SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)–For close to a century, Onondaga Lake has been the number one most polluted lake in not only America, but the world, according to the Hudson Valley Post.
The pollution in the lake started in the 19th century. The lake was a popular tourist attraction for swimming and fishing. However, because of the increased industrial development around the lake, there were more sewage and industrial discharges that were being dumped into the lake. Both swimming and fishing would be banned in the mid to late 1900s because of this.
However over the past decade, federal, state and local organizations have begun to make direct efforts to clean up the polluted lake.
Lou Digrazia, a former superintendent of department works for the New York water authority says that efforts are ramping up and explains what those efforts look like.
“We got vessels that go in there and their taking the debris out of the lake; that are floating on the lake so that’s more like your plastic cups your straws all that stuff fishing nets, were grabbing all that stuff and removing all the waste from the harbor there”
Since efforts to clean up the lake have begun, swimming and fishing in the lake has resumed and efforts are continuing to take place.