Headlines have filled the newspapers throughout the years in Manitowoc County: “Beaches Closed Due to E. coli Levels,” “Five Beaches Test Unsafe for E. coli Bacteria,” and “Eight County Beaches Closed Due to Bacteria Tests.” All of these headlines came from the same year! It’s quite dreadful to watch the five o’clock news and see beaches closed and water contaminated. Lake Michigan is one of the main sources of water, beauty, and tourism to a lakeshore cities and counties like Manitowoc. Having bad water and beaches affects many aspects of life around the county. Wisconsin DNR should change how they clean up Lake Michigan beaches and water, not just in Manitowoc County, because the well-being of the people, the land, and the appeal of Wisconsin are at risk.
The fact that Lake Michigan and its Wisconsin beaches is not a fallacy, every year the same unfortunate thing happens. Beaches get closed down one after another. In this past “summer” season, this occurred multiple times all over the state. The number of closures from the month of May 1st to October 1st was 123 beaches. The number of warnings due to E. coli levels amounted to 281 (“Wisconsin Beach Health”). The total number of closures just in Manitowoc County was thirty-six. That is about 30% of the closures statewide. The number of warnings was forty-two, about 15% of the warnings statewide. It is quite obvious that out of seventy two counties in Wisconsin, eleven of which are lakeside counties, Manitowoc is by far the one with the most beach closures. This is quite a downfall considering tourism is one of Manitowoc’s most profitable incomes. Another downfall of Lake Michigan and the beaches is the blue-green algae issue. As stated on the Wisconsin DNR website, “In Wisconsin...
... middle of paper ...
...s up to the government and the DNR. The facts prove that Michigan took advantage of all government grants and funding available to them. It obviously worked as their crystal clear water proves. Wisconsin could mirror that exactly and maybe the water could become less murky and brown, something most people would agree is not a bad idea.
Works Cited
"Beach Advisory Report."Wisconsin Beach Health. Wisconsin Department of Natural Rescources, 01/10/2011. Web. 15 Nov 2011.
"Blue-Green Algae In Wisconsin Waters." Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Wisconsin Department of Natural Rescources, n.d. Web. 15 Nov 2011.
"Great Lakes Protection and Restoration." Department of Environmental Quality. State of Michigan, n.d. Web. 15 Nov 2011.
Smarr, Matt. "Coastal Management Program." Department of Environmental Quality. State of Michigan, n.d. Web. 15 Nov 2011.
This ad is directed to many people in the Chesapeake Bay region because there are tons of pollution each year that are destroying the nation’s largest estuary, or part of a body of water where the fresh and salt water mix, and are also killing the Bay’s crabs, oysters, and fish, which is a huge industry in the area and also something the state of Maryland is known nationally for (Environment, p. 8). Pollution is destroying the Chesapeake Bay every single day, however now people are taking steps in the right direction to fix this problem but many people fear that time has run out.
... consider some ideas of what can be done to further enhance the management of the coastal issue. Using the research action plan, I aim to acquire a sophisticated understanding of longshore drift, coastal management and implementations of coastal issues, through the research action plan. Most importantly, I will include various diagrams explaining how the process of longshore drift occurs and what implementations it has on coastal environments, accompanied by an explanation of how the issue is being managed, a detailed outline of the geographical processes involved and a discussion of the impacts of the issue and why it is important.
Because of BP oil spill all business around coastal beaches suffers a lot which are only depend on tourism and fishing. This destruction not only cause health problem, but also be responsible for millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Joe, Brancatelli. " What Is Polluting Our Beaches?" Popular Science 1 Mar. 2003. Database. 23 Oct. 2005.
This is an important topic. It affects the overall health of the population surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, as we eat from it quite often and it can be used as a water source. The chemicals being released into the water are from coal-burning factories and runoff, which can be helped, but it’s almost impractical in this day and age to spend the amount of money required to do so without the technology that can guarantee a fix.
Great Lakes Fishery Commission. A river reversed, a problem created. Journal Sentinel, 2010. JPEG file. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/97745959.html
As global temperatures and ocean levels rise, the water levels of the Great Lakes continues to fall. As the lakes hit their all time lowest level in global history in 2012, society remains ignorant to the imposing doom that lurks ahead. Since the Great Lakes make up the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth and are responsible for approximately 21% of the Earth’s fresh water supply, this issue is becoming one of the largest environmental and economical issues our modern world faces. The effects of this issue include destroying animal habitats and a major economic market; shipping. Water levels in the Great Lakes have been dropping for the past fourteen years, but it wasn’t until boats were scraping the bottom of Lake Huron that people began to take notice. This terrible environmental issue has been dubbed a long term cycle of over evaporation and not enough precipitation to replenish the Lakes. Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit has been monitoring this issue for a decade and has made startling discoveries, such as in 2012, he discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Huron’s water levels only rose four inches after winter, whereas the Lakes have been regularly recorded as gaining a foot of water after the winter season had ended. This amount of water added is not enough to maintain a proper water level during the dry, hot summer seasons that evaporate much water from the Great Lakes. While some scientists say that this is just a cycle that will adjust itself naturally, most experts that have been studying this phenomenon, such as Kompoltwicz, would agree that the issue has gone to far
Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable. GLRPPR, 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
The algal growths in the lake feed on phosphorus mostly caused by fertilizer runoff from farms and local residences. Microcystin, a toxin that causes liver problems, is produced by the growths have caused major health concerns for wildlife and people using the lake. It is our moral obligation to clean up this mess or it will continue to harm the wildlife and environment in and the lake, as we are the one’s solely responsible for it. Organizations such as the Ohio EPA and Buckeye Lake for Tomorrow, have taken a notice to the pollution of Buckeye Lake and are formulating plans to return the lake to its former glory. Our plan is to provide a short term solution for the lake via the process of dredging, while a much larger and permanent solution is put in
"An Ocean Of Trash." Scholastic Action 33.12 (2010): 16. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
“Solutions to Plastic Pollution in our ocean” Natural Resources Defense Council. 3 March 2014. web 20 April 2014http://nrdc.org/oceans/plastic-ocean/default.asp
Smith, Zachary A., and Grenetta Thomassey. Freshwater Issues: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002. Print
The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems are suffer and become endangered along with lives of people and of marine life. Surfrider Foundation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world's coasts because they are truly irreplaceable. There is also historical evidence of ocean pollution being present in the past, but the problem still lingers today. Heal the Bay discovered that,“Did you know there is a DDT and PCB hot spot off the coast of Palos Verdes? This superfund site (which indicates it's one of the most polluted places in the United States), is left over from a 1930's era chemical plant. Because DDT takes so long to break down in the marine environment, it persists to this day, contaminating certain species of fish. There are also highly polluted sediments in the Long Beach area, a sign of the heavy shipping in the port. Heal the Bay works on developing effective capping and removal plans to keep those toxins from spreading” (Heal the Bay). DDT is still highly concentrated in the South Bay area and still contaminating different species of fish. Even after more than 80 years DDT, a toxic insecticide, is still very concentrated and during upwellings, DDT particles come back up and continue to harm marine life. If humans are careless about what is thrown on the floor or sprayed on lawns, it can lead to disastrous affects when it comes to the condition of the ocean's ecosystems, and can endanger life itself leading to a problem that only we can mend.
People from all over the world go to beautiful beaches that are filled with water as clear as ice or as beautiful as diamonds. But, what will happen if we do not conserve the appealing sites that draw attraction to the public? Contaminated beaches has become a controversial issue to the public because of the causal problem, the harm to the people and marine animals, the government agencies supporting or opposing pollution, and the industries involved in creating such unlawful decisions. To create and find a solution, we must first find the core to the problem.
Rogers, Peter. 2008. "Facing the Freshwater CRISIS. (Cover story)." Scientific American 299, no. 2: 46-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 4, 2010).