Lost in the barrage of bad news about harmful pollutants, invasive species, habitat loss, and climate change is quiet progress on some long-term challenges. The statistics bear this out and suggest the potential for successfully addressing today’s environmental problems.
Our rivers and lakes are noticeably cleaner than they were when Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972.
Rivers don’t catch fire any more, like Ohio’s Cuyahoga River and Michigan’s Rouge River did in 1969. The Clean Water Act has funded approximately 35,000 grants totaling $1 trillion to curb water pollution, diverting more than 700 billion pounds of pollution from America’s rivers. The number of waters in the nation that meet clean water goals has doubled since 1972.
Michigan’s water quality story is complicated. For example, phosphorus pollution from detergents and dishwashing soaps has declined by over 90% since the state limited the phosphorus content of these products beginning in the 1970s. But increased phosphorus runoff from farm fertilizers has offset much of the benefit. Still, the latest state water quality report observes, “Excluding widespread PCBs and mercury-related impairments, physical/chemical and biological assessments of inland lakes and rivers indicate designated uses [e.g., full body contact recreation] are supported in a majority of water bodies.”
By many measures, the air is significantly cleaner than it was when Congress renewed the Clean Air Act in 1990.
Total national air emissions of the following pollutants have declined since 1990:
- Carbon monoxide (CO) by 67%
- Nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 59%
- Fine particulate matter (soot) by 30%
- Sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 88%
- Volatile organic compounds (VOC) by 42%
From 1990 to 2014, national emissions of toxic air pollutants declined by 68 percent. Trends in Michigan are comparable.
Levels of toxic contaminants in Great Lakes fish have declined dramatically since Michigan became the first state to ban most uses of DDT in 1969.
Between 1991 and 2019, mean total PCB concentrations in lake trout at all of EPA’s sampling sites in the Great Lakes declined significantly, ranging from a 78% drop at Sturgeon Bay in Lake Michigan to a 92% drop at Keweenaw Point in Lake Superior.
DDT concentrations in lake trout and walleye from the Great Lakes have plummeted more than 80% since the 1970s and continue to fall in most locations.
Most of our public swimming beaches are clean enough to be open for recreation most of the time.
According to the 2022 State of the Great Lakes report published by the U.S. EPA and Environment Canada, the percentage of days that Canadian Great Lakes beaches met Ontario E. coli standards for swimming averaged 90% in 2018 and 2019. U.S. Great Lakes beaches monitored from 2018 to 2019 were open and safe for swimming 94% of the time over this period. The status of monitored beaches was rated “good” in all of the lakes other than Lake Erie.
America’s symbol, the bald eagle, is flying widely over the Great Lakes state.
From a low of 52 breeding pairs in 1961, Michigan’s bald eagle population has risen to about 900 breeding pairs, the result of both the ban on DDT and habitat restoration.
How these victories were achieved:
This progress didn’t happen on its own. It took two things — firm environmental laws and people power — to reduce the pollutants that made our air and water profoundly unhealthy and threatened fish and wildlife. These are still needed.
People not only worked to pressure elected officials to pass and enforce the laws, but people also helped with hands-on stream cleanup and endangered species restoration work.
Of course, America has not “solved” any of the problems targeted by the federal or state environmental laws. There is still much work to do. But statistics – and our own eyes – can tell us that human-made pollution can also be remedied by human effort and ingenuity.
