STRAIGHTEN UP - Natural Awakenings

inspiration
lAkE trEk:
saving our great Lakes,
one mile at a time
by Wendy l. Cullitan
what began as a mid-life crisis
turned into a mid-life adventure,
not only benefiting
Loreen Niewenhuis, author of A 1,000
~ Mile Walk on the Beach, but also
helping to preserve the Midwest’s
breathtaking “third coast.”
When Niewenhuis set out to
walk around the perimeter of Lake
Michigan, she did not intend to become
an activist, but her lengthy trek
around the Great Lakes exposed
her to not only long stretches of
pristine beaches, but to sections of
such devastation that she became
more keenly aware of the need
to protect our waterways.
“I stay on top of policy a
lot more now. It was surprising
to discover that the lake is
so battered and blundered,”
says Niewenhuis. “The lakes’
delicate ecosystems are being
challenged unnecessarily on a
daily basis. I didn’t set out to write an environmental
book, but those threads are in the book because the
problems are there.”
Lake is the challenge: not the trek. When Niewenhuis began her
walk at Navy Pier on March 16, 2009, in Chicago, the first 72
miles took her through Chicago’s Southside, as well as through
Gary and Whiting, Indiana. “The low point of the trek for me
occurred in these industrialized areas, where man has contorted
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shorelines and put up massive industrial buildings,” she says.
Many people think that the Clean Water Act, passed in the
1970s, protects our “blue planet,” but Niewenhuis discovered
many areas that not only endanger our lakes and wildlife, but
threaten our health, as well. In Whiting, Indiana, for example,
the BP Oil Refinery is allowed to dump toxic sludge and
ammonia into the water. “It bothers me that one of the most
profitable companies in the world is legally able to deposit
this waste into the lake instead of storing it, so as not to cause
damage to the environment,” says Niewenhuis with
frustration. “BP is essentially in violation
of a national law.”
Niewenhuis prepared her
body for the long hike, but never
expected the sights of damage she
saw up close and personal to be
more bothersome than the physical
challenge of the trek itself. “Before I
began the trek, I knew that certain areas
of the Great Lakes were in danger,
but now I have a more holistic view of
the lakes and understand fully that the
problems we face are much broader.”
Fixing a complex problem. According to
Niewenhuis, this is a complex problem,
with a few commonsense solutions. “First,
we need to treat all ballast water from foreign
ports. When large vessels cross oceans
from foreign territory, they expel water into
the Great Lakes and disrupt the lakes’ ecosystems.
The colonization of the zebra mussel
resulted because there are no mandates or
regulations designed to keep foreign water life
from being dumped into our lake,” she says.
“Without checks and balances in place, the lake
will continue to be destroyed.”
Secondly, she says, we need to halt all dumping
of untreated sewage into lakes. “During heavy rains, cities often
have to dump sewage into rivers and lakes, which in turn fertilize
algae, which then blooms out of control. When the algae dies,
dead zones are created in the lake and anaerobic bacteria—like
the one that creates botulism toxin—thrive in these areas. Mussels
and fish can take in the toxin and birds feeding on these food
sources are often poisoned and die,” adds Niewenhuis.
Think left and think right and think low
and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think
up if only you try!
Theodor Geisel