Michael Caliri
ID:11825475
Professor Holbrook
Course# 001203: English 1111-15
December 23, 2013
A Polluted State
We have a rich thus beautiful backdrop of nature in Minnesota with thousands of lakes and plethora of wildlife that each live with and play a role together in the success of each other as a species within the framework of the ecological system. We should be able to cleanly live in our natural environment of Minnesota, but industry and commerce play a role in the failure to do so contributing to pollution. With the public health, the climate, and the future of Minnesota’s ecology at stake, what pollutants must we battle to succeed in Minnesota? Well, with air pollutants like exhaust from diesel engines, smoke stacks, and standard carbon engine emissions, and water pollution like methyl mercury, we have an uphill battle to wage in Minnesota. This paper will also discuss experiments at Lake Winona with high levels of phosphorus and the Marcell Experiment testing Spring Lake for mercury to further explore specific cross-sections of pollution problems in our state. Can we turn around the damage done and help secure a clean ecosystem for the future inhabitants of this great state? Research shows that these specific air and water pollutants that this paper will discuss are at dangerous levels and need to be curbed. Thus, our state’s government must pay more and create laws that better serve the populace and the ecosystem at large to perhaps fix this problem along with new technology that is reusable and sustainable.
Beginning with the levels of air pollution that have been measured, they indicate that they are affecting the populace in Minnesota and that is a problem that can be fixed if proper changes are made. Polycyclic organic matter or POM’s are considered a class of pollutants that these eight fall into and that exceed the benchmark for unsafe in public health standards. There are eight specific types of POM’s that exceed the benchmarks...