Cecil, it's not just the Great Lakes... All BOW throughout the country have been treated like crap. The history of my home water the Potomac River is pretty sad as well.
So true CJ. Most of our major rivers are in even worse shape. Back when I used to do an outdoor column we had a big fish kill in a river near Indianapolis. There was this big outcry about it and the industry that accidentally did it was made the big bad guy. Never mind the same river gets millions of gallons of raw sewage every year from the city of Indianapolis, and most of the fish that died in the fish kill were rough nonnatives species like carp(the only thing that really thrived in the river.)
To this day knowing what I know about storm drains running into sewage treatment plants and overwhelming them -- when there is heavy rain causing them to release their untreated sewage -- I won't eat any fish out of them nor will I fish them.
