More bad news from protectors of the Great Lakes

Please allow your imagination to run wild and try to visualize this picture.

Imagine a muddy river loaded with life's castoffs running its course right next to the sacred halls of the United States Congress. The stream, possibly as close as 50 feet, is crawling with unwanted, toothless invaders.

The detritus they consume includes decomposing plant and animal parts, as well as fecal matter. These organisms play an important role in all ecosystems by getting rid of decaying organic matter left behind by other organisms. In food webs, detritivores such as an earth worm or fungus commonly play the role of decomposers.

But dead or alive, that imaginary river wouldn't last a week before Congressional action would direct the Army Corps of Engineers to turn that waterway into a two-lane road.

I don't like being the bearer of bad news or alarming information from government or quasi-governmental agencies that churn out endless reams of paperwork.

Do any of you remember the scare created in 1989 by the National Wildlife Federation's report warning us in the Chicago area that we must not eat salmon taken from Lake Michigan? That was 28 years ago. Have we disappeared from the face of the earth as the result of that report?

Now another player enters the picture in the form of the International Joint Commission of Canada and the United States. This conglomeration of well-intentioned souls is releasing its First Great Lakes Triennial Assessment of Progress report under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The review includes analysis of progress on issues facing the lakes, such as harmful algal blooms, toxic substances and safe drinking water, and provides recommendations for further actions to restore and protect the lakes. In this case, "progress" is the key word in question.

From my perspective, the commission may have forgotten the regiment of Joe Six-Packers, the working stiffs who quench their thirst not with a lite beer, but rather a cold glass of tap water.

With the recent Chicago Tribune report that toxic chemicals continue to be dumped into Lake Michigan by an industrial giant demonstrates to me that somebody in a position of power looked the other way as the toxic waste spilled into the waterway where I get my drinking water. But hasn't that been the way things have been done for many decades?

And whenever a potential polluter is called to task, the scenario often includes the threat a plant closing or moving to a less-stringent location.

Then the lawsuits hit the courts and become mired in the agonizing slowness of the legal system with only the attorneys making out like champions. In the end, that leaves the rest of us to continue to ask the politically charged question: "how will this impact my family?"

Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.