The sickest rivers and lakes in Minnesota
Posted on July 10th, 2008 – 4:37 PMBy James Shiffer
It’s a competition that creeks, lakes and rivers don’t want any part of. Every two years, the state compiles a list of polluted waters across Minnesota. The list grows every time, not because rivers and lakes are all getting filthier, but because many of them haven’t been sampled before. Unveiled last week, the 2008 list features no fewer than 2,575 impairments on lakes and portions of rivers, and just about every familiar water body seems to have something wrong with it.
For example, you have to be careful of eating fish from Lake Phalen because they could be marinated in an old 3M coating chemical. Ditto for Lake Harriet and a spate of other metro lakes.
As it winds its way through the scenic gorge in the Twin Cities, the Mississippi River suffers from turbidity, otherwise known as muddiness, and brims with fecal bacteria. Medicine Lake is ailing from algae-spawning pollution, a phenomenon called eutrophication. Many waterways are impaired because eating fish from them comes with an extra helping of toxic mercury.
Overall, about 40 percent of the waters tested by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency don’t meet water-quality standards. Knowing what’s polluted, the agency says, is the first step to cleaning it up.
13 Responses to “The sickest rivers and lakes in Minnesota”
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July 11th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Nice list … but
1. How do you tell where a given lake or river is … if it’s a name like “Clear” or “Loon”?? your ID#s mean nothing to a layman!
2. What is “TMDL”?
3. Definition of the various “categories”?
July 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
What a joke… Gloom and Doom. Everyone run for your lives!!!! The fact of the matter is that the author of this story clearly has no backround in anything pertaining to the environment, more specifically water quality. Granted, what has been done to impair water in the past has been unbelievable (3M, love canal, the cuyahoga). But to try and frighten people with the turbidity of the Mississippi and the “phenomenon” of eutrophication is absurd. A couple quick facts… turbidity has to do with the particulate matter in a body of water and is not restricted to the confines of “mud”. Eutrophication is far from a “phenomenon” and is prevelant to some degree in almost all bodies of water and in rare cases become problematic (little rock lake). And one more factoid…. Mercury levels are on the decline since they’ve been heavily regulated by the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. The only place in the U.S. that has still had even a slight amount of mercury emissions is in western Montana. Next time you write an article, write it responsibly.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Some answers: TMDL = “total maximum daily load,” a measure of how much pollution a water body can absorb without impairment. Good question on the ID numbers - there’s not much guidance on their list. I think it would be worthwhile to punch those IDs into google and I bet it will turn up more detail on the water bodies. As for doan0401, turbidity is indeed not restricted to mud, but it’s about cloudiness, which is quite often if not usually related to sedimentation (mud). I wouldn’t call eutrophication a “rare” problem. And finally, every coal-burning power plant in the world emits mercury.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Also, try this web site for loads of additional information on these waters, including an interactive map. http://iaspub.epa.gov/waters10/state_rept.control?p_state=MN&p_cycle=
July 11th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Great post, James. This should begin to serve as a wake-up call. The PCA indicates that 40% of our waters are polluted - and we tested less than 20% of our lakes!
Before I take my kids swimming this summer, I’ll visit checkmylake.org to see if recreating and eating fish out of the lake is safe.
This is a real issue! Thanks for highlighting it.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
DOANO401–Actually, you are the joke. Turbidity is a key measurement of water quality, and yes, of course eutrophication is a natural phenomenon, but human activity has greatly hastened this phenomenon in many water bodies. And the absolute best is your George Bush-esque “Mercury levels are on the decline.” Totally stupid, empty, misleading statement. So what if they even were “on the decline” if they were 30 times the allowable limit to begin with? For the fun of it, here’s a random article plucked from the internet: (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) “Posted: July 8, 2007
A study by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has found that mercury levels in one of the state’s most prized game fish increased as much as 19% from 1982 to 2005 in southern Wisconsin.”
July 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
The checkmylake.org can not be searched
by “lakes that you can swim in county”
or “all lakes that are not swimable in county”, you have to know the lake, get one result (or no results).
The search is totally lame, almost useless.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:29 am
The word phenomenon should only be used when something is way out of the ordinary. I agree that water quality is a major issue… Hence why my job title is “water quality specialist”. But to write an article using phrases such as “SUFFERS from turbidity” and “PHENOMENON called eutrophication” is over dramatizing a well known issue. I didn’t intend for my comments to come across as “our waters are perfect” only meant to assure readers that the irresponsible writing by the author is far from the “everybody panic!!” message it seemed to send.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Oh, and by the way… Yes coal power plants still emmit a minute amount of mercury however a great deal of regulations implimented scrubbers which eliminate a vast majority of it and….”A study by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has found that mercury levels in one of the state’s most prized game fish increased as much as 19% from 1982 to 2005 in southern Wisconsin.”…. Thats because of a fun thing that happens with heavy metals, they bio accumulate in those “prize(meaning big)fish”. I guarantee that levels in their small fish have dropped signifcantly in the last 10 years.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
A minute amount of mercury? From the EPA’s mercury page (http://www.epa.gov/mercury/control_emissions/index.htm)
“On March 15, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule to permanently cap and reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time ever. This rule, combined with EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), will significantly reduce emissions from the nation’s largest remaining source of human-caused mercury emissions.”