Landers J. New Life for ONONDAGA LAKE. Civil Engineering (08857024) [serial online]. May 2006;76(5):64-86. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 14, 2012.
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This journal entry was written by the American Society of Civil Engineers in order to inform their peers and anyone else reading the journal about the progress of the cleanup at Onondaga lake. I felt that the article was slightly biased, in that it was very optimistic about the future of the lake, but for the most part, it was mostly informative,
Claimed to to be the most polluted lake in the nation, extensive clean-up efforts have taken place and are still ongoing at Onondaga Lake in order to improve the water quality there. The lake was a site for industrial waste since the late 1800s, the lake had so much waste and chemicals dumped into it over the century that a defined layer of ground, into what are called waste beds. Some can be as high as 60 feet, and are completely filled with sewage, chemicals and other dissolved materials.
This lake was the site of intensive remediation efforts, and the American Society of Civil Engineers wrote this journal piece in order to highlight the efforts that are being taken in order to clean up the pollutants within the lake. The effects of contamination around and within the lake have been lessened through extensive cleanup. There has also been an effort to decrease the number of combined sewer overflows that flow into the lake, which has led to a sharp and noticeable decrease in the amount of waste discharged into the lake. Water quality has improved, and as a result, the flora and fauna in and around the lake are in a better state.
This is a body of polluted water, similar to the Gowanus canal, and we can draw comparisons between the clean up effort of the Onondaga Lake and the Gowanus Canal. Both the Onondaga Lake and the Gowanus Canal suffer contamination problems due to wastewater discharge due to sewer overflows, and the Onondaga Lake showed that reducing sewer overflows directly positively impact the water quality.
One of the goals of this class is to introduce students to potential careers in sustainability. For those of you with a math and science inclination, this piece (and others like it) suggest that civil engineering is a useful sustainability career to consider. Sadly, I’m also thinking about our flooded subways today and all of the potential careers that our changing storm patterns will require. Engineers will matter.
I agree professor. A lot of people I have talked to do not consider civil engineering to be a viable profession as they claim that the U.S. already has a well built infrastructure and therefore does not require any more civil engineers. However, catastrophes, such as Hurricane Sandy, can seriously undo the basic infrastructure and it would be terrible if there is no one qualified to rebuild it.