The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease Robert lived in the beautiful countryside of Northwestern Michigan. His quaint home was secluded from the outside world, deep in the forest. His property was covered with trees, and he had a large creek running through his backyard. This was one of his favorite parts about where he resided. The sparsely populated area allowed the creek to be crystal clear, and he enjoyed swimming in it during the summer, fishing in it while the trout where migrating, and ice skating on it in the winter. For 20 years, little had changed in its flow and characteristics. This is why he was so startled when he noticed the water quality getting worse and worse one summer. It had become a nasty greenish brown shade. Robert decided …show more content…
The factory had 4 pipes coming out of it, directly into the creek. They were oozing a dark sludge. He was glad to find out what was causing the complication, but was also disgusted that someone would do such a thing to a beautiful aquatic environment. Upon arriving home, Robert researched his state's regulations on factory waste; but to his dismay he found that the laws had been relaxed over the past year. The economy had been on a downturn in Michigan, and the state government was willing to do anything to bring in new businesses and employers. What the factory was doing was unfortunately completely legal. Robert decided that the change in water quality "didn’t have too great of an effect on his daily life" and decided to let things play themselves out. In the forthcoming weeks, things only got worse. The creek had taken on a full dark brown hue, and you could see a dozen belly-up fish in the water at any given time. Maybe the worst change of all was that the creek now gave off a foul odor, inescapable no matter where he was on his property. He called and wrote letters to his representatives asking them to consider pushing the idea of bringing back old regulations. To his dismay, only one senator responded, and that response informed Robert that the