In the winter Lake Michigan sometimes freezes so hard that the ice crystal are the size of icebergs and the whole lake looks like Krypton where superman's family anticipating the planets destruction, sent him off to earth -- jokes on them. . Seeing the lake was no different in my heart walking along last week with my daughter in the early morning . When I was having my first born, my son, a friend and colleague forbade my swimming in the lake while pregnant. The friend had always been smarter than me in medical school. But her warning was just the beginning...
.As Environment Illinois explains, Lake Michigan has been something of a dumping ground for years. Since 2000, over 34 billion gallons of raw sewage have been dumped into that body of water. And in 2012, over 50 beaches along the lake tested positive for mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and E. coli. In the same year, Cook County had 334 beach closings due to unsafe levels of pollution and bacteria. (Read more stories about water pollution at CleanWater.news) Pharmaceutical companies have been known to dump drug waste. Old sunken ships, like those in San Francisco's Bay-Hunters Point are spreading their share of industrial contamination too with heavy metals like lead and mercury left in the lakes mud and sands. Coal burners emitting mercury that falls to the ground and into the water table. There are plenty of coal burners in the mid-west USA. And in case you need another reason to stop high greenhouse emissions -- BP oil also dumps in Lake Michigan from the Indian shores. Its truly time to convert jobs in those industries to clean energy gigs. Until then, Happy Summer but it may not be safe to get back in the water-- and not because of sharks. We have to watch where our babies swim -- even better--work to clean up places here they can't.