatment plant.
The worst offender has to be pictoresque Victoria. They dump their sewage straight into the ocean, no treatment whatsoever.
I agree. I am embarassed by the non-existent sewage treatment in Victoria. It is uncomprehensible to me how the politicians see this as acceptable.
Politicians find the situation acceptable because people just don’t give a crap. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s especially true in North America and I think it has something to do with making a quick buck and this continent being so sparsely populated. Not to mention the right wing lunatics whose first reaction to any mention of damage to the environment is to start screaming "dirty hippy!!! " at those who bring it up.
For something just as disgusting, but with plastic…
The volume water in the Great Lakes is 23 quadrillion liters so 90 billion liters of poopy water is just a drop in the bucket. Of course, if you are in Toronto, you are at the bottom of the bucket
Most cities have combined sewer storm water systems which means that rain water and sewer waste are moved through the same pipes to the treatment plants at the end of the pipes. Treatment plants can only handle so many gallons per hour so if it rains above a certain rate per hour (which is not all that high) the plants can not handle the flow rate so there are 2 choices - dump the excess untreated, or let it back up into people’s basements. That is were the raw sewage comes from.
Here in south eastern Michigan, they are completing a 10 year project to build huge underground caverns to hold some the excess water when it rains so it can then be put through the treatment plants when the burden on the system decreases.
Common problem. Indianapolis has a combined sewer – rain and sewage. When it’s not raining, all is good. When we get too much rain (say an inch or more), the combined sewer overflows, dumping raw sewage into local waterways. Obviously, this is not good. Well, the sewer is 19th century. Cost to fix? Over a billion dollars. It will get done…at a heavy price to all.
