Judith E's Reviews > The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

Dan Egan and his excellent book have reinforced the notion that once you've messed with Mother Nature's delicate balance there is a resulting crash like a falling tower of cards. He has spent a lifetime living and writing about the Great Lakes, and he has penned a very readable page turner about man's influence on this and other watersheds.

Beginning with the creation of the Erie Canal, Egan explains how the perfect ecosystem of the world's largest body of freshwater was changed and damaged. How each impact was frantically counter-acted by man's attempts to restore the balance. He exposes how the alewive, lamprey, algae stench, zebra mussel, quagga, and salmon disasters came to be and how industrial and fertilizer runoff, dredging, dumping ship ballast and the Chicago Sanitary Canal have had mind-boggling impacts on our water.

Recommended to anyone who drinks water.