Those of you who still drink water from the lake might want to invest in a filter:

click here

Not too worried about the water in the BWCA.

RMNP in Colorado sits close to MILLIONS of people in the Front Range cities---a problem that is quickly getting worse as that state becomes the new California.

They examined the wind direction for the storms that deposited or didn't deposit plastics at their sampling site in Rocky Mountain National Park. They got more plastic with wind coming from the west rather than from the populated areas. This plastic could be going a long way. It will be interesting to see if they are able to expand their geographic coverage.

yep, to get from populated areas on the west coast this had to travel a long way, here is an article how it has gotten into ground water, to do so, it has had to travel for a long time and the obvious, through the filter that normally "cleans" ground water:
click here

it is obvious from other articles, and from what they have found in the ocean, is that we are rapidly destroying our planet, at least as it has existed for tens of millions of years

leave it as you found it for our children and those who follow?
changing to LED bulbs, biking to work, and recycling ain't gonna do it

Microplastics have also been found in artic snow.

The planet is slowly dying.

andym: "They examined the wind direction for the storms that deposited or didn't deposit plastics at their sampling site in Rocky Mountain National Park. They got more plastic with wind coming from the west rather than from the populated areas. This plastic could be going a long way. It will be interesting to see if they are able to expand their geographic coverage."

That would be an interesting study. 40 million people live to the west in California, but it would not surprise me if some smaller plastic particles come all the way from Asia.

I wonder how much of this stuff actually does fall onto the lakes of the Quetico-Superior.

off topic from the original post , but i was just thinking the other day , what happened to the big acid rain scare of the 90's-2000's ? havent heard anything about it in many years .

shock: "off topic from the original post , but i was just thinking the other day , what happened to the big acid rain scare of the 90's-2000's ? havent heard anything about it in many years . "

Modifications to the clean air act (Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments) mandated smoke stack reduction of nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide the main components of acid rain. This program has reduced acid causing emissions by 50% thus reducing the acid level in precipitation.

arctic: "The planet is slowly dying."

The planet will be fine, it doesn't care whats pollutants are in the air, ground or water. Life on the planet however will have a difficult time going forward. Unless of course this is all fake news/science.

This is a great way to wrap up a scientific poster:

Conclusions
It is raining plastic. Better methods for sampling, identification, and quantification of plastic deposition along with assessment of potential ecological effects are needed.

No matter what we use, it finds it's way into the environment.

minnmike: " The planet will be fine, it doesn't care whats pollutants are in the air, ground or water. Life on the planet however will have a difficult time going forward. Unless of course this is all fake news/science."

correction: life as we know it will ...
life that can tolerate or adapt to the changes will go on, the rest will become like the dino's

and ...

all new and science is fake, in that news is just one person's/org's viewpoint, and as for science, succeeding generations of scientists disprove and advance the previous generations of scientists

see my tagline

Hey - plastic creates JOBS!

So if someone really cares they will buy aluminum canoes since they can be recycled. As apposed to Kevlar that will never decompose. I have trashed a couple of Kevlar canoes over the years. I offered them to outfitters for parts but no one wants them.

Anyone willing to buy aluminum to save the earth?

I still own a beat up 60 -70 year old aluminum canoe that was my grandfathers. It has been through scores of rapids. It took me to Dorothys and Bennies. Tommy Chosa fished out of it with me.

I see many people telling each other how to live, yet they make little or no sacrifices themselves.

The true purist would go with birchbark so the canoe can be composted.

I own two aluminum canoes, two kevlar, three fiberglass, and one skin on aluminum frame. Besides... reduce, reuse and recycle. All of my canoes are second hand. So I may not have reduced but I have reused. But, I think the amount of material in canoes is inconsequential compared to other uses of plastics. If I want to feel bad about something it will be plastic soda bottles and not my kevlar canoes.

My Grandmother had a birchbark canoe. My Grandfather would say a tea cup design would have been more stable. It was small and two adults could not fit in it. It rotted in to the ground on the shore of Burntside lake. My water bottles are spun aluminum. I cant remember the last time I bought "pop" in a store in a plastic bottle. Mexican Coke in a glass bottle might be hard to walk by. I cant see buying water period I live in Minnesota.I have a glass bottle from Ely Bottling Works that I got from Dorothy Molters place.

I would be okay with returnable glass bottles. People seem to like there water in plastic in the b-dub.

Perfect. The birch bark canoe composted. Too bad it wasn’t better to paddle.

I agree on water. Even in CA there is no need to buy. My problem is too much Diet Coke. You’ld have plenty of chances to get Mexican coke in glass bottles here.

HowardSprague: "Hey - plastic creates JOBS!"

So does pornography and opium synthesis into herion.