By: Shane Levy And Evan Milan

Introduction• Water quality affects the great lakes because it Water quality affects the great lakes because it

is so horrible that it is destroying the is so horrible that it is destroying the environmentenvironment

• Water quality in the Great Lakes is an issue Water quality in the Great Lakes is an issue because it is known to be very bad. There are because it is known to be very bad. There are also many contaminants in the water.also many contaminants in the water.

• The pollution is killing many species of fish The pollution is killing many species of fish along with the beluga whalealong with the beluga whale

• Beaches have had to been closed because of bad Beaches have had to been closed because of bad water quality in the areawater quality in the area

• And none of this is seeming to come to a stopAnd none of this is seeming to come to a stop

Introduction cont.

• Many factories put many contaminates such as: PCB’s, PAH's,mercury, and other heavy metals.

• This kills the local wild life and contaminates drinking water

What is the water quality in the Great Lakes?

• Water quality in the great lake is horrible.• In fact in some areas it can considered toxic

waste• There are so many chemicals in that the fish

that live there themselves become contaminated and die

• Some of the water is so contaminated with oil that it actually caught in fire

What is the water quality in the Great Lakes continued?

•Millions of gallons of untreated sewage get dumped into the Great Lakes every year!

•When you think about it that is pretty disgusting considering we swim in and drink out of the Great Lakes.

What are some of the contaminates found in the Great Lakes?

• Most of the toxic contaminates in the Great Lakes are: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s) polycycil hydrocarbons (PHC’s), mercury, and other heavy metals.

• As these chemicals and metals are released into the water it destroys the water quality and the environment

What are the politics on the Great Lakes water quality?

• TThe U.S and Canada singed the great lakes water quality act in 1978 and stopped putting some harmful contaminates in the water

• BBy doing this we are now emitting less pollutants into the great lakes

What effect do invasive species have on the Great Lakes water quality?

• Invasive species have a horrible effect on the water quality in the great lakes

• Some invasive species kill local wetland life that cleans the Great Lakes

• Invasive species also bring diseases that kill our fish, and the bodies dead rotting fish are hurting our water quality

What effect do invasive species have on the Great Lakes water quality?

• We are though putting in an effort to stop invasive species from destroying our water quality

• Many communities have been getting rid of invasive plants and planting native plants that clean the environment in the invasive species place

How does industry affect the water quality in the Great Lakes?

• As industry grows on the Great Lakes so does the amount of pollutants in it

• Unfortunately with a lot of businesses they can not be that environmentally friendly while being productive

• Industry is currently one of the biggest causes of pollution on the Great Lakes

How does industry affect the water quality in the Great Lakes?

• There is some good news though, some companies such as Polymet mining corporation have very few emissions and actually commit time to cleaning up the Great Lakes

• We all aren't that bad

How does water quality in the Great Lakes affect Humans?

• Water quality in the Great Lakes affect humans in many ways

1. People that visit beaches are getting sick from the contaminates in the water

2. We also eat fish from the Great Lakes, fish that happen to be contaminated with toxins In some areas fish are so contaminated that nobody is allowed to fish there because if anybody ate them they would get badly ill

What are we doing to clean the Great Lakes?

• Some people are doing nothing, in fact they are even worsening the water quality by dumping toxins into the great lakes

• If we could put as much effort as we do to pollute the Great Lakes into cleaning it we wouldn’t have the problem of contaminated water

What are we doing to clean the Great Lakes?

• We stopped the emissions of most chemicals into the Great Lakes

• The U.S and Canada have also signed an agreement that states that they will put in a big effort to clean the Great Lakes

• Many local communities clean the water by their shore

How does water quality in the Great Lakes affect the ecosystem?

• As small plankton absorb the toxins fish eat them and then bigger fish eat those and the beluga eats all the fish absorbing all the toxins they have acquired.

• This is so bad the the belugas dead bodies are considered toxic waste

• Also contaminates affect fish directly by poisoning them

What does water quality have to do with the native species?

• Water quality has a lot to do with the native species, more than you think

• Some native species reeds actually clean the water

• Unfortunately some very toxic pollutants and invasive species are killing them off

• Also many species will become extinct unless we stop polluting the water

What effect does water quality in the Great Lakes have on economy?

• Bad water quality in the great lakes has a negative effect on the economy

• For example many areas in the Great Lakes people can no longer fish.

• This hurts the economy because there are a lot of people who’s jobs are fishermen

Data

• There are many threats to the Great Lakes water quality below you can see some of them.

Toxic contaminates

Invasive Species

Non-point source pollution

Habitat loss

Waste water discharge

Demand for water

Data cont.

• This chart represents pollutant release into the Great Lakes

• As you can see we definitely put a lot of pollutants into the Great Lakes

Status of water quality in the Great Lakes

• The water quality in the Great Lakes at this moment is very poor.

• There are though, many clean up efforts.

• Some of the cleanup efforts are international, like the signing of the Great Lakes clean water act between the U.S.A and Canada.Others are small such as communities getting together and cleaning the water

Prediction and Recommendation

• The prediction for water quality in the Great Lakes is this: unless we do something more to clean the water and stop polluting water quality in the Great Lakes will only get worse

• A suggestion to help the water quality in the Great Lakes is to stop polluting and to clean the water

Conclusion

• All in all humans have a negative effect All in all humans have a negative effect on the water quality in the Great Lakes on the water quality in the Great Lakes whether it is polluting the water with whether it is polluting the water with toxic contaminates from factories or toxic contaminates from factories or spilling oil.spilling oil.

• This is to bad because we should leave This is to bad because we should leave the Great Lakes the way we found them the Great Lakes the way we found them instead of destroying theminstead of destroying them

Citation

• Contaminates in the Great Lakes." www.starbeacon.com. 29 Apr 2007

• "Great Lakes water quality." www.epa.org. 29 Apr 2007

• "Great Lakes water pollution." http://msupress.msu.edu/booktemplate.php?bookId = 2821. 29 Apr 2007 "water wuality of the great lakes." www.buffalonews.com/149/story/363222.html. 29 Apr 2007