Where does most of the pollution in the Great Lakes come from?

runoff of soils and farm chemicals from agricultural lands. waste from cities. discharges from industrial areas. leachate from disposal sites.



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Threats & Conservation The source of toxic pollutants includes decades of industrial waste, raw sewage overflows, runoff from cities, and mining operations. Excess nutrients that throw the ecosystem out of balance enter the lakes from agricultural runoff and untreated sewage.

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Significant progress has been made in reducing toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes, but some chemicals, such as PCBs, still pose a threat to human health and the environment. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are higher in the waters of lakes Erie and Ontario than in other lakes.

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5 Things You Can Do To Protect The Great Lakes
  1. Watch What You Wash. One load of laundry can release more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibers into the water system, polluting our waterways and disrupting the food chain. ...
  2. Go Fertilizer-Free. ...
  3. Ditch the Aquatic Hitchhikers. ...
  4. Dispose of Meds Properly. ...
  5. Get Political.


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The most polluted Great Lake is Lake Erie.

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During the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared a “dead lake” due to eutrophication and pollution. The children's book, The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss, actually included the following line referring to fish: “They will walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary.

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Lake Michigan is generally clean and safe for swimming but it can become contaminated with harmful bacteria.

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No. People are not capable of changing things on that scale. We could easily pollute the water and make it undrinkable, but we can't drain the lakes, because there is just too much water there, and it's constantly refilled from too many sources, including rain and snow melt.

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Drinking Water - State of the Great Lakes. The 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement states that “the Waters of the Great Lakes should be a source of safe, high quality drinking water”. Approximately 8.5 million Canadians and 19.5 million Americans get their drinking water from the surface waters of the Great Lakes.

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The average underwater visibility of Lake Superior is about 8 metres or 27 feet, making it the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes.

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These lakes are the perfect backdrop for swimming, boating, and other water-related activities. But there can be more danger in these Great Lakes waves than what you'd find in the ocean. The Great Lakes are more than capable of generating waves over 10 feet high, despite being smaller than our oceans.

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Currents in Lake Erie can be dangerous! Any current flowing faster than 2 mph is considered dangerous. Dangerous currents can exceed 5 mph — faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim.

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NOAA works through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to improve fish passage, clean up debris, restore coastal wetlands, and remove invasive species in the Great Lakes region.

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The Great Lakes are struggling under the combined weight of many ailments, from invasive species and toxic chemicals to the nutrient runoffs that fuel Lake Erie's chronic algae problem. And in many cases, climate change is making it worse.

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Lake Erie and Lake Michigan are ranked the third and fourth most polluted lakes in the United States, according to nature website AZ Animals.

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