Saturday October 22, 2011, 6:29 am
Once it gets into the Great Lakes, it spreads to most of the lower states through the outlet rivers. What a disaster for everyone.

Saturday October 22, 2011, 6:49 am
Yesterday, the EPA announced that it would control fracking waste water. Of course this won't happen until they conclude a two year study on the how of safe disposal if such a method exists. In the meantime only a nationwide moratorium makes sense. Let's push for that.

Saturday October 22, 2011, 7:34 am
Disaster indeed

Saturday October 22, 2011, 3:10 pm
Noted This practice of fracking is getting a little out of hand and should be outlawed, but that will never happen. Please stay away from our beautiful Niagara Falls and Great Lakes (bone heads).. thank you Agnes!

Saturday October 22, 2011, 4:27 pm
Frack off!

Saturday October 22, 2011, 6:50 pm
Nearly 1 billion people lack access to safe water and, every 8 seconds, a child dies of a water-borne disease.
Considering the increasingly dire water crisis, safe guarding water supplies is of paramount importance.

The following are excerpts from "Our Great Lakes Commons: A People's Plan to Protect the Great Lakes Forever" by Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians:

"The Great Lakes of North America form the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world, holding more than 20 per cent of the world’s surface freshwater and 95 per cent of North America’s. Add to this the groundwater underlying and feeding the Great Lakes or its tributary streams and lakes, and the percentage is closer to 25 and 97 per cent respectively"

"According to the U.S. Toxic Release Index and Canada’s National Pollutant Index, there are at least 204 pollutants in the Great Lakes.7 A total of 15 million kilograms (over 30 million pounds) of such toxins were found in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin in the latest survey; another 10 million kilograms were injected underground. (On average, Canadian facilities released almost three times more carcinogenic and reproductive toxins than American facilities.)"

"A 2006 Sierra Club report called the sewer systems in many Great Lakes cities “antiquated” and said they routinely dump raw sewage in the Lakes. The study, which examined 20 Canadian and U.S. cities found that they
collectively dumped more than 92 billion litres (21 billion gallons) into the Lakes each year.9 That is the equivalent of dumping more than 100 Olympic swimming pools of raw sewage into the Great Lakes every day."

"Nuclear waste poses another threat to the Great Lakes. There are more than 30 nuclear reactors along the shores of the Lakes and shipments of medical isotopes and radioactive materials are increasingly being transported through the Basin. The International Institute of Concern for Public Health has noted that radionuclides found in the Great Lakes water, including tritium, carbon-14, caesium and long-lived iodine-129, pose serious health hazards at even low levels."

"Oil and gas deposits lay beneath four of the five Great Lakes. While the United States Congress banned drilling in the Great Lakes in 2005, Canada has not yet followed suit. Approximately 2,200 gas wells have been drilled under Canada’s portion of Lake Erie since 1913, 550 of which are still producing. A report by the Ohio Public Interest Research Group documented 51 natural gas spills caused by gas drilling in the period studied – an average of one per month. During onshore and offshore drilling, a toxic combination of oil, water, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and naturally occurring radioactive materials, called drilling muds, are dispersed into the well hole."

"The pressure to supply the U.S. with Alberta’s heavy oil is cause for another concern. Bitumen from northern Alberta’s tar sands is increasingly being shipped by pipeline to refineries around the Great Lakes for processing. There is an ever-expanding network of pipelines leading from Fort McMurray to refineries at the tips of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Erie, reports The Toronto Star.14 The refinement of tar sands oil has devastating impacts on water sources and local communities."

"The massive rush for new domestic sources of energy, backed by government subsidies, requires huge new sources of water. For instance, it takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce one gallon of corn ethanol, and 6,500 gallons of water to produce one gallon of biodiesel from soybeans, forms of energy promoted as fossil
fuel replacements. The plan by the U.S. government to produce 60 billion gallons (240 billion litres) of home-grown biofuels by 2030 will have a devastating impact on the nation’s water supplies."

"Can the Great Lakes run out of water? According to the scientists who conducted the recent global study on groundwater extractions, if groundwater around the Great Lakes is being drawn down at the same rate as it is globally, the Lakes will be bone dry in just 80 years."

http://www.blueplanetproject.net/resources/reports/GreatLakes-0311.pdf

Saturday October 22, 2011, 8:24 pm
thanks

Sunday October 23, 2011, 2:22 pm
what are they thinking?

Sunday October 23, 2011, 4:11 pm
Noted. Thanks for posting.