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Great Lakes Protection

The Sierra Club Midwest Region Great Lakes Program is working closely with the Healing Our Waters Coalition to restore and protect our precious Great Lakes. 

If you want to help, contact Melissa Damaschke at 313-965-0055.  You can download the letter for Great Lakes Activists, fill it out, and send it to Melissa. 

The Great Lakes Program has produced A Citizens Guide to Protecting the Great Lakes that you can download here.  Packed with information, the Citizen's Guide will help you be a better Great Lakes protector.  Read about priority campaigns here.

Good news!  The Great Lakes Compact, that will protect our Great Lakes from abusive withdrawals, was ratified by Congress, and has been signed into law!  Sierra Club participated in this campaign, working with the Great Lakes, Great Michigan Coalition to protect Michigan's streams and aquatic habitat from abusive water withdrawals.

More good news!  It worked - you convinved Congress to reauthorize the Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA) before they adjourned.   The U.S. House reauthorized the GLLA in mid-September, and then the Senate considered the House bill.  During Senate consideration, the Senate amended the bill and lowered the authorized funding back to current levels, or $50 million a year for sediment remediation projects.  The Senate took this action because Senators from outside the Great Lakes Basin were blocking the increase in funding that Great Lakes Senators supported.  The House had to accept the Senate amendments before the bill could go to the President for his signature.  Click here to see how your House member voted.

Please THANK our U.S. Representatives and Senators for voting in favor to reauthorize the Great Lakes Legacy Act!   

 Sierra Club Great Lakes Program Priority issues: 

The Great Lakes hold one fifth of the world’s fresh surface water and provide drinking water to over 42 million people.  Yet each day, our Lakes are damaged economically and ecologically by untreated sewage, industrial pollutants and invasive species.  Unless we invest in solutions today, the price we pay tomorrow will be much higher and future generations may never experience the Lakes as we know them.

 On this webpage, find quick links to:

 The Great Lakes are Vulnerable

Great Lakes Problems:

   Invasive Species / Take Action!

   Toxic Pollution / Take Action!

   Loss of Habitat / Take Action!

   Point and Non-point Source Pollution / Take Action!

   Water Diversion / Take Action!

Be the Solution!  Help Sierra Club protect the Great Lakes!

Healing Our Waters Coalition

The Great Lakes are Vulnerable!

It’s easy to look at a globe and see all the blue and think that we have an endless supply of clean water.  However, when we begin to look closer, we realize that the water available to us is very vulnerable.

Ninety-seven percent of the water on our planet is saltwater.  Only three percent is freshwater, and two-thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and polar ice.  Less than one percent of all water on Earth is in freshwater streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes, and groundwater.

Of that one percent of the Earth’s water that is fresh surface water, one-fifth is cradled in five vast inland seas in the heart of the North American continent -- the Great Lakes.

Please note that only one percent of the water in the Great Lakes system is replenished each year; the remaining ninety-nine percent was a one-time gift from the melting glaciers. 

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Great Lakes Problems 

PROBLEM:  INVASIVE SPECIES

Each day, the Great Lakes are damaged by invasive species like the zebra mussel and sea lamprey.  Currently there are over 180 types of invasive species already in the Lakes.  Invasive species have forever changed our use and enjoyment of the Great Lakes, affecting many businesses and industries and just about anyone who wants to visit or use the Lakes. 

Invasive species are introduced and spread by individuals in a variety of ways.  Boaters and anglers unknowingly transport zebra mussels and other invasives in bait wells, engine intakes, on trailers, and stuck onto the outside of boats that aren’t cleaned before moving.  Other species, such as Eurasian water milfoil, were introduced when aquarium owners dumped live aquarium fish and plants into local water bodies.  The majority of aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes entered in the ballast water of ocean-going ships, which exchange their ballast water when they off-load or take on cargo. 

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Power wash your boat and trailer before putting it into another body of water

Drain your bait wells, bait buckets, and other equipment onto land and NOT into water

Never release live bait into local waters

Never release live fish or aquatic plants into the wild, such as aquarium fish and Asian carp

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PROBLEM:  TOXIC POLLUTION

The Great Lakes are home to a $4.5 billion sport fishing industry.  Anglers across the Great Lakes enjoy world class fishing for walleye, lake trout, and other sport fish.  However, many of those fish are not safe to eat in large quantities, particularly for children, women of childbearing age, and other sensitive populations.

A legacy of toxic contamination – pollutants like PCBs and DDT – has accumulated in rivers and harbors around the region.  These chemicals are now banned for use in the United States, but because they do not easily break down in the environment, they remain in sediment for long periods of time and accumulate in fish and other aquatic organisms.  Other toxins, like mercury and dioxin, continue to be released into the environment where they also build up in fish.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Reduce use of pesticides and fertilizers

Use non-toxic cleaning products in your home

Carefully dispose of oil, paint, solvents, and other products

Do not use a burn barrel to dispose of trash

Dispose of medications at proper locations

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PROBLEM:  LOSS OF HABITAT

The Great Lakes are a natural wonder of the world.  For the people of the Great Lakes states, they hold the key to our economic health, to our recreation, and to irreplaceable family experiences.  Unfortunately, the quality of life the Lakes have fostered is threatened by habitat loss and degradation.  The stability of this fragile and unique ecosystem depends greatly on the condition of the wildlife, aquatic and plant life, and water quality.  The Great Lakes region relies on the Lakes’ health to maintain the social, recreational, and economic vitality of surrounding communities and to provide services for the entire nation.

There are 10,000 miles of Great Lakes coastline with 530,000 acres of coastal wetlands, sand, and cobble beaches, and the world’s largest system of freshwater dunes.  The thousands of tributaries and streams are essential to distributing nutrients throughout the watershed.  These habitats are also important in providing homes for many species, including endangered plants and animals.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Protect Great Lakes Habitat

Reduce your ecological footprint by using less resources and energy

Use native and/or non-invasive plants in your garden – ask your local nursery if you are unsure about the status of certain species

Participate in or organize local restoration efforts

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PROBLEM:  POINT and NON-POINT SOURCE POLLUTION

The Great Lakes provide drinking water to over 42 million people and support a multibillion dollar recreation industry.  Unfortunately the water and beaches of this natural resource are threatened by pollution from storm water runoff and outdated wastewater treatment plants.  Our Great Lakes have over 10,000 miles of shoreline with beautiful beaches where many go to recreate every year.  Yet an increasing number of beach closings point to the fact that more needs to be done to protect our coastal health. 

In 2006, cities dumped over 23 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Great Lakes.  With this sewage overflow pollution comes human pathogens which contribute to beach closings.  Pollution from failing sewage treatment systems contributed to a combined 3,269 days of Great Lakes beach closings and advisories in 2006.  Funding is needed to improve out-of-date sewage treatment facilities and prevent sewage overflows.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Install a rain barrel

Build a rain garden

Don’t put yard waste in streets

Reduce use of pesticides and fertilizers

Encourage your city to install green rooftops and use permeable surfaces

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PROBLEM:  WATER DIVERSION

With all that water do we really need to be concerned here about draining the Great Lakes and drying out our wells?

Yes, we need to be very concerned. Examples are piling up of vast water supplies that would “last forever” that are instead drying up and vanishing. The great Ogallala Aquifer, stretching down the United States’ mid-section from the Dakotas to Texas, has dropped over 150 feet from World War II times. Water is being drawn from the aquifer, primarily for irrigation, up to 100 times faster than the aquifer is recharging. The Ogallala Aquifer is approximately the same volume as Lake Huron.  Eventually, the aquifer will completely run dry and cause agriculture in America’s bread basket to decline.

The mighty Colorado River, a source of fresh water for 11 western states no longer reaches the people of northern Mexico.  Lake Powell, the giant reservoir fed by the Colorado River was full to capacity in 1999.  In five short years, as a result of water demand, Lake Powell now stands three-fifths empty.

All of these waters were drained by a variety of human activities, but mostly by irrigation of farm land and by cities’ daily consumption of drinking water.  With rapidly increasing scarcity of water and an increasing demand for more, cities, businesses and families are turning their eyes toward the upper Midwest and laying plans to draw water from the Great Lakes.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Conserve and install water efficient hardware

Install a 1.6 gallon low-flow toilet

Install low-flow showerheads

Use tap water

Use gray water

Support the Great Lakes Basin Compact, which does not allow diversions of water outside the Great Lakes basin

Work with your municipal leaders to create a community-wide water conservation program in your city

Be the Solution! Help Sierra Club protect the Great Lakes!

Some things you can do:

Call your public officials and urge them to protect the Great Lakes

Join our Great Lakes Letters to the Editor Team

Make presentations to faith groups, community service organizations (Kiwanis, Rotary, Optimist Clubs), angling groups, knitting circles, etc.

Host a house party

How do you get started?

Contact Melissa Damaschke at 313-965-0055 or send her an email informing her how you wish to get involved in protecting the Great Lakes. 

Sierra Club is a member of the Healing Our Waters (HOW) Coalition. The coalition is composed of more than 100 organizations representing millions of residents in the Great Lakes region.  Its goal is simple: to restore and protect the Great Lakes.  Check out their website, www.healthylakes.org.

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