Chicago Field Office Supervisor John Rogner Speaks at Calumet Ecotox Ceremony. - FWS photo

On June 9, in a signing ceremony on the shores of Lake Calumet on the City of Chicago’s southeast side, the Service’s Chicago Ecological Services Field Office and partner agencies formally adopted the Calumet Ecotox Protocol.

The ceremony, hosted by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was attended by representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and Forest Preserve District of Cook County, all of whom worked cooperatively over the past several years to develop the protocol.

The Ecotox Protocol is a guidance document that will be used to help identify areas that may require remediation of pollutants and to determine cleanup levels that are protective of wildlife. The protocol provides a decision making framework for contaminant remediation based upon land restoration principles. It will be an important tool for remediation and restoration of important migratory bird habitat at the southern end of Lake Michigan.

The Chicago Field Office provided expertise in the development of the protocol. Edward Karecki and Shawn Cirton served on the Technical Committee, and Karla Kramer served on the Management Committee.  

The Ecotox protocol is the latest development in a multi agency effort to remediate and restore natural areas in the Lake Calumet Region, an area of approximately 12,000 acres on Chicago’s far southeast side. The area has been subject to 120 years of intensive industrial use and waste disposal that has altered the landscape and polluted soil, sediment, surface water and groundwater.

Despite the industrial legacy, the area still has a large concentration of marshes that serve as important breeding and migratory stopover habitat for wetland birds. The City of Chicago’s land use plan for this region, developed in partnership with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, calls for approximately 4,000 acres to become part of the Calumet Open Space Reserve and managed for conservation of natural resources.

The Service recently provided significant support for this plan in the form of federal assistance grants for the acquisition and restoration of Hegewisch Marsh. In order to implement the plan, it will be important to determine levels of pollutants that may require remediation to prevent injury to wildlife that utilize the reserve.

The Ecotox Protocol will allow project sponsors and review agencies to reach these decisions systematically and relatively quickly so that habitat restoration can move forward.