River On Fire

SEGMENT 1  |  CUYAHOGA RIVER, OHIO

50 years after the Cleveland waterway infamously caught fire, the cleanup efforts have changed the ecosystem of the Lake Erie watershed

In the mid 20th century, the Midwest’s urban rivers were considered sewers, particularly for industrial waste. That dumping contributed to the infamous Cuyahoga River fire in Cleveland on June 22, 1969.

But after that incident made international news, clean-up efforts slowly started, and you can see some successes today in communities located inland from the Lake Erie shoreline.

In the Geauga Park District system east of Cleveland, otters swim and hunt fish, and bald eagles soar overhead and tend to their nests.

The Akron Water Reclamation Facility prevents household waste and stormwater runoff from flowing completely unchecked into the Cuyahoga.

“Bottom line: improved water quality,” said Dan Best, a naturalist at the Geauga Park District. “Whatever happens up here impacts things downstream. Fortunately, our watersheds are fairly well protected up here, by a variety of public lands and other preserved lands.”

Watch this Great Lakes Now segment from PBS affiliate WVIZ-TV/Ideastream in Cleveland to visit these sites.

(And learn why Cuyahoga water is particularly suited to maltier beers.)

Read about river cleanup efforts in other Great Lakes communities and how individuals can participate >

Asian Carp

SEGMENT 2  |  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AND LAKE ERIE

Where are Asian carp in the Great Lakes region? And what’s being done about them?

Four species of Asian carp threaten to invade the Great Lakes.

The main front in the battle to keep them out is taking place with electric barriers and mass capture on the Mississippi River tributaries and shipping canals in Illinois that connect to Lake Michigan.

“Those kinds of solutions, as effective as they’re going to be, are only a part of it,” said Great Lakes Now Contributor Andrew Reeves, who authored the book “Overrun: Dispatches from the Asian Carp Crisis.”

But grass carp variety of the fish are now in Lake Erie, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is trying to control the populations. Watch the GLN segment to see how.

Here are more Great Lakes Now stories about asian carp:

• For more about Asian carp, read the work of GLN Senior Correspondent Gary Wilson, who has been writing about the issue for years >
• GLN Contributor’s Andrew Reeves discusses his book HERE. 

Hydroponics

SEGMENT 3  |  DETROIT, MICHIGAN

It’s a growing hype in the Great Lakes

Farmland surrounds the lakes on both the Canadian and U.S. sides of the basin, but the climate doesn’t permit year-round growing.

Enter hydroponics, an indoor method of growing plants without soil using a nutrient-and-water solution. With hydroponics, farmers can grow more in less space, use less water and prevent fertilizer runoff, all of which ultimately can benefit the Great Lakes system.

“I relate it very much to the same time when Henry Ford was bringing the first Fords off the assembly line,” said Kimberly Buffington, farmer and managing partner of Planted, a hydroponics farm in Detroit. “We’re sort of at that point, that juncture in the hydroponic industry, in the way that we’re innovating and birthing the industry here in the United States.”

Watch the Great Lakes Now segment on hydroponics to learn more about the farming process and see how it’s gaining momentum in the Great Lakes region.

• For more about hydroponics farming in the Great Lakes, CLICK HERE to read about the benefits, drawbacks and why the Midwest won’t be making a complete switch to hydroponics farming anytime soon.