JUST THE FACTS
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| Image courtesy: Earth Sciences and Image Analysis, NASA - Johnson Space Centre. Mission: STS096; Roll: 701; Frame: 18 |
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Lake Erie and Biological Pollution facts
Portion of global water supply that is fresh water: 30 percent
Portion of total fresh water not stored in ice or groundwater: less than 1 percent
Portion of available freshwater supply stored in the Great Lakes: 20 percent
Size of Lake Erie in kilometres squared: 246,000
Number of people who live around the lake: 35 million
Number of people for which Lake Erie provides drinking water: 11 million
Number of metropolitan areas within Erie watershed: 17
Percent of stream samples in the Lake Erie–Lake Saint Clair Drainages where harmful
chemical compounds such as the herbicides atrazine, acetochlor, cyanazine, metolachlor, and
simazine were detected: 50 percent to 100 percent
Weeks after applications elevated pesticide concentrations in streams persisted in agricultural
and mixed-land-use areas: 4 to 6 weeks
Number of chemical compounds now identified in the Great Lakes: 360
Number of invasive species discovered in the Great Lakes: 161
Area of coverage zebra mussels has been measured up to per square metre in the western basin: 300,000
Present population of zebra mussels per square metre: 1,013
Levels of oxygen required by fish in milligrams: 4 milligrams or more
Levels of oxygen in the Dead Zone: 0.5 milligrams
Number of birds killed by the lake’s botulism as of April 2003: 50,000
The sum of investment made in sediment remediation within the western Lake Erie/Detroit
River basin between 1993 and 2000: $100 million
Tobi McIntyre
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