Toxic Blob Near Cleveland: Sludge From 1960s Found Near City’s Water Intake Pipes On Lake Erie


A toxic blob of cancer-causing chemicals and other insidious waste is near Cleveland — specifically, it’s at the bottom of Lake Erie, a few miles from the city’s water intake pipes.

As the Cleveland Dispatch reports, the two-square-mile blob is currently floating around in Lake Erie, about five miles from the pipes that draw water from the lake and into in the city’s drinking water supply.

So how did a blob of toxic waste wind up a few miles from a major city’s drinking water supply? To answer that question, you have to go back to the 60s and 70s, before today’s strict environmental regulations, when Cleveland was one of the worst polluters in the country.

As Cleveland Historical explains, the industrial boom that brought prosperity to the city for decades also brought devastating environmental damage. Millions of gallons of toxic waste and other pollutants were poured into the Cuyahoga River, more or less unchecked.

“Throughout much of Cleveland’s history, water pollution did not trouble the city’s residents very much. Instead, water pollution was viewed as a necessary consequence of the industry that had brought prosperity to the city.”

However, by the late 1960s, the movement that would come to be known as environmentalism was beginning to take shape, and Cleveland’s polluted river, which drains into Lake Erie, was emblematic of decades of unchecked pollution.

So polluted was the Cuyahoga River that, on June 22, 1969, it caught fire. It wasn’t the first time the river caught fire — it had actually caught fire multiple times before — but the event would come to be known as the beginning of the end of Cleveland’s water pollution problems.

Since that day, the river has been cleaned up, and de-industrialization has drastically cut back on Cleveland’s polluting. However, all of that sludge and waste pumped into the river for decades had to go somewhere, and it went to the bottom of Lake Erie, where it remains to this day.

As of this writing, however, officials insist the city’s drinking water supply is safe.

Cleveland Water quality manager Scott Moegling told WJW-TV that even though that the blob is “highly toxic,” there’s nothing for Clevelanders to be concerned about.

“In and of itself, it is highly toxic. But the water is safe; all of our monitoring to date has shown there is nothing of concern.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a statement to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, also insisted that the toxic blob poses no danger to the city’s drinking water supply.

“No credible scientific evidence supports the hypothesis that a ‘toxic blob’ is migrating towards Cleveland’s water intakes. [The toxic blob’ is an area two-square miles in size, and is located nine miles from the shoreline, in about 60 feet of water and is miles downstream of, and in much deeper water than, Cleveland’s water intakes… We firmly believe that the lake bottom sediment in this area is not migrating nor does it pose a risk to Cleveland’s drinking water now, or in the future.”

Meanwhile, Cleveland officials insist that they are monitoring the situation. Cleveland Water commissioner Alex Margevicius said that the city will be on top of any issues that might pop up.

“As long as we stay vigilant and do what we need to do, our water will always be clean.”

Do you think Cleveland officials should be doing more to address the toxic blob near the city’s water intake pipes?

[Image via Shutterstock/Kenneth Sponsler]

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