Toxic Waters

A young girl walked to a lake one day and saw a wrap paper on floating on the lake. She noticed that near the the lake there was also garbage. Many lakes in Massachusetts are polluted, contaminated with garbage and worst of all mercury, as the result of power plants’ waste. These companies throw their waste, strong chemicals and other things, in the lakes. The fish and other creatures, whose habitat is the lake, get the mercury in their bodies, and if a human eats it, it will get in their body.

Researches point out the effects of mercury in the human body, it depends on the quantity that the person consumed. Pregnant women and small children and children under twelve years old should never consume the contaminated fish. It may cause heart disease, brain damage, blindness, deafness in unborn children. Some people are not aware of polluted lakes with contaminated animals. The reporter surveyed a few people.

33.33% are aware of more than 3 places that are polluted, other 33.33% are aware of only 2 places and the rest 33.33% are not aware of any place polluted in MA. The misconception of lake pollution can be dangerous. Most of the polluted lakes are in the northeastern.

The northeast had a long history of industrialization. The mercury waste started at the early 1990s. The first two fish tested were the Largemouth bass (LMB) (Micropterus salmoides) and yellow perch (YP) (Perca flavescens).These were the primary species tested, later there were more test in other species. By now the MA state has tested 189 animals that live on the lakes (since 1983).

Rural ecoregions of the west, central and southeastern parts of the state had also contaminated lakes. The biggest cause of mercury pollution in water are the powerplants. They throw their waste in the lakes. The government developed recommendations and regulations, that can and cannot be reinforced by the law. A campaign called ‘Zero Mercury’ has as an objective reduce the emissions of Mercury. Like the campaign says, Mercury? No, thank you.