Freshwater Pollution

Freshwater pollution is a very serious problem in the United States and around the world.   The main source of this pollution is humans and their waste.   Humans produce many types of waste that eventually ends up in their freshwater resources.   Clean water is essential to the health and well being of the earth’s population now and in the future.   Freshwater pollution is harmful to humans, other animals, and even vegetation.   The lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan are surrounded on three sides by the largest freshwater system in the United States, which is known as the Great Lakes.   The Great Lakes must be protected because they contain an estimated 10% of the Earth’s and 84% of the United States’ surface freshwater (Fields, A165).   There has been much done to improve and maintain the cleanliness of the Great Lakes system, but there is much more that can be done.   A resource management plan to preserve and conserve the Great Lakes system will also be developed.
    There are many causes of water pollution.   There are eight categories of water pollutants.   These are sewage, disease-causing agents, sediment pollution, inorganic and algal nutrients, organic compounds, inorganic chemicals, radioactive substances, and thermal pollution (TEXT BOOK).   The Great Lakes themselves are used for transportation, recreation, food supply, and drinking water.   The ways in which the lakes are used as well as the land use practices around them have a major effect on the water quality of the lakes.   The effects of industrialization, agriculture, transportation, and urbanization all have a harmful impact on water quality in general and the Great Lakes in particular.  
  Humans are the main cause of many point source and non-point source pollutants that harm water quality.   One example of non-point source pollution is the vast amounts of sewage and industrial chemicals that have been purposely and accidently dumped into freshwater resources.   As Detroit and other large cities...