[BCNnet] FYI: article on Great Lakes pollution

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

This is an interesting article from McGraw-Hill's Engineering News-Record website:
Randi Doeker
Chicago


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SPECIAL REPORT 
Pollution and Neglect Are Choking the Great Lakes 
8/17/2005 
By E. Michael Powers 

Great Lakes system contains one-fifth the earth's surface water. 
The Great Lakes ecosystems are dying a slow and painful death. Lax enforcement of the Clean Water
Act is causing the lakes to regress to pollution levels not seen since the 1960s, say
environmentalists. A "dead zone" has reemerged in Lake Erie. The lakes had 2,980 days of beach
closings and advisories in 2004, climbing 737% since 2000. The states bordering the lakes are
scrambling to save the ecosystems that create an annual economic boon of $15 billion in tourist
dollars alone. 
  "The Lakes are starting to see an ecological breakdown at the largest levels," says Andy
Buchsbaum, director of the Great Lakes' office of the National Wildlife Federation. Ecosystems are
failing in areas where the contamination levels are far lower than the historical failure
threshold. "The Lakes seem to be losing their resiliency," he says.
click here for slide show
  The looming ecological crisis prompted the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota to ask the federal government for help in 2004.
President Bush responded with an executive order creating the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.

Continued - with graphics at 
http://enr.ecnext.com/free-scripts/comsite2.pl?page=enr_document&article=neenar050817