World Water Day

Last week the Greater Cleveland Aquarium hosted Drink Local Drink Tap’s educational event, World Water Day for the fourth year. Since 2010, Drink Local. Drink Tap., Inc. (DLDT) has led educational, youth focused events on the United Nation’s International World Water Day (WWD) every March 22nd.

Last Wednesday, DLDT brought 300 Wavemaker Program students to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium for a day of exploration, water education and awards thanks to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

 

Students from Lake County Catholic, Citizens Leadership, Lakewood Catholic Academy and more explored the aquarium and visited interactive learning stations provided by Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District, Great Lake Erie Boat Float, and Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District.

 

The day’s presentations, posters and activities focused on the importance of local water resources and the accessibility of safe drinking water around the world. One of the activities involved students decorating water jugs to carry around all day as a constant, visual reminder of the day’s theme.

 

If you want to learn more about the work of Drink Local Drink Tap, World Water Day, or how to be more involved visit drinklocaldrinktap.org.

Conserving Lake Erie and Our Great Lakes

For many of us who live in Northeast Ohio, Lake Erie is a place where we can visit and have fun. The scenic beaches, great fishing, boating and other recreational opportunities are all reasons people are living by such a great waterway.  Lake Erie and its counterparts; Huron, Michigan, Superior, and Ontario are important for many more reasons than being fun to visit. Formed 10,000 years ago as the glaciers retreated forming large depressions that filled with water, the great lakes took on their familiar formation that they are found today. These lakes provide critical habitat for thousands of native species, supply vast amounts of drinking water to millions of people and served as important connection route to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River.

The Great Lakes impressively span over 94,000 square miles and hold about 6 quadrillion gallons of water!  That accounts for 20% of the world’s fresh water reserves and 90% of the U.S.’s drinking water supply¹. The people of the United States aren’t the only ones who depend on the Great Lakes fresh water; Canada does too with about 35 million people from both countries living within the Great Lakes Basin. When combined, all five lakes make up 10,000 miles of shoreline². This shoreline is made up of forested areas, urban centers, and wetlands.

There are many benefits to the Great Lakes for both people and wildlife. As a whole, the lakes bring in about $4.5 billion just with the sport fishing industry³.  Many fishermen enjoy catching walleye, lake trout, perch and other sport fish.  Recent studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) found that the revenue brought in from all economic activities such as boating, fishing, hunting and wildlife watching in the Great Lake States amounted to $50 billion⁵! The lakes and surrounding basin is home to 3,500 species of plants and animals, including more than 170 species of fish⁴. They also provide critical breeding and migrating areas for colonial and migratory birds.

Now, lets recap the importance of our Great Lakes: large revenues for local economies brought in through the wildlife and recreation uses, home to thousands of natural species of plants and animals, thousands of miles of beautiful shorelines used both for natural and developmental purposes, and most importantly serve as 90% of the U.S. citizens drinking water.  With so many important factors built into the Great Lakes we must too consider the threats.

Many of us living within Northeast Ohio can joke about the time in 1969 that the Cuyahoga River caught fire because it was polluted from decades of dumping industrial waste, but this shouldn’t be a laughing matter. Today, while Ohio has cleaned up Lake Erie, there are still active threats to our waterways including; invasive species, pollution, and wetland destruction.

       

Invasive species have already changed the ecology of our lakes.  Zebra mussels and the sea lamprey are now comfortably adapted to the lakes.  Zebra mussels can be found sticking to any hard surface-being docks, rocks and even boats.  They are such efficient filter feeders that while they do contribute to clearer water, they also make it harder for small fish to catch a meal.  The Sea lamprey has successfully out competed the native lake trout as the top predator in 4 out of 5 of the Great Lakes.  Only Lake Superior has a natural breeding population that can still out compete the sea lamprey.  The other four lakes have to be annually restocked with lake trout to keep their numbers viable².  One invasive fish that has yet to make its way to the Great Lakes is the Asian Carp, a prolific feeder with no natural predators.  It will out compete many of the large carnivorous fish within our lakes if it is able to cross from the Mississippi waterway.

Chemical contaminants are another important threat that cannot be ignored. Pollutants such as DDT and PCBs, while not as much as a threat as they were in the 70’s and 80’s are still contributors to much of the contaminants found in the lakes, built up as a result of over use of insecticides on our farms and improper disposal of coolant fluids.  Chemicals such as mercury can build up in fish as a result of the emissions from coal burning plants. Excessive use of nutrients and fertilizers on big farms leach into ground water and end up in the lakes causing harmful algal blooms that can make people sick¹.

Wetlands are important wildlife refuges that are becoming threatened from human and invasive animal impacts. Important wetland ecology is being disrupted through increased development from both home building and industrial use.  Even the introduction of our new invasive species can harm important food web ecology.  It may sound like the stuff of nightmares, but there is hope, and it comes from people like you!

Many foundations including the National Science Foundation, NOAA, the Sierra Club and many other Non-Profit organizations are here to help us keep our Great Lakes in good condition.  There are also important policies in place such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts that help police big businesses from dumping pollutants and protecting our waterways.  The biggest difference though, can come from you!  Did you know that there are things you can do to make Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes great?  Even by supporting policies that create renewable energy or by using energy efficient products, you can help keep our water clean and wildlife safe⁶. Also, remember that you can be helpful just by conserving water: take shorter showers, don’t excessively water your lawn, and turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. It may all sound like small contributions, but if everyone chips in, we will keep our Great Lakes in great condition for future generations.

Miscellaneous ways you can help our lakes⁷:

To Reduce Invasive Species:

*If you are an angler or a boater, power wash your boat and trailer before putting it into another body of water, or let it dry for at least five days.

*Drain your bait wells, bait buckets, and other equipment on land, not into the water.

*Never release live fish or aquatic plants into the wild, such as aquarium fish or species such as the Asian carp.

*Do not leave the bank or shore of any water with any live fish or live fish eggs, including leftover minnows.

To reduce polluted runoff:

*Use rain barrels to collect water.

*Don’t put yard waste in the roads.

*Reduce use of pesticides and fertilizers.

*Use non-toxic cleaning products in your home.

*Do not burn trash.

*Dispose of medications at proper facilities.

Footnotes:

¹ NWF.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/Waters/Great-Lakes.aspx

² https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wild-Places/Great-Lakes.aspx

³ Aquatic nuisance species in the New York State Canal and Hudson River systems and the Great Lakes Basin: an economic and environmental assessment.” Environ Manage. 2005 May;35(5):692-702.

⁴  http://www.livescience.com/29312-great-lakes.html

⁵ NOAA’s Great Lakes Region

www.ppi.noaa.gov/Regional_Collaboration/Regional_Overviews/GreatLakesRegionOverview_042507.pdf

⁶ www.nwf.org/climate-smart.

 ⁷ https://vault.sierraclub.org/greatlakes/downloads/2008-06-activisttoolkit.pdf

Sewage, Sludge, & Fire: Students Investigate Water Quality of the Cuyahoga River

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Cuyahoga River”?  If you said “gross,” “burning river,” or “industrial wasteland,” you are not alone.  And, unfortunately, that is not too far from the truth.  The Cuyahoga River has quite a colorful history with sewage, sludge, and fires, but, let’s start at the beginning.

THE BASICS

  
Map of the Cuyahoga River Watershed Photo credit: Wikipedia

Cuyahoga means “crooked river,” and it certainly earns the name; it kind of looks like a backwards letter “U.” The river’s origin starts in two separate branches in Geauga County which join and flow south through the city of Akron.  The river then loops back north to the city of Cleveland making several tight hairpin turns at the end before emptying out into Lake Erie.

The Cuyahoga’s watershed, or drainage basin, consists of farmland, many urban and suburban neighborhoods, and some green space like Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

THE HISTORY LESSON

When Moses Cleveland first landed on the Cuyahoga in 1796, the river was beautiful and pristine. He surveyed the land around the river and deemed it a prime place to expand our country westward; and thus, the city of Cleveland was born.

Through the 1800s, Ohio’s growth became exponential.  With the addition of the Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River, local businesses and farms had access to fancy goods and building materials from factories along the east coast.  Ohio’s farmers could sell their goods for higher prices in a more competitive market.  Our city grew quickly and Cleveland became THE place to be.

By the 1900’s America was at the height of the industrial revolution.  John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie contributed significantly to the growth of Cleveland.  Carnegie produced steel mills (steel is essential for building sky scrapers and large bridges) and Rockefeller produced oil refineries (kerosene lamps were used to light every home in the country).  At this time, more millionaires lived in Cleveland than in New York City.

One of Rockefeller’s oil refineries.  Photo credit: wikipedia

While businesses boomed, and Cleveland became richer, the Cuyahoga River suffered the consequences.  With no laws in place to regulate waste, industries dumped all kinds of chemicals and waste materials into the river.  Imagine open trenches in which gasoline slid from the oil refineries to the river (gasoline was an unwanted byproduct prior to the invention of cars).  The pristine Cuyahoga landscape Moses Cleveland once surveyed had been replaced with buildings, concrete, and an immense amount of pollution.

Here comes the crazy part.  There was so much sludge, gasoline, industrial waste, etc. entering the river that the Cuyahoga caught on fire!  Not once, not twice, but thirteen times.  The biggest fire, pictured below, occurred in the 1950s.  The most famous fire, igniting in 1969, gained national attention and sparked an important environmental movement.  Have you ever heard of Earth Day?

Photo credit: Ohiohistorycentral.org

Time Magazine published a famous article about the Cuyahoga, titled “America’s Sewage System and the Price of Optimism.”  It describes the river at its worst using phrases like, “Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with surface gases, it oozes rather than flows,” and, “Anyone who falls in the Cuyahoga does not drown… He decays.”

Photo credit: Cleveland.com

Along with the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the general public started to increase their environmental literacy.  Slowly but surely, over time, the river started to recuperate.  Though we’ve amended some of the obvious pollution sources (no more open trenches of gasoline), we still have a long way to go to fully restore the river to a healthy state.

AT THE AQUARIUM

Students assemble a timeline of Cuyahoga History.  Photo credit: GCA

In our Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program, and our Water Quality Scientist program, we take kids to the Cuyahoga to determine the health of the river today.  Guided by the scientific method, the students complete a set of scientific tests to determine whether the water quality is excellent, good, fair, or poor.

***Link Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rivers-Lakes-Keeping-the-Great-Lakes-Great-Teacher-Guide.pdf

***Link Water Quality Scientist to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Students test for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, and turbidity.  We discuss why each of these parameters is important and what can make their levels change.  For example: oxygen levels can drop if the water is stagnant, phosphate levels spike when farm fertilizer runoff enters the water, and nitrate levels rise when human sewage is dumped in the river from sewer overflow points.   According to our research, most days the Cuyahoga’s health comes out “fairly good.”  There is definitely still room for improvement.

Student teams test the water for dissolved oxygen content.

LOOKING FORWARD

We end our water quality programs with a discussion about the future.  How can we restore the river to its excellent, healthy state?  First and foremost, become environmentally aware and literate.  Share the information you learn with your friends and family.  Every action, from every person, contributes to our river’s health.  We all have to do our part.

How can YOU help the Cuyahoga River?  Here is a short list to get you started:

1. Stop littering and pick up trash you see along the river
2. Plant trees — trees and plants hold back sediment and reduce turbidity.
3. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and take shorter showers – by conserving water, less wastewater will enter our rivers during heavy storm events through combined sewer overflow
4. Learn about Combined Sewer Overflow: https://vimeo.com/7707491

5. Buy organic produce — organic farms do not contribute to fertilizer runoff
6. Support local parks and help with river restoration projects
7. Reduce, reuse, and recycle
8. Continue Learning! Check the additional resources below.

Learn more about Cuyahoga River history and the many river fires:
http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/cuyahoga-river-fires/

Learn more about watersheds and stormwater runoff:
http://www.neorsd.org/stormwater-watersheds.php

Read the 1969 Time Magazine article:
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901182,00.html

Learn more about education programs at Greater Cleveland Aquarium:
https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Invasive Species in the Great Lakes

Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted those big bodies of water next to us known as the Great Lakes. But did you know…the Great Lakes hold the largest supply of surface freshwater in the world? And that they provide drinking water to 40 million(!) U.S. and Canadian citizens? This is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the importance of the Great Lakes. Also of relevance are the economic windfalls of these waters, and the lure of tourist attractions, plus a multitude of other factors that make them so valuable. But sadly, they’re facing major problems. Together, we have to figure out ways to keep these beautiful lakes safe.

One very big reason why the Great Lakes are in danger is due to invasive species. An invasive species can be described as an organism that has successfully established a population where it’s not originally from.

In all, there are around 180 invasive species causing havoc around these ecosystems. Each one makes their presence negatively felt in various ways. In general though, these pests will out-compete our important native species and push them out of their homes. The food chain becomes severely disrupted by these invaders, and the habitat overall degrades. Invasive species cause enough negative ecological impacts to the plants and animals that share their space, but what about us? Why should we care about them?

Most people probably don’t realize that we’re all paying for invasive species in our lakes, whether it be with our health or with our money. Overall, these invaders cost residents and businesses of the Great Lakes basin over hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We see spikes in our water bill when extra efforts have to be made to keep it clean and safe for drinking. Food prices will also increase due to invasives lowering the population of popular commercial eatery fish. Prices are going up, while our health might possibly be going down. For example, zebra mussels can contain harmful toxins in their systems, which are then passed up the food chain to larger animals consumed by us. Invasives can also be vectors for foreign diseases that we don’t yet have defenses against. The list of harmful effects goes on and on unfortunately.

One especially harmful invasive species can be viewed in our Aquarium’s very first tank you see when you walk in through the main entrance. Being the stuff of nightmares for some, the Sea Lamprey isn’t the prettiest fish to look at, and its effect on lake ecosystems is not pretty either. With its round, suction-disk mouth filled with sharp teeth, this lamprey has the ability to kill 40 or more pounds of fish during its parasitic lifetime. They’re not picky either, so their effect on the fishing business in the Great Lakes has been extreme.

Combating invasive species is no small task. It requires advanced and expensive methods to keep out and control these organisms. It will be much easier to accomplish this so long as new invasives aren’t popping up, which is where you at home come into play. When buying a live plant or animal from a pet store or bait shop, please do not release them into the wild at any time. It may be tempting and seem harmless to put your unwanted goldfish or turtle in the pond out back, but that’s exactly how invasive species problems can begin. The Great Lakes are a magnificent resource for ages of all kinds, and they’re under enough pressure from humans as is. The Lakes provide us amazing opportunities without having to drive for miles and miles, so the least we can do is protect them in return.

For more information, check out these great resources:

http://www.regions.noaa.gov/great-lakes/

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/areas/greatlakes/explore/great-lakes-aquatic-invasive-species.xml

Microbeads: What They Are and Why We Care

Every piece of plastic ever made still exists.

Plastic products are everywhere. Pens, shoes, food packaging, toys, straws, water bottles, and shopping bags are all made of plastic; plastic is all around us. But, did you know there may be plastic in your toothpaste?

Many common household products, including toothpaste, soap, body wash, and makeup contain tiny pieces of plastic called microbeads. Marketed as an exfoliate, these microbeads have replaced natural, biodegradable exfoliates like nutshells and salt crystals in hundreds of personal products on the market.

Pictured above: Plastic microbeads from household products. Microbeads can be less than 1mm across. Credit: Alliance for the Great Lakes Website (http://www.greatlakes.org/microbeads).

The problem? These microbeads are so small, that our wastewater treatment systems are unable to filter and remove them. And, because these microbeads are made of plastic, they never biodegrade. Over time, these beads continue to accumulate in our world’s waterways; the ocean and the great lakes are currently full of them.

The problem continues as toxins like PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls)can bind to these tiny beads, creating a “toxic soup.” Marine organisms cannot distinguish between microbeads and plankton so these microbeads can be ingested. Check out this video of zooplankton ingesting plastic!

Further studies hope to identify whether these microbeads can be traced up through the food chain, or if the plastic is excreted along the way. Remember, humans are at the top of most ocean food chains.

It is virtually impossible to remove these microbeads from the waterways without also removing beneficial marine life. Our only solution is to stop adding microbeads to the system in the first place. Every person has the choice whether or not to buy products containing microbeads. Check the labels of your products, or check out this database to discover if the products you use contain plastic. Search for polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, and nylon. Each of these ingredients is a fancy name for plastic.

Check the labels of your products to see if they contain microbeads. Image credit: news.vice.com

The good news is that several states, (IL, ME, NJ, CO, IN, MD, WI, and CA), have already passed legislation to ban the sale of products containing microbeads. Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, Target, and Crest have all have pledged to phase out microbeads from their manufactured products. In December 2015, the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was approved by the US House and the US Senate. Microbeads will be phased out of products country-wide starting in 2018, but it’s never too early to start at home today.

Here at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, we hope to help “ban the bead” by spreading the word through education. During our October Homeschool Wednesday, students observed microbeads by straining soap and toothpaste through coffee filters. You can try the lab at home!

If we all do our part, we can stop microbeads from entering our global waterways. The choice is ours.

For more information check out these awesome resources:
http://www.beatthemicrobead.org/en/
www.plasticaware.org