Tons of Fishing
Web Directories And resources!

From a technical point of view, he is largely successful in this endeavor. Digesting a plethora of scientific studies and government reports, McGucken presents a straightforward account. Though he tries to convert his findings into an intelligible form for the nonspecialist, the very nature of the subject sometimes makes for less than exciting reading. Quoting, for example, from a 1987 scientific report, he informs the reader that "`it can be concluded that the phosphorus control program has been successful in maintaining the oligotrophic status of Lakes Superior and Huron and has helped to restore Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario to an oligo/mesotrophic state... (p. 269).

For those old enough to have been environmentally aware by the 1960s, McGucken's account of the impact of phosphate detergents may bring back memories of the controversy and prove to be the most interesting part of the book. To a greater degree than elsewhere in his volume, the author develops his discussion around familiar personalities, companies, and organizations rather than simply summarizing the findings of committees, boards, and task forces.

Unlike in Canada, where the federal government moved quickly to limit detergent phosphates, the American government chose to ask the detergent industry voluntarily to reduce, and eventually eliminate, phosphates. One reason was concern that proposed substitutes might prove to be equally harmful to the environment. A bigger reason was that powerful companies like Procter and Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive lobbied against the elimination of phosphorus in detergents, claiming that the nonmetallic chemical element did little or no harm to the environment.

The detergent industry, however, soon found itself arrayed against some influential critics, including radio and television personality Arthur Godfrey, and Betty Furness, of the State of New York Consumer Protection Agency. Groups as diverse as the National Audubon Society and the Buffalo Metropolitan Housewives to End Pollution lined up against phosphates. Still, it would not be until 1990 that legislation to eliminate them from detergent-use in the entire Lake Erie drainage basin finally went into effect.

In researching the developing opposition to phosphate detergents, as well as other forms of cultural eutrophication, McGucken might have cast a wider net. He concentrates on government and industry sources while appearing to make short shrift of citizen groups. Chief among these were the large number of sport-fishing enthusiasts dependent on clean water for their continued recreation.

While McGucken may not have covered every aspect of the subject in equal detail, he has broken much new ground. His book is an important addition to the literature on the environmental history of the Lake Erie drainage basin and is sure to become a standard reference.

Reviewed by John F Reiger, professor of history at Ohio University-Chillicothe. His most recent publication, with a broadened historical sweep, is the revised and expanded third edition of American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation (Oregon State University Press, 2001).