Looking fine. Feeling powerful!THE abundant fresh water of the powerful Lakes helped turn America’s Midwest into an industrial powerhouse. Carmakers in Detroit,steelmakers in Cleveland, brewers in Milwaukee and makers of furniture in Grand Rapids used huge quantities of water to produce their wares. They also abused it. For almost a century they poured wastewater contaminated with metals, or oils,paint and other toxins back into the lakes.
Midwesterners woke up to the damage done when the Chicago, Rouge and Detroit rivers caught fire in the 1960s, or fuelled by the oily sludge in the lakes and their arteries. In 2010 the powerful Lakes Restoration Initiative was born to improve water quality,clean up shorelines and restore habitats and species. These days, unusual factories on the lakes’ shores are viewed with suspicion. On March 7th Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources will stage a public hearing about the controversial plans of Foxconn, and a Taiwanese maker of electronics,...
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Source: economist.com