Stop Poisoning the Great Lakes

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

The Great Lakes are in trouble. Every day, raw sewage, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals and bunker oil increasingly contaminate this shared freshwater treasure. Canada must act now to clean up and protect this essential source of drinking water for 40 million people and home to thousands of species of marine life.

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There are currently 43 "Areas of Concern" on the Great Lakes -- sites that are so contaminated, they have been targeted for special remediation. Billions of gallons of untreated sewage and run-off from wastewater plants are the Lakes' largest source of such pollution. This problem is getting worse because Ontario's municipal wastewater discharge rules have not kept up with an exploding population growth.

In 2010, a reported 15 million kilograms of poisonous chemicals were found in the water, primarily from industry and agribusiness in the Great Lakes Basin. You should know that Canadian facilities released almost three times more carcinogenic and reproductive toxins than American facilities.

Also found are a whole host of toxins not covered by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, including pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, plasticizers, pesticides and a new class of chemicals that don't dissolve in water. Bunker oil spills in accidents or by illegal dumping is also a major pollutant. Just 16 of the world's largest ships can produce as much as lung-clogging sulphur pollutants as all the world's cars. Yet Canada is resisting even mild regulatory changes proposed by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency to reduce bunk oil emissions.

We can no longer turn a blind eye to pollution in the Great Lakes.

In Sarnia, Ontario -- on the shores of Lake Huron and nicknamed "Chemical Vally" -- twice as many girl babies as boy babies are being born to the local Aamjiwnaang First Nation. As well, unusual sexual attributes to frogs and other species around Sarnia have been observed by Canadian wildlife experts.

Beluga whales in the Saguenay region of Quebec are among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world. One quarter of the whale population has cancer and in just 70 years, 90 percent of the whales have disappeared. Some of the fish from the Lakes are so loaded with toxins like mercury, dioxins, lead and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) that they have been deemed unfit for human consumption.

For too long, the Great Lakes have been misused and treated first and foremost as an economic engine rather that responsibly managed like the invaluable freshwater treasure that it is.

Prime Minister Harper, I urge you to allocate the necessary federal funding to sustain the thorough and immediate clean up of the Great Lakes.

I further urge you to work with governments and communities of both sides of the border to have the Great Lakes Basin declared part of the Commons, a Public Trust and a Protect Bioregion to ensure its protection today and for future generations.