Waterlife

Description
Reviews
Citation
Cataloging
Transcript

The film tells the epic story of the Great Lakes by following the cascade of its water from northern Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, through the lives of some of the 35 million people who rely on the lake for survival.

Providing earth with 20% of its surface fresh water and its third largest industrial economy, the Great Lakes are a unique and precious resource under assault by toxins, sewage, invasive species, evaporating water and profound apathy. They are also one of the planet's great preserves of extraordinary wilderness beauty and a bounty of unique species.

WATERLIFE blends these realities with a dreamlike fluidity as it pours through the lives of some amazing characters. We meet an Anishinabe medicine woman who walked 16,000 miles around the lakes to sympathize with them; the last of the great Michigan fishing families; a man whose lakefront home now borders a field thanks to sewer overflows; the people of a village where mysterious toxins ensure that most new babies are girls; and the residents of Love Canal, a notorious Niagara Falls neighborhood abandoned in the 1970s and now dubiously refurbished.

Along the way, WATERLIFE show viewers the Great Lakes as they might appear to a seagull, a fish or a water molecule...and from a myriad of other amazing perspectives. Filmed over a full year with a battery of specialty cameras and techniques, WATERLIFE provides an unprecedented view of an incredible ecosystem rarely seen by the city dwellers who form most of its population. From the ornate fountains of Chicago to the sewers of Windsor, viewers are carried through marsh and pipe, across pounding waves and through thunder clouds on a journey which, as the film says, has no 'ending or beginning, that shapes every body it passes through and unites them all across space and time.'

WATERLIFE's director, Kevin McMahon, is one of Canada's most innovative documentary filmmakers. Gord Downie, leader of The Tragically Hip and a Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, narrates the film. Topping off this epic cinematic poem is a fabulous soundtrack featuring Sam Roberts, The Allman Brothers, Dropkick Murphys, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros, Robbie Robertson, Daniel Lanois, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno and a new song by The Tragically Hip. Plus check out the award-winning interactive website .

'A visually stunning, spectacular, and eye-opening film...I've spent many years working to protect the Great Lakes from pollution, degradation, and harm. But the film opened my eyes to these issues in new ways, thanks to its amazing documentary cinematography...Substantively, the film's coverage of the environmental problems and challenges that confront the Great Lakes is superb. Waterlife educates viewers without overwhelming or boring them - no easy task when dealing with complex environmental issues. It covers the hot issues in today's headlines, like the Asian carp swimming up through the Chicago River. And it also digs deeper, showing the fundamental challenge of managing a massive water system that is shared by two countries, ten states and provinces, and thousands of local communities.' Noah Hall, Associate Professor, Wayne State University Law School, Founder, Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, Author, Great Lakes Law blog

'Marvelous work...A brilliant documentary that is must-viewing for anyone who cares about water and our future, and that should be all of us...Waterlife will cause you to reflect, make you angry, and I hope, prompt you to talk about it. Tell friends, colleagues, and local leaders- because the film and its story need to be on everyone's radar. Then let it inspire you to engage and take action.' Gary Wilson, Board Chair, Biodiversity Project, co-Editor, Great Lakes Town Hall

'Visually and aurally beautiful, elegiac storytelling about the fate of the Great Lakes. No one who watches Waterlife can fail to care more about the Great Lakes and the people who depend on them. No one who watches Waterlife can fail to be stirred to take action to protect them. Waterlife shuns the cloak of rhetoric and pierces directly to the heart of the debate over the Great Lakes. Can we take the actions needed to pass this freshwater treasure on to future generations? Will we love them enough to try? After watching Waterlife I was inspired to think we can. I admire not only the skill of the team that created Waterlife, but also their expansive vision of the past and future of the Great Lakes. This may be the most important documentary ever made about the Lakes.' Dave Dempsey, Communications Director, Conservation Minnesota, Author, Superior Shores: A Novel of Conservation, and Great Lakes for Sale

'An excellent example of documentary film construction...This film is a moving piece of art. It is highly informative, taking a broad and multidisciplinary approach to presenting the environment, ecology, pollution, conservation, geography, and history of the Great Lakes. The information is intelligent as well, having depth and detail but avoiding becoming mired in specialist overstatements. This approach makes the film excellent for educational purposes. I would strongly recommend the film for inclusion in courses focusing on environmental science, issues of pollution, conservation, hydrology, and ecology.' Troy Belford, Anthropology Review Database

'Sobering...A vividly eye-opening account of serious environmental issues. Highly recommended, especially for high school classroom and public library collections.' The Midwest Book Review

'A visually spectacular and highly thought-provoking film...A cohesive, richly textured accounting of the many environmental problems affecting the lakes, and also the challenges faced by the thirty-five million people who live near them in both Canada and the United States...Albeit the message of Waterlife is a dire one, it is not presented in a heavy-handed manner. The makers of the film weave together with concise narration subtly powerful interviews, stunning cinematography, and a smart soundtrack to appropriately say what needs to be said. The reviewer highly recommends this title for academic, public, and school library collections.' Christopher Hollister, University at Buffalo Libraries, Educational Media Reviews Online

'Beautifully shot...This film is both a celebration of the Great Lakes and a warning of increasing environmental dangers.' Booklist Online

'Waterlife is a great achievement: a comprehensive overview of the key ecological challenges facing the lakes that is at the same time aurally and visually magnificent. For historians unfamiliar with the range of issues that intersect here, in this massive watershed at the heart of the continent, this is an excellent place to start...Will doubtless be the Great Lakes documentary of choice for educators...The film would make an excellent addition to undergraduate courses in North American environmental history, global history, or more focused courses on the Great Lakes region.' Jennifer L. Bonnell, H-Environment, H-Net Reviews

'One of the most stunning films about the environmental crisis I've ever seen...not only does it contain important information presented in a way that we haven't seen before but it is a beautiful cinematic experience.' Agnes Varnum, doc it out

'A detailed, wondrous, educational film about the Great Lakes...Waterlife has a lot to say about the importance of the fresh water supplied by the Great Lakes, but the film doesn't neglect to show the extraordinary beauty of these bodies of water....McMahon manages to make his point -- that the lakes are threatened and that we all have a stake in preventing any further decline -- without preaching. In fact, Waterlife is as entertaining as it is educational.' Liz Braun, Sun Media

'Waterlife is a dire warning in the vessel of a tone poem, simultaneously a lyrical paean to the lakes' lingering beauty and a relentless documentation of their rising toxicity.' Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail

'As spoken by scientists, fishermen, residents and narrator Gord Downie, the film's revelations are plenty disturbing. Yet with its gorgeous imagery and ethereal soundtrack, Waterlife also emphasizes the beauty of what's at risk.' Jason Anderson, The Toronto Star

'There are a lot of environmentally themed documentaries floating around out there, but rarely do they present themselves on such a cinematically engaging level as Kevin McMahon's Waterlife. McMahon manages to balance his information with engaging storytelling... Overall, Waterlife was probably the best experience I had at this year's Hot Docs festival.' Jay Cheel, The Documentary Blog

'Amongst all of the beautifully shot and entirely absorbing sequences of water life there is an overwhelming sense of impending mortality, with the film acting as an elegy to not only the lakes but also life as we know it.' Robert Bell, Exclaim

Citation

Select a citation style:

Main credits

McMahon, Kevin (screenwriter)
McMahon, Kevin (film director)
Flahive, Gerry (film producer)
McLaughlin, Kristina (film producer)
McMahon, Michael (film producer)
Tran, John M (director of photography)
Donaldson, Christopher (editor of moving image work)
Swinghammer, Kurt (composer)
Downie, Gordon (narrator)

Other credits

Cinematographer, John Minh Tran; editor, Christopher Donaldson; original music, Kurt Swinghammer.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

Great Lakes, water, fresh water, Lake Superior, toxins, sewage, invasive species, Asian carp, Chicago River, Anishinabe medicine woman, Love Canal, Niagara Falls, specialty cameras, ecosystem, Chicago, Windsor, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, St. Lawrence River, drinking water, water pollution, toxicity, Sam Roberts, Allman Brothers, Dropkick Murphys, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros, Robbie Robertson, Daniel Lanois, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno, Tragically Hip.; "Waterlife"; Bullfrog Films

WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000
[music]

00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:15.000
[sil.]

00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.000
[music]

00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.999
[sil.]

00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.999
We’re here at the mouth of
The Saint Lawrence River

00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.999
and we’re studying the Beluga Whales.

00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.999
This is a very threatened population.
They might be

00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.999
the most contaminated rear
mammals on the planet.

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.999
[music]

00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.999
A quarter of the adults

00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
are dying of cancer, surprising
because they seem to be

00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
living in a pristine environment. So the only
explanation is that, it comes from upstream.

00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:03.000
[music]

00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.999
What else, the Belugas are things
that happened long ago and far away.

00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.999
[music]

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.999
Upstream is the St. Lawrence River and
it’s fed in turn by the five Great Lakes.

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
They poured through the heart
of North America and the lives

00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.999
of 35 million lucky people who have
plenty to drink in a thirsty world.

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.999
Yet along the way,

00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.999
that water gathers up enough
misfortune to kill a whale.

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.999
In that journey, lies the story of the
last great supply of fresh water on earth.

00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.000
[music]

00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:08.000
[music]

00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:38.000
[sil.]

00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.999
Round and round water goes

00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.999
and it never ever stops. Its journey
has no beginning and no end.

00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.999
[sil.]

00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.999
Every body of water is just a
vessel that it shapes in passing.

00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.999
[sil.]

00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.999
The great lakes were made their water.
There are five

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
vast basins dug out by glacial ice.

00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:23.000
[sil.]

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.999
It took 10,000 years to melt into the cascade
that tumbles down through the basins

00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.999
from the high level of Lake
Superior, where our foliage begins.

00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:48.000
[sil.]

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.999
The water is cold up here and it flows

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.999
over scoured bedrock that
doesn’t provide much food.

00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.999
But if you look closely at any water,
it’s always teeming with life.

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:33.000
[music]

00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.999
Along the shores

00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.999
you can find different flowering mix
and bitter, they’re very useful.

00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.999
It’s very good for the skin.

00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.999
There’s medicine wherever you
go, like even the trees here.

00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.999
There’s one right there that they call
black ash right there, that little tree,

00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.999
the bark from a tree boil it with
spruce bark, it cleans your…

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
I know the word in Indian but
trying to put it in English

00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
is hard. Umm… Urinary tract,

00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.999
that… that’s what you would call.
It cleans it up and you’ll know

00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
when… when you’ve been cleaned up,
your water will start flowing

00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.999
clear… clear and clean.

00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.999
I sincerely believe that it’s,
you know, the water and the air

00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
have something to do with the medicines.

00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.999
[music]

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
When you drink that water,

00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.999
you are part of that water and as
we are all part of each other,

00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
like we’re all water. All of us,

00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
I don’t care what color, anybody
is…they are water, they are water

00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
and the water is united,
uniting us together.

00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:13.000
[music]

00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
I’m a fisherman. I’d been
commercial fisherman

00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
for about 25 years. I’ve
always loved the water.

00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
I like my job. I’ve always loved the lake.

00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:28.000
[sil.]

00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
People have a hard time (inaudible),

00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
even when they don’t make any
money, you still seem trying.

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
[sil.]

00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
Once you work on the
water, it’s hard not to.

00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
Water unites people across space

00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
and through time.

00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
[music]

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
To travel from Superior to St. Lawrence,
it takes water about 350 years,

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
which is by chance how long it’s been since Europeans
first arrived and began harnessing the flow.

00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:23.000
[sil.]

00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
There is a lot of water the flows into Lake
Superior that we generate electricity from.

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
[sil.]

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
This plant enabled tremendous
growth in this area

00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
as well as the startup
pulp and paper business.

00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
We bring the water in out of the river.
On average we’re using

00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
15 million liters of water per day.

00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
The spruce fiber

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
that we use for paper making is a very
strong fiber, that’s a main staple for

00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
tissue, towel, those types markets.

00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
We’re actually introducing

00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
mechanical action to the fiber, breaking it
up from a chip to its independent fibers

00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
and from there we treat the product bleach

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
and other chemicals.

00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
Once the fibers are ready for paper
making, we begin the dewatering process.

00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
[sil.]

00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
And that’s what paper machine is,
it’s a big dewatering process.

00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:53.000
[sil.]

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
Your final state, the paper
tends to be about 8% water

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
and 92% fiber. So you’ve
gone from 1% fiber,

00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
99% water to 92 fiber, 8 water.

00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
[music]

00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
Both the provincial and federal government

00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
regulate a large number of compounds that we’re
allowed to put out either in wastewater and air,

00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
such as phosphorus, phenol,

00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
which comes from the wood or
chloroform which comes from bleaching

00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
and oxygen furnace and A0X which is a
group of chlorinated organic compounds.

00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:53.000
[music]

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
We remove 90% or more of the material prior

00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
to putting it either in
waste water and air.

00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:18.000
[music]

00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
Most of the chemicals that come
out of industrial facilities,

00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
don’t dissolve in water. And they bind up

00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
in to particles that are
floating in the water.

00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
So could be things like PCBs,
petrochemicals, pesticides,

00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
heavy metals. The particles in the
water column are like little magnets

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
and they attach to these magnets and they fall down to
the bottom and you get a layer of contaminate sediment.

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:08.000
[music]

00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
Back before, you know, European showed
up here, the only thing in the Sue

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
was the rapids. Overtime, they’re
looking for a way to get their commerce

00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
up and down between Lake Superior and the lower
Great Lakes and then they have to required

00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
a series of navigational locks to be build.

00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
[sil.]

00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
The water rolls down through the
locks and up the other way,

00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
come creatures, the rapids once kept out.

00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
Like the tiny zebra mussels that flowed
over in the ballast water of European ships

00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
or the ancient monstrous
lamb prey that swim up

00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
the canals from the ocean.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
You don’t think everything
through carefully,

00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
you don’t know what kind of undesirable
side effect you might wind up with.

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:33.000
[music]

00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
Lamprey grasps the whole inside of the fish

00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
and then drinks the fluids and
sometimes stomach contents.

00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
In the Great Lakes, there’s no natural
predators for the sea Lamprey.

00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
So the Lampreys were able to come in, uh… begin
feeding on the top predators, basically unhindered,

00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
simply wiping of the fisheries. The
lesson of the lamprey is that,

00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
once an invasive species has been established
in the Great Lakes Basin, eradication

00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
is quite likely Impossible.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
[sil.]

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
Everything has its consequences both good and bad, we can’t
change nature without there being some type of consequences.

00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:28.000
[sil.]

00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
When I was a young guy, we came here

00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
shrink trapping. There’s
a big difference since

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
I… What I remember when I was young.

00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
A (inaudible) fish which
you call fish electrode.

00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
Nicely turn out that big.
There’s something.

00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
That’s how they lived. There’s a lot of it I
think. You hadn’t… They didn’t work too hard

00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
to catch and offered to do you for a while.

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
Now there’s no fish. Lamprey,

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
a lot of… lot of good fish die out.
You know, what’s the biggest problem?

00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
Is that poison that we have
to do, That’s the big thing.

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
You can’t get away from that, even us.
We breathe that poison.

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
[sil.]

00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
What can you do?

00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:43.000
[sil.]

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
You want to protect

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
what is there that is beautiful, that is
still beautiful. So that’ll be free and…

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
and everlastingly pure for our children
in our next generations to come.

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
[sil.]

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
To walk with the water around the lakes,

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
all the five lakes, that was what I
was motivated by the Spirits to do,

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
to bring awareness, to the importance of

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
keeping it clean and pure.

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
To bring healing to the
people through the water.

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:43.000
[music]

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
The shoreline of the Great Lakes runs through
Canada and the United States for 17,000 kilometers

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
or 10,000 miles. It wraps 20%
of the planet’s freshwater.

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
Leaving Superior,

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
the water pours through the Straits
of Macedon to become Lake Michigan,

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
wholly-owned by the USA.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
It’s the industrious lake, its long fetch,
endlessly straightening sandy shores.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
The lake is such a harsh environment,

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
we lose approximately one foot a year

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
of anything that pokes out into the lake
and the little point, the storms works on,

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
the water works on it,
the winds work on it.

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
[sil.]

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
All of this stuff that falls into
the lay moves along the lakeshore

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
until it finds a place
where it’s very quiet

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
and then it drops its loom.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:18.000
[music]

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:53.000
[sil.]

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
I’m fifth generation in the Carlson family

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
that settled here for Sweden in
1889, and I’m doing both lumber

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
and fishing on the islands and they just
kept being passed down through generations

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
and so here I am now, maybe the
last of them, I wound say.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
Certainly hope not, but you never know.
When I was a kid,

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
there was a lot of fishermen,
lot of fishermen. It was Rick,

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
toward the middle 60s that the
lampreys wiped things out.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
A lot of the guys pulled out here.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
[music]

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
During the early 70s, you know, my father had this
notion to start buying all the property down here

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
and then add that idea to start writing
them out to people to bring them here

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
with whatever they could
conjure up to sell.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
Pretty soon it started
to attract the tourist

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
and tourists bought fish too.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
The off-season I paint,
a lot of the old days

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
of Fish Town. So these come from a black
and white photographs that I reinterpret

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
into a painting. This is my grandfather and my great
grandfather and that’s when they used to break the ice

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
to get into the fishing grounds. You can
imagine how cold and how hard that work

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
must have been and we
got it easy these days.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:38.000
[music]

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
The Great Lakes are the crown jewel

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
of the United States. They provide us with

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
a form of emotional sustenance
that nothing else can provide.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:08.000
[music]

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Chicago originated because hundreds of years ago they
could see the obvious connection between the great lakes

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
through the Chicago River and
ultimately the Mississippi River.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
As the city of Chicago developed from 1830s

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
to the 1870s, the population grew from 50
people literally to something like a million.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
And exponentially the pollution
problems grow as well.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
Basically because a lot of
the wastewater was being

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
put into Lake Michigan and then been drawn right
back in as drinking water, which led to outbreaks

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
of all types of horrible diseases.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was created
basically to reverse the flow of the Chicago River.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
So that when wastes were deposited
into the Chicago River,

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
they would go downstream to the Mississippi.
It didn’t clean up the city’s drinking water,

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
it did help create the Chicago’s lakefront, it
transformed it into this wonderful resource

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
that was protected and ultimately became all
these miles and beaches and you know, beautiful

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
lakefront buildings etc.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:18.000
[music]

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
But for the Chicago River itself,

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
it permanently demoted it.
People kept dumping

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
and dumping and dumping, concentrating
the pollution in the river.

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
[music]

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
Those sewage pipe still drain directly
into the river. They treated for solids,

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
but they don’t treat it for bacteria.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
[music]

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
Everyday 2.5 billion gallons is diverted
from Lake Michigan through Chicago

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
to flush the city’s poop south.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
Down the Illinois River

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
into the Mississippi.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
[music]

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Environmentalist canoe the
river to make a point,

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
but you wouldn’t want to touch it.
The river has high bacteria

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
from sewage treatment plants, have
been literally off the charts.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:18.000
[music]

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
It’s important to note that
this is a two-way strip.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
Things from the Great Lakes can move into the Mississippi River Basin and
things from the Mississippi River Basin can move into the Great Lakes.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
[sil.]

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
It’s been within the last five or
six years that has really become

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
a well-known thing around here.
The invasion of the Asian carp

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
and they originally

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
came from like the Southern states
and they escape and some flood

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
and they have just migrated up the
Mississippi River into Illinois

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
and it’s a infestation now actually.
You don’t have to casting it,

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
to get a ride in the boat with you.
You don’t believe me, do you?

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
You could have, buy them all the time.
Hitting head

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
and hitting chest, knock them down and they’ve
knocked the glasses off, knocked the teeth out

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
and everything. Yeah, they are bad.
Just knocked by beer

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
out of my hand, I won’t smoke around
my hand and just about our meal,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
they boat a couple of times. If I’d
been sober, I’d been in water.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
[music]

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
There’s a redneck friendship tournament.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
[music]

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
I guess you run around out here, you catch all these
big headed crazy carp and they catch in their boats.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
Yes, who ever gets most of them, wins.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:08.000
[music]

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
I don’t think they are very edible at all. I think
that’s one of the problems with Asian carp.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
They can eat up to 40% of
their body weight a day.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
Basically, they destroy the good chains.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
We don’t fish mainly on the river.
We fish the lakes

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
and so far they haven’t
showed up in the lakes.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
If our Nectar weigh into
the Great Lakes system,

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
we’re screwed. You know, they can
forget about ever getting any

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
spud fish never again.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
So basically what we’re doing is
we’re plugging the biggest hole.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
[sil.]

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
DC electricity is posted

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
to those electrodes creating an
electrical field in the water.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
As a fish approaches, it starts to get an
electric shock and it turns around and swims back

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
without crossing over
entire electrified area.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
We had to come up with a way to stop the movement
of the invasive species without interfering

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
with the flow of water or the
movement of boats in the canal.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
This waterway is also heavily used for the movement via
barges of goods in and out of the city of Chicago.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
It was always a good
area for heavy industry

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
because there were wide open spaces.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Eventually, the metals industries, the steel making
migrated over to East Chicago and Gary as well.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:38.000
[sil.]

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:48.000
[music]

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
Essentially what’s happened
to the landscape is it’s…

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
it’s obliterated.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:08.000
[music]

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
This is one of 43 harbors on the Great
Lakes that the Federal Government say

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
are particularly toxic.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
In the 20 years since they were identified,
just three has been cleaned up.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
There’s probably about 4 million
cubic yards of contaminated sediment

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
that needs to be dredged and disposed,
a very highly contaminated material,

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
with all kinds of metals, with PCBs,

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
with poly nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
The sediments are probably 25
foot deep, due to the fact

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
that they haven’t had a place to put the contaminated
material, that hasn’t been dredged since 1972.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:13.000
[music]

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
One of the main reasons for
wanting to do something here

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
is because there is the ability for these contaminated
sediments to get re-suspended. You know, you have storms

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
and you have re-suspension from ships moving in there, you
know, those big freighters can churn up a lot of mud.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:38.000
[sil.]

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
Once this material moves into Lake Michigan

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
and that becomes available to the fish.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
[sil.]

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
If you go look at PCBs

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
and then you follow the
concentrations of these chemicals

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
through the food chain. What you find

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
is that the PCBs are concentrating
a 100 million fold.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:23.000
[music]

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
PCBs affect various hormone systems.
There are endocrine disruptors.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
The endocrine system is that

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
system chemical stimuli which
make things happen in our bodies.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
There’s a receptor,

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
chemical comes along, fits into
that receptor, that produces

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
a signal that stimulates a whole
cascade of events in the cell.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
And that can be anything from (inaudible)

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
to stimulate our reproductive capacity.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
The problem comes with
endocrine disruptors is,

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
you have chemicals that do one
of two things. These are mimic,

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
those hormones or they block
them and prevent them

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
from doing the things that they should do.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
Then you’ve got big problems because
the development of the organism

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
now is destructive.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:43.000
[music]

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
Sorry, both.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
All right. Good job.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
The kids took part in this fish survey and I
had to answer some questions as well as to

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
where we eat fish, from how often we it, if they’ve
eaten it since they were born through today.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
They’re trying to figure
out the chemicals in there

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
and how they affect our brains. And he does

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
when they tested our bud and we did a
lot of tests that took quite a while.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
One of the questions was, have you ever
thought of killing yourself, like this

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
random questions like that, but…
See how mentally stable we are.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
I do try to clean up

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
the river now. Up head over here to, up
and PBCs out and all them on a lake.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
Once you got started, I
don’t want to give up.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:08.000
[music]

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
The facts over the river
that we’re cleaning up

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
flows 39 miles to the north, to the
Bay of Green Bay in Lake Michigan.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
The agreement to begin work

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
was signed in 2003, but PCBs were
actually stopped manufactured

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
in 1972 I believe.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
[music]

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
I know some of the environmental groups wish
that the project would have started sooner,

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
but when you’re talking project
that’s going to be in excess

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
of a half a billion dollars, you want to make sure
that you’re doing things right once you get started.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:08.000
[music]

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
You know, the sediments are
vacuumed off the bottom of a lake.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
That sediment is transported to
a landfill and that landfill

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
is just disposed of with uh…
regular municipal solid waste.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
[music]

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
The Fox River is in a lot better shape now

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
but there has to be, I would think hundreds of tributaries
into the great lakes that have impacted them.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
[music]

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
If you looked at those sites in the Great Lakes, where the
contaminants settle was having severe effect and you wanted to dredge

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
and destroy all that material.
You’re talking

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
tens of billions of dollars to do that.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:18.000
[music]

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
And the water goes around, all
the waters that are affected

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
around the lake like the Creeks and rivers, you
know, we… we also acknowledge those waters.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
And when you offer your tobacco,

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
when you concentrate, when your
focus, you can feel and hear things

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
that are of the element.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:08.000
[music]

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
Beyond Michigan, the water becomes Huron,

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
lake of the heartland.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
Cottages dot the shoreline here,
enrolling farms, pour forth bounty.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
The thousands of islands in Georgian
Bay are miracles of biodiversity,

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
offering refuge in their wetlands.

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:58.000
[sil.]

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
You see these wetlands,
it’s these little pockets

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
of warmer water with lots of subversion plants that
actually keeps the rest of the Great Lakes fishery

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
in healthy state.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
The plants are there

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
for the fish to come in and spawn.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
When the eggs hatch, the little zooplankton and the
little benthic invertebrates that live in the sediments

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
are food for these baby fish. So
it becomes a nursery habitat.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
[sil.]

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
It’s just an area of
protected, quiet, warm,

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
that’s what they need.

00:43:55.000 --> 00:44:03.000
[sil.]

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
I came here as a bride for my honeymoon.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
The water is so beautiful and
clear and the color is fabulous.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
There’s a sort of golden glow

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
to talk, first talk about the magic hour

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
and I think we have it
almost all the time here.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
I wouldn’t have any other place.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
[sil.]

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
I think there’s just a general feeling

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
among the public. I think everything
is okay. We don’t have to

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
be concerned about the Great Lakes. It
looks nice. People are catching spot fish,

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
you know, they put salmon in and takes
salmon out. What’s the problem?

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:23.000
[music]

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
I’m captain on a EPA research
vessel, Lake Guardian.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
EPA being, United States
Environmental Protection Agency.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
It is an only boat on the lakes right now.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
We are monitoring to assess
Food web or the food chain.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:53.000
[music]

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
There’s been a very rapid
change in the food web.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
Zooplankton populations have crashed.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
Prey fish populations have crashed.
We’ve seen near collapse

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
of the main source of feed for many fish,

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
it’s a small benthic
organism called Diperia.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
In 2004 we had a location where we foun
about 1,600 in a square meter, 2005,

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
there’s about 800, and
2006, there’s only one.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
[music]

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
A primary hypotheses is the introduction of

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
zebra muscles which are
aquatic invasive species.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
They’re pretty much out competing
all the other small organisms.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
I’ve heard stories where
people had seen fish

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
leaving Lake Huron just
in the search for food.

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:13.000
[sil.]

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
We’re farming fish because
there’s a need for the fish.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
I think there’s a lack
of everything right now.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
There’s not enough food for anything.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
There was fish out there
in that Lake of starving.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
Every species of fish that’s in that lake

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
is coming around here eating the
waste, there’s nothing else.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
I mean, it’s scary when you think
about all the things that are…

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
are impacting.

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
The zebra mussels are the most voracious.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
They take the nutrients out of the water.
They’re just super siphon

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
and the scary thing is that, we never saw
zebra mussel in this lake until 1996.

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
By the end of the summer of 1997, every square inch
of this lake where zebra mussel could grow rock,

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
log, net, robe was covered with zebra
mussels. It took one year for them

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
to take over the whole ecosystem, that’s
it, that’s how fast it reproduce.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:58.000
[sil.]

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
Dumping new forces, your mother nature’s always
go lots of surprises. We’ve always had Muskrat’s

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
around the cage because they’ve never been a problem,
they swim around. But this year what they did was

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
eat the zebra mussels off the nets.
Muskrats, they eat algae,

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
shoots, plants, but they’re adapting
to eating what’s available.

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
These lakes, these waters
around here probably have

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
about 20% of the fish biomass
that they should have.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
[sil.]

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
I’m the manager of the
Chatsworth Fish Culture Station.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
The majority of what we reared
here is for rehabilitation

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
in Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:03.000
[music]

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
This year around nine million in total be
eventually stock into the Great Lakes.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
I guess your ultimate success is
reproducing an enough numbers

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
to maintain themselves on their own.
We’re not there yet.

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
[sil.]

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
Around and round water goes
as the hydro cycle spins

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
and thinning schools of fish
tour an ever shrinking lake.

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
[sil.]

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
Each day 100 billion gallons

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
evaporate from the Great Lakes, 25 times
more than all that humans consume.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
[sil.]

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
What effect does climate change

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
going to have on the Great Lakes?
Oversights unanimously telling us

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
that the Great Lakes water levels
are going to the long-term fall.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
We’re getting less and less rainfall than
we normally would have. We’re getting less

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
and less snowfall. We don’t
have ice that we used to have.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
So if you don’t get ice cover, the water can
evaporate more in the winter time, which is gonna

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
lower the water more and that happens
through the whole of Great Lakes basin.

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
[sil.]

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
They say it’s four feet
lowered and it normally is

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
and, you know, losing water all the time.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
Recently I read a report

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
that shows us that we might be down
another 12 to 16 inches this year.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
[sil.]

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
I think one of the biggest
concerns that I have

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
is the near shore zone around the edges of
the lakes where biological life is created.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
[sil.]

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
In this bay we have an example
of a coastal wetland.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
And with the Great Lakes
water level is declining,

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
this well, and it’s essentially being
stranded. And I would estimate

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
that about 30% of our coastal wetlands
are being stranded right now.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
[sil.]

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
In time that will just
continue to evaporate.

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
We should expect to see the
loss of our coastal wetlands.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:38.000
[sil.]

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
All the things that we do in the
watershed upstream of shoreline

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
have reduced the ability of the near shore
zone to adjust for shocks or changes.

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:58.000
[music]

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
We’re blessed to have good clean water
and we want to keep it that way.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
We’ve just found out by irrigating that it’s,
there’s difference in making a profit or not.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:23.000
[music]

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
Water that is used in agriculture is really a soup.
So many different herbicides and insecticides

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
and fungicides are used.
Lots of fertilizer goes in.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
It’s a soup.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:48.000
[music]

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
There is no question about
it that the fertilizer

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
and also the waste product
goes into the Great Lakes.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
We saw a lot of farmers who haven’t
invested the time and understanding.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
It’s just like there’s some
more shoreline property owners

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
that haven’t taken the time to understand
where all the stuff comes from.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:38.000
[music]

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
People like to go down to the water

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
and connect to the water.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
They don’t understand how incrementally
they are affecting the lakes.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
[sil.]

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
Highways, roads, hard surfaces,
they are the choices that

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
every individual makes on their
property to pave over the grass,

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
to use cosmetic pesticides on
their lawn, cars emitting stuff,

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
every little bit does make a difference.
It’s a cliche but it is the fact.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:28.000
[sil.]

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
I think there’s something very peaceful
about being by the water, very relaxing.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
I’ve spent my whole life on

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
Lake Huron. It’s become
a lot more developed

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
but that’s okay with us. And even
this community here, like this,

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
what it was, what was here before is nothing
compared to the beauty of the condos here now

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
and the fact that people get out of the city and… This
was just an industrial land with nothing on it. So…

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
Yeah. Halfway preserved the lake
because its people that are near it

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
want to keep it that way. A
little bit of voices with others.

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
And one dramatic tension you have seen
is the lake levels have gone down

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
a good meter within the last 10
years or we’ve been there so.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
And that’s got to be alarming to some,

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
to some extent. So… But for the beach goers,
it’s fine because… Dad, I love the beach. Yeah.

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:38.000
[music]

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:53.000
[sil.]

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:08.000
[music]

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:08.000
[sil.]

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
When we have a rough storm,
we have algal blooms.

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
So only there for a short period of time it can be
there for maybe six hours and then it disappears.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
[sil.]

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
There’s two different things we’re
talking about here, its like in our bay,

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
litosfera and Microcystis.
Litosfera can harbor E. Coli,

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
another pathogenic bacteria.
Microcystis can produce a toxin

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
that’s harmful to the liver. Where they see higher
instances of liver cancer and liver disease

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
among communities that are ingesting
high concentrations of this toxin.

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
We’ve definitely seen effects on wildlife.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
We had a case in last
summer, workable dogs were

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
just playing in water that had really high concentrations
of toxins and ended up dying pretty quickly afterwards.

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
Dark desert unfortunately pretty common.

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
[sil.]

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
I must tell you that what
you’re seeing here this algae

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
has a great impact upon
children who visit the beaches.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
The seriousness of this cannot be
understated. Here we have a picture

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
of a child, this child is about eight years
old. These symptoms are such that they’re

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
itchy, they scratch and these kids than
scratch these to become more effected.

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
The end result is that these kids end
up with not only emotional scars

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
but they have physical scars because that’s what
it does to the legs and it doesn’t go away,

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
it’s there for a lifetime.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:03:03.000
[sil.]

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:33.000
[music]

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
[sil.]

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
(inaudible). Here we get to…

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
[sil.]

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
Wow! Oh, shores in.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
The original water

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
more warming or more feeble.

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:43.000
[music]

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
Down from Huron the water runs

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
through little Lake St. Clair
and the Detroit River into side

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
Old Lake Erie. Thirty years
ago it was smothered

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
by phosphate detergents. When they
were banned, it healed itself.

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
But the 20th century fouls its still.

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
This is where oil water mix. North America’s
first oil well was drilled near Sonya,

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
in the St. Clair River, are now
stands a forest of refineries.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
Every community has reasons
for its existence.

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
Sonya happens to be the
petrochemical industry.

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
[music]

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
Imperial oil, Shell, (inaudible),

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
Nova, (inaudible), Ethol, Tera, and
many have marked absolute (inaudible).

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:58.000
[music]

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
All companies have to operate
within the regulatory

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
framework that presents some material
and for that matter in Canada.

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
I mean, what we did in the 40s and 50s certainly
is not acceptable today. There may still be

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
some more to do as
respected to (inaudible).

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:28.000
[music]

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
Chemical valley, where a lot of the industries
are centered, that’s our so-called impact zone.

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
My main focus is exploring

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
the potential effects of estrogenic
contaminants on wild fish.

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
There’s a lot of data which would indicate
that even at very, very low concentrations

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
you can feminize fish, turning
from males into females.

01:06:55.000 --> 01:07:03.000
[music]

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
We as males, we have
estrogen receptors as well.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
The estrogen receptor seems to
be particularly susceptible

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
to other chemicals mimicking
the natural estrogen.

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.999
We do have indications that
there is egg yolk protein

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:29.999
in the male fish, which is
commonly found in female fish.

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:38.000
[music]

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
We found testicular deformities
in terms of intersex or ovaries

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
within the testicles of male frogs.
Between 50% and 70%

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
of male frogs have testicular deformity.

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
Basically we’re putting a
female part in a male frog.

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
Half of their testes are
full of ovens that of sperm.

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
We’re not clear on what’s
causing the effect.

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
So at this stage I would
say it’s pure speculation

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
as to whether there’s any relationship between what we’re
seeing in the wild and what may or may not be occurring

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
in people in the surrounding area.

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:43.000
[music]

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
If you look at (inaudible),

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
we’re completely surrounded by the
petrochemical industry, our, our community.

01:08:55.000 --> 01:09:03.000
[music]

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
With the girls being born, people
just like girls running their family.

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
[music]

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
I never knew there was such a stat out
there that there’s supposed to be 51% boys

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
to 49% girls, I never knew
there was such a stat.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
So I went to year-by-year finding out how many
males were born that year and how many females

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
for each year. And there was

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
two girls being born to every one male.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
[music]

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
Because we have not done
any detailed studies

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
on what could have caused the sex
ratio changes in the Umoja community.

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
And we don’t know as to
whether it’s something

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
which is abnormal about the
sperm, about the ovarian,

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
whether it’s something which
is going on during fetal life.

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
[music]

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
We made up our own health study and then
we started going door to door and finding

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
each households health problems.

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
There was lot at heart blood problems.

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
The lack of elders, would have
had a lot of elders here either.

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
There’s a lot of miscarriages.

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
Like some people having four
to five, to nine miscarriages.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
[music]

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.999
But then the last year
we’ve had two young boys

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
dying of leukemia.

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.999
Paper are saying pray for
me, you know, I got cancer.

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
There’s just so many people
that are saying that.

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
[music]

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
Actually I don’t think we’re
the only ones being affected.

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
Those accidents were leases.
It’s a lot of them.

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
This company dumped enough
vinyl chloride in the river

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
to put the entire flow of the river 15 hours and
then they decided not to tell anybody for five days.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
Three U.S. sewage plants
up on the river discharged

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
and they didn’t bother to tell water plants or the
Canadian government or anybody downstream either.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
In February 2004, all of a sudden

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
started it started blurred and all over the
TV don’t drink your water, its poison.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
Chemical spill on the St. Clair River and
a company named Imperial Oil discharged

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
either 12 or 1400 barrels
of chemicals in the river.

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
[music]

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
We have sewer overflows upstream.

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
So far this year 1.2 billion gallons of (inaudible
) semi traded sewage will come down this river

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
and this is where it deposits.

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
[music]

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.999
I live on the lost forgotten
lake, Lake St. Clair.

01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:59.999
I believe the lake is turning into a bog.

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.999
In 1993, this was my backyard.

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
We used to fish here. I kept a boat here for
17 years. And if you can see in this picture,

01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
the people here are fishing. After
we had all the sewage discharges

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
in 1994, this is a picture
that was taken in 1995.

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
And this shows that all of a sudden this canal became
nutrient rich, that’s not grass, that’s duckweed

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
that’s being fed heavily with nutrients.

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
And then we go to what we have today.
And today

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:39.999
we have no water

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:44.999
and we have frag mighty that
came from England they say.

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:49.999
And this stuff is an Oasis
species that nothing feeds on.

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
I cut this completely down last
October and now we’re here in July.

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
This is new growth for this year and you can
see its probably 8-10 footer taller than that.

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:08.000
[sil.]

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
I used to have ducks, I used to have gees,

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
I used to have snapping turtles. Instead
of herrings in here, they used to be fish.

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
Where the water went I’d sure like to know.

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
Yeah, I miss my water badly.

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
Sewage flows into the water
from uncountable sources

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
by accident and design.

01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:44.999
A little way downstream,
Windsor, smallest sewage plant

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
has overflows of about 100
million gallons a year.

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
When municipal governments started
developing their… their core areas,

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
most people put in the
combined sewer systems.

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
A combined sewer system is one in which the rain
water and sewage are contained within the same pipe.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
When we get into rain events,
we can get significant

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
increases in plant flow. They
can go up by as much as 200%.

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
At that point, it will only
receive partial treatment

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
and then return to the river. Politicians
in the past have tend to not to

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
spend money underground where people can’t see it.
They like to leave edifices that are a testament

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
to their glory days, but we know we could do a better job if
people would throw some money back into the infrastructure.

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
This is a flow proportional sample

01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:44.999
of the raw sewage that enters the plant.

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:49.999
Naturally when you flush your toilet, they
preserve, then gonna have fecal matter.

01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:54.999
Your toilet paper and

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
sometimes baby diapers. We’ve had people
who’ve had lovers spats and they call

01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
and ask, they’ve thrown their engagement ring down the sink
or whatever and they call and simply, we’ve gotten here,

01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
several requests for false teeth after
people had been out partying at night

01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.999
and throwing up into the toilets. Yeah
we get a lot of different requests.

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.999
People aren’t careful

01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:24.999
what they put down their toilets.
Condoms, tampon inserters,

01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
plastics of all sorts.

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
We’ll skim that off as well as

01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
remove the settleable solids.

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:48.000
[sil.]

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
I’m gonna take a sample of the (inaudible) that
were going to the river. I have a cold right now

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
but I’ve been known to drink this for
tours and in the disinfection season.

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
There’s absolutely no… no
problem with this water at all.

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
What can’t we take out of the water?

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
Some of the complex industrial
wastes are not biodegradable,

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
things like heavy metals.
These plants were designed

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
to treat residential domestic sewage.
So when we get things like antibiotics,

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
just the name itself antibiotic is going
to be resistant to bacterial breakdown.

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
Waste where two planes aren’t designed

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
to deal with this whole new and the
emerging class of chemicals that concern.

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
Chemicals that leaves in everyday life

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
have co-production chemicals. Pharmaceuticals,
personal care products that you flush down the toilet,

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
chemicals like fire times,

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
everything contains polybrominated fire
retardant’s. And we’re these increasing

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
now exponentially integrate lakes.

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
In effect what’s happening is that, all
those kind of problems end up getting

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
either washed off her body or
they pass through our body.

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
And because they are used in such
high volumes, there’s still a fairly

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
significant amount that leaves the wastewater
treatment plant and it’s effluent.

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
[music]

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:43.000
[sil.]

01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:49.999
Every drug we take, that’s out there.
Everything.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:54.999
Every chemical that we’ve
looked for, we have found.

01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:59.999
[music]

01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
At the moment I’m looking at

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
anti-depressants. Sure enough it’s present
in relatively high concentrations.

01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:18.000
[music]

01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
Our drinking water intakes and our drinking
water systems are designed to remove

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
certain metals, bacteria, tastes
notre, solids and things like that.

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
[music]

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
The water plant does a good job
of anything that is solid,

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
getting that out. So if they have little
particles of any kind of contaminant,

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
whether its leaves or whatever, the
chemical addition sticks them together,

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
the sand filter takes them out.
The ozone kills

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
the bacteria and viruses
and does a very good job.

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
Because of the consistent
quality of the water,

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
the municipal supply Aquafina and decide
to bottle here in the city of Detroit.

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
People in Michigan, who
when they drink to sunny

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
or Aquafina water are actually
drinking Detroit tap water,

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
except it’s gone through several additional filtration
to remove the taste and the smell of chlorine.

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
[music]

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
This plant will not treat everything
that man can throw at it.

01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
If you have a complicated organic
chemical, let’s say PCBs,

01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
ozone would break it up and when it came
through the plant, it may no longer be PCBs,

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
but it would still be a very complicated organic
chemical that you probably shouldn’t drink.

01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
[music]

01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
There are ultra trace levels of some of
these chemicals of emergent concern,

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
still on our drinking water.

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
We don’t know if they have
any effect on human health.

01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
[music]

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
We don’t have any clinical trial data
on the impacts of these drugs even

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
at low concentrations on individuals
who aren’t supposed to be taking them.

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
The average person who’s going to be prescribed
something to control blood cholesterol

01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
is not going to be a
20-year-old pregnant woman.

01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
You go to the pharmacy, the
pharmacist gives you a prediction,

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
but make sure you don’t take it with the following
10 things, all those 10 things are in the water.

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:58.000
[music]

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
[sil.]

01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
In my neighborhood,

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:54.999
everyday is the same, that we go out bad. A lot of
people are struggling and everybody be arguing,

01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:59.999
plus it would hot in the house.
So although the place is cool

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
besides a pool is down here.
Today, one thing we call,

01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
a couple of small invest and a yellow
purge. Oh, this one I just caught for him,

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
so I could put in this fish tank. And this one the yellow
purge, they are excellent because they are just like…

01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
Well, their meat is sweet.
Right now I got a snack.

01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
I only eat a certain
amount of fish from here.

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
Other than that, like I give it to my
family members. Whoever ask for it.

01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
Like if I catch a good number of fish, like war, everybody
love those but they are so expensive at the stores,

01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
cost like $10 a pound. I’ll sell it those,

01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
like, maybe five bucks, that’s it.
Beats the stores

01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.999
and puts a little change in my pocket.

01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:58.000
[sil.]

01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:04.999
We live in a soup of chemicals and the
Great Lakes are telling you that.

01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:09.999
You’re seeing kind of a
perfect storm of events.

01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:14.999
It’s not gonna be one of these things
where we can say, it’s a simple cause

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:19.999
effect relationship, A leads
to B, it’s more like A+B+C+D

01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:24.999
and some permutation of those
things lead to the mortality.

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:29.999
[sil.]

01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:34.999
We have the thing called the
seabirds CTD and it’s to track

01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:39.999
the depletion of oxygen in Lake Erie.

01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:44.999
[music]

01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:49.999
Oxygen is critical because all animals
and fish wouldn’t need that to survive.

01:24:50.000 --> 01:24:58.000
[music]

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:04.999
Algae, little critters that swim in the water weren’t
in stuff was becoming more and more concentrated

01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.999
in zebra muscles. By doing that

01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:14.999
you’re bringing nutrients of
the bottom for algae to grow,

01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:19.999
which then in turn, well, is dying off

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:24.999
and as it was decomposing using up more
and more oxygen in that lower layer.

01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:29.999
It’s been referred to as a dead zone.

01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:34.999
[music]

01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:39.999
When you have lack of oxygen

01:25:40.000 --> 01:25:44.999
especially in areas of decomposition with algae and
things like that, the botulism of the toxin develops,

01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:49.999
then the algae may be fed
upon by algae feeding fish.

01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:58.000
[music]

01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:04.999
Then the algae feeding fish gets it.

01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:13.000
[music]

01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:24.999
Then the fish-eating birds get the
botulism toxin from the fish.

01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:33.000
[music]

01:27:25.000 --> 01:27:29.999
The areas in the Great Lakes have begun

01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:34.999
to fail first are Lake Sinclair,
the next would be Lake Erie.

01:27:35.000 --> 01:27:39.999
I am a child of the ‘60s. I
remember fires on rivers

01:27:40.000 --> 01:27:44.999
and all of those sort of things. I
remember why we had a clean moderate.

01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:49.999
My fear is the generation of my daughters

01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:54.999
have grown to trust that the government
was watching the environment

01:27:55.000 --> 01:27:59.999
and sometimes it’s not happening.

01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:08.000
[music]

01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:29.999
There’s a lot of umm… apathy. This is one
place where I’ve heard so many times,

01:28:30.000 --> 01:28:34.999
you’re crazy, you guys are crazy.

01:28:35.000 --> 01:28:39.999
[music]

01:28:40.000 --> 01:28:44.999
But we know it’s not a
crazy thing we’re doing.

01:28:45.000 --> 01:28:49.999
We know it’s for the earth,
betterment of the next generation.

01:28:50.000 --> 01:28:58.000
[music]

01:29:50.000 --> 01:29:54.999
Down and down the water tumbles
through the Niagara River

01:29:55.000 --> 01:29:59.999
into cold deep Lake Ontario.

01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:04.999
At iconic ironic Niagara Falls, the great
currant sweeps the wreckage of the past

01:30:05.000 --> 01:30:09.999
toward an unfathomable future.

01:30:10.000 --> 01:30:14.999
This is where water was first transformed
into electricity and electricity

01:30:15.000 --> 01:30:19.999
into industry and industry
into toxic waste dumps.

01:30:20.000 --> 01:30:24.999
Governments and industry argued for decades over the
dumps before finally agreeing to just kept them

01:30:25.000 --> 01:30:29.999
and hope for the best.

01:30:30.000 --> 01:30:38.000
[sil.]

01:30:40.000 --> 01:30:44.999
I don’t think anybody knows

01:30:45.000 --> 01:30:49.999
what’s there now in the ground waiting
to leak out into the Great Lakes system.

01:30:50.000 --> 01:30:54.999
The records of the companies that
put this stuff into the ground

01:30:55.000 --> 01:30:59.999
were pretty crude. Basically they
were prone stuff, incredibly toxic

01:31:00.000 --> 01:31:04.999
to any kind of life, in holes in
the ground. There are over 200

01:31:05.000 --> 01:31:09.999
known and identified sites,
goodness goes beyond that.

01:31:10.000 --> 01:31:14.999
[sil.]

01:31:15.000 --> 01:31:19.999
You never know what could dislodge your site,
whether it be a mild earthquake or construction

01:31:20.000 --> 01:31:24.999
or somebody who’s completely forgotten
about what lies under their feet

01:31:25.000 --> 01:31:29.999
in Niagara Falls. The ones that
were typically in the news were,

01:31:30.000 --> 01:31:34.999
you know, public issues like Love Canal.

01:31:35.000 --> 01:31:43.000
[music]

01:31:45.000 --> 01:31:49.999
But Love Canal story is a long tragic one.

01:31:50.000 --> 01:31:54.999
It was literally a canal that was started to
be built between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

01:31:55.000 --> 01:31:59.999
Industries dump toxic waste into the hole

01:32:00.000 --> 01:32:04.999
and the subdivision was built right literally
on top of it. And it was years later

01:32:05.000 --> 01:32:09.999
that people emerged as being really,
really affected by the toxins

01:32:10.000 --> 01:32:14.999
that were seeping into the basements of
their homes. They’re required to move out.

01:32:15.000 --> 01:32:19.999
The area was taken over by the government. The Settlement
Agreement that came out of it was to contain the site

01:32:20.000 --> 01:32:24.999
with technology and continual
pumping forever and ever.

01:32:25.000 --> 01:32:33.000
[sil.]

01:32:40.000 --> 01:32:44.999
Then they went through and refurbished all the houses and
everything and people took a chance of buying houses back

01:32:45.000 --> 01:32:49.999
and start coming back to the
neighborhood. Do you see

01:32:50.000 --> 01:32:54.999
just by all the new housing and everything, it’s
gone up, they started to take a chance and I guess

01:32:55.000 --> 01:32:59.999
they’re not sick as they used to be.
They are not getting a lung disease,

01:33:00.000 --> 01:33:04.999
the cancers and that, like they did before.
Everybody whose coming down or before…

01:33:05.000 --> 01:33:09.999
Thirty trucks, they formed to leave and
kids, the night they are being born.

01:33:10.000 --> 01:33:14.999
People were getting sick and wanted to
comeback and… Especially somebody with,

01:33:15.000 --> 01:33:19.999
that’s just starting out with the young family, you
know, you’re changes. Is it really odd at the ground?

01:33:20.000 --> 01:33:24.999
They have done a lot of testing
here to keep that fear away also,

01:33:25.000 --> 01:33:29.999
prove to the people that things have gotten
better. Because your whole thinking do

01:33:30.000 --> 01:33:34.999
a lot with the environment
too, in another places.

01:33:35.000 --> 01:33:43.000
[music]

01:34:10.000 --> 01:34:14.999
If we give up integrate lakes, we wonder
if there’s such thing as human wisdom.

01:34:15.000 --> 01:34:23.000
[music]

01:34:35.000 --> 01:34:39.999
Everybody needs fresh water, it’s
one thing we all commonly share.

01:34:40.000 --> 01:34:44.999
[music]

01:34:45.000 --> 01:34:49.999
We have to convince people of their
environmental rights. People do have a right

01:34:50.000 --> 01:34:54.999
to a clean environment. But somebody
is deciding risk factors for you.

01:34:55.000 --> 01:35:03.000
[music]

01:35:05.000 --> 01:35:09.999
I work with Environment Canada.

01:35:10.000 --> 01:35:14.999
I’d be a research scientist
for the last 35 years or so.

01:35:15.000 --> 01:35:19.999
We do research in current use and
emerging chemicals of interest

01:35:20.000 --> 01:35:24.999
to (inaudible), it’s occurring
out, the environment comes a fait.

01:35:25.000 --> 01:35:29.999
Ultimately we build a case to

01:35:30.000 --> 01:35:34.999
mitigate risk, go through the
environment and in health.

01:35:35.000 --> 01:35:39.999
Scientists are having

01:35:40.000 --> 01:35:44.999
a difficult time determining
the fate of these chemicals.

01:35:45.000 --> 01:35:49.999
There’s a bit of a communication
gap between industry and us.

01:35:50.000 --> 01:35:54.999
It’s proprietary information.

01:35:55.000 --> 01:35:59.999
We have hints of what they
may or may not be doing.

01:36:00.000 --> 01:36:04.999
We tend to just have to go out and search and
search until we find what they’re using.

01:36:05.000 --> 01:36:09.999
[music]

01:36:10.000 --> 01:36:14.999
We found a flame retardant chemical that’s
been produced for over 40 years that no one

01:36:15.000 --> 01:36:19.999
found out or look for until last year.

01:36:20.000 --> 01:36:24.999
[music]

01:36:25.000 --> 01:36:29.999
They are not going around saying, \"Hey. Guys, why don’t you analyze the
environment for these kind of chemicals because we’re making them.\"

01:36:30.000 --> 01:36:34.999
They have a western interest. If we
show that the chemicals are toxic,

01:36:35.000 --> 01:36:39.999
then they have to spend more money to either
change the formulation or restrict it.

01:36:40.000 --> 01:36:44.999
That’s the game number 20.

01:36:45.000 --> 01:36:53.000
[music]

01:37:00.000 --> 01:37:04.999
My own experience was that the interests of the corporation
whether it be a government agency or business come first.

01:37:05.000 --> 01:37:09.999
A colleague and I (inaudible ) channel

01:37:10.000 --> 01:37:14.999
[wilt a report on health effects in
the current weeks.]And there was

01:37:15.000 --> 01:37:19.999
an attempt to squash it.

01:37:20.000 --> 01:37:24.999
We see in humans the same things that
you’re seeing in the wildlife. So you see

01:37:25.000 --> 01:37:29.999
birth defects, you see low birthrates,

01:37:30.000 --> 01:37:34.999
you see premature birth, you see cancer
all over the place and you’ll know.

01:37:35.000 --> 01:37:39.999
And then you see more subtle things that you don’t understand
like cardiovascular disease. You see like the thyroid,

01:37:40.000 --> 01:37:44.999
diabetes, you see arthritis, autism.

01:37:45.000 --> 01:37:49.999
Why is autism 1 in 150? That’s not normal.

01:37:50.000 --> 01:37:54.999
But then when you take
that to your management

01:37:55.000 --> 01:37:59.999
in a government agency they freak
out because that’s not good news.

01:38:00.000 --> 01:38:04.999
They say you haven’t proven
that this chemical caused

01:38:05.000 --> 01:38:09.999
that disease in this person and you
can’t do that. I mean, it’s impossible.

01:38:10.000 --> 01:38:14.999
They don’t want to know really

01:38:15.000 --> 01:38:19.999
what the health effects are in people.
And fear is used

01:38:20.000 --> 01:38:24.999
to shut people up. The official
health Canada Environment, Canada,

01:38:25.000 --> 01:38:29.999
AOC reports with all of the data,
they sat on that for awhile

01:38:30.000 --> 01:38:34.999
and then the ATSDR Report,
they sat on it too.

01:38:35.000 --> 01:38:39.999
Nothing gets out.

01:38:40.000 --> 01:38:44.999
[sil.]

01:38:45.000 --> 01:38:53.000
[music]

01:39:05.000 --> 01:39:09.999
There are all sorts of modern substances,
both chemicals and radioactive compounds

01:39:10.000 --> 01:39:14.999
that we are exposed too.

01:39:15.000 --> 01:39:19.999
[music]

01:39:20.000 --> 01:39:24.999
We don’t really perceive, we don’t really

01:39:25.000 --> 01:39:29.999
understand and feel that
we are being exposed.

01:39:30.000 --> 01:39:38.000
[music]

01:39:45.000 --> 01:39:49.999
They talk about the dose makes
the poison, you know, the dose

01:39:50.000 --> 01:39:54.999
and the timing. And adults,
you got a good liver

01:39:55.000 --> 01:39:59.999
and a good kidney, they can chew things up.

01:40:00.000 --> 01:40:08.000
[music]

01:40:30.000 --> 01:40:34.999
A lot of disease that appears later
in life is induced in utero,

01:40:35.000 --> 01:40:39.999
by scrambling away the
DNA’s program to unfold.

01:40:40.000 --> 01:40:44.999
When the fetus is totally
connected to its mother,

01:40:45.000 --> 01:40:49.999
the fetus is already based in everything
that the mother’s been exposed too.

01:40:50.000 --> 01:40:54.999
Females pass on

01:40:55.000 --> 01:40:59.999
the contaminants we have, so the young start off with the
contaminants from the past and they’re exposed to new contaminants.

01:41:00.000 --> 01:41:04.999
[music]

01:41:05.000 --> 01:41:09.999
We’re on this very slow
march towards narcosis.

01:41:10.000 --> 01:41:14.999
And of course narcosis is gonna express
itself in many different ways.

01:41:15.000 --> 01:41:19.999
The obvious one is death. In the
earlier stages of necrosis,

01:41:20.000 --> 01:41:24.999
you’ll have behavioral
changes which can occur.

01:41:25.000 --> 01:41:29.999
Changes in learning ability, ability to
understand, risk in your environment,

01:41:30.000 --> 01:41:34.999
these other types of things which
how we function survive day to day.

01:41:35.000 --> 01:41:39.999
[music]

01:41:40.000 --> 01:41:44.999
One of the researchers who did this

01:41:45.000 --> 01:41:49.999
kind of research on kids, his response was,

01:41:50.000 --> 01:41:54.999
we’ll becomes so dumb, we don’t
know how dumb we’d become.

01:41:55.000 --> 01:42:03.000
[music]

01:42:10.000 --> 01:42:14.999
[sil.]

01:42:15.000 --> 01:42:19.999
Around and around water goes,

01:42:20.000 --> 01:42:24.999
never ending or beginning,
shaping every body

01:42:25.000 --> 01:42:29.999
it passes through, uniting them all
across space and through time.

01:42:30.000 --> 01:42:34.999
[sil.]

01:42:35.000 --> 01:42:39.999
Down the St. Lawrence River, it pours

01:42:40.000 --> 01:42:44.999
toward the sea. When this
water left Lake Superior

01:42:45.000 --> 01:42:49.999
350 years ago, that United
People who were still ruled

01:42:50.000 --> 01:42:54.999
by the ancient constitution
known as the Great Law.

01:42:55.000 --> 01:42:59.999
[music]

01:43:00.000 --> 01:43:04.999
The Great Law is when, one must

01:43:05.000 --> 01:43:09.999
taken to consideration the needs not only

01:43:10.000 --> 01:43:14.999
of the people who have different values

01:43:15.000 --> 01:43:19.999
but also the continuing needs from

01:43:20.000 --> 01:43:24.999
the one generation to the next.
And expression

01:43:25.000 --> 01:43:29.999
usually used as seven generations

01:43:30.000 --> 01:43:34.999
into the future.

01:43:35.000 --> 01:43:39.999
Severn generations, you know.

01:43:40.000 --> 01:43:44.999
[music]

01:43:45.000 --> 01:43:49.999
The Great Law if adhere to,

01:43:50.000 --> 01:43:54.999
I believe would change
the course of history.

01:43:55.000 --> 01:43:59.999
There are still those
that know the Great Law.

01:44:00.000 --> 01:44:08.000
[music]

Main content

Waterlife

Citation

Main credits

Other credits

Docuseek subjects

Distributor subjects

Keywords