It is raining here on "Victoria Day" and I gather this storm came to us by way of Chicago where "two days of rain overwhelmed Chicago’s underground labyrinth of sewers Friday, forcing a noxious mix of sewage and stormwater into local waterways and Lake Michigan. At 2:30 a.m., the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District opened a sluice gate separating the lake from the North Shore Channel in Wilmette, allowing millions of gallons of human and industrial waste to flow with runoff into the water supply for 7 million people in Chicago and the suburbs." The Chicago River and its sewage used to flow east into Lake Michigan, but it was reversed over a century ago so the sludge would head west and then south. With the overflow, the stuff just flowed everywhere and some will find its way toward us.
That recent story reminded me of one from earlier this year when it was announced that London is also contributing to the rising lake levels. In January 68 million litres of sewage was sent into the Thames after we had considerable rainfall. While no one will be heading to the beach today, it is worth noting that we get our water from both Lake Huron and Lake Erie.
Bonus Information
Heading to the beach is problematic these days and not just in the Great Lakes area. Here is a headline from across the Atlantic Ocean: Apparently a "Massive Sea Foam Wave Kills Five Experienced Surfers Who Went Out During a Storm in the Netherlands. It was reported that "five surfers who knew the sea like the back of their hand, died after a huge layer of foam in the water hampered efforts to rescue them. While some sea foam develops naturally, the addition of sewage to the water is reported to not help.
Sources:
The Chicago story is found in The Chicago Tribune on May 16, 2020.
For London see: "January's Record Rain Exposes London's Dirty Sewage Secret," by Megan Stacey in the LFP on Jan.20, 2020.
“It’s the dirty secret of a lot of the cities on the Great Lakes,” said Mark Mattson, head of Waterkeeper, a Canadian charity advocating for clean water....
“A major city like London discharging raw sewage into the Thames River . . . that’s a terrible thing. We live in the freshwater capital of the world. We’re blessed to have it. The idea that we’re polluting it to the degree we do is really unacceptable,” he said.
For the story from Europe: "Five Surfers Die in the Netherlands After Huge Layer of Sea Foam Hampers Rescue,"By Lianne Kolirin, CNN
The group ran into difficulties at the northern harbor head of the Scheveningen district of The Hague in the Netherlands on Monday evening.
A statement issued online by the rescue service said its efforts were "complicated by the man-sized foam layer at sea and on the beach," while "strong winds and high waves also made it very difficult to provide relief from the harbor pier."
Police, firefighters, the coastguard, units from KNRM and other emergency workers were all involved in the rescue operation, in which a helicopter was used to try to blow away the foam and improve visibility.
The picture above is from: The BBC
Sea foam is a growing global mess: "How Frothy Waves of Sea Foam Coated the Coast of Chennai: Don't Play in the Bubbles." Atlas Obscura, Jessica Leigh Hester, Dec. 5, 2019.
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