Lake Huron Research Paper

Determining the Causes and Effects of Water Pollution in Lake Huron

Sandra Mack

Professor Pamela Van Hook

Strayer University- English 115

June 06, 2013

Introduction:

Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes in North America and also serves as one of the largest freshwater systems on the earth itself. Lake Huron, being such a huge source of fresh water, also holds numerous amounts of wildlife. For a long time, the Great Lakes have served as a ground where many harmful pollutants have been disposed of. Pesticides, industrial waste and harmful fertilizers have served as a damaging way of unconsciously contaminating Lake Huron as well as the other Great Lakes. Pollutants that come as a result
Mostly all of the pollution, however, can be attributed to four main causes. These causes are Atmospheric pollution, air pollution, point-source pollution, and nonpoint-source pollution. Even though there are other sources that causes pollution of the Great Lake Huron, these four have been proven to attribute the most harmful of those causes. Atmospheric pollution is cause one and a major concern. It usually happens when rain or snow carries contaminates and makes its way to the water source contaminating the water itself. Cause two is air pollution and it is when waste from plants makes its way into the air from the burning of harmful substances and is then deposited into the water source. Cause three is point-source pollution and that usually means that the pollution comes from sewage, fecal matter, and mercury that comes from treatment plants and industrial facilities that are near the lake. As this matter is dumped into the lake, it causes problems because the life around the lake depends on the life that is inside of the lake itself. Nonpoint-source pollution is the fourth cause and it means that the pollution comes from a runoff of polluted water from lawns or crops that can have contaminates in it. “Water washing over the land, whether from precipitation, car washing or watering crops or lawns, picks up an array of contaminants including oil, sand and salt from roadways, agricultural chemicals,
(n.d.). Testing the Waters. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/ttw2012-GreatLakes.pdf

Nutrients are compounds that stimulate plant growth, like nitrogen and phosphorous. “Water bodies require some nutrients to be healthy, but too much can be harmful. When lakes receive an overabundance of nutrients, they can become polluted by excessive amounts of algae.” (Nutrients: Phosphorus, Nitrogen Sources, Impact on Water Quality) If ingested by humans, it’s obvious that disease or even death could come as an effect.

Toxic Contaminants are substances that can harm sea and human life. They come from human causes such as fertilizers, and other pollutants that humans use to decontaminate land plants. Many of these toxins are so strong that despite being consumed by wildlife and fish, the poisons tend to not break themselves down. That means, a toxin that went from fertilizer in a yard, can be a poison to a fish a human can eat, and therefore can affect people more than they