A Glass of E.Coli Anyone?

(A rant in reflections)

Does anybody ever think about this; or am I the only one who spazzes out about things like this? It amazes me how we Americans walk around in a “matrix”, ignorant to our surroundings. I know what you’re thinking, “Lighten up, stress causes premature aging.”

Ok…ok..here’s my rant!!!

I was recently doing a little research on the Mississippi River for a project I am working on, which brought to my attention the amount of pollution in our water supply.

We all know that the beloved Mississippi River begins at Minnesota’s Lake Itaska and runs through the bosom of our country, before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico. Like a main artery flowing through a body, millions of people rely on the Mississippi for their surface water supply.

What many may not know is that when it’s all said and done, there’s an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution flowing through the Mississippi then draining into the Gulf. This is responsible for creating a ‘dead-zone’ in the Gulf the size of Massachusetts. That’s toxic pollution; sediment pollution; nutrient pollution; and bacterial pollution flowing through this once beautiful body of water. We are drinking remnants of steel, run-off, herbicides and fertilizers.

This is just nasty!!!

I was walking along the river the other day and was overwhelmed by the smell of sewage. Maybe our grandchildren will never experience that earthy fresh fish smell that comes from a clean body of water. And just think, I live in Minnesota close to where the Mississippi begins; I can’t imagine the toxic levels by the time it reaches the southern states. OMG! That may explain the area in Louisiana (an eighty-five-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans) called ‘cancer ally’ which has the highest incident rates of cancer in the country.

Maybe ignorance is bliss, but it sure as heck isn’t responsible!!!

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1133/index.html

Doing our part.

http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/preventingyou.html

http://www.lastormwater.org/siteorg/residents/howucnhp.htm

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-prevent-water-pollution.html