Sewage, Sludge, & Fire: Students Investigate Water Quality of the Cuyahoga River

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Cuyahoga River”?  If you said “gross,” “burning river,” or “industrial wasteland,” you are not alone.  And, unfortunately, that is not too far from the truth.  The Cuyahoga River has quite a colorful history with sewage, sludge, and fires, but, let’s start at the beginning.

THE BASICS

  
Map of the Cuyahoga River Watershed Photo credit: Wikipedia

Cuyahoga means “crooked river,” and it certainly earns the name; it kind of looks like a backwards letter “U.” The river’s origin starts in two separate branches in Geauga County which join and flow south through the city of Akron.  The river then loops back north to the city of Cleveland making several tight hairpin turns at the end before emptying out into Lake Erie.

The Cuyahoga’s watershed, or drainage basin, consists of farmland, many urban and suburban neighborhoods, and some green space like Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

THE HISTORY LESSON

When Moses Cleveland first landed on the Cuyahoga in 1796, the river was beautiful and pristine. He surveyed the land around the river and deemed it a prime place to expand our country westward; and thus, the city of Cleveland was born.

Through the 1800s, Ohio’s growth became exponential.  With the addition of the Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River, local businesses and farms had access to fancy goods and building materials from factories along the east coast.  Ohio’s farmers could sell their goods for higher prices in a more competitive market.  Our city grew quickly and Cleveland became THE place to be.

By the 1900’s America was at the height of the industrial revolution.  John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie contributed significantly to the growth of Cleveland.  Carnegie produced steel mills (steel is essential for building sky scrapers and large bridges) and Rockefeller produced oil refineries (kerosene lamps were used to light every home in the country).  At this time, more millionaires lived in Cleveland than in New York City.

One of Rockefeller’s oil refineries.  Photo credit: wikipedia

While businesses boomed, and Cleveland became richer, the Cuyahoga River suffered the consequences.  With no laws in place to regulate waste, industries dumped all kinds of chemicals and waste materials into the river.  Imagine open trenches in which gasoline slid from the oil refineries to the river (gasoline was an unwanted byproduct prior to the invention of cars).  The pristine Cuyahoga landscape Moses Cleveland once surveyed had been replaced with buildings, concrete, and an immense amount of pollution.

Here comes the crazy part.  There was so much sludge, gasoline, industrial waste, etc. entering the river that the Cuyahoga caught on fire!  Not once, not twice, but thirteen times.  The biggest fire, pictured below, occurred in the 1950s.  The most famous fire, igniting in 1969, gained national attention and sparked an important environmental movement.  Have you ever heard of Earth Day?

Photo credit: Ohiohistorycentral.org

Time Magazine published a famous article about the Cuyahoga, titled “America’s Sewage System and the Price of Optimism.”  It describes the river at its worst using phrases like, “Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with surface gases, it oozes rather than flows,” and, “Anyone who falls in the Cuyahoga does not drown… He decays.”

Photo credit: Cleveland.com

Along with the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the general public started to increase their environmental literacy.  Slowly but surely, over time, the river started to recuperate.  Though we’ve amended some of the obvious pollution sources (no more open trenches of gasoline), we still have a long way to go to fully restore the river to a healthy state.

AT THE AQUARIUM

Students assemble a timeline of Cuyahoga History.  Photo credit: GCA

In our Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program, and our Water Quality Scientist program, we take kids to the Cuyahoga to determine the health of the river today.  Guided by the scientific method, the students complete a set of scientific tests to determine whether the water quality is excellent, good, fair, or poor.

***Link Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rivers-Lakes-Keeping-the-Great-Lakes-Great-Teacher-Guide.pdf

***Link Water Quality Scientist to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Students test for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, and turbidity.  We discuss why each of these parameters is important and what can make their levels change.  For example: oxygen levels can drop if the water is stagnant, phosphate levels spike when farm fertilizer runoff enters the water, and nitrate levels rise when human sewage is dumped in the river from sewer overflow points.   According to our research, most days the Cuyahoga’s health comes out “fairly good.”  There is definitely still room for improvement.

Student teams test the water for dissolved oxygen content.

LOOKING FORWARD

We end our water quality programs with a discussion about the future.  How can we restore the river to its excellent, healthy state?  First and foremost, become environmentally aware and literate.  Share the information you learn with your friends and family.  Every action, from every person, contributes to our river’s health.  We all have to do our part.

How can YOU help the Cuyahoga River?  Here is a short list to get you started:

1. Stop littering and pick up trash you see along the river
2. Plant trees — trees and plants hold back sediment and reduce turbidity.
3. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and take shorter showers – by conserving water, less wastewater will enter our rivers during heavy storm events through combined sewer overflow
4. Learn about Combined Sewer Overflow: https://vimeo.com/7707491

5. Buy organic produce — organic farms do not contribute to fertilizer runoff
6. Support local parks and help with river restoration projects
7. Reduce, reuse, and recycle
8. Continue Learning! Check the additional resources below.

Learn more about Cuyahoga River history and the many river fires:
http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/cuyahoga-river-fires/

Learn more about watersheds and stormwater runoff:
http://www.neorsd.org/stormwater-watersheds.php

Read the 1969 Time Magazine article:
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901182,00.html

Learn more about education programs at Greater Cleveland Aquarium:
https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Invasive Species in the Great Lakes

Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted those big bodies of water next to us known as the Great Lakes. But did you know…the Great Lakes hold the largest supply of surface freshwater in the world? And that they provide drinking water to 40 million(!) U.S. and Canadian citizens? This is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the importance of the Great Lakes. Also of relevance are the economic windfalls of these waters, and the lure of tourist attractions, plus a multitude of other factors that make them so valuable. But sadly, they’re facing major problems. Together, we have to figure out ways to keep these beautiful lakes safe.

One very big reason why the Great Lakes are in danger is due to invasive species. An invasive species can be described as an organism that has successfully established a population where it’s not originally from.

In all, there are around 180 invasive species causing havoc around these ecosystems. Each one makes their presence negatively felt in various ways. In general though, these pests will out-compete our important native species and push them out of their homes. The food chain becomes severely disrupted by these invaders, and the habitat overall degrades. Invasive species cause enough negative ecological impacts to the plants and animals that share their space, but what about us? Why should we care about them?

Most people probably don’t realize that we’re all paying for invasive species in our lakes, whether it be with our health or with our money. Overall, these invaders cost residents and businesses of the Great Lakes basin over hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We see spikes in our water bill when extra efforts have to be made to keep it clean and safe for drinking. Food prices will also increase due to invasives lowering the population of popular commercial eatery fish. Prices are going up, while our health might possibly be going down. For example, zebra mussels can contain harmful toxins in their systems, which are then passed up the food chain to larger animals consumed by us. Invasives can also be vectors for foreign diseases that we don’t yet have defenses against. The list of harmful effects goes on and on unfortunately.

One especially harmful invasive species can be viewed in our Aquarium’s very first tank you see when you walk in through the main entrance. Being the stuff of nightmares for some, the Sea Lamprey isn’t the prettiest fish to look at, and its effect on lake ecosystems is not pretty either. With its round, suction-disk mouth filled with sharp teeth, this lamprey has the ability to kill 40 or more pounds of fish during its parasitic lifetime. They’re not picky either, so their effect on the fishing business in the Great Lakes has been extreme.

Combating invasive species is no small task. It requires advanced and expensive methods to keep out and control these organisms. It will be much easier to accomplish this so long as new invasives aren’t popping up, which is where you at home come into play. When buying a live plant or animal from a pet store or bait shop, please do not release them into the wild at any time. It may be tempting and seem harmless to put your unwanted goldfish or turtle in the pond out back, but that’s exactly how invasive species problems can begin. The Great Lakes are a magnificent resource for ages of all kinds, and they’re under enough pressure from humans as is. The Lakes provide us amazing opportunities without having to drive for miles and miles, so the least we can do is protect them in return.

For more information, check out these great resources:

http://www.regions.noaa.gov/great-lakes/

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/areas/greatlakes/explore/great-lakes-aquatic-invasive-species.xml

Microbeads: What They Are and Why We Care

Every piece of plastic ever made still exists.

Plastic products are everywhere. Pens, shoes, food packaging, toys, straws, water bottles, and shopping bags are all made of plastic; plastic is all around us. But, did you know there may be plastic in your toothpaste?

Many common household products, including toothpaste, soap, body wash, and makeup contain tiny pieces of plastic called microbeads. Marketed as an exfoliate, these microbeads have replaced natural, biodegradable exfoliates like nutshells and salt crystals in hundreds of personal products on the market.

Pictured above: Plastic microbeads from household products. Microbeads can be less than 1mm across. Credit: Alliance for the Great Lakes Website (http://www.greatlakes.org/microbeads).

The problem? These microbeads are so small, that our wastewater treatment systems are unable to filter and remove them. And, because these microbeads are made of plastic, they never biodegrade. Over time, these beads continue to accumulate in our world’s waterways; the ocean and the great lakes are currently full of them.

The problem continues as toxins like PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls)can bind to these tiny beads, creating a “toxic soup.” Marine organisms cannot distinguish between microbeads and plankton so these microbeads can be ingested. Check out this video of zooplankton ingesting plastic!

Further studies hope to identify whether these microbeads can be traced up through the food chain, or if the plastic is excreted along the way. Remember, humans are at the top of most ocean food chains.

It is virtually impossible to remove these microbeads from the waterways without also removing beneficial marine life. Our only solution is to stop adding microbeads to the system in the first place. Every person has the choice whether or not to buy products containing microbeads. Check the labels of your products, or check out this database to discover if the products you use contain plastic. Search for polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, and nylon. Each of these ingredients is a fancy name for plastic.

Check the labels of your products to see if they contain microbeads. Image credit: news.vice.com

The good news is that several states, (IL, ME, NJ, CO, IN, MD, WI, and CA), have already passed legislation to ban the sale of products containing microbeads. Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, Target, and Crest have all have pledged to phase out microbeads from their manufactured products. In December 2015, the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was approved by the US House and the US Senate. Microbeads will be phased out of products country-wide starting in 2018, but it’s never too early to start at home today.

Here at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, we hope to help “ban the bead” by spreading the word through education. During our October Homeschool Wednesday, students observed microbeads by straining soap and toothpaste through coffee filters. You can try the lab at home!

If we all do our part, we can stop microbeads from entering our global waterways. The choice is ours.

For more information check out these awesome resources:
http://www.beatthemicrobead.org/en/
www.plasticaware.org