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The great lakes are almost 100,000 square miles of water. The 6 beaches are clustered on the southern tip of lake michigan near the steel mills, and around the Detroit/Saginaw area on the eastern side of Michigan which is highly industrial as well.
The other 92% of the shorelines are pretty decent. The OP's "absolutely shocking" comment and the mood of the title are pretty biased and misleading if you're a casual observer wandering into this thread.
Interesting reading if you go to the original report; even more interesting if you read the individual state reports.
I would have thought, before reading this, that industrial or wastewater treatment pollution would have caused the bulk of the beach closings etc., but instead it's stormwater runoff.
The great lakes are almost 100,000 square miles of water. The 6 beaches are clustered on the southern tip of lake michigan near the steel mills, and around the Detroit/Saginaw area on the eastern side of Michigan which is highly industrial as well.
The other 92% of the shorelines are pretty decent. The OP's "absolutely shocking" comment and the mood of the title are pretty biased and misleading if you're a casual observer wandering into this thread.
The singing bridge beach on the north side of Saginaw bay is not really an industrial area. It is 130 miles at least to the industrial parts of Detroit. That area is very rural and quite suprising that its on the list. E- coli can come from animal waste as well, and that is a likely explanation. Saginaw bay is shallow, and there are lots and lots of sea gulls and Geese which all can raise e-coli levels. Now the 2 beaches further downstate are in the built up Detroit area and not suprising to see them listed. Oh and really hard to refer to a Detroit/Saginaw area since the two cities are over 100 miles apart, and are two totaly different worlds.
The singing bridge beach on the north side of Saginaw bay is not really an industrial area. It is 130 miles at least to the industrial parts of Detroit. That area is very rural and quite suprising that its on the list. E- coli can come from animal waste as well, and that is a likely explanation. Saginaw bay is shallow, and there are lots and lots of sea gulls and Geese which all can raise e-coli levels. Now the 2 beaches further downstate are in the built up Detroit area and not suprising to see them listed. Oh and really hard to refer to a Detroit/Saginaw area since the two cities are over 100 miles apart, and are two totaly different worlds.
I was just implying that you're talking about 100,000 square miles of open water, thousands of miles of shoreline and beaches, and an area that takes 800 miles to cross from end to end.
Saginaw and Detroit aren't the same thing - but in the realm of the entire great lakes they're certainly neighbors.
Three of the beaches are next to each other on the southern tip of Lake Michigan (which is highly industrial). Two of them are in the Detroit area which is highly industrial, and another is north of Detroit by Saginaw.
Living in Chicago, I would hardly say any of these areas are huge destinations for swimming at beaches. There are thousands of miles of shoreline on the lakes - why would you flock to the foot of a huge steel plant Most people go to the western shores of Michigan, or up from the north side of Chicago up into Wisconsin.
The 3 areas mentioned are just a small slice of the shoreline of the lakes.
Having grown up in that area, actually there are many people who flock to the beaches (or dunes) in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
Indiana seems to have the smallest lake frontage of any of the Great Lake states. Yet it seems to have a couple of the most polluted beaches.
So my question is to the locals around Lake Michigan, do you feel that Indiana does not care about its lake waters as much because it does not have that much at stake? Or is Indiana a victim of pollution drifting down to the southern end of the lake?
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Most people go to the western shores of Michigan, or up from the north side of Chicago up into Wisconsin.
