I am sure everyone likes to enjoy the beaches, both ocean and lakes. I am sure mayors find tourism important to their economies. So, the mayors and their citizens need to let their Congressional Representatives to stop making cuts to infrastructure projects.
Nearshore water quality threatened (click here)
DEC 11 2012
KARI LYDERSEN
Duluth was deluged with record rainfall last June – more than seven inches in two days — that caused massive flooding and sent cascades of debris, contaminants, sediment and raw sewage into Lake Superior.
The flow of sewage into the lake would have been worse if it weren’t for three decades of expensive and labor-intensiveefforts to repair and overhaul the sewer systems of Duluth and neighboring Superior, Wis.
Now such crucial sewer system improvements across the Great Lakes are at risk because of the federal budget crisis. It’s happening right when climate change is expected to mean more of such heavy rains.
In older cities and towns across the Great Lakes, untreated sewage is regularly released into rivers and lakes when pipes that handle both sewage and storm water are overwhelmed by rain. Duluth reduced such combined sewer overflows – known as CSOs – by 91 percent by separating sanitary and storm sewer pipes and building catchment basins....
