Significant Activities Report:
February 2005

Fish Monitoring Program Reviewed

GLNPO held a program review for the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring Program in Chicago on February 7th and 8th.  About 40 representatives including government and university scientists, federal and State government managers, and Tribal representatives met to discuss the program's successes and problems. The program review consisted of two separate groups of panel members: a discussion group that included all attendees, and a review panel that consisted of a select group of experts.  Both groups issued recommendations ranging from the revision of the current analyte list to revised laboratory procedures.  However, the review panel summarized all the information and issued 10 specific recommendations to GLNPO management.  A report on the meeting and the accompanying panel recommendations will be widely circulated for comment as soon as it is completed (expected in Summer 2005). 

Information on the methods used in the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring Program can be found in its Draft Quality Quality Assurance Project Plan (http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/glindicators/fishtoxics/GLFMP_QAPP_082504.pdf). 

Contact: Beth Murphy, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-4227

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A Superior Mercury Reduction Plan  

The Lake Superior Workgroup (part of the Lake Superior Binational Partnership) has put together a draft basin-wide mercury reduction project. The Plan was an action item from a September 2004 meeting of the Lake Superior Workgroup, Forum, Industry and Task Force.  This plan envisions setting up peer-to-peer mentoring opportunities to link industries and local governments who have not yet done mercury phase-outs with those who already have. The primary focus of the plan will be on the shipping industry and local industrial and government facilities.  Other components of the mercury reduction plan include mercury and household hazardous waste clean sweeps and collection events, and preparing a binational guide advising industrial and government facilities about mercury bearing devices. 
 

Contact: Elizabeth LaPlante, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 353-2694

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SOLEC Site Expanded, Revamped 

In an effort to consolidate and make available all that is SOLEC (State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference), GLNPO’s SOLEC site has been reorganized and greatly expanded. The revamped SOLEC site will contain everything from agendas and press releases to the many background papers produced.  Documents from the first SOLEC in 1994 to the present will be available on the site. 

The SOLEC conferences are hosted by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada on behalf of the two Countries every two years in response to the binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The conferences provide a forum for the exchange of information on the ecological condition of the Great Lakes and surrounding lands. A major purpose of this is to reach a large audience of people in the government (at all levels), as well as corporate and not-for-profit sectors who make decisions that affect the lakes. 

SOLEC conferences are held every two years in even numbered years. These conferences are the focal point and culmination of a process of gathering information from a wide variety of sources and engaging a variety of organizations in bringing it together. In the year following each conference the Governments have prepared a report on the state of the Lakes based in large part upon the SOLEC conference process. 

The SOLEC process views the ecosystem in terms of the state or “health” of the living system and its underlying physical, chemical and biological components. Human health is considered to be part of the living system. SOLEC conferences are intended to focus on the state of the Great Lakes ecosystem and the major factors impacting it rather than the status of programs needed for its protection and restoration. 

Visit SOLEC online at: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/solec/index.html  

Contact: Deborah Lamberty, U.S. EPA - GLNPO (312) 886-6681