ELIMINATING POLLUTION FROM THE GREAT LAKES AND ST. LAWRENCE WATERWAYS

The North American Great Lakes / St . Lawrence

Wildlife as sentinels of human health effects in the Great Lakes--St. Lawrence basin.

There is no existing formal, long-term program for gathering evidence of the incidence and severity of the health effects of toxic substances in wildlife. However, research-based studies of bald eagles, herring gulls, night herons, tree swallows, snapping turtles, mink, and beluga over the past 30 years have revealed a broad spectrum of health effects in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin inclu...

Natural displacement of pollution from the great lakes.

A simplified mathematical model of a lake system indicates that, if the pollution of the Great Lakes were discontinued, the natural flow through the lower Great Lakes would be sufficient to remove about 90 per cent of the waste in about 20 years. On the other hand, hundreds of years would be required to displace the pol lution from Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

Microplastic pollution in St. Lawrence River sediments

Although widely detected in marine ecosystems, microplastic pollution has only recently been documented in freshwater environments, almost exclusively in surface waters. Here, we report microplastics (polyethylene microbeads, 0.40– 2.16 mm diameter) in the sediments of the St. Lawrence River. We sampled 10 freshwater sites along a 320 km section from Lake St. Francis to Québec City by passing s...

Ballast Water Treatment Technologies and Their Application for Vessels Entering the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway

1 review of the current status of ballast water treatment technologies since 1996 when the National Research Council's Stemming the Tide was published, and major impediments to the implementation of these technologies on a large scale, are presented. In addition, factors that affect implementation of the technologies on ocean-going vessels transiting in the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lak...