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When we joined the crew of the Flagship Niagara to study plastic pollution in three of the Great Lakes this summer – Superior, Huron, and Erie.  We had no idea we would find a greater number of plastic fragments than any other water surface sample collected around the world.

The 5 Gyres Institute has traveled to each of the five subtropical gyres in the North and South Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, collecting over 500 samples of the water surface. In the Sargasso Sea we had a few samples with over 400 particles of plastic pollution.  Our net has a 1/3^rd millimeter mesh with a 60cm wide opening.  It looks like a manta ray, and is towed behind the boat at 2knots for one hour, so you’re collecting roughly 2 football fields of area when you trawl. You can imagine our surprise when we counted 1596 particles from one sample taken a couple hundred miles east of Cleveland, Ohio.  But the fragments are tiny.

They look like little perfect spheres, multi-colored beads, the size of the period at the end of this sentence, and they’re everywhere.  These micro-beads are difficult to find in the water.  They are dirty, look just like fish eggs, and you need a microscope to tell the difference.  But they are easy to spot on store shelves.  In fact, many products say “microbeads” on the front, and in the ingredients section you’ll see “polyethylene”.  They are the exfoliants in skin care products.

They are designed to abrade you face when you rub those creams into your skin. They are designed to wash down the drain, quickly finding their way into our waterways.  This is the exact opposite of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) we aim to see in everything we manufacture, where you consider the full lifecycle of your product when you sell it.  It’s just common sense.  No longer can we consider the land and sea to absorb garbage unnoticed. We bought 4 skin products to see just what the exfoliating materials are.

Two of the products state they contain microbeads, and when you dissolve them in water and pour it over a t-shirt, what’s left behind is plastic.  Two of the products were different, after dissolving them in water, we found crushed apricot shells in one and cocoa beans in the other.  One is the problem, the other is the solution. We’ve uncovered a problem, once unseen, but now obvious to us all.  The alternatives, Apricot shells and cocoa beans, do the same thing that polyethylene microbeads can do, but with the added benefit of being environmentally benign.

There are three approaches that must happen simultaneously in order to reach a positive conclusion.  First, the consumer is responsible for their choice, both at the checkout line and voting booth, so we must raise public awareness.  Second, EPR is a legislative move, one that makes companies adhere to the right choice.  But we prefer the third option here, the one that puts choice in the hands of the companies making the product in the first place.  Businesses, like Nutrogena and Johnson & Johnson, have known about the natural exfoliants for years, but they may not know that their product pollutes the Great Lakes.  With this information, we believe good people will do the right thing.  This means ending the use of plastic microbeads in consumer products.

This study was conducted in collaboration with SUNY Fredonia, specifically Dr. Sherri “Sam” Mason, and with funding provided by the Burning River Foundation.

“The millions of people who depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, jobs and way of life deserve to know where President Obama and Governor Romney stand on restoring the largest source of fresh water in the world,” said Jeff Skelding, campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which hosts the conference. “We need the next president to show leadership on this issue. Great Lakes restoration is not a Democratic or Republican issue – it is an issue of national significance and utmost urgency.”

Watch the conference at www.healthylakes.org courtesy of coverage by Detroit Public Television and Cleveland Ideastream.

The conference, which runs September 11-13, comes as the presidential election heats up. Representatives of the Obama and Romney election campaigns will address the gathering Thursday, September 13, at 10:30 a.m.

Carol M. Browner, former White House Energy and Climate Change Director for President Obama and former EPA Administrator under President Clinton, will be representing the Obama campaign. The Romney campaign is confirming its representative.

Great Lakes advocates are asking both candidates to maintain Great Lakes restoration funding and to commit to building a physical barrier to stop Asian carp from invading the Lakes. The actions are part of the coalition’s “Great Lakes Protection and Restoration Candidate Pledge.” Read the full pledge at: http://bit.ly/2012GLpledge

Great Lakes issues have played prominently in the last two presidential elections—attracting support from both Republican and Democratic candidates. In 2004, then-president George Bush signed an executive order declaring the Great Lakes as a resource of national significance and establishing the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, which led to the crafting of a $20 billion plan to restore and protect the Great Lakes.

In 2008, then-candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney all committed their support to the Great Lakes. After the election, President Obama launched the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a multi-year investment in the Great Lakes aimed at confronting urgent problems such as invasive species, habitat destruction, toxic pollution and run-off from farms and cities.

The next president and U.S. Congress face tough budget choices—expiring tax cuts, looming sequestration and ongoing budget negotiations—that could affect critical restoration efforts. The opening plenary Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. explores the challenging political and economic landscape and what it means for federal Great Lakes restoration investments, which have eclipsed more than $1 billion over the last three years.

In communities around the region, restoration projects are protecting drinking water, improving public health and recreation and creating jobs.

In the Greater Cleveland area, wetlands are being restored on sites that housed piles of industrial waste. Fish habitat is being created by repurposing part of an old, abandoned marina. Streams and rivers are being given more natural hydrological forms to reduce flooding and sediment pollution. Neighbors are being enlisted to maintain rain barrels and rain gardens to reduce the impact of run-off on a nearby stream. These and other projects are chronicled in “Cleveland Great Lakes Restoration Projects Producing Results for People, Communities,” a new Coalition collection of inspiring restoration success stories, showing how the work is helping people, the environment, wildlife and the economy. Read the report at: http://bit.ly/RZK7SM

“Restoration projects are producing results, but there is more work to do,” said Skelding. “Both President Obama and Governor Romney need to remain resolute in their commitment to protect and restore the Great Lakes. Cutting funding and failing to address the Asian carp crisis will make projects more difficult and expensive the longer we wait.”

Ohio voters know how important Lake Erie is to their economy and the environment, and want the federal government to spend money on protection and restoration. Seventy-two percent of Ohio voters from across the political spectrum – Republicans, Democrats and Independents – want federal funding to continue to support restoration work, according to a poll released in June by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. The poll also found that far more voters favor, rather than oppose, building a physical barrier to stop the advance of the invasive Asian carp into the Great Lakes.

“We are making progress so the nation cannot let its guard down in the effort to protect the Great Lakes,” said Skelding. “We’re asking each presidential candidate to commit to restoring a piece of America that helps define who we are as a people and nation.”

Read the full agenda at http://bit.ly/2012GLagenda

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition consists of 120 environmental, conservation, outdoor recreation organizations, zoos, aquariums and museums representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. Learn more at: www.healthylakes.org

Forty years ago this October, Congress rallied to pass the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act – the Clean Water Act – largely in response to the collapse of aquatic life in Lake Erie and the flames on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River. In October 1972, Democrats and Republicans united “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters” from the headwaters to the estuaries. That bi-partisan Congress set this nation on a clean water path, enacting a comprehensive clean water framework, with uniform minimum water quality standards, strong federal-state partnerships, federal funding and support for research, technical assistance, water infrastructure, and enforcement.

What better place than Cleveland, on the banks of Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga, to celebrate 40 years of the Clean Water Act [link to EPA’s CWA 40 website: http://water.epa.gov/action/cleanwater40c/] and its phenomenal success in breathing life back into Lake Erie and in restoring the health of the Great Lakes?  What better place and time to take stock of the challenges ahead for Great Lakes restoration, the critical importance of a strong and effective Clean Water Act in securing our restoration investments, and the Clean Water Act policies, priorities, and grassroots action essential to Great Lakes restoration?

Our Clean Water Act at 40 workshop will do just that on the afternoon of September 12^th at the Healing Our Waters Conference in Cleveland. If you can’t join us in person, look for the video on Great Lakes Now. Panelists Ellen Gilinsky of the Environmental Protection Agency, Kristy Meyer of the Ohio Environmental Council, and Jan Goldman-Carter of the National Wildlife Federation bring a wealth of clean water experience to this discussion from a national, regional, and Ohio perspective.  Together they will highlight the importance of Clean Water Act policies, programs, and grassroots action to Great Lakes restoration and lead a group discussion of priorities for the future.

Our photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eriequest/2573334712/ (Lake Erie, Port Clinton, OH Walleye fishing)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuyahogajco/102190191/in/photostream/ (Cuyahoga at Rt 82 Brecksville)

Tools for Assessing Industrial Water Stewardship, being presented by the Council of Great Lakes Industries at 4 pm Wednesday September 12, was a highly-rated workshop at the recent World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. Now you have an opportunity to hear about the recent study that evaluated water stewardship tools in North American industrial facilities. The study, funded primarily by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, included pilot tests of water stewardship tools at four industrial facilities in the US and Canada: a paper mill, a cement plant, a petroleum refinery, and an electric power plant.

Improving industry’s understanding of water use goes beyond the Great Lakes and is a global goal. Numerous water stewardship tools have been developed for evaluating industrial water management. What are the similarities and differences between the various tools and do they work in real industrial facilities? This study produced valuable answers. There will be time plenty of time for discussion during the session.

The Council of Great Lakes Industries is an association of major US and Canadian companies and business associations committed to the sustainable development of the US Great Lakes region.

Throughout the world, cities take on more of a leadership role in sustainability when they prioritize the restoration of clean water. For Cleveland, restoring Lake Erie to full health is necessary to ensure the city endures and thrives. This is one of the reasons why Mayor Frank Jackson, in 2009, launched Sustainable Cleveland 2019, a 10-year initiative that engages everyone to work together to design and develop a thriving and resilient Cleveland that leverages its wealth of assets.

To restore Lake Erie, one of the region’s greatest assets, we must reduce the amount of stormwater runoff it absorbs. Fortunately, green infrastructure provides relatively low-cost solutions that contribute to this restoration, while also improving quality of life to city residents. One key to success is policy. In September 2011, Cleveland adopted a Complete and Green Streets ordinance to reduce the environmental impact of our transportation infrastructure, including stormwater runoff.

Cities also need to engage and inspire through programs and outreach efforts. In Cleveland, the City employs students to install 500 rain barrels to residents in every ward through the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program. The City has provided 2,000 rain barrels to City residents since the program began. The City’s Division of Water Pollution Control also educates residents through its “Only Rain down the Storm Drain” campaign. At the same time, organizations like Drink Local. Drink Tap. reconnect people with local water in tangible activities, such as beach cleanups, World Water Day celebrations, public speaking, art and filmmaking.

These policies and programs are not only a cost-effective approach to stormwater management, but they bring the community together in a very real way. To participate in the conversation, join us at the “Towards a Complete and Green Cleveland” session at the 8^th Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference.

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 More information regarding the media cooperation is available at the Great Lakes Now Media Information page.