Hey, you remember the mnemonic for the great lakes, right? It’s HOMES, for lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, and Erie. Well, maybe it should be HOMESS, with the extra S standing for Sewage, because each year something on the order of 10 billion gallons of sewage gets dumped into just lake Erie and its basin each year alone. Yah, you read that correctly. It’s a big problem all across the US, wherever lakes, streams and coastlines exist. And, as the US population increases, so will the amount of merde flowing through our sewer pipes. Our infrastructure in this country is old, old, old and it isn’t up to the strains of our increasing population. We need to get our act together, before the shit really hits the fan. Let’s put some of our tax dollars into improving our sewage-handling facilities. Meanwhile, I’d think twice about taking the family to a natural swimming spot.

• Lake Erie and Sewage