This post is by Sofia Johansson, who worked as the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Public Policy and Governance Intern this summer. She is a third-year Environmental and Urban Studies major at the University of Chicago and is originally from Madison, Wisconsin. She is passionate about environmental justice, equity, and sustainability in planning and policy.

For more than 30 years, thousands of Adopt-A-Beach volunteers have helped clean up litter, most of it plastic, from beaches across the Great Lakes region. This year, the program reached a major milestone—half a million pounds of litter picked up since volunteers started collecting beach data nearly 20 years ago. But beach cleanups alone can’t solve the magnitude of the Great Lakes’ plastic problem. A more systemic solution is required.

Plastic has been found in Great Lakes fish dating back to the 1950s. That means, for nearly seven decades, there have been microplastics in our water—water we drink, swim in, fish from, and cherish. Most of that time, we didn’t know it was there. But now, the research is overwhelming. The amount of microplastics in the surface water of the Great Lakes is estimated at 1.2 million particles/km2. This is higher than plastic concentrations in the widely publicized Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Moreover, researchers estimate that over 22 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes annually. That is an exorbitantly high amount of plastic, so why are we letting it continue?

The politics of plastic

The reasons often trace back to the political power of the plastic industry. They have focused on the individual responsibility of consumers rather than changes in industry practices. They also try to limit legislative action to measures promoting recycling, even though the US recycled less than 6% of its plastic waste in 2021, and recycling is considered an ineffective reducer of plastic pollution. But they do this to absolve industry of any responsibility and to make us think that individuals are responsible for plastic pollution as opposed to the plastic industry itself, which has promoted the use of plastics in almost every facet of our lives.

As such, the plastics lobby has repeatedly challenged legislation that creates meaningful systemic changes, such as single-use plastic bans, reductions in production, and extended producer responsibility.

Therefore, the Great Lakes states and the federal government have seriously lagged in plastic pollution policy. Five of the eight states have preemption laws, often called “bans on bans,” that prevent any level of local government from passing legislation to reduce plastic pollution. The plastics lobby has worked with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to develop a model preemptive bill for states to pass. And Congress has passed little legislation to deal with the scope of the problem.

What’s at stake?

But what’s at stake? What happens if we continue letting corporate interests and financial gain pollute our water? The Great Lakes are home to thousands of species, provide drinking water for 10% of Americans (and 25% of Canadians), and support a multi-trillion-dollar economy. Beyond the numbers, the Great Lakes are fundamental to the life and health of the Midwest.

Human health is a serious concern regarding plastics in our lakes. Though research is just beginning, microplastics have been found in Great Lakes tap water, beer, fish, and dozens of other consumables across the globe. Data compiled from several studies indicate that humans may ingest up to 5 grams of plastic a week, equivalent to the mass of a credit card. Researchers suggest most of the plastic humans ingest may come from drinking water and have detected plastic in our blood, lungs, hair, saliva, and stool.

The smaller the plastic, the more dangerous. Once in the body, microplastics may translocate, cross cell membranes, permeate tissue, and linger in human organs, potentially causing chronic inflammation. They also leach dangerous chemicals and toxins, such as phthalates, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and bisphenol A (BPA). These and other chemicals have been found in the water and microplastics of the Great Lakes. They are carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs, which disrupt hormones and can cause metabolic changes, have been heavily linked to a long list of health issues, including diabetes, neurological diseases, many different cancers, and reproductive damage. In short, microplastics, which have been allowed to increase and accumulate in our water, could have devastating impacts on our health and the health of future generations.

Federal action is needed

Given that states are not dealing with this problem and local governments sometimes find their hands tied, it is imperative that the federal government take comprehensive action that puts the responsibility on the producer to truly reduce plastic pollution, protect Great Lakes ecosystems, and ensure our health. An essential first step at the national level is passing the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act, introduced by Sen. Durbin of Illinois, which prohibits the discharge of plastic pellets and other pre-production plastic materials into our water from any point source. These pellets are commonly found on Great Lakes beaches. In addition to this first step, more is required to deal with the magnitude of the problem in a comprehensive fashion. Congress should also pass the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, which creates a national extended producer responsibility program, phases out single-use plastic products, and targets microplastics in the environment, along with many other comprehensive measures.

Plastic pollution is a growing threat to our environment and our health and will continue to be until Congress takes comprehensive action to address this problem. The time to act on this is now.

The post Why the Great Lakes Need Comprehensive Solutions to Plastic Pollution appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Dr. Sherri Mason, is a leading expert on plastic pollution. Her award-winning work has drawn international attention to the threat of microplastics in our waters and led to the passage of national legislation banning microbeads. She serves as Director of Sustainability at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Resources
Plastic-Free Great Lakes

The post Dr. Sherri Mason – Plastic Pollution appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

For our 50th anniversary, we commissioned author and journalist Kari Lydersen to look at the Great Lakes and clean water issues that have shaped our region. Read the rest of the series here. 

Toxic pollution spurs founding of Lake Michigan Federation

From the industrial revolution onward, the Great Lakes region was a thriving hub of industry thanks to the lakes and rivers that allowed easy transport of goods and raw materials, and water for industrial processes. By the 1960s, as a result, the waterways were also laden with toxic waste, much of it settling into the sediment, from steel mills, factories, tanneries, breweries, paper mills, coal plants, and countless other industries.

Lee Botts founded the Lake Michigan Federation in part to demand an end to the contamination of the watershed, and to force the cleanup of past toxic pollution. This goal became especially important as the region’s heavy industry was declining and emerging economies — recreation, tourism, and cleaner industries like advanced technology, education and health care — depended on rivers and lakes as amenities to attract people.

43 areas identified for cleanup

In its early days, the Lake Michigan Federation focused heavily on the creation and implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. In 1987, as part of that agreement, the U.S. and Canada designated 43 Areas of Concern (AOCs) in the Great Lakes that held dangerous pollutants and could not support recreation, or habitat for wildlife. The biggest need was the removal of copious amounts of the toxic sediment that keeps releasing carcinogenic and neurotoxic heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs and other compounds into water and wildlife for decades.

The AOCs include the Grand Calumet River emptying into Lake Michigan just southeast of Chicago, where an industrial menagerie of steel mills, oil refineries, pharmaceutical manufactures and more contaminated the sediment with PAHs, PCBs, oil and grease, and heavy metals. Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the Fox River that leads into it were rife with PCBs and other contaminants from paper mills, particularly from the making of carbon-free copy paper. White Lake, Michigan, in Muskegon County near Lake Michigan, was deeply contaminated from years of dumping by a tannery and chemical company. And Presque Isle Bay on the southern shore of Lake Erie was laced with PAHs and heavy metals from steel mills, a foundry and other industry.

Cleaning up toxic sediment is a laborious and expensive job, involving expansive testing to find where pollution is worst, then physically removing massive amounts of contaminated sediment, drying it and transporting it to and storing it in secure facilities.

Lake Michigan Federation pushes for action

When Cameron Davis became executive director of the Lake Michigan Federation in 1998, the AOCs were a major priority.

“These AOCs had been languishing,” Davis recounts. “We had all the right policies in place, we knew what we needed to do scientifically, we just didn’t have the resources to kick these cleanups into high gear.”

As the country headed for the 2000 presidential elections, Davis remembers, public support for Great Lakes cleanup was accelerating. Davis volunteered to work with Congress to craft a plan. With close allies including Congressmen Vern Ehlers, Republican from Michigan, and James Oberstar, Democrat from Minnesota, they ultimately drafted legislation and Davis proposed a name: the “Great Lakes Legacy Act.”

“The title had two meanings,” he explains. “We wanted to rid the Great Lakes of these legacy pollutants and thereby leave a stronger, more vibrant legacy for future generations.”

Testifying before a congressional subcommittee in 2001, Davis noted that almost 15 years after the designation of AOCs, only one had been delisted, in Canada. “Contaminated sediment is not a glamorous issue,” he testified. “But therein lies the danger of this problem. It is one that continues to permeate the Great Lakes. It is one that continues to permeate the health of the people in the Great Lakes. And because it is not glamorous and does not really get front page attention, it makes it all the more important that we do something about it.”

Another thing caught Davis’s ear. Some representatives contended that the country couldn’t afford to fund the bill because there wasn’t enough money. “Yet here we were in the middle of the largest economic expansion in world history,” Davis recalls thinking while at the witness table. “It was a great lesson that, as advocates, we have to be diplomatic and determined.”

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Great Lakes Legacy Act. The EPA worked with groups on the ground to assess the needs, develop cleanup plans and begin the hard work of removing decades’ worth of contamination. But the process was still frustratingly slow.

Lake Michigan Federation becomes Alliance for the Great Lakes

The organization was poised to channel that frustration into accelerated progress for the Great Lakes. In 2004, with unanimous approval of the board of directors, Davis transitioned the Lake Michigan Federation into the Alliance for the Great Lakes. And, in 2008, as president and CEO of the Alliance, Davis was back testifying before the same subcommittee, again working closely with Reps. Ehlers and Oberstar, making the point that only one of the American AOCs had been cleaned up. More funding, more flexibility and other changes were needed to jumpstart the cleanups and keep them going long into the future, Davis and others argued.

The success of the Legacy Act was the foundation for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that President Barack Obama signed and Congress began funding in 2009, a sweeping measure that included ongoing funding for toxic sediment removal as well as habitat restoration and other goals. Even in our current highly polarized political environment, the initiative has continued to enjoy strong bipartisan support from Congress, with funding of more than $3 billion since inception.

Toxic pollution cleanups accelerate

In 2013, Presque Isle Bay on Lake Erie became the second American AOC delisted, and in 2014, White Lake and Deer Lake in Michigan were also delisted.

Management actions have been completed on multiple AOCs stretching from Waukegan Harbor and the Sheboygan River on Lake Michigan’s western coast to the Ashtabula River on Lake Erie to the Rochester Embayment on Lake Ontario.

The Canadian government also has a program to clean up Areas of Concern, developed in cooperation with the U.S. Canada has cleaned up and delisted AOCs including Collingwood Harbor and Severn Sound on Georgian Bay. Five AOCs are joint U.S.-Canadian efforts.

In all, the Great Lakes Legacy Act has meant the cleanup in the U.S. of 4.3 million cubic yards of sediment, with $362 million in federal funds spent on cleanup. Those funds have also leveraged $251 million in non-federal spending from state, county, municipal and private partners since under the act, the federal government matches non-federal spending in a 65%-35% split.

New types of pollution emerge as threats

New types of toxic pollution are threatening the Great Lakes today. Non-point-source pollution including agricultural and urban runoff create toxic algal blooms and other health and ecological threats, as discussed in the next blog in this series. And other types of industrial and consumer waste are also a problem.

Among them, microplastics — plastic from straws, bottles and other items that break down into tiny pieces — are being consumed by bottom-dwelling organisms and fish. These plastics can absorb chemicals, so consuming them passes the chemicals up the food chain. And harmful bacteria can grow on them, making them a conduit for this bacteria to potentially affect humans or aquatic organisms. Microplastics have even been found in cormorant chicks who get them through regurgitated fish from their parents. About 22 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes each year, most of it in Lake Michigan, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology. Microplastics are found in drinking water drawn from the lakes, and even in beer. If plastic breaks down into even smaller pieces — nanoplastics — it can enter the bloodstream of fish and of humans. Last year Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law mandating the state EPA examine the impacts of plastics in water on human health.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are also a major concern. These are manmade chemicals — sometimes called “forever chemicals” — from non-stick cookware, waterproof fabric, packaging and flame retardant that don’t break down in the environment, or the human body. They’ve been found in water bodies, groundwater and drinking water across the Great Lakes region, and states have developed regulations and response plans. But even as some harmful PFAS are phased out or banned, replacement chemicals are also raising serious concerns. And there’s little understanding of the exact impacts of many chemicals, though in general they are known to cause kidney or testicular cancer, fertility problems and other impacts.

PFAS and microplastics in drinking water drive home that our dependence on the Great Lakes doesn’t stop at the water’s edge. “There are real, serious threats to the health of countless people who never visit the lakes but depend on their water every day,” notes Joel Brammeier, Alliance president & CEO.

Lead pollution in drinking water is another serious health threat, and a pressing environmental justice issue, in cities across the Great Lakes, most notoriously in Flint, Michigan. Lead in drinking water comes from archaic water service lines, and is another signal that people in this most water-rich part of the world still cannot count on safe water in their homes and businesses for their families and friends. That’s just not sustainable.

Past successes can inspire future solutions

As challenging as newer toxics are, the past offers hope. If we could successfully tackle decades of contamination that happened before society was even aware of the dangers, then we can address threats emerging in real time.

Davis says the Great Lakes Legacy Act and related work should continue to be an inspiration: an historic achievement that shows the potential for bipartisan cooperation and long-term thinking. That same attitude will be required to solve things like PFAS, microplastics and failing pipes.

“These Great Lakes helped deliver this country through two World Wars, through different economic downturns,” fueling industry and providing jobs that benefitted the whole country, Davis muses. “It’s our time to give something back to the Great Lakes.”

The post Toxic Contamination Past and Present: Creating a Legacy appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Every year since joining the Alliance, I have made an extra trip to my hometown in western New York on the banks of  on Lake Erie. There, I join Dr. Sherri Mason and her students from SUNY Fredonia for their annual Adopt-a-Beach cleanup event at Point Gratiot Beach. One visit stands out.  

Since childhood I have appreciated the sweeping view of Lake Erie from the natural beach between the water’s edge and the shale cliffs that line the shore. But when I went to the Point that day, Dr. Mason turned my attention to a much smaller scale and taught me a new hobby.

I like to call it ‘nurdle hunting.’

As I walked the beach with the rest of the trash-collecting volunteers, Dr. Mason kneeled far down, her nose almost touching the sand, sifting through a pile of twigs and other natural debris. Curious, I walked over. She showed me something I have since become very familiar with — a handful of nurdles.

Nurdles are very small pellets of plastic, less than 5 mm in size. These tiny pieces of plastic easily get dropped, washed or blown away. That’s how nurdles — and billions of other, even smaller microplastics — end up in the Great Lakes. And microplastics are everywhere.

Incidentally, there may have been no better Microplastics 101 Professor, or nurdle-hunting guide, than Dr. Mason. Her pioneering research with the United States Geological Survey is leading the national conversation on microplastics. In fact, her voyages aboard the U.S. Brig Niagara sounded the first alarm about another type of microplastic that you may have heard of called microbeads — miniscule spherical balls used in personal care products like face wash and toothpaste.  

Our microbead victory is just the start

Thanks to Dr. Mason’s research, the hard work of environmental advocates, and forward-thinking legislators, we now have a law in the United States that will ban the sale of personal care products containing microbeads starting in 2018. While this is a great example of how people can come together to prevent microplastics entering the Great Lakes, microbeads are only a fraction of the problem.

Nurdles and microbeads are considered “primary microplastics,” meaning that they are small by design, and they are just are two examples. However, the vast majority of microplastics found in lakes and oceans are actually fragments of larger items, or “secondary microplastics,” which can come from a huge variety of sources and many of which cannot be seen with the naked eye. In fact, most microplastics are actually synthetic fibers that break off of clothes every time they are washed.

Together, these tiny fragments make up the huge problem of microplastics in the Great Lakes. Wildlife, like fish and birds, ingest microplastics. This hurts aquatic ecosystems, and the people that depend on them.

All hands on deck

All told, 86% of debris collected through Adopt-a-Beach is made of plastic. If these items continue to end up in our waters, they will continue to break down into microplastics that can’t simply be picked up.

With so many sources and such tiny particles, the complex problem of microplastics requires the collaboration of everyone concerned about the health of the Great Lakes. We need researchers, lawmakers, educators, retailers and manufactures to team up with communities around the region. We need a plan.

The good news is that communities are taking action, elected officials are listening, and the International Joint Commission has made recommendations to both the U.S. and Canada to begin tackling this complex problem. But this is just the start. There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle, and I’m excited to work together to keep up the momentum on all fronts.

Here in New York, I’m looking forward to Adopt-a-Beach this summer. We will collect litter as well as important data that allows researchers to analyze plastic pollution on our beaches and in our lakes. Just like Dr. Mason’s research helped us win the national microbead ban, Adopt-a-Beach data can lead to solutions not only for my childhood beach, but for beaches across the Great Lakes.

I hope you’ll keep speaking out and take action locally at your hometown beach, join us for Adopt-a-Beach!

The post Microplastics = Major Problem appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.