Great Lakes Water Quality Essay

By taking action, people will eliminate the problem in a shorter, more effective manor. One article states, “Since people can now travel around the world much more easily than they ever could before, it has become easier to introduce invasive species by accident,” (Alien Attack, paragraph 5). This demonstrates how quickly species can spread with the help of humans. People need to eliminate these species faster in order to save ecosystems. Overall, humans need to remove all invasive species before they take over the ecosystems of the world.

More than 24 billion gallons of untreated sewage waste and storm water are pumped into the lakes annually. Pollution is increasing as well, due to the cottage development, where people enjoy spending their summers relaxing. For many years, the lake habitats have been affected by pollution and habitat destruction. The market for fish is tremendous; so much so, that we have depleted our fishing resources, and have had to market on invasive species.

     Populations of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas), were first found in the Laurentian Great Lakes in 1988 (Hebert et al., 1989). This species is native to the Caspian, Aral, and Black Seas and the rivers that drain into them but has spread throughout Europe, principally during the 18th century. Since it is restricted to estuarine and freshwater habitats, it is presumed that it was introduced into North America by ballast waters of transoceanic vessels. Based on the substantial amount of genetic variation found in these initial populations, as estimated from electrophoretic variation of allozymes, the colonization of the Great Lakes was by a large number of immigrants and not just a few founders

Some examples include the zebra mussel, sea lamprey, and Asian carp. The zebra mussel first came to the great lakes by traveling in the ballast water of a transoceanic vessel. Over the years, it has spread into the entire great lakes system. They are very dense with contaminants, which causes predators to stray away from them and not digest them. The zebra mussel has had many negative impacts on the ecosystem. A zebra mussel can attach themselves firmly to any solid object, which has caused water intake and discharge pipes to clog. Some other impacts include suppressing native mussels, over clarifying the water, and stripping water from various plankton that native fish eat. Sea lamprey are another invasive species in the great lakes. A sea lamprey is an eel like fish that sucks bodily fluids from other fish. They have traveled to the great lakes on their own by swimming up the Hudson River. They have contributed to the collapse of the whitefish and lake trout fisheries. Some prevention actions have been put in place and include chemical treatments of spawning

Invasive species are organisms that harm a new environment that they are not native to. Many invasive species like Eurasian milfoil are easily able to reproduce and can do so fast. Due to this, the limited space in a body of water or area of land is quickly taken over by the invasive species so other native plants face the risk of death or even extinction. Overall, these invasive species can do great harm to an ecosystem or an economy, causing problems that are destructive to numerous organisms.

For years, there has been debate over who has access to the water in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes provide about 20 percent of the world’s freshwater resources and many areas would like to use that water for various purposes. Water is also becoming a valuable resource, with many areas lacking the access to it necessary for their area’s needs. Because of this, lawmakers passed a compact in 2008 that was designed to protect the Great Lakes against pressure from other States to withdraw water (Kalsness, 2011). A compact is an agreement between states or nations that bind them to whatever they agreed upon. This compact makes sure that areas outside of the Great Lakes region do not have access to the water. Despite this compact, some want to use the Great Lakes to pipe water to other states that do not have the same natural resources. Proponents of this piping say that is gives water to areas that need it and that it will provide additional income to the area (Cauchon, 2006). Opponents say that piping would go against water conservation and environmental protection as well as water management. They also say that it is a natural resource that belongs to the area and should not be taken away to other areas of the country (Dempsey, 2008). Currently, the debate continues about the correct use of the resource of the Great Lakes.

2016). Invasive species were mostly introduced for aquaculture and for sport in wild habitat, but species frequently spread during the international trade (Grosholz 1996; Gozlan et al. 2010).

Zebra Mussels, by the 19th century, managed to spread to almost all of the major drainage ways of Europe. In 1824, these treacherous organisms emerged in Great Britain. Where, even to this day, they are well established. Nevertheless, when the mussels made their way by ship into the great lakes, it was in a body of water connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie, also known as Lake St. Clair. Lake St. Clair is Canadian waters and it is presumed that is where these mussels first entered into the United states’ waters. From the great lakes, they moved to the Hudson and Illinois rivers. The mussels invasion of the Illinois river was a major landmark in their spread. Because from the Illinois, they managed to get into the Mississippi river and then so on into the 10 states that border the

The zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) is a small freshwater mussel. Native to the Black Sea region of Eurasia, the zebra mussel began appearing in European lakes in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is generally assumed that they were accidentally brought to America in the ballast water from ships carrying their larvae, juveniles or adult mussels. Canals may have also played an enormous role in the unknowing transportation and distribution of zebra mussels between major drainage basins. Within just a few years, zebra mussels have been known to travel to all of the Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair and the Mississippi river watershed.

Zebra mussels may seem to be small and harmless creators, but these invasive species are taking over the ecosystem. First appearing in the Great Lakes, but over time has spread all across the U.S causing huge problems. Zebra mussels are negatively impacting lakes and rivers, as they are invasive species, and are killing may native species.

and systems has to be created for specific invasive species to effectively control and vanquish them.

In conclusion zebra mussels are not good for the lakes because They eat all the plankton that makes a bump in the food web which makes fish population go down. Also they multiply rapidly and get stuck to the bottom

Zebra and quagga mussels are some of the most invasive species impacting the US Great Lakes. Because the mussels take available phytoplankton for other organisms and increase water clarity, they cause changes to the ecological structure of the lake community (GLIN Sept 2016). The introduction of these animals, according to AIU online, is due to cargo ships leaving port transfer millions of gallons of local water into their ships to act as ballast as they travel along the ocean. Once these ships make arrive at their destination, they dump their ballast water leaving behind the mussels.

If there is some water supplies, closed zebra mussels can survive for longer. Veligers cannot survive drying; however, if there is a small water amount (like a puddle or pond), they can survive making some treatment methods like lowering the reservoir levels ineffective. Zebra mussels can survive as boats are transferred from lake to lake and even in bait buckets that fishermen and fisherwomen use. Researchers indicate that overland dispersal could have spread zebra mussels from one small inland lake to another which would explain why so many inner lakes are contaminated with zebra mussels. Ballast water from a Russian commercial cargo vessel was the main vector for spreading the zebra mussels into U.S. waterways and regulations have been put into place regarding discharging ballast in waterways. Education has spread the preventative methods for stopping the spread of zebra mussels and the legal implications of not following rules are steep.

All around the world, countries are fighting to keep their drinking water clean. Whether it’s streams, rivers, or lakes, countries have taken great measures to maintain high quality drinking water for both human consumption and animal consumption. Countries must first understand the sources of the polltion, then determine the best methods to eliminate the pollution. Clean drinking water is a valuable resource and a the key to human survival. Plants and animals also depend on water for their growth, so all water must be kept clean. The major contributors to water pollution can be classified in three categories, industrial, agricultural and municipal.