Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping (GLEAM) Project

[GordMay]

A new study showing which areas of the Great Lakes are suffering the greatest environmental insults found that efforts to restore the lakes are targeting the right places. The three-year study by scientists at the University Michigan produced a map that identifies environmental stressors across the Great Lakes basin.

Researchers concluded that Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan’s Green Bay are under the greatest environmental stress; Lake Superior and Lake Huron have the fewest problems. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also concluded that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is correctly focussed on the areas most affected by toxic pollutants and other problems.

“The project provides scientific validation that the $1 billion spent on federal Great Lakes restoration programs is targeting the right places,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center and a co-author of the report. ”When combined with other research, it will be useful in determining what actions should be taken at those places and measuring the impacts those actions will have.”

GLEAM evaluates multiple stressors affecting the Great Lakes ecosystem; merging spatial data layers representing all major categories of stressors to the Great Lakes, ranging from climate change and land-based pollution to invasive species, into a single map of cumulative stress.

The Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping (GLEAM) Project
➥ GLEAM | Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project

More ➥ http://www.nature.org/idc/groups/web...prd_059741.pdf

[SURV69]

I knew it was bad in Lake Erie, but I didn't know it was so completely bad in Lake Erie.

I'm in the western area of Lake Erie(the playland end), and I get demoralized every late spring.

Now I can be demoralized before I even put my boat in . . . thanks . . .

[DeepFrz]

Look at L. Ontario, it'll make you feel better.

[SURV69]

I did . . .


. . . and I don't

[Wavewacker]

Too bad it takes our tax dollars to clean up messes made by corporate violators of our environment. So many will rape the earth and resources to make or save a buck.

I was planning on doing some fishing up there, doubt I will now.

[Tbrad]

Aw f'cryin' out loud. We has met the enemy an' he is us!

[rognvald]

If you read the health advisories for all of the Great Lakes as well as your local small lakes and rivers, you will find a very disappointing message: Don't eat the fish. Mercury and PCB contamination are present in all species and the amount one is allowed to eat is very minimal. Why bother? The history of Man is the history of Man's attempt to dominate Nature. We have done an excellent job! eNews Park Forest › Latest › Health and Fitness

[rognvald]

Sorry for the bad link. Here's another. www.idph.state.il.us/public/press12/3.14.12_Fish_Advisory.htm

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by rognvald

If you read the health advisories for all of the Great Lakes as well as your local small lakes and rivers, you will find a very disappointing message: Don't eat the fish. Mercury and PCB contamination are present in all species and the amount one is allowed to eat is very minimal. Why bother? The history of Man is the history of Man's attempt to dominate Nature. We have done an excellent job! eNews Park Forest › Latest › Health and Fitness

I am not exactly a tree hugger, but to say humans have been a good steward of the planet is not entirely accurate.

Had humans never showed up, all other forms of life would have been doing just fine. Our roads, dams, bridges, tunnels, pipelines, chemtrails, chemicals in the air, land and sea are a vast blite on the Earth so we can play Dvds on our 55" TVs in the suburbs 100 miles from our two income jobs to support the mess we created for ourselves. No wonder thousands of people on this forum have said enough is enough and sailed away from the Carnegie.

[rognvald]

Originally Posted by GaryMayo

I am not exactly a tree hugger, but to say humans have been a good steward of the planet is not entirely accurate.

Had humans never showed up, all other forms of life would have been doing just fine. Our roads, dams, bridges, tunnels, pipelines, chemtrails, chemicals in the air, land and sea are a vast blite on the Earth so we can play Dvds on our 55" TVs in the suburbs 100 miles from our two income jobs to support the mess we created for ourselves. No wonder thousands of people on this forum have said enough is enough and sailed away from the Carnegie.

Gary, I guess you missed the irony. We have NOT been a good steward of the planet.

[Nicholson58]

[QUOTE=Wavewacker;1112043]Too bad it takes our tax dollars to clean up messes made by corporate violators of our environment. So many will rape the earth and resources to make or save a buck.


The issue is not corporate violators. The Fed EPA and EPA of various states have been pretty good about these former, agresous pollutors. Its easy to identify them and the states and courts have been agressive about pursuing them. The real problem is massive over-fertility. Farm run-off from farms everywhere along the lakes is bad but the farming insult is greatest along the South shore of Erie. Add to this that cities along the rivers often have only primary sewage treatment. The other massively bad area is Green Bay. The photo below is taken on the FOX River three years ago. Comming from Michigan, we were shocked when we neared the south end of the bay. Michigan has more agressively gone after sewage treatment and the farm density is very low. The bay water is very shallow and there are huge area of algae bloom. The river itself is a green sewer. The tall ship ahead of us had to shut-down on overheat due to ingestion of Fox R crud. It is like this all through the city of Green Bay. The Fox drains huge areas of dairy and other farm land and the relativel small volume and poor water exchange of the bay insures that the slime stays close to home. Until we are willing to deal with and look for proper solutions to fertility the problem will only get worse.

I sailed out of Cleveland for many years about 40 years ago. There was one bennefit to the Zebra Muscles. In the 18 years I sailed there, we watched the water bercome clearer every year in our basin. It went from coffee with cream to totally clear with bass and weed beds. The down side is that the sun penetrates now and grows massive weed banks. These die annmually and suck the oxygen from the water. The gyre at the lake's center in the deeper east basin turned into a Oxygen depleted zone.

Not generally appreciated is the mess in Chicago. It was explained to me by the Federal Asian Carp 'Czar' that the reason we can't shut down the Chicago River canal and locks is that Chicago depends on the flow to sweep their sewage outfall to the Mississippi. They only have primary treatment there. The Gulf of Mexico also has a dead zone. The DNR and EPA have been trying to force clean-up of this source for many years. Chicago politics is legendary so this is not likly to change. Seems to me that stimulus money would have been better spent on this type of infrastructure with a positive ROI than on I96 highway baricades etc.

[shorebird]

Yuck.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by shorebird

Yuck.

exactly! Zhat pile of Yuck circled the basin for three days while we were there.

[SunDevil]

Great Lakes Stressors | GLEAM

Can we get a map just showing the last two items, the non source pollution and the toxic chemical pollution?
GLEAM | Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project
GLEAM | Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project

Chicago will always be red because of the human coastline development part.

I don't disagree that the water could be cleaner, and wastewater and runoff is a big problem in many areas, but some improvements have been made. Yet, a lot more need to be made it looks like. Does the EPA and Environment Canada have a plan for fixing these problems?

[CaptainBW]

Interesting stuff Gord.

It really hits you in the face when you see it displayed in the multiple maps.