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Significant Activities Report:
December 2002
Presque Isle On the Mend
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Significant improvements in the environmental health of the Presque Isle Bay, Pennsylvania Area of Concern (AoC) on Lake Erie has prompted the USEPA to upgrade the bay to an "AoC in recovery stage" from the previous designation of simply "AoC."
The re-designation recognizes the improvements made over the 11 years since Presque Isle Bay was designated as an AoC. Presque Isle Bay is located in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Most of the watershed is comprised of urban and industrial areas within the City of Erie and Millcreek Township.
The request for a change in status was formally submitted to EPA on October 2nd by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. This is the first AoC in the nation to be upgraded to recovery status.
In 1988, local citizens from Erie County, Pennsylvania petitioned the International Joint Commission Science Advisory Board to recommend that the Bay be an AoC. In 1991, the Commission requested that the U.S. Government make this designation after research concluded fish tumors and restrictions of dredging activities indicated substantial sediment contamination. The U.S. Department of State officially made the designation on January 30, 1991.
Several studies indicate improvements in the bay - the incidence of fish tumors has dropped dramatically and sediments have proven less toxic than originally believed. Under EPA guidelines, the new status calls for a pollution prevention plan, and a monitoring program to reduce the risk of future degradation and ensure that recovery continues.
Contacts:
Mark Elster, U.S. EPA -
GLNPO (312) 886-3857
Larry Merrill, U.S. EPA -
Region III (215) 814-5452
Winning the Battle in Lake Michigan
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| Stephanodiscus parvus | Cyclotella ocellata |
| Some common Lake Michigan diatoms | |
A recently published scientific paper shows the benefits of
reducing phosphorus loadings to Lake Michigan. High phosphorus loads
in the 1960’s and 70’s spurred the Springtime population growth of
diatoms, one of the most common types of phytoplankton (tiny
floating plants) in the lake. This explosive diatom growth each
Spring used up all the silica in the water, preventing further
diatom growth in the Summer. Since only diatoms require silica for
growth, Summer communities shifted to other types of phytoplankton,
a departure from the historical condition of year-round dominance by
diatoms. Public concern over the eutrophication (premature aging) of
the Great Lakes resulted in signing of the
Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement in 1972 between the United States and Canada. As part of
the effort to reverse the degradation of the lakes, phosphorus
reduction programs were undertaken under the Agreement.
The restoration of Lake Erie dramatically showed the success of
the phosphorus controls. Evidence of recovery in Lake Michigan has
been more elusive. But now, the paper "Evidence of Recovery from
Phosphorus Enrichment in Lake Michigan," published in the Canadian
Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, shows for the first time
the benefits of phosphorus load reductions to the Lake Michigan
ecosystem. The paper uses 18 years of data, collected as part of the
Great Lakes National Program Office's annual open-lake monitoring
program, to track a complex chain of interactions from phosphorus to
silica to diatoms. The authors found that reductions in phosphorus
loads, the main driver of diatom growth, have resulted in a steady
increase in Spring soluble silica concentrations between 1983 and
2000 as smaller annual diatom populations have taken less silica
with them as they die and settle to the bottom of the lake. With a
smaller annual loss of silica, concentrations of this element have
been able to build up steadily over the past twenty years. The
reduction in Spring diatom populations, resulting from decreases in
phosphorus loading, has also meant more silica 'left over' for
Summer diatom growth, bringing about a return of substantial Summer
diatom populations in the lake for the first time in over thirty
years. Therefore, while annual diatom production has decreased, it
has also become more 'spread out' over the year, as was the case in
the lake before it was impacted by excessive phosphorus loading. The
Summer diatom response to increased silica was particularly apparent
beginning in the early 1990s. It thus appears that the phytoplankton
community has begun to shift back towards its historical condition
of year-round diatom dominance. These results provide the first
conclusive evidence that phosphorus load reductions are having a
positive impact on the Lake Michigan ecosystem.
The authors of the paper were Rick Barbiero of DynCorp; and Marc Tuchman, Glenn Warren and David Rockwell from GLNPO. The paper is in the October 2002 (Volume 59, Number 10) of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences on pages 1639 to 1647.
Contacts:
Marc Tuchman, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-1369
Glenn Warren, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 886-2405
David Rockwell, U.S. EPA -
GLNPO (312) 353-1373
Tannery Bay Cleanup Highlighted
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On November 7th, a press conference was held in Whitehall, Michigan to highlight the sediment cleanup activities at the White Lake, Tannery Bay site. This project is a joint effort between the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and USEPA. When completed, about 75,000 cubic yards of tannery waste contaminated with chromium, arsenic and mercury will be removed. The sediment contamination was the result of some 30 years of discharges from the tannery (1944 through 1976). A settlement reached between MDEQ and Genesco, Inc, provided $3.3 million towards the project. The remaining funds were supplied by a grant for $500,000 from GLNPO to MDEQ and from Michigan Clean Michigan Initiative Funds.
The press conference was attended by Tom Skinner, USEPA Region 5
Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager; Russell J.
Harding, Department of Environmental Quality Director; Dennis L.
Schornack, International Joint Commission U.S. Section Chairman;
Norm Ullman, Mayor of Whitehall, and other local officials.
Another cleanup in White Lake, at the Occidental Chemical site is slated for the summer of 2003.
Contact:
Marc Tuchman, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-1369
Carp News
USEPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the State Department
worked in partnership to provide emergency funding to buy and
install a backup power system for the existing aquatic nuisance
species dispersal barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal
near Lockport, Illinois. The backup power will ensure operation of
the barrier in the event of a failure with the primary power system.
USEPA’s Office of Water provided $150,000 for the purchase. The Army
Corps constructed the barrier under the authority of the
Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990
as
a demonstration of an innovative technology for preventing the
migration of aquatic nuisance species between the Great Lakes and
Illinois River basins. The Corps is continuing the operation of the
barrier as the only line of defense against the imminent threat of
Asian carp migrating into the Great Lakes from the Illinois River.
Two species of asian carp are advancing their way up the Illinois
from the Mississippi River toward the Great Lakes and have the
potential to severely impact the biological integrity of the Great
Lakes. (See related stories in the
May and
September-October 2002
issues of the Significant Activities Report).
Contact:
Scott Cieniawski, U.S.
EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-9184
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In related news, on November 25th, U.S. Congresswoman Judy
Biggert convened a roundtable discussion at the Romeoville, Illinois
Village Hall on the Asian Carp and the dispersal barrier project.
The dispersal barrier and a large segment of the Chicago Sanitary
and Ship Canal resides in her district. In attendance were
representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the
International Joint Commission; the Great Lakes Fisheries
Commission; the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Mississippi
Interstate Cooperative Resource Association (MICRA); and the
Illinois Natural History Survey.
Short presentations were made by Congresswoman Biggert, IJC Commissioner Dennis Schornack (IJC); and the Corps of Engineers on the status of the barrier; and Jerry Rasmussen from MICRA on the Asian Carp threat. After the presentations, Congresswoman Biggert led a discussion and inquired as to the kinds of monitoring underway to determine the effectiveness of the barrier and plans to construct a second barrier. She voiced her support for the effort, including the continued operation of the existing barrier. Following the briefing a visit to the site was conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Contact:
Marc Tuchman, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-1369
Here they Come, From All Over the World
 GLNPO receives visitors from all over the globe |
After EPA Headquarters, EPA Region 5 and the Great Lakes National
Program Office receive the greatest number of foreign visitors to
EPA. Fiscal year 2002 (ending September 30, 2002) saw a total of 223
foreign visitors to Region 5. Over one-third of the visitors met
with GLNPO staff. The countries represented included Argentina,
Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Estonia, Germany, India,
Ireland, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Japan, and Poland.
Most of the visitors wanted to learn how EPA handles the kinds of issues that these countries are facing or will soon be confronting. There are several reasons for the visitors’ keen interest in the Great Lakes:
- Many of the visitors’ countries now have the kinds of problems that the Great Lakes faced 20 to 30 years ago and the visitors want to learn how the Great Lakes were restored.
- Since many of their countries have trans-boundary pollution issues (their waters are being impacted by other countries), they are eager to learn how about the binational efforts to protect and restore Great Lakes, which are seen as a model for international cooperation to protect a shared resource.
- Finally, many of them are interested in how the ecosystem approach is used to attack problems holistically instead of piecemeal like the traditional media by media approaches.
Contacts:
Tony Kizlauskas,
U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-8773
Sirtaj Ahmed, U.S. EPA -
Region V (312) 886-4445
Dental Waste In Its Place
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A symposium was held on December 2nd, in Chicago, Illinois entitled, "Dental Mercury: Reducing the Environmental Impact." The meeting was sponsored by the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (mercury is one of the chemicals targeted for reductions by that program). Over 70 people attended, including members of the dental community, academia and government from both the United States and Canada. Presentations included:
- Assessing the Fate and Impact of Dental Amalgam, three separate presentations by Philip Watson, University of Toronto; Jay Vandeven, Environ Corporation; and Peter Berglund, Metropolitan Council Environmental Services,
- Amalgam Recycling Potential, presented by James Drummond, University of Illinois-Chicago,
- Waste Management Strategies and Opportunities, presented by Linda Samek, Ontario Dental Association,
- Evaluation of Amalgam Separation Equipment, presented by P.L. Fan,
- Practical Considerations in Managing Dental Wastes and Amalgam Separators, presented by Kevin McManus, EBI Consultants, and
- The Proper Place for Dental Waste: Dental School Curriculum Development, presented by Nancy Larson, Kansas State University.
Later, several case studies were presented to show the impacts of mercury amalgam and the practical applications of the mercury reduction techniques presented earlier:
- Duluth, Minnesota, presented by Tim Tuominen, Western Lake Superior Sanitary District,
- Toronto, Ontario Canada Sewer Use By-Law, presented by Robert Krauel, Environment Canada,
- King County, Washington, presented by Gail Savina, King County Hazardous Waste, and
- Northeast Ohio, presented by Keith Linn, Northeast Ohio
Regional Sanitary District.
Finally, a closing panel discussion: Charting a Path Forward was led by Navy Commander Dr. John Kuehne, DDS from the Naval Institute for Dental and Biomedical Research and Dr. Keith W. Suchy, DDS, the Secretary of the Chicago Dental Society.
Proceeds of this Symposium should be published in January 2003.
Contact:
Alexis Cain, U.S. EPA -
Region V (312) 886-7018
Toxics Linkages
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Over 80 people attended the Semiannual Stakeholder Forum of the
Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (GLBTS) in Chicago on
December 3rd. The theme of the gathering was “Linkages.” Invited
speakers showed how the toxics reduction activities of the GLBTS
were related to other such reduction efforts at various scales from
local to global. Greg Filyk, the Acting Chief of the Hazardous Air
Pollutants Group at Environment Canada in Ottawa spoke about global
toxic reductions efforts. Victor Shantora, the Acting Executive
Director of the North American Commission for Environmental
Cooperation on the Commission for Environmental Cooperation spoke
about that organization’s coordinated toxics reduction efforts
between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Finally, Kevin Schnoes of the
Chicago Department of Environment, described the City of Chicago’s
efforts to help industry reduce the use and releases of toxic
substances through its “Industrial Outreach Program.”
As in past GLBTS Stakeholder Forums, the GLBTS Workgroup Chairpersons provided updates on their groups efforts to reduce specific toxics, including PCBs, dioxins and furans, mercury, benzo(a)pyrene, hexachlorobenzene, pesticides, alkyl-lead, and octachlorostyrene. The annual summary of progress under the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy will be available in February 2003.
Contact:
Ted Smith, U.S. EPA - GLNPO
(312) 353-6571
International Coastal Wetlands Effort Nears Half-Way Mark
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In September 2002, USEPA's Great Lakes National Program Office awarded the third and final Cooperative Agreement to the Great Lakes Commission to support the work of the Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Consortium. All three Cooperative Agreements have been funded at $400,000, with another $200,000 in match from the Consortium members.
There are 41 member organizations, including scientific and
policy experts drawn from key U.S. and Canadian federal agencies,
state and provincial agencies, non-governmental organizations, and
other interest groups with responsibility for coastal wetlands
monitoring. This is an unprecedented assembly of coastal wetlands
expertise. In addition, other members are brought in as small
project teams are formed to address discrete project elements and
pilot studies. The Consortium is coordinated by staff at the Great
Lakes Commission in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Consortium is just
finishing its second year of a 4-5 year project. The ultimate goal
of the Consortium is to design an implementable, long-term
monitoring program for Great Lakes coastal wetlands. This will allow
the United States and Canada to better fulfill the reporting
requirements under the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement. The
biennial State of Lakes Ecosystem Conference is the reporting
platform utilized by the two countries. For more information on this
project, go to
www.glc.org/wetlands.
Contacts:
Duane Heaton, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 886-6399
Karen Rodriguez, U.S. EPA -
GLNPO (312) 353-2690
John Schneider, U.S. EPA
- GLNPO (312) 886-0880
What Have They Done to the Bay?
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The zebra mussel invasion of Bay has changed the Saginaw Bay ecosystem. It has caused a shift of energy flow from pelagic (open water) to the benthic (bottom) components, potentially impacting every component of the food web. To help understand this phenomenon, working under a grant from GLNPO, the State University of New York - Buffalo developed a “coupled benthic-pelagic ecosystem model” for Saginaw Bay. The model helps quantify how primary production is partitioned between pelagic and benthic communities and how the distribution varies with zebra mussel densities and nutrient loadings. The Final Report for the grant describes the overall modeling approach and the linkage of different models to synthesize the physical, chemical, and biological processes of Saginaw Bay as it undergoes invasion by zebra mussels. The integration of eutrophication and toxic chemical models with a benthic-pelagic coupling represents an ecosystem modeling approach. The principle outcomes of this work are the better understanding of the ecosystem stress-response relationships and the benthic-pelagic coupling in the Saginaw Bay ecosystem, and the use of the model to forecast the possible future states of the bay as a result of changes in external stressors such as nutrient loadings and zebra mussel densities.
Contact:
Duane Heaton, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 886-6399
Weighing the Evidence
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On November 22nd, GLNPO’s Scott Cieniawski was in Saginaw, Michigan to deliver a presentation entitled, "Using the Weight of Evidence Approach for Making Sediment Management Decisions" at the conference for the Michigan Statewide Public Advisory Council sponsored by the Great Lakes Commission. The presentation focused on the use of multiple lines of evidence (sediment chemistry, whole sediment toxicity testing, benthic community assessments, and bioaccumulation studies) to monitor the impact of contaminated sediments on beneficial uses in the Great Lakes Areas of Concern. The talk also touched on the expected completion of the Sustainable Fisheries Foundation's Guidance Manual to Support the Assessment of Contaminated Sediments in Freshwater Ecosystems, scheduled for publication in early 2003. The guidance manual provides an in-depth discussion of the “weight-of-evidence” approach and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each line of evidence.
Contact:
Scott Cieniawski, U.S.
EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-9184
New Sediment Cleanup Tool
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On November 27th, President Bush signed the
Great Lakes Legacy
Act
into law. The Act authorizes the expenditure of up to $50
million per year for 5 years, starting in October 2003 to help
cleaning up contaminated sediment sites at Great Lakes Areas of
Concern. It also authorizes up to $3 million per year for research
and development on innovative treatment technologies and $1 million
per year for education/outreach activities. Congress would still
have to appropriate the funds for the program in order for it to go
forward. Information on Areas of Concern can be found at:
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/AoC.
Contact: Marc Tuchman, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-1369