Lakes of Minnesota
Federal law requires states to update it's list of impaired waterways every two years. This year the impaired waters list grew to more than 2,200 in the state of Minnesota. Only 14 percent of lakes and 8 percent of rivers have been assessed, which means the list covers only a fraction of the lakes in the state.
Right now 40 percent of lakes and rivers are impaired and about 60 percent are meeting water quality standards. 10,000 bodies of water could be on the list if the resources were available to test the numerous lakes and rivers in the state.
At the present rate, it could take decades just to assess the pollution in all the lakes and rivers.
There are dozens of water bodies with so much pollution or chemical runoff they're dangerous to swim in. In other cases, mercury makes it dangerous to eat more than one fish a month taken from the water.
A lake or a stretch of river lands on the impaired list for a variety of reasons. Nearly two-thirds of water impairments relate to fish consumption advisories because of high levels of mercury. The water may also have high amounts of bacteria, algae, sediment, or phosphorus.
December 21, 2005 1:38 AM | Category: Cleanup