"Steve Thomas" wrote in message
news
I was not aware that any city was dumping raw sewage into the Great Lakes
as
a part of normal operations. Disgusting if true. I thought that we had a
Great Lakes agreement that made that sort of thing illegal.
Many sewage treatment plants cannot withstand the increased flow during
heavy rain storms, but that is not considered "normal" even though they
are
engineered to allow for these events.

All the GLs are receiving raw sewage on a constant basis, not just during
overflow conditions. They are also receiving industrial waste, but
primarily from Canada. The authorities who oversee these issues have set
what is known as "acceptable levels of pollutants" entering the lakes. Most
of us tend to subscribe to the belief that there is no such thing as an
"acceptable level of pollution," but we aren't in charge. The authorities
claim to be pragmatic, ie--facing reality in the realization that it would
be essentially impossible to stop all pollutant transfer into the GLs. The
really sad part of all this is that the acceptable levels have been
increasing, rather than the converse. One way or another the GLs, like most
other bodies of fresh water, are going to become increasingly polluted.

Max