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U.S., Canadian cities fouling
the Great Lakes with Raw Sewage
Sewage Report Card
reveals Great Lakes cities not making the grade
TORONTO
-- Sierra Legal released its first Great
Lakes Sewage Report Card today, an investigative report that analyzes
twenty cities in the Great Lakes basin and grades them based on
how well
they manage their sewage. The results are appalling. Although many
cities have made efforts to clean up their act, waters surrounding
urban
areas throughout the Great Lakes are still commonly unsafe for
recreational use and many parts of the vast freshwater ecosystem
are in
peril.
"The
Great Lakes basin is one of the most important freshwater
ecosystems on the planet - holding one fifth of the world's freshwater,"
said report author Dr. Elaine MacDonald. "Yet, the twenty cities
we
evaluated are dumping the equivalent of more than 100 Olympic swimming
pools full of raw sewage directly into the Great Lakes every single
day."
The Great
Lakes Sewage Report Card represents the first-ever
ecosystem-based survey and analysis of municipal sewage treatment
and
sewage discharges in the Great Lakes basin. The report grades cities
on
issues such as collection, treatment and disposal of sewage based
on
information provided by each municipality.
The report
documents that many cities in the region have antiquated systems
for collecting and treating sewage and regularly release untreated
sewage into local waterways. It is estimated that the 20 cities
evaluated, representing a third of the region's 35 million people,
dump more than 90 billion litres of untreated sewage into the Great
Lakes each year.
The results
are disappointing, with cities like Toronto, Syracuse and
Hamilton getting below average grades. Detroit, Cleveland and Windsor
performed abysmally and are at the bottom of the class. The cities
that
fared poorly typically have serious problems related to their combined
sewers; antiquated systems that combine storm water and sanitary
sewers
into a single pipe and are prone to releasing raw sewage during
wet
weather.
Green Bay,
Peel Region and Duluth are at the top of the class. All three
generally have more sophisticated treatment processes and permit
very
little sewage to escape into the environment through combined sewer
overflows, spills or bypasses.
In addition
to grading the cities, the report provides an analysis of
the region's patchwork of sewage treatment laws and policies, and
offers
several recommendations to ensure the protection of water quality
in the
Great Lakes for future generations.
"Although
it would be easy to point the finger at municipalities, the
Great Lakes basin is a political quagmire that includes two countries,
eight states, a province, dozens of tribes and First Nations and
hundreds of local municipal and regional governments," continued
MacDonald. "The only way out of this mess is to have all levels
of
government make a renewed commitment to upgrade our aging sewage
systems
and conserve our precious freshwater resources."
The full
report card and background materials can be
downloaded from
www.sierralegal.org.
Source:
Sierra Legal - Vancouver
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