The plastic pollution crisis in Lake Erie is far worse than previously thought, and what we\u2019re seeing now may just be the beginning of a much larger problem. <\/p>\n
On Monday\u2019s episode of Today in Ohio<\/a>, the podcast team discussed reporter Pete Krouse\u2019s story expanding on his earlier reporting <\/a>on a staggering increase in microplastics in the lake over the past decade.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big takeaway from his reporting is that Lake Erie didn\u2019t get flooded with plastic from one dramatic disaster. It\u2019s really death by a thousand cuts,\u201d said Leila Atassi. She said the plastic arrives from myriad sources as it deteriorates and breaks into tiny pieces.<\/p>\n The source is no mystery: People. Using and discarding plastic products starts the flow that eventually puts the tiny pieces into the lake. The pollution comes from multiple sources: plastic bags, bottles, coffee cups, cigarette butts, construction foam, and even tiny industrial pellets called \u201cnurdles\u201d that spill from trains and trucks.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is a little bit frightening about this because it does take time to break plastic down into these tiny particles,\u2019 Said Chris Quinn. \u201cIs this plastic that was discarded 20 years ago that\u2019s just broken down now. And so all of the recent plastic that\u2019s gotten out there will just exacerbate this in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, even if all plastic pollution stopped today, would we still be dealing with the breakdown of existing pollution for decades? That\u2019s a scary thought, considering how much more plastic has entered the environment in recent years compared to previous decades.<\/p>\n The episode highlighted information gaps. Scientists don\u2019t fully know how the microplastics move through the Great Lakes ecosystem, why some areas are more contaminated than others, or exactly where all the plastic ends up. What is clear, however, is that much of it isn\u2019t floating on the surface\u2014it\u2019s either sitting on the lake bottom or has been ingested by fish.<\/p>\n Population density plays a major role in pollution levels, with Lake Erie having nearly 12 million people in its watershed. As Atassi noted, \u201cSome lakes look worse than others, largely because of population. For the most part, more people means more plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a frightening story because this is where we get our drinking water,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n