Conscious Choice: Lake Michigan's Toxic Legacy

November 1998 | News of the Earth

Lake Michigan's Toxic Legacy

by Ben Lilliston

Lapping at the edges of Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive, Lake Michigan offers a stark contrast to the grit of the city. The lake is an imposing, vast beauty that exudes an aura of invulnerability. Formed 10,000 years ago by glaciers, the lake often roars onto the bike and jogging paths, and sometimes even onto the Drive itself. Lake Michigan is cleaner than it was several decades ago when Chicago and Gary were manufacturing central and large amounts of toxic chemicals were discharged directly into the lake. Now cities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan boast of the lake as a cornerstone to their downtowns.

But beneath the water, caught in the sediments at the lake’s bottom, lurks its toxic past. And poisons that have made it to the surface have forced a recent rash of beach closings. Along the lake’s edge, new threats to lake habitat comes from sprawling development. Lake Michigan’s new environmental adversaries are air pollution, sewage sludge, and suburban sprawl.

Illinois is a major source of the most poisonous air pollutants that fall in Lake Michigan - pollutants that continue to dramatically affect humans, fish, and wildlife. Air pollutants affecting Lake Michigan include:

• Dioxins, furans, and benzene (from incomplete combustion or paper manufacturing);
• Polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs (from electrical equipment and paper manufacturing);
• Mercury (from incinerators and coal-burning power plants);
• Pesticides such as DDT, lindane, and chlordane (that have evaporated or washed from fields).

Lake Michigan acts as a sink for these airborne pollutants, which can take decades to break down into a harmless state. The toxics find their way into the lake’s sediments and then work their way up the food chain, increasing in concentration at each level. The toxic chemicals in the sediments can be stirred up by passing boats, wave action, or the animals that feed or live near the bottom.

Small organisms that live in the lake’s sediments absorb the toxics, then wind up in fish as they are eaten. Ultimately, the chemicals end up in species that eat fish, such as mink, birds, and of course, people. Some predators at the top of the food chain, like mink and trout, have suffered population crashes due to these chemicals. Some birds such as cormorants have suffered birth defects like crossed bills and club feet.

Humans have also been affected by pollution in Lake Michigan. In 1998, the International Joint Commission (IJC), a binational committee established to advise the U.S. and Canada on transboundary environmental matters, reported that children of mothers who had eaten Lake Michigan fish contaminated with PCBs were born with lower weights and smaller head circumferences. They also experienced shorter gestational periods and poorer neuromuscular development.

According to the IJC’s Ninth Biennial Report, "the evidence is overwhelming: certain persistent toxic substances impair human intellectual capacity, change behavior, damage the immune system and compromise reproductive capacity. The people most at risk are children, pregnant women [and] women of childbearing age."

Recent EPA estimates are that air pollution falling into Lake Michigan accounts for: about 58 percent of the PCBs; 95 percent of lead; 96 percent of benzo(a)pyrene; and 88 percent of dioxins and furans.

According to an analysis by the Lake Michigan Federation (LMF), Illinois’ contribution to this toxic stew is not insignificant:

• Ten percent of all dioxin to the entire Great Lakes system comes from Illinois air pollution;
• The amount of benzo(a)pyrene falling from the sky is 50 times higher in Chicago than in remote sites in Lake Michigan;
• Levels of PCB’s some metals, DDT and its byproduct, dieldrin, were 10 to 40 times higher in the Chicago/Northwest Indiana area than in remote sites on Lake Michigan.

While environmental threats from toxic sediments have literally and figuratively stayed mostly below the surface, the lake’s sharp increase in the number of beach closings has not. Illinois Lake Michigan beach closings have approximately doubled from 1994 to the present. Between 1994 and 1997, warnings of health risks without beach closings were issued 127 times. Illinois beach closings were issued an additional 127 times. Forty one of those closings were precautionary due to heavy rains that would likely lead to poor water quality. Another 86 closings were due to documented poor water quality.

The beaches closed the most were Waukegan South and Waukegan North Beaches. And although there have been some unique circumstances for beach closings, such as asbestos contamination at Illinois Beach State Park, the two most common sources of beach closings are untreated stormwater runoff and overflows of untreated sewage. The inadequate treatment of sewage and other wastes are to blame for high levels of fecal coliform and E. coli — which caused the majority of beach closings.

Water can contain other bacteria, viruses, and protozoa which can lead to illnesses. Gastroenteritis is the most common illness associated with swimming in polluted water. Its symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and fever.

According to LMF, obtaining information on beach closings can be difficult. While the Chicago Park District and Lake County were fairly forthcoming with information, Evanston, Glencoe, and Wilmette required LMF to submit requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act to obtain beach closing information.

One way to address these threats posed to Lake Michigan beaches is for the City of Chicago, Cook County, state agencies, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to complete the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), which was started in the early 1970s to address sewage overflows. The plan calls for the construction of underground tunnels to collect excess stormwater during heavy rainfalls and carry it to large reservoirs. Two of three reservoirs and 17 miles of tunnel still need to be built.

While suburban sprawl has become a punching bag for nearly all the region’s ills, compelling evidence is emerging that suggests the Lake is becoming threatened by unplanned growth. While it is difficult to document precisely, development around the lake in the four states is growing at an astonishing rate and is starting to cut into publicly accessible land. Illinois has 63 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, and only half are accessible to the public. States and local municipalities along the Lake must begin to work to protect public lands before significant stretches become the exclusive property of those who can afford it.

Sprawl inland in Northeast Illinois has also adversely affected the lake by solidifying the region’s car dependency. The result has been more air pollution for the lake. In 1994, 28 percent of national lead emissions came from cars and trucks, as did 45 percent of the benzene in 1990, according to LMF. And the growing presence of parking lots, instead of wetlands, allows for rain to wash pollution into sewers and nearby rivers which flow into the lake.

The lakefront should continue to be a public resource. According to the Chicago Park District some 60 million visits take place to the lakefront every year in Chicago alone. To ensure public access, the LMF has called for the conversion of Meigs Field into publicly accessible land; this is expected to happen in 2002. Fort Sheridan offers another opportunity. The tract encompasses 1.75 miles of shoreline and 712 acres of land.

LMF is also calling on the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to look for additional shoreline property that might be available for acquisition. Michigan has conducted a study to find out what is available for purchase, and Illinois should do so as well.

According to LMF, states surrounding the lake, particularly Illinois, need to take the lead in complying with the Clean Water Act and other federal initiatives. Under the Act, states take the lead in implementing water quality standards that measure how clean water must be for human, fish, and wildlife health. The Act contains a powerful provision that requires the development of Watershed Restoration Action Plans (WRAPs, also called Total Maximum Daily Loads). The states must develop a list of all impaired waters, and develop WRAPs to guarantee that the waters will be restored to health. The states are not effectively taking these steps, according to LMF.

In addition, Lake Michigan states have not fully implemented the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative. The 1972 agreement between the US and Canada requires the elimination of discharge into the lakes of PCBs, dioxin, mercury and other chemicals. According to LMF, water quality standards in Illinois are far behind those in other Lake Michigan states - Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. To learn what you can do to protect Lake Michigan , or to become a member of the LMF family, call toll free at 877-LAKE NOW.

Illinois
Mississippi River polluters got a wake-up call earlier this summer when the Justice Department filed civil charges against Shell Oil Co. and Clark Refining and Marketing Inc. in connection with polluting into the Mississippi. The cases raise the number of enforcement actions by the Justice Department against Mississippi polluters to 142 over the past year.

Shell’s Wood River oil refinery, on the banks of the Mississippi in Roxana, IL, was accused of releasing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide which produces acid rain. It also failed to report emissions of hazardous substances, such as ammonia and chlorine, in a timely matter. Shell will pay $1.5 million in civil penalties, with $500,000 of that going to the state of Illinois.

The Justice Department charged that Clark Refining violated federal statutes when it made illegal discharges into the Cal-Sag River from its Blue Island refinery.

National
A public opinion survey conducted by Lake, Snell, Perry & Associates for the Wilderness Society found that seven out of ten Americans are against weakening environmental regulations. The survey found that 75 percent of voters are bothered (42 percent strongly bothered), to learn that Congress is considering attaching riders to the national budget which relax environmental regulations.

Leaders of the Republican Party, having been painted as the anti environment party, have taken steps to counter this impression. In July, the GOP announced the formation of the Coalition for Republican Associates (CREA) which claims to "foster constructive discussion, not divisive debate" and promote "local solutions over Washington mandates, sound science over emotionalism, and common sense over extremism."

But don’t be fooled. Some "environmental coalitions" are merely scammers who are passing out green shades. CREA’s steering committee includes "registered lobbyists for the petroleum, mining, automaking, firearms and alcoholic beverage industries." According to CREA’s web page, Honorary Board Members include Reps. Newt Gingrich, Helen Chenoweth, Don Young, Richard Pombo, and Senator Larry Craig.

Contrast this organization with Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), a group that includes Republicans with strong environmental voting records. In REP’s Summer 1998 newsletter, the organization was critical of CREA: "Unfortunately, CREA shows no signs of being either grassroots or pro-environment. The word greenscam comes first to mind." REP also pointed out that CREA’s "enthusiasm for taxpayer-soaking corporate subsidies betrays a lack of sincerity in their alleged support for the free market."

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