The Clean Water Act's goals of making every lake fishable and swimmable have not yet been achieved but progress has been made The proportion of US lakes rivers and coastal waters deemed unsafe for swimming or fishing dropped from two thirds in the 1970s to one third in 2014 While several sections of the Cuyahoga River are still considered Areas of Concern or AOC by the EPA due to their poisoned river bottom muds and damaged riverbanks the river has improved significantly It hasn't caught on fire since that fateful day in 1969 and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has spent more than 3 5 billion on cleanup and improved sewer systems More than 60 species of fish can now be found in the Cuyahoga River Beavers burrow into its banks and bald eagles nest nearby Lake Erie is no longer the scummy smelly mess it once was either By the early 1990s phosphorus The Cuyahoga River went from a river that caught on fire to a river that people could row down
levels in Lake Erie had dropped by more than 80 percent and the algae had decreased accordingly Its water quality had improved and native plants had returned NEW CHALLENGES Stories of lake conservation rarely have a totally happy ending however In the late 1980s the invasive zebra mussel and quagga mussel found their way into Lake Erie in ballast water from ships These shellfish cluster thickly choking out native species and competing with them for food MAYFLY MAYHEM In Port Clinton an Ohio city along the Lake Erie shore mayflies once filled the air by the millions each spring Attracted to city lights at night the insects would die and accumulate in huge piles along the roadways The large mayflies also known by their scientific name Hexagenia were annoying to humans but they provided an essential food source for fish such as perch and walleye Mayfly numbers dropped sharply in the 1950s probably as a result of phosphorus pollution After phosphorus dumping was banned by the US and Canadian governments the mayflies began to recover In 1996 so many mayflies swarmed Port Clinton that they had to be removed by snowplows 37 dump truck loads full The huge swarms even shorted out the electrical system Annoying as the insects were this was a good sign of the lake's return to health By the early 2000s the lake faced another crisis a huge dead zone in the center of the lake Dead fish birds and salamanders started floating up on beaches as a large toxic algal bloom appeared These dead zones continue to form regularly as runoff of nutrients from agriculture and cities into the lake causes large amounts of algae to grow In 2014 more than 400 000 people in the Toledo Ohio area were left without
drinking water for days when an algal bloom moved too close to the water supply Toxins from these algae can make people sick Lake Erie continues to face many other challenges as well including the growing human population near its banks Aging sewage systems may not be able to handle the increased load Climate change is another environmental factor that may have major effects on the lake in coming years ECOSYSTEMS UNDER STRESS Climate change is now causing some Most of the water we use for drinking irrigating fields lakes to stratify or separate into different temperature layers earlier each showering washing cars and other everyday uses summer This causes the surface layer to comes from freshwater ecosystems In the United become warmer than in years past States the average person uses approximately 100 gallons 380 L of water per day for their basic needs The country uses another 1 700 gallons 6 435 L per person per day indirectly mostly for producing food This number is double the world average Freshwater is in extremely limited supply Less than 3 percent of the water in the world is freshwater the rest is salt water And only approximately 1 percent of that freshwater is surface water The rest is either locked in ice or underground While water can be reused over and over the supply of freshwater is threatened by pollution and other environmental threats
