I 905R88101
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Five Year Program
• Strategy for Great
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| FY 1989-1993
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United States Environmental
Protection Agency
Great Lakes
National Program Office
230 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois 60604
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Five Year Program Strategy
I for the Great Lakes
| National Program Office
1 FY 1989-1993
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• United States Environmental Protection Agency
Great Lakes National Program Office
• 230 South Dearborn Street
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Chicago, Illinois 60604
December 1988
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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
GREAT LAKES NATIONAL PROGRAM OFFICE
230 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60604
We are very pleased lo present this Five Year Strategy for the Great Lakes National Program
Office (GLNPO) to the many government, private sector, and citizen organizations that share
our dedication to the Great Lakes. This new strategy presents an outline of GLNPO's
operating plan for responding to the 1987 revisions to the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement (GLWQA) with Canada and for responding to our new statutory mandate, provided
by the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act. It also reaffirms our commitment to
ongoing programs initiated under previous agreements with Canada.
The GLWQA obligates both the United States and Canada to take vigorous measures to
"restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the
Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem!' In simple terms, this goal means ensuring that the waters of
the Great Lakes are safe for swimming and other recreational activities, that biological
populations in the Great Lakes are healthy, and that Great Lakes fish are safe to eat. This
goal is shared by organizations that participate in environmental management decisions in the
Great Lakes Basin and by U.S. and Canadian residents throughout the region.
As we begin our llth year, GLNPO is taking on responsibilities in new and challenging
areas such as demonstrating techniques for control or removal of contaminated sediments
located in geographic Areas of Concern, developing ecological objectives for the Lakes, and
developing Lakewide Management Plans for the control of Critical Pollutants. But as we take
on our new and difficult responsibilities, we will retain our commitment to efforts in earlier
areas of emphasis such as phosphorus reduction, water quality monitoring, and the
measurement of contaminants in fish tissue.
In all of these activities, GLNPO will continue to work in partnership with other
organizations at the Federal, State, and local levels. The cooperative and collective efforts of
these organizations are vital to the U.S. in meeting its commitments under the GLWQA and to
the unique resource the U.S. and Canada share and treasure: the Great Lakes.
Valdas V.lAdamkus
Great Lakes National Program Manager
Carol M. Finch, Director
Great Lakes National Program Office
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Preface
This document presents a five year strategy for the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA's) Great Lakes National Program Office
(GLNPO). The strategy has two principal purposes:
• To inform other EPA programs, Federal agencies, the Great Lakes States,
and the public of GLNPO's goals and how they will be addressed; and
• To provide a long-term strategic framework for GLNPO, within which
annual budget and workplan priorities can be established.
Chapter 1 of this document provides an overview of the Great Lakes
National Program Office and its role in relation to the governmental
organizations that influence environmental management decisions within
the Great Lakes Basin, both in the U.S. and in Canada. Chapter 2
provides an overview of the Great Lakes ecosystem and an historical
perspective on water quality problems in the Great Lakes Basin. Chapter 3
describes water quality problems within the Great Lakes Basin and
establishes priorities for addressing those problems. Chapter 4 summarizes
Federal and State environmental programs that work in the Great Lakes
Basin and presents a review of their significant recent accomplishments.
Chapter 5 describes the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act that
define GLNPO's statutory charter to coordinate the U.S. response to the
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Chapter 6 provides an overview of
the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and, in particular, describes the
revisions to the Agreement enacted in 1987. Finally, Chapter 7 presents
GLNPO's five year strategy for addressing the priorities defined in the
Agreement and for fulfilling its statutory mandate.
This five year strategy updates the "Five Year Program Strategy for the
Great Lakes National Program Office 1986-1990" published in June of 1985.
It incorporates new responsibilities provided under the Clean Water Act
Amendments of 1987 and the revisions to the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement signed by the U.S. and Canada in November of 1987.
This strategy mentions some of GLNPO's interactions with other
environmental programs undertaken by EPA, other Federal agencies and
the States. The many contributions of these other offices and agencies are
vital to meeting the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
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Chapters 1, 4, and 7 indicate some of GLNPO's cooperative endeavors
with other organizations. It is beyond the intent of this strategy, however,
to mention in detail planned Great Lakes or other activities of these
organizations.
The strategy was developed with the assistance of many organizations that
work with GLNPO toward achieving the objectives of the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement, including: EPA's Headquarters offices and
Regional offices in New York (Region II), Philadelphia (Region III), and
Chicago (Region V); the Great Lakes States; other Federal agencies,
including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
the Army Corps of Engineers, the Soil Conservation Service, the U.S.
Coast Guard, and the Fish and Wildlife Service; and public interest groups
that work on Great Lakes issues.
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Table of Contents
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1. The Great Lakes National Program Office 1
1.1 Intra- and Interagency Coordination 4
1.2 Environmental Surveillance and Monitoring 6
1.3 Remedial Demonstration Projects 7
1.4 Great Lakes Research 8
1.5 Future Directions for GLNPO 9
2. The Great Lakes Ecosystem 10
2.1 Characteristics of the Natural System 10
2.2 Water Quality in the Great Lakes 13
3. Current Great Lakes Water Quality Problems 16
3.1 Eutrophication and Oxygen Depletion 16
3.2 Use Impairment in Areas of Concern 17
3.3 Lakewide Ibxic Pollution 18
4. Regulatory and Remedial Programs 31
4.1 Program Descriptions 31
4.2 Program Achievements 34
5. The Clean Water Act 38
6. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement 41
6.1 Overview 41
6.2 Role of the International Joint Commission 42
6.3 Role of the Parties 44
6.4 Summary of the Water Quality Agreement 45
7. A Five Year Program Strategy 48
7.1 Overview 48
7.2 Eutrophication 49
7.2.1 Background 49
7.2.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Eutrophication 50
7.3 Toxic Pollutants 52
7.3.1 Background 52
7.3.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Toxic Pollutants 54
7.4 Surveillance and Monitoring 56
7.4.1 Background 56
7.4.2 Limnology 57
7.4.3 Fish 58
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Table of Contents, continued
7.4.4 Sediments
7.4.5 Pollutant Loadings
7.4.6 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Surveillance and Monitoring
7.5 Environmental Management Plans
7.5.1 Background
7.5.2 Remedial Action Plans for Areas of Concern
7.5.3 Lakewide Management Plans
7.5.4 Point Source Impact Zones
7.5.5 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy —
Environmental Management Plans
7.6 Remedial Activities
7.6.1 Background
7.6.2 Contaminated Sediments
7.6.3 Ground Water
7.6.4 Air Deposition
7.6.5 Geographic Information System
7.6.6 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Remedial Activities
7.7 Research
7-7.1 Background
7.7.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Federally Funded Research
7.8 Technology Development and Transfer
7.8.1 Background
7.8.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Technology Development
and Transfer
7.9 International/Interagency/Intra-agency Coordination
7.9.1 Background
7.9.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — International/Interagency/
Intra-agency Coordination
7.10 Public Education and Involvement
7.10.1 Background
7.10.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy
and Involvement
— Public Education
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List of Tables and Figures
Table
1 Comparative Hydrologic Features of the Five Great Lakes
2 A Summary of Water Quality Problems Identified in
Areas of Concern
3 Great Lakes Public Health Fish Consumption Advisory 1987
4 Summary of Reporting Requirements and Milestones
Added by the 1987 Water Quality Agreement
Figure
1 States and Provinces Bordering the Great Lakes System
2 Organochlorine and Lipid Concentrations in Herring Gull
Eggs Taken from Port Colborne on Lake Erie
3 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes Basin
4 Locations of Known Toxic Pollutant Problems in the
Great Lakes Basin
5 Reported Municipal Phosphorus Loadings to the
Lower Great Lakes
6 Federal Agency Participation in Great Lakes Research
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28, 29
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CHAPTER 1
* The Great Lakes
I National Program Office
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An Overview of GLNPO and Its Role in Relation to
Governmental Organizations that Influence
Environmental Management of the Great Lakes Basin
The Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) was created in 1978 to
oversee the United States' fulfillment of its obligations under the Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement with Canada. In 1987, the Clean Water
Act formally recognized the Great Lakes as a valuable national resource
and established a statutory mandate for a Great Lakes National Program
Office. This mandate includes responsibility for coordinating the United
States' response to the Water Quality Agreement. The goal of the Water
Quality Agreement is "to restore and maintain the physical, chemical, and
biological integrity of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem." This emphasis on
a comprehensive ecosystem approach to water quality management,'
embodied in the Agreement, is the cornerstone of GLNPO's operations.
The Agreement's emphasis on an ecosystem approach to environmental
management resulted from a growing understanding of the many
interrelated and interdependent factors that govern the ecological health of
the Great Lakes. Evaluating environmental management decisions and
priorities from an ecosystem-wide perspective provides a geographically
broad, systemic view of the interactions among the physical, chemical, and
biological components of the ecosystem and recognizes that human uses of
land and water are central factors affecting the integrity of the Great
Lakes. This characteristic of the Agreement dictates that GLNPO be
concerned with all types of environmental management decisions in the
Great Lakes Basin, including those that affect the Lakes indirectly. At the
State level, the Governors of the eight Great Lakes States have formally
recognized and endorsed the need for an ecosystem approach to
environmental management in the Great Lakes Basin by agreeing, in a
charter, to treat the Lakes as a single ecosystem and by establishing
uniform goals for their States to meet.
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Located in Chicago, Illinois, GLNPO has a staff of scientists, engineers,
and other professionals who work with staff throughout EPA, the Great
Lakes States, other Federal agencies, Environment Canada, the Ontario
Provincial Government, the International Joint Commission, colleges and
universities, and public interest organizations toward advancement of the
goals and objectives set out in the Agreement. GLNPO staff participate in,
coordinate, and facilitate actions by all of these organizations to ensure
that environmental management decisions within the Great Lakes Basin
uphold the objectives of the Agreement. GLNPO staff also monitor
conditions in the Lakes and the progress of U.S. programs in implementing
the Water Quality Agreement.
Environmental management decisions within the U.S. Basin are made by a
broad range of Federal, State, and local governmental organizations. Many
organizations therefore work together as well as independently toward the
simultaneous attainment of both the goals of the Agreement and the goals
of Federal and State environmental programs. While the specific objectives
and priorities for programs at the various levels of government may differ
from each other, and from the Agreement to some extent, all share the
fundamental goal of protecting and maintaining a high level of
environmental quality.
Roles and responsibilities for Great Lakes management vary at different
governmental levels. Within EPA, Headquarters program offices set
national policies and define programs for cleanup and protection of
environmental resources. At the Regional level, line divisions implement
permitting and enforcement programs or, where authorities have been
delegated, assist States in administering these programs. In addition to
implementing Federally-mandated statutory programs for air, surface water,
drinking water, and hazardous waste, States also administer their own
environmental management programs, working together with local county
and municipal governments. GLNPO participates in the planning and
policy development activities of EPA Headquarters and Regional programs
and of many State and local programs, supporting the goals and
objectives of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
Actions taken by any one of the governmental organizations throughout
the Great Lakes Basin may have implications for water quality in the
Great Lakes. GLNPO's responsibility is to define problems in the Great
Lakes ecosystem, identify government and private sector organizations that
can act in solving the problems, and bring together those organizations in
developing and implementing effective solutions toward the goal of
restoring and maintaining water quality in the Great Lakes Basin.
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GLNPO and the many Federal and State environmental programs
throughout the Basin use a variety of authorities for managing
environmental quality. These management tools derive from two main
sources: Federal environmental protection statutes and the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement.
Federal statutes establish management tools such as facility-specific
permitting programs for surface water discharges, hazardous waste
management, air emissions, and other activities that affect the
environment. They establish compliance monitoring and enforcement
authority for ensuring effective cleanup of environmental contamination
through programs such as Superfund and the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective action program. Federal statutes also
mandate the use of planning and priority-setting for activities such as
cleanup of surface water resources, and managing leaking underground
storage tanks, and for emergency preparedness.
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement provides a number of similar
environmental management tools. For example, the Agreement creates
priority-setting techniques such as designation of "Areas of Concern" and
"Point Source Impact Zones" for Critical Pollutants where applicable water
quality standards are not being met in the Great Lakes. The Agreement
also establishes tools such as Remedial Action Plans that describe actions
to be taken toward attaining water quality objectives in Areas of Concern.
Remedial Action Plans are developed by the States with assistance from
EPA regional program staff and from GLNPO. These plans incorporate
actions that States can take, using authorities and management tools
provided by Federal and State statutes, to ensure that water quality
standards will be met and that beneficial uses will be restored.
The relationship between implementing Federal and State environmental
protection programs and fulfilling the provisions of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement is therefore a complex interaction between numerous
planning, permitting, and enforcement efforts that serve both the purposes
of the statutes and the Agreement. It is this complex interaction that
provides the context for GLNPO's primary responsibility: participating with
and coordinating the many government and private sector organizations
that have the ability or authority to affect water quality in the Great
Lakes, with the overall objective of achieving the goals set out by the
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. To fulfill this primary responsibility,
GLNPO conducts activities in four areas:
1. Intra- and Interagency coordination,
2. Environmental surveillance and monitoring,
3. Remedial demonstration projects, and
4. Great Lakes research.
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The need for GLNPO's work in each of these areas was reinforced by
Congress in passing the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act. Section
118 of the Act directs the Office to coordinate actions within and external
to EPA that are aimed at improving water quality in the Great Lakes to
ensure U.S. compliance with the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The Act further requires GLNPO to manage Great Lakes surveillance and
demonstration projects, and to conduct research.
1.1 Intra- and Interagency Coordination
Within EPA, GLNPO works at both the Headquarters and Regional office
levels to ensure that Great Lakes concerns are considered in the
development of environmental programs and policies. Headquarters
program offices design regulatory and other programs under each of EPA's
principal statutes. GLNPO works with other national program offices to
ensure that Federal regulations and national policies developed under
programs such as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES), the Superfund Program, and the Hazardous Waste Management
Program consider the special concerns of the Great Lakes and that, at a
minimum, they provide sufficient flexibility to allow facility or site-specific
permitting and other decisions made within the Great Lakes Basin to
account for important Great Lakes priorities.
GLNPO shares this interest with other programs that focus on a particular
geographic resource, such as the Chesapeake Bay Program or the Puget
Sound Program. GLNPO works with the Headquarter's Office of Marine
and Estuarine Protection and individual estuary programs to support the
development of policies and programs that address the special interests and
needs of complex ecosystems.
At the Regional level within EPA, line divisions implement each of EPA's
media programs (i.e.; surface water, ground water, drinking water, air,
hazardous waste, Superfund, toxic substances, and pesticides). Regional staff
develop and recommend permit conditions for surface water discharges, air
emissions, and hazardous waste management; review, evaluate, and select
remedial alternatives for Superfund sites; plan and implement compliance
inspection programs; and develop and execute enforcement cases. GLNPO
works with program staff in Regions II, III, and V to assist with these
activities and ensure that important site-specific decisions reflect Great
Lakes concerns and uphold the provisions of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement to the maximum extent possible.
Regional office program staff also assist State programs with planning and
implementing those Federal programs that have been delegated to the
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States. Each year, EPA Headquarters develops national Agency Operating
Guidance to communicate overall program priorities and objectives to
Headquarters and Regional staff and to State programs. At the Regional
level, program staff also develop Operating Guidance for State programs in
order to communicate EPA's priorities and objectives for the coming year.
GLNPO works to ensure that Great Lakes priorities are accurately reflected
in Agency Operating Guidance, at both Headquarters and Regional levels,
and that annual State Program Plans incorporate Great Lakes priorities, as
appropriate.
For example, within EPA, Regional Water Divisions have the primary
responsibility for implementing regulatory, management, and remedial
programs under the Clean Water Act. GLNPO priorities for the Great
Lakes are considered during the development of annual EPA Regional
workplans and State integrated program plans that incorporate such
activities as the development of State water quality standards and the
implementation of permitting, pretreatment, and compliance and
enforcement programs under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System, established by the Clean Water Act.
Presently, GLNPO participates in the development of national Agency
Operating Guidance for water programs and with Regional Water Division
staff in developing State water program guidance. In the future, GLNPO
will establish similar procedures for participating in guidance development
with all appropriate EPA programs, both at Headquarters and in the
Regions.
Outside EPA, GLNPO works with other government agencies that conduct
activities or have interests in the Great Lakes Basin. For example, the 1987
Amendments to the Clean Water Act require the establishment of a Great
Lakes Research Office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). GLNPO and NOAA are required under the Act
to develop an annual research plan. NOAA has participated with GLNPO
in research and surveillance projects in the past and this existing working
relationship will be expanded in the future as the Great Lakes Research
Office becomes operational.
GLNPO also works extensively with the Army Corps of Engineers. The
Corps has long had interests in the Great Lakes because the Lakes are a
major conduit for interstate shipping. Dredging, dredged materials disposal,
and water level management projects conducted by the Corps are
important activities of concern to GLNPO. The Corps also conducts
research on many topics of importance to GLNPO and it is anticipated
that the Corps will play an important role in new Great Lakes initiatives
concerning the management of contaminated sediments in the Lakes.
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GLNPO has similar working relationships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Soil Conservation Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
GLNPO will require assistance and support from other Federal agencies as
well. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) may be called upon
to assist or advise on the vulnerability of surface water quality to
contaminated ground water resulting from sources such as hazardous waste
sites in the Great Lakes Basin.
GLNPO has two additional responsibilities deriving from the international
nature of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. One is to coordinate
environmental programs of the United States with Federal and provincial
government programs in Canada. Under the terms of the Agreement, the
two governments have the responsibility for setting objectives, preparing
management plans, implementing remedial programs and monitoring
conditions. A second major international responsibility is GLNPO's
support of the International Joint Commission (IJC). The IJC evaluates the
progress being made by the two governments and the adequacy of their
programs in satisfying the Agreement.
To fulfill these distinct responsibilities, GLNPO staff interact with their
Canadian counterparts in two ways. In coordinating programs, U.S. and
Canadian staff members work together as representatives of their respective
governments to solve mutual problems and initiate coordinated projects. In
supporting the IJC, U.S. and Canadian staff members serve on various
committees and IJC task forces as nonpartisan professional experts, and
prepare reports and recommendations for the Commissioners.
Further information on international coordination and the IJC is provided
in Chapter 6, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
1.2 Environmental Surveillance and Monitoring
To understand the environmental results of Great Lakes regulatory
programs, it is necessary to monitor conditions in the Lakes and to
develop an understanding of the basic biological, chemical, and physical
processes that make up the ecosystem. GLNPO, EPA, and the Great Lakes
States therefore conduct extensive monitoring programs intended to
describe the health of the Great Lakes and their biological communities.
Monitoring efforts are an important component of GLNPO's work and
account for a major portion of GLNPO's annual expenditures.
Surveillance activities conducted by GLNPO include regular sampling of
water, fish tissues, and sediment. GLNPO, together with the States, also
operates an air monitoring network in the Great Lakes Basin to measure
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the quantities of pollutants entering the Basin from airborne sources. The
Great Lakes Atmospheric Deposition (GLAD) Network was originally
created to measure contributions of conventional pollutants to the Lakes
from the atmosphere. In fiscal year 1988, however, responding to new
requirements in the Agreement and the Clean Water Act, GLNPO began
expanding the network to include sampling for toxic air pollutants.
In addition to air deposition, GLNPO supports other monitoring and
surveillance activities designed to provide information on the magnitude
and types of pollutant loadings to the Great Lakes. Of principal concern '
to GLNPO are loadings from tributaries, point and nonpoint sources, and
ground water, and releases from contaminated sediment.
Presently, GLNPO operates a research vessel, the Roger R. Simons, and
conducts winter sampling surveys by helicopter. During fiscal year 1989,
GLNPO will procure a new vessel that will be outfitted with laboratory
facilities designed to support the new emphasis on identifying and
controlling toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes. In addition, GLNPO's
surveillance and monitoring efforts rely on chemical analyses provided by
the EPA Region V Central Regional Laboratory through a contract funded
by GLNPO.
1.3 Remedial Demonstration Projects
In the past, GLNPO has been active in conducting demonstration projects
for remedial technologies and pollution control, particularly in the areas of
phosphorus reduction from point and nonpoint sources. Earlier nonpoint
source control demonstration projects sponsored by GLNPO have been
part of one of the largest such programs in the Nation. These projects
involved other Federal, State, and local organizations and have played an
important role in the overall progress toward reduction of phosphorus
inputs to the Lakes.
The 1987 Amendments to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and
the Clean Water Act call for a new demonstration program addressing
remedial technologies for cleanup of toxic pollutants with an emphasis on
their removal from bottom sediments. During fiscal year 1988, GLNPO has
begun implementing its Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated
Sediments (ARCS) program and laying the foundation for the
demonstration projects.
Under the Clean Water Act, GLNPO is required to give special
consideration to conducting contaminated sediments demonstration
projects in five locations: Saginaw Bay (in Michigan on Lake Huron);
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Sheboygan Harbor (in Wisconsin on Lake Michigan); the Grand Calumet
River in Indiana, the Ashtabula River in Ohio, and the Buffalo River in
New York. In fiscal year 1989, the Office will develop a strategy for ranking
these and other sites as a first step in the selection process. Demonstration
projects in this area will also require substantial participation by EPA's Of-
fice of Research and Development, the Great Lakes States, the Corps of
Engineers, and other agencies.
1.4 Great Lakes Research
Both the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the 1987 Amend-
ments to the Clean Water Act recognize the importance of a coordinated
research program designed specifically to address the special problems and
concerns of the Great Lakes. GLNPO has in the past worked closely with
EPA's Office of Research and Development to identify Great Lakes research
priorities and to design and conduct research projects with EPA's Water
Quality Laboratory in Duluth, Minnesota, the EPA Large Lakes Research
Station (LLRS) at Grosse He, Michigan, and EPA's Engineering and Sup-
port Laboratories in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The LLRS has organized and implemented research on the transport, fate,
and effects of toxic substances in the Great Lakes and has been developing
methodologies for dealing with contaminated sediment. Recently, the
Duluth Laboratory and LLRS have worked with GLNPO to conduct
research on contaminated sediment in Wisconsin's lower Fox River.
Modeling of eutrophication processes by the Grosse He laboratory has pro-
vided information for understanding how the Great Lakes have responded
to phosphorus controls. This laboratory has also conducted work on toxic
modeling as well as, prior to 1980, epidemiological research on human
health effects of exposure to PCBs through fish consumption. The Duluth
laboratory has supported the development of models for estimating the
movement of toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes.
GLNPO also funds applied research through other Federal agencies and by
contracting directly with universities and private companies. Beginning in
fiscal year 1989, pending funding, GLNPO will work with the newly
established Great Lakes Research Office within NOAA to develop and im-
plement a comprehensive Great Lakes Research Program. Research is fur-
ther discussed in Chapter 7 and the relationship among Federal research
programs is illustrated in Figure 6.
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1.5 Future Directions for GLNPO
This five year strategy lays out specific activities that GLNPO will conduct
to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement. In establishing these priorities, GLNPO has
translated the general goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
into actions that may be taken by EPA programs, State programs, and
other Federal agencies, and defined the specific activities that GLNPO will
conduct to ensure that environmental management decisions within the
Great Lakes Basin uphold the goals of the Agreement. This strategy
therefore lays out a general framework for GLNPO in working toward the
goals of the Agreement in areas such as the abatement and cleanup of
toxic pollution in the Great Lakes, further reductions in phosphorus
discharges from nonpoint sources, and investigation and control of
pollution in the Lakes that originates from ground-water sources. For the
most part, the identified activities anticipate that Federal and State
programs will be funded at requested levels. It is also anticipated that these
programs will continue to work on separate tracks toward the achievement
of goals defined by their separate Federal and State statutes.
The Agreement commits both the United States and Canada to employing
an ecosystem approach to environmental management. It is GLNPO's task
to bring together the many different U.S. programs and provide a forum
for them to work together toward achieving working relationships that
promote multi-media solutions to environmental problems. As individual
programs work with GLNPO over the next five years, an overall strategy
for managing and protecting the Great Lakes will continue to emerge. It is
GLNPO's long-term goal to articulate this strategy so that it clearly defines
the roles of all government organizations and the policies and procedures
under which each will work in the future toward the shared goal of
protecting and maintaining the integrity of the Great Lakes.
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CHAPTER 2
The Great Lakes
Ecosystem
An Overview of the Great Lakes Basin and an
Historical Perspective on Water Quality in the Basin
The Great Lakes system, shown in Figure 1, is the largest reservoir of fresh
surface water in North America. Like Lake Baikal in the U.S.S.R., the
Great Lakes contain about 18 percent of the world's supply. Only the
polar ice caps contain more fresh water. The total U.S.-Canadian shoreline
measures 9,402 miles, including islands. Of that figure, 4,530 miles con-
stitute the U.S. shoreline — longer than the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
coastlines combined. The Great Lakes are a fishery resource, a transporta-
tion system, a water supply, a recreation resource, a modifier of climate,
and a means of waste disposal. In both Canada and the United States, all
of these uses have contributed to the development of one of the world's
largest inland concentrations of population and industry.
2.1 Characteristics of the Natural System
The Great Lakes system flows from Lake Superior, at 600 feet above sea
level, through the other four lakes and the connecting channels and then
out through the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. Although the
system contains five distinct drainage basins, the land area is relatively
small in relation to the large and numerous bodies of water. One-third of
the total 300,000 square mile drainage basin is covered by water. The
numerous tributaries receive drainage from a large variety of land uses and
types of soil, resulting in a variety of pollution problems. The hydrologic
features of the five lakes are compared in Table 1.
Despite their size, the Lakes are especially sensitive to pollution. Less than
one percent of the total volume of water in the system flows out the St.
Lawrence River each year, leaving toxic pollutants to accumulate in bottom
sediments and fish. The relatively closed nature of the system makes the
Great Lakes vulnerable to pollution over the long term and their huge
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Pennsylvania
Figure 1. States and Provinces Bordering the Great Lakes System
volume of water makes changes due to pollution very difficult to reverse.
Attempts to reverse the effects of pollution must be sensitive to the unique
characteristics of each lake. Lake Erie is the shallowest, its shores are
highly urbanized, and its major tributaries drain intensively farmed soils.
For these reasons, Lake Erie was the first to show lakewide signs of cultural
eutrophication but also responded quickly to cleanup, due to the rapid rate
at which water flows through it.
Lake Ontario is smaller in area but deeper than Erie. Being downstream, it
receives nutrients from Lake Erie and probably receives persistent toxicants
from the rest of the system as well as from the Niagara River industrial
complex. Lake Ontario has the highest concentration of toxic pollutants.
Lake Michigan's vulnerability to both over-enrichment and toxic pollution
is compounded by its long residence time (about 100 years). It receives
high loadings of nutrients, heavy metals, and contaminants from the
atmosphere over its large surface area. Particularly around large urban
areas, Lake Michigan sodium levels are now several times higher than at
the turn of the century and are continuing to increase.
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The Lake Superior and Lake Huron drainage basins have lower population
densities and more forested lands than the Lake Michigan basin.
Maintaining Lake Superior's relatively pristine, oligotrophic state is an
international objective. In Huron, as throughout the entire Great Lakes
system, nearshore waters and embayments are more eutrophic and have
higher contaminant levels than the open lake waters. Such shallow areas
receive more concentrated loadings of pollutants and have less circulation
than the open lakes.
The levels and flows of the entire system are governed much more by the
natural hydrologic cycle than by manmade diversions and regulation. The
average annual precipitation over the entire Great Lakes Basin is 31 inches,
with approximately 10 percent greater precipitation over the Lakes
themselves than over the surrounding land. In 1985, 1986, and 1987, lake
levels reached record highs. Then, the overall lake level dropped about one
foot due to extremely low precipitation in 1987 followed by drought
conditions in early 1988. In July 1988, only two lakes—Lake Erie and Lake
St. Clair—had levels above average. The Army Corps of Engineers has
found that the net cumulative change in lake levels due to operation of
control locks and to diversions since 1909 has been only a few inches,
except for the Lake Ontario level which is controlled by structures in the
St. Lawrence River.
Table 1. Comparative Hydrologic Features of the Five Great Lakes
Drainage Residence
Area Surface Area Volume Time
Lake (Square Miles) (Square Miles) (Cubic Miles) (Years)
Superior
Michigai
Huron
Erie
Ontario
49,300
45,600
51,700
27,300
31,700
22,300
23,000
9,910
7,340
2,935
1,180
849
116
393
200
100
Depth
(Feet)
489 average
,335 maximum
279 average
925 maximum
195 average
750 maximum
62 average
210 maximum
283 average
802 maximum
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2.2 Water Quality in the Great Lakes
Concerns about water quality in the Great Lakes have evolved over time
from disease organisms to oxygen depletion and eutrophication and,
recently, to toxics, as the leading threat to human and ecosystem health.
There are many causes of water quality degradation in the Great Lakes
and measuring their relative importance and their interrelation is often
very complex.
Before intensive settlement and development of the region, the waters of
the Great Lakes and their tributaries were clear and cold. Algal growth
was generally low and there were many species of fish, some of which are
now extinct. The average size of fish was much larger than today and long-
lived species such as sturgeon and lake trout were abundant.
As cities grew, local degradation due to waste disposal at first seemed
inconsequential in the large lakes. Later it was realized that fundamental
change in such a large system could occur and not become obvious until
well advanced.
By the 1880s, contamination of drinking water by human sewage and
shoreline pollution led to the recognition that primary treatment of sewage,
disinfection of sewage effluent, and improved treatment of drinking water
were needed. Even with primary treatment, however, decaying organic
wastes from many sources were depleting oxygen in harbor and nearshore
waters. Beaches were closed to swimming because of high fecal coliform
counts or were unused because of algae, odors, floating oil, or dead fish.
Algal growth increased which in turn depleted Great Lakes oxygen levels
and destroyed nearshore and estuary biota. However, the effect of these
changes on a whole lake was not recognized until eutrophication became
obvious in the most vulnerable lake, Lake Erie. By 1960, large increases in
algal productivity and the annual cycle of algal bloom, decay, and oxygen
depletion in Lake Erie had been linked to excessive levels of nutrients. The
public demanded further pollution control measures and the Federal
government responded by requiring secondary treatment of sewage and
control of direct discharges of industrial wastes.
By 1972, a scientific consensus had developed that phosphorus was the
limiting nutrient for the Great Lakes. Reduction of phosphorus became the
chief objective of the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between
the U.S. and Canada in that year. Also in 1972, Congress adopted the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act amendments (Public Law 92-500).
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Herring Gulls at Port Colborne
o
o
0.
800 -
600
200
FT = 0 69
74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85
Year
08
04
02
74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83
Year
85 86
125
100
75
50
25
FT = 0 63
74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82
Year
84 85
02
01
O
z
74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85
Year
Wet weight concentration + standard deviation
Source: 1987 Report on Great Lakes Water Quality: Report to the IJC
Figure 2. Organochlorine and Lipid Concentrations in Herring Gull Eggs
Taken from Port Colborne on Lake Erie
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This legislation provided the chief means for fulfilling U.S. obligations
under the first binational compact.
By the 1980s, decreased algal growth and increased dissolved oxygen levels
provided clear evidence that water quality had improved in the Great
Lakes, particularly in nearshore areas. Today, the increase of eutrophication
appears to be stopped in the open lakes and restoration seems well within
reach. Both countries are close to achieving their phosphorus reduction
targets, and can attain them by implementing nonpoint source control
programs.
In contrast to the nutrients control success, toxic pollution remains a
serious problem and is clearly considered the long-term threat to beneficial
uses of the Lakes. Toxic pollutants were first recognized as a widespread
problem in the Lakes in the 1960s, when DDT, PCBs, and mercury were
found to be affecting reproduction of birds and animals and posing a
threat to human health. For some toxics, such as DDT and PCBs, which
have been regulated for years, concentrations in the environment have
decreased as illustrated in Figure 2. Unfortunately, their rate of decrease
has slowed and levels in sediment, fish and birds continue to cause serious
problems. It is believed that both wet and dry atmospheric deposition,
contamination from bottom sediments, and contaminated ground water are
significant sources of toxics.
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CHAPTER 3
Current Great Lakes
Water Quality Problems
Water Quality Problems Remaining to Be
Addressed and Priorities for Addressing Them
Three major categories of water quality problems remain in the Great
Lakes today: eutrophication in the two lower lakes and several bays;
impairment of beneficial uses in numerous Areas of Concern (AOCs); and
accumulation of toxic pollutants throughout the system, most notably in
fish, which threatens both human health and the environment.
3.1 Eutrophication and Oxygen Depletion
Lower levels of dissolved solids, reduced biochemical oxygen demand, and
diminished algal growth, as well as algal species shifts, in many Great
Lakes locations reflect greater control of conventional pollutants, especially
from direct discharges. Full attainment of the objectives for phosphorus
reduction called for in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, however,
will require further control of land runoff. Nitrogen levels continue to
increase in the Lakes, but this has not yet been demonstrated to cause
environmental problems except in tributary streams. Monitoring of
nitrogen levels will be continued.
Eutrophication in the Great Lakes is determined largely by phosphorus
concentrations. Thus the problems of excessive algal growth, and Lake Erie
oxygen depletion, are being addressed by reducing the amount of
phosphorus reaching the Lakes. Target loadings of phosphorus have been
achieved for the open lakes in Superior, Huron, and Michigan mainly
through reduced direct discharges of wastes from industrial and municipal
sources and detergent phosphate bans. Monitoring will be continued to
ensure that the reductions in phosphorus levels are adequate to control
eutrophication.
For Lakes Erie and Ontario, and for Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron, further
efforts are needed to meet the objectives and target loadings for
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phosphorus in the Water Quality Agreement. In June 1986, a U.S. plan for
phosphorus load reductions to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and Saginaw Bay
was submitted to the International Joint Commission (IJC). This five-year
plan calls for a major review of progress in 1988. If this review shows that
voluntary nonpoint source controls are not effective, regulatory controls
will need to be considered. The plan focuses on management of crop
residues to prevent soil erosion and nutrient loss and on management of
animal wastes and commercial fertilizers to minimize nutrients entering
streams.
Soil erosion and phosphorus releases have been reduced by use of
alternative tillage techniques, which leave crop residues on the surface to
hold soil in place. Progress is being made in reducing agricultural nonpoint
sources using conservation tillage in locations such as the Maumee River
basin in Ohio, but further reductions are needed there and elsewhere.
GLNPO will continue to track use of conservation tillage techniques and
will work within EPA and with Department of Agriculture and State
agencies to reduce nutrient loadings to the Great Lakes by reduction of
land runoff.
The total cost of new initiatives called for in the U.S. phosphorus
reduction plans is estimated at $14,310,000, with resulting estimated
reductions of 834 metric tons (MT) in Lake Erie; 26 MT in Lake Ontario;
and 77 MT in Saginaw Bay. These reductions will result in meeting the
phosphorus target loads if existing programs are maintained at 1985 levels
and adoption rates for conservation tillage in Ohio prove to be at the high
range of estimates. If the adoption rates decline significantly in 1988,
additional initiatives will be needed in Ohio.
Results of algal productivity monitoring as well as monitoring of
phosphorus loadings and water chemistry conditions will help determine
whether existing environmental controls are sufficient to maintain water
quality in Lake Superior and to enhance conditions in Huron and
Michigan. The need for stricter controls in these lakes depends on whether
the biological community is sufficiently protected by current limits on
conventional pollutants.
3.2 Use Impairment in Areas of Concern
Although water quality in the Great Lakes has improved in recent decades,
the IJC has identified 42 geographic AOCs, 30 of which are in the U.S.
(five of these are shared with Canada), where beneficial uses are still
impaired. In these locations, even though there may be less pollution than
formerly, existing water quality standards and the objectives of the Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement are not being met.
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The AOCs are depicted in Figure 3. Most are in nearshore and estuarine
areas near the mouths of tributaries; most are also near major
metropolitan areas.
Both conventional and toxic pollutants are problems in AOCs. Table 2
provides a summary of the water quality problems identified in each of the
areas. Reduction of conventional pollution is at an advanced stage where
results can be measured and controls refined. Control of toxic pollutants is
at a much earlier stage.
All AOCs are affected by multiple site-specific problems for which
Remedial Action Plans are being designed. Since most of the AOC's are at
the mouths of tributaries, the accumulations of toxic chemicals may be
due to contributions from upstream as well as from nearby sources. The
principal source of toxic pollutants in AOCs may be sediments
contaminated by past discharges or may be continuing discharges of
pollutants.
3.3 Lakewide Toxic Pollution
The most obvious indicator of the problem of toxics in the open lakes is
the numbers of fish consumption advisories that have been issued by the
States. Table 3 summarizes the United States-issued fish consumption
advisories developed and agreed to by each of the Great Lakes States and
issued for 1987. These advisories are based on a few relatively well known
toxic pollutants including mercury, PCBs, mirex, DDT, chlordane, and
dioxins. However, many other substances are also known to be present in
the fish and elsewhere in the system. In addition to the human health
hazard, toxic pollutants may also be responsible for reproductive disorders
that can prevent the establishment of naturally reproducing fish and fish
predator populations, such as mink and bald eagles.
The United States and Canada have verified the presence of 362
compounds of concern in the Great Lakes system and are in the process of
determining which of these have toxic effects of concern. Those identified
as posing significant human or ecosystem health risks will receive priority
attention and additional control efforts if needed.
The 1987 revisions to the Water Quality Agreement call for the formal
designation of these highest priority compounds as Critical Pollutants. In
addition, the Agreement calls for the preparation of Lakewide Management
Plans which will identify the remedial actions needed to attain the
Agreement objectives as a step toward elimination of Critical Pollutants.
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1 Peninsula Harbor
2. Jackfish Bay
3. Nipigon Bay
4. Thunder Bay
5 St Louis River
6 Torch Lake
7. Deer Lake
8 Manistique River
9. Menominee River
10 Fox River and Southern Green Bay
11 Sheboygan
12 Milwaukee Estuary
13 Waukegan Harbor
14. Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Ship Canal
15. Kalamazoo River
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16 Muskegon Lake
17 White Lake, Montague
18 Saginaw River System and Saginaw Bay
19 Collmgwood Harbor
20 Pentang Bay to Sturgeon Bay
21 Spanish River
22 Clinton River
23 Rouge River
24 Raisin River
25 Maumee River
26 Black River
27 Cuyahoga River
28 Ashtabula River
29 Wheatley
30 Buffalo River
31 Eighteen Mile Creek
32 Rochester
33 Oswego River
34 Bay Qumte
35 Port Hope
36 Toronto
37 Hamilton Harbor
38 St Mary's River
39. St Clair River
40 Detroit River
41 Niagara River
42 St Lawrence River
Figure 3. Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes Basin
Source: 1987 Report on Great Lakes Water Quality: Report to the IJC
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At present, the sources and consequences of toxic pollutants are generally
not understood well enough to determine whether current programs are
adequate to achieve the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
(i.e., virtual elimination of toxic substances). GLNPO recognizes the need
for a research and monitoring strategy to investigate the sources, fates, and
effects of toxic chemicals and to delineate their distribution in the Lakes,
as an integral component of the formulation of remedial alternatives and
the preparation of Lakewide Management Plans. In addition, a "mass
balance" approach is being developed for use in the Great Lakes as a
unifying technique for identifying and evaluating multiple pollutant
sources.
Mass Balance Approach to Studying and Managing Toxic Substances
Traditionally, water quality management focused on control of pipes that
discharge pollutants to surface waters. Such point sources were the easiest to
identify, characterize, and control. In many cases, however, their control did
not solve water quality problems.
With recognition that pollutants are also introduced indirectly from
contaminated air, soil, sediments, and ground water, the management
approach to Great Lakes water quality had to be reassessed. This reassessment
led to the initiation of a "mass balance" approach in which the total
contributions of pollutants from all sources are estimated and analyzed.
The mass balance approach uses the law of conservation of mass in evaluating
the sources, transport, and fate of contaminants. This, in turn, allows
prioritization and allocation of research, remedial actions, and regulatory
efforts for water quality management. The approach requires that the
quantities of contaminants entering the system, less quantities stored,
transformed or degraded within the system, must equal the quantities leaving
the system. Once an estimated quantity has been established for each
pollutant of concern, the long-term effects on water quality of the lakes can
be simulated by mathematical modeling.
The mass balance approach can be applied at various levels of intensity and
precision. Mass balance modeling has been successfully used to support the
regulation of nutrient loads-to the Great Lakes during the past decade.
Building on this success, Annex 2 of the Water Quality Agreement includes
use of the mass balance approach in the development of Lakewide
Management Plans for Critical Pollutants, in order to estimate total loads and
the amount of reductions needed to attain ambient water quality objectives.
Although the sources, pathways, and sinks for organic toxics are less well
understood, it is anticipated that, in the near term, the mass balance
approach can provide sufficient information to guide policy decisions on the
reduction of toxics. In later years, it may be possible to use the mass balance
approach directly to establish regulatory controls for toxics.
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Table 3. Great Lakes Public Health Fish Consumption Advisory 1987
Certain species offish at some sites in the Great Lakes have been found to be contaminated at levels requiring health advisories. These
are listed below; precautions noted should be followed in order to prevent or reduce human exposure to potentially toxic materials It
is especially important that nursing mothers, pregnant women, women who expect to bear children, and children below age 15 not eat
the fish listed below because of the uncertainties over the effect of chemical contaminants on the unborn and on children.
1
Lake Michigan2 (Applies to Michigan,
Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin waters)
Green Bay2 (Wisconsin Waters South of
Marmette/Mcnominee)
Lake Superior (Applies to Michigan,
Wisconsin, and Minnesota waters)
Lake Huron2
Saginaw Bay
Lake Erie2
Lake Ontario2 (New York waters)
Lake St. Clair (applies to Michigan and
Ontario waters)
St. Clair River (applies to Michigan and
Ontario waters)
Detroit River
fertriet CottsutBpttoi1 '
Lake Trout 20-2 V, Coho Salmon over
26", Chinook Salmon 21-32" and
Brown Trout up to 23"
Splake up to 16"
Lake Trout up to >0" Walleye up to
26" (Wisconsin waters)
Lake Trout, Rainbow Trout, and
Brown Trout
Lake Trout, Rainbow Trout, and
Broun Trout
Carp and Catfish (New York waters —
eat no more than one meal per
month)
White Perch, Coho Salmon up to 21",
Rainbow Trout up to 18" (eat no more
than one meal per montb)
Walleye over 18" White Bass over 34"
Smallmouth Bass over 14", Ycliow
Perch oxer 12", Carp over 22", Rock
Bass over 8", Black Crappie over 10"
Largcmouth Bass 12-13", Bluegill and
Pumpkmseed over 8", Freshwater
Drum over 12", Carpsucker over 18"
Bro\\ n Bullhead over 10" Catfish over
22" and all Northern Pike
Gizzard Shad over 10"
-
Lake Trout oxer 2V, Chinook over
52" Brown Trout oxer 23", Carp, and
Catfish
Rainbow Trout over 22", Chinook
over 25", Brown Trout over 12", Trout
over 15", Splake over 16", Northern
Pike over 28", Walleye over 20", White-
Suckers, White Bass, and Carp.
Lake Trout over 30", Walleye over 26"
(Wisconsin waters)
-
Carp and Catfish
Carp and Catfish (applies to
Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
waters)
American Eel, Channel Catfish, Lake
Trout, Chinook Salmon, Coho
Salmon over 21", Rainbow Trout over
25" Brown Trout over 18"
Largemouth Bass over 14" Muskie,
and Sturgeon
-
Carp
1 Also applies to tributaries into which migratory species enter.
2 Nursing mothers, pregnant women, women who anticipate bearing children, and children age 15 and under should not eat the fish
listed in any of the categories listed above.
Source- 1987 Report on Great Lakes Water Quality. Report to the IJC
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The Great Lakes National Program Office Research and
Monitoring Strategy for Toxic Pollutants
Research specific to the problem of toxic substances in the Great Lakes is
needed for many reasons. The Lakes have many characteristics, most notably
their size and the numbers of pollutant sources, that make them unique. The
Lakes are a sink for pollutants from approximately one fifth of the U.S.
population and industry. Long food chains in the Lakes cause toxic pollutants
to be bioaccumulated at higher rates than in other freshwater bodies, where
water retention times are lower and aquatic communities are less diverse.
While these characteristics contribute to special problems in the Great Lakes,
they also make the Lakes an "early warning system" for environmental
pollution problems. Research on toxic pollutant problems in the Great Lakes
can therefore serve not only to help solve Great Lakes water quality problems,
but also to provide environmental managers responsible for other freshwater
systems with an understanding of the most important factors affecting the
movement and fate of toxic pollutants and the most effective management
techniques for protection and remediation.
To fully understand the toxic pollution problem in the Great Lakes, research
is needed on the effects of long-term exposures to chronic low-level toxic
concentrations, the effects of short-term exposures to critical concentrations of
toxics, and on total loadings of toxic pollutants to the Lakes. There is a need
to examine toxic pollutant loadings from all media (air, ground water,
sediment, surface water) in terms of their effect on the whole ecosystem. This
need was the basis for initiating the mass balance study.
Multiple Federal and State agencies as well as the academic community have
important roles in Great Lakes research and monitoring. The role of each
organization is generally established by applicable laws and further defined by
the existing expertise. The figure is included for purposes of illustration and
shows the general emphasis for each of the Federally supported programs that
participated in Great Lakes research, as of November 1985. This figure was
included in a draft action plan for Federal research and monitoring on the
Great Lakes, prepared by EPA, NOAA, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. It
illustrates the need for cooperation among the organizations and between
their monitoring and research groups.
Only a well-designed and coordinated interagency research and monitoring
strategy can satisfy the objective of understanding the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Programs must provide a scientifically defensible basis for managers to make
decisions that will improve the quality of the Lakes. The research and
monitoring strategy should include key management questions and should
foster development of a sampling program and supporting studies targeted at
those questions.
The approach to toxic substance research should proceed along several
parallel, but related, paths. The first and most important step is to establish
24
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Laboratory research should seek causes of reproductive failures in fish and
seek to identify any unexpected shifts in species that may result from
exposures to toxic chemicals.
As this research proceeds, comprehensive and coordinated studies should be
conducted to collect data, validate theoretical models, and address Areas of
Concern. Throughout the conduct of this basic and applied research,
scientists should participate in the environmental policy process. Scientists
should set aside time for technical assistance to the regulatory process in EPA,
to the IJC, and to the Corps of Engineers.
Because of large lake volumes, pollutants are rapidly diluted in the open
waters of the Great Lakes. As a result, episodes of acute toxicity rarely
occur. Long lake retention times, however, make chronic toxicity from
prolonged exposure to low concentrations a major concern. Also,
accumulations of some toxic pollutants biomagnify through the food chain
to become as much as a million times more concentrated in fish than in
water. Chronic toxicity problems are further exacerbated by low sediment
burial rates (and, hence, prolonged exposures of fish and benthic organisms
to contaminated sediments) and possible synergistic effects of toxic
chemicals.
Effects of toxic pollutants that have been measured in the Great Lakes
include health risks to humans as well as deformities, neoplasia, and
reproductive disorders in birds, fish, mammals, and invertebrates. As the
ability to detect toxic pollutants and their effects improves, it is likely that
new pollutants will be discovered that will also require control or
elimination.
The largest identified concentrations of toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes
are in the AOCs. As remedial actions are taken to clean up the AOCs,
loadings from these areas to the waters of the open lakes will be reduced.
The extent to which such reductions will contribute to attaining water
quality objectives in the open lakes can be evaluated using the mass
balance approach. For pollutants with a major airborne deposition
contribution, however, AOC reductions will have limited impact, except
locally.
Problems of toxic pollutants are not limited to the Areas of Concern. As
illustrated in Figure 4, many other locations outside the Areas of Concern
have been found to have toxic pollutant concentrations, primarily in
sediments.
Some toxic pollutant concentrations in the Great Lakes system have
declined over the years, as previously illustrated in Figure 2. Key questions
remain: How far will they be reduced by existing programs? How far must
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they be decreased to provide adequate protection for human and ecosystem
health? What additional actions are needed to attain water quality
objectives? These questions will be the focus of GLNPO's work in this area
over the next five years.
Toxic pollutants released into the environment during the manufacture,
transport, use, and disposal of various products may reach the Lakes by
many pathways. Research in the 1970s showed that atmospheric deposition
is a major source of pollutants in the Lakes for organic chemicals such as
PCBs and toxaphene and for metals such as lead, zinc, and cadmium.
Atmospheric transport is believed to be the only source for some toxic
chemicals to the Upper Great Lakes, where neither direct discharges nor
land runoff can account for their presence or elevated levels in fish. More
information is needed about sources to the atmosphere, including the role
of combustion, evaporation, and volatilization, to support the development
of regulatory controls. The Lakes themselves may contribute to
atmospheric contamination, since volatilization of PCBs from the water
surface into the air has been reported.
Sediments are another source of both toxic chemicals and nutrients that
have settled out of the water column to become in-place pollutants. In
many Areas of Concern, toxic pollutants are concentrated in sediments
that may be in "toxic hotspots" or dispersed over wide areas in
embayments and in tributaries. They tend to accumulate below direct
discharges of effluents with a high solids content and may remain in place
indefinitely. In areas where sediments have high concentrations of toxic
chemicals, fish have even higher concentrations in their tissues. Concern
about these contaminated sediments has grown with discovery of high
rates of lip and liver tumors in bullheads that feed on the bottom.
Sediments become a source of contamination when toxic pollutants are
released by biological action, by physical disturbance from boats or storms,
or by dredging navigation channels. Although the highest concentration of
toxics in sediments was deposited before discharge regulations were in
effect, accumulation of many pollutants is continuing.
Discharge from waste sites and other sources of ground-water
contamination, through surface runoff or through ground water, is another
source of contaminants to the Lakes. Concern about this source has
increased with the confirmation of loadings from landfills to the Niagara
River, and with the known ground-water contamination from the many
hazardous and solid waste disposal sites that are adjacent to the Great
Lakes or their tributaries. EPA's Superfund and Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act programs address identified problems at these sites. GLNPO
will need to work closely with these programs to ensure that impacts to
the Lakes are identified and that resultant remedial actions meet the
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1 Marathon - mercury, PCB's, d/oxin, PCP
2 Jackfish Bay - mercury, phenois
3 Nipigon Bay - mercury, phenois
4 Thunder Bay - PCP, mercury
5 Silver Bay — asbestiform ftbera
6 Western Basin - asbestiform fibera
7 Ahland - PAH's, heavy metals
8 Keweenaw Peninsula — copper mine failings
9 Deer Lake/ Carp River - mercury
10 Mamstique River - PCB's
11 Menommee/Marinette -- arsenic
12 Green Bay - PCB's, mercury, PCDF's
13 Fox River — PCB's, mercury, chlorinated organic, PCDF's
14 Sheboygan River - PCB's
15 Milwaukee - PCB's, heavy metals, PAH's
16 Waukegan Harbor - PCB's
17 Great Lakes Naval Training Center heavy metals
18 Indiana Harbor Grand Calumet River - PCB's, heavy metals, PAH's
19 Kalamazoo River - PCB's
20 Grand River heavy metals
21 Muskegon River PAH's
22 Muskegon Lake Mona Lake Little Bear Creek chlorinated organics
heavy metals
23 White Lake — PCB's, chromium, chlorinated organics
24 Pine/Tittabawssee/Saginaw Rivers - PBB's, dioxin, PCB's, PCDF's
25 Sagmaw Bay - PCB's, PCDF's, DDT
26 Sarma - PAH s, mercury, PCS's, chlorinated organics, octochlorostyrene
27 St Clair River - heavy metals, PCB's chlorinated organics, alkyl
lead, PCS's, octochlorostyrene
28 Lake St Clair - mercury
29 Thames River - pesticides
30 Wheatley Harbour - pesticides, PCB's
31 Detroit River - PAH's. PCB's, heavy metals
32 Monroe - PCS's, heavy metals
33 Black River - heavy metals, PAH's
34 Cleveland Area heavy metals
35 Ashtabula River - heavy metals PCS s PAH s, PCS s HCB's, HCBDs
36 Port Colbourne heavy metals
37 Buffalo River - PAH s, phenols, heavy metals, chlorinated
organics, octochlorostyrene
38 Niagara River - mirex, PCB's PAH's, heavy metals, chlorinated organics
39 Niagara Falls (Love Canal) - dioxm, chlorinated organics
40 Olcott - heavy metals
41 Rochester Embayment - heavy metals
42 Oswego Harbor - mirex, PCBs, heavy metals
43 Sackets Harbor - mercury
44 Massena Grass River -- PCB's
45 Cornwall - PCB's, heavy metals
46 Maitland - alkyl lead
47 Moira River — heavy metals
48 Bay of Qumte - mercury, dioxm, PCP
49 Port Hope - uranium, radium, heavy metals
50 Whitby Harbour - polychlonnated biphenyl ethera
51 Toronto - PCB's, pesticides, dioxin mirex, heavy metals
52 Hamilton Harbour PCB's, heavy metals, phenois
53 St Catherines - PCB's
54 Collingwood — heavy metals, PCB's
55 Spanish River - PCB's, heavy metals, phenois
56 Serpent Harbour - heavy metals, DDT, radionuclides
57 St, Mary's River - phenois
58 Michipicoten Harbour - PCP
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Figure 4. Locations of Known Toxic Pollutant Problems
in the Great Lakes Basin
Source: U.S.E.P.A. publication, Toxic Substances in the Great Lakes, June 1980
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objectives of the statutes and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The impacts on the Lakes, if any, from the underground injection of waste,
or from underground storage tanks, have yet to be investigated.
Safe disposal and treatment of contaminated sediment after removal is of
great concern. Whether the environmental impact is greater from removal
of contaminated sediments or from leaving them in place is a major issue
in many Areas of Concern.
Likewise, decisions to treat contaminated ground water that is, or will be,
discharging to the Lakes is an issue that should be based on overall
environmental impacts.
Stormwater runoff, from both urban and industrial sites, and agricultural
runoff are potentially large sources of chemicals. Continuing increases in
the use of pesticides in both urban and rural areas remain a major concern
that needs to be further evaluated. The Clean Water Act Amendments of
1987 place renewed national emphasis on nonpoint source, combined sewer
overflow and stormwater problems. New and existing EPA programs will be
addressing these problems through national assessments and control
programs in the next few years. GLNPO will work with these programs to
ensure that Federal policies account for the special needs of the Great
Lakes ecosystem.
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Existing Federal and State Environmental
Programs and a Review of Accomplishments
Tools available for correcting pollution problems and enhancing
environmental quality in the Great Lakes derive from Federal mandates
created through a variety of Congressional Acts.
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CHAPTER 4
- Regulatory and
Remedial Programs
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4.1 Program Descriptions
U.S. water pollution control programs are implemented through a
partnership between EPA's Regional Water Divisions and the States that
operate these programs under delegated authority. The Clean Water Act
requires a comprehensive program of technology-based effluent controls for
pollution from point sources. In addition, controls based on ambient water
quality must be established where technology-based requirements alone are
not sufficient to protect receiving waters.
These controls are imposed and enforced under the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) of the Clean Water Act.
Discharges of specific toxic pollutants from point sources are being limited
as NPDES discharge permits are reissued. Under the pretreatment program,
industrial dischargers of toxic pollutants to publicly owned treatment works
(POTWs) are required to treat their effluents to reduce or eliminate the
level of toxic pollutants if these pollutants pass through the POTW or
interfere with the POTWs treatment process. All point source dischargers
to the Great Lakes are subject to permit requirements and all of the major
Great Lakes cities in the U.S. have pretreatment program requirements
specified in their NPDES permits. Improved controls for discharges of toxic
pollutants and planning for improvements to water quality in areas where
toxic pollutants are especially problematic will be important areas of
emphasis for State and Federal water programs in the next few years. As
biological monitoring and fate and effect research define information needs
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for mass balance modeling, GLNPO will develop studies to provide
information that will enable State and Federal programs to determine
where strict effluent limits for toxic pollutants are most needed.
Since point source discharges are not the only sources of toxic pollutants
entering the Great Lakes, other authorities must be exercised in order to
fully control and correct the toxics problem facing the Lakes. These laws
include the nonpoint source control authorities and dredge and fill
regulations established under the Clean Water Act and under laws of
various States, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Safe Drinking
Water Act (SDWA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA),
the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability
Act (CERCLA), the Clean Air Act, and the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA).
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) empowers the Administrator of
EPA to regulate chemical substances and mixtures that present an
unreasonable risk to human health or the environment and to take action
with respect to chemical substances and mixtures that pose imminent
hazards. Under TSCA, EPA gathers certain basic information on chemical
risks from chemical manufacturers and processors. EPA may require
companies to conduct specific tests on the toxicity of chemicals before they
are manufactured for distribution in commerce. To prevent unreasonable
risks, EPA may select from a broad range of control actions available under
TSCA, ranging from requiring hazard warning labels to outright bans on
the manufacture or use of especially hazardous chemicals. EPA may
regulate chemicals at any stage in their life-cycle: during manufacturing,
processing, distribution in commerce, use, or disposal.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) governs the
licensing or registration of pesticide products. No pesticide may be
marketed in the United States until EPA reviews an application for
registration, approves each specific use pattern, and registers the product.
Decisions are based upon data demonstrating that use will not result in
unreasonable human health or environmental effects. FIFRA balances the
risks a pesticide may pose with its benefits to society.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) has three provisions to protect
ground-water resources. The Sole Source Aquifer Program requires EPA to
review all Federally funded or supported projects within sole source aquifers
to ensure that such projects have no adverse impact on the aquifer. The
Wellhead Protection Program requires States to identify wellhead protection
areas around public water supplies and to develop ground-water
management plans for these areas. The Underground Injection Control
Program protects underground sources of drinking water. These sources of
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drinking water are aquifers, or portions of aquifers, that contain water
with less than 10,000 parts per million of dissolved solids and that supply
public water systems, or have the potential to do so.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and its subsequent
amendments provide EPA's authority to regulate the transportation,
treatment, storage, and disposal of solid and hazardous waste in the U.S.
Subtitle D of RCRA encourages States to develop comprehensive plans for
the management of solid wastes (i.e., domestic solid wastes, agricultural
wastes, and small quantities of industrial wastes). Subtitle C establishes a
system for controlling hazardous industrial waste from the time it is
generated until its ultimate disposal, in effect from "cradle to grave."
Amendments to RCRA passed in 1984 provided new authorities for
cleaning up existing contamination at hazardous waste sites and for
encouraging industry to develop techniques for minimizing the quantities
of hazardous waste generated. Under Subtitle I, RCRA controls certain
underground storage tanks by establishing performance standards for new
tanks and requiring leak detection, prevention, and corrective action at
underground tank sites.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
(CERCLA) authorized the Federal government to develop a system for
identifying and cleaning up chemical and hazardous substance releases
harmful to public health and the environment; established a "Superfund"
to pay for cleaning up environmental contamination in instances where no
responsible parties can be found or where the parties cannot pay for
cleanup; and authorized EPA to recover the costs of cleaning up chemical
and hazardous substance releases through litigation against responsible
parties. Further legislation under the Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act (SARA) redirects the remedial process to include an
emphasis on permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies;
increases the emphasis on State involvement in the initiation,
development, and selection of remedial actions; and expands removal
authorities.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is empowered to effect reductions in
atmospheric concentrations of toxic pollutants by establishing and
enforcing national emission standards. Other Federal standards for motor
vehicle emissions, new sources of air pollution, and municipal solid waste
combustion have also been promulgated under the Act. In addition to
Federal regulation, reductions in atmospheric toxic pollution result from
implementation and enforcement of State and local air toxics programs.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) directs all Federal agencies to
determine the potential environmental impacts of their proposed activities and
to consider those impacts in their decision-making process. EPA is the central
clearinghouse for ensuring an on-the-record review for all Federal activities.
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The eight Great Lakes States also have their own environmental laws and
regulations to protect the Lakes. The purpose of some State programs is to
implement delegated Federal authorities, while others implement State
policies that supplement Federal policy or address other issues.
4.2 Program Achievements
Since passage of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972,
considerable progress has been made toward controlling pollution in the
Great Lakes Basin, under the Clean Water Act and the many other
environmental statutes administered by EPA. The most notable progress
relates to cleanup of municipal and industrial discharges to surface waters.
U.S. direct discharges into the Great Lakes system are now regulated under
3,819 discharge permits, 2,633 industrial permits, and 1,186 municipal
sewage treatment facility permits. Through 1987, $8 billion in Federal and
State grants had been invested in the Great Lakes Basin for municipal
sewage treatment works.
In 1986, more than 95 percent of the Great Lakes States population within
EPA Region V was served by municipal sewage treatment facilities, and 99
percent of the sanitary wastes in sewered areas received at least secondary
treatment. Additional treatment for phosphorus removal was provided for
79 percent of sewage, and 206 of 273 major facilities complied with the 1
milligram per liter (mg/1) effluent limit for phosphorus. Advanced waste
treatment was used in 15 percent of treatment facilities and eight percent
provided high-level nitrogen control.
Figure 5 shows the reduction in phosphorus discharged from the major
municipal sewage treatment plants to Lakes Erie and Ontario. The
approximately 80 percent reduction since 1972 has reduced the U.S.
phosphorus loadings down to the limits set in the Agreement with
Canada. Biochemical oxygen demand and discharges of suspended solids
have been reduced by approximately the same magnitude. Such substantial
compliance is reflected in clearer water, less algal growth, and the return of
desirable fish species to many locations.
Considerable progress has been made under other statutes as well. Since
Federal regulations for hazardous waste generation, transport, treatment,
storage, and disposal facilities were promulgated in 1980, EPA's Regional
programs and delegated State programs have identified 25,958 permittees
and permit applicants in the counties of the Great Lakes Basin. Statutory
provisions added in 1984 will ensure that the full scope of environmental
contamination resulting from improper handling of hazardous waste will be
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Lake Erie
Lake Ontario
14000
13000
12000
•C 11000
I 10000
» 9000
I 8000
2 7000
j? 6000
1 5000
3 4000
°- 3000
2000
1000
-U.S. Load at 1 mg/l
Canadian Load at 1 mg/l
Canada
5500
5000
5 4500
jr 4000
w
c 3500
2 3000
.= 2500
| 2000
Q. 1500
1000
500
"Canadian Load
_ at 1 mg/l
-U.S. Toad at 1 mg/l
72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85
Year
72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85
Year
The horizontal lines depict the sum of the expected loading (in 1985) from those municipalities discharging ^3,800 m3/d,
if the phosphorus concentration in the effluent from each facility were t mg/l
Source: 1987 Report on Great Lakes Water Quality: Report to the IJC
Figure 5. Reported Municipal Phosphorus Loadings to the Lower Great Lakes
controlled. Under the RCRA corrective action program, facility owners
and operators will be required to clean up all existing contamination before
permits will be granted.
Uncontrolled hazardous materials sites in the Basin have also received
considerable attention since passage of the Superfund Act in 1980. EPA's
National Priority List (NPL), required by the Superfund Act, identifies
hazardous waste sites of national importance that are eligible for Federal
cleanup funds. This list includes over 131 sites located in the Great Lakes
Basin. Moreover, States such as Michigan, New York, Ohio, and
Minnesota have created their own State Superfunds to address sites that
do not warrant listing on the NPL but have high State priority for
cleanup.
State air programs in the Great Lakes Basin have made considerable
progress toward implementing the provisions of the Clean Air Act and,
particularly over the last several years, have greatly reduced sulfur dioxide
emissions within the Basin. Attention has now turned to the control of
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air toxics. All eight States in the Basin are coordinating emissions
inventory procedures for air toxics and jointly developing permit guidelines
to assure appropriate controls on air toxic sources.
The Great Lakes States have realized many important accomplishments
toward achieving the goals of the Agreement in recent years. As an
example, in 1987, the Governor of Ohio established a Lake Erie Office
charged with coordinating all State policies, programs, and procedures to
protect and ensure the wise development of Lake Erie; advising on the
implementation of a basin wide approach to Lake Erie issues; promoting
education and the wise management of Lake Erie resources; improving
State partnerships with local governments; and establishing a coastal
management program.
The State of Michigan has an Office of the Great Lakes within its
Department of Natural Resources and produces an annual State of the
Great Lakes Report. The Annual Report for 1987-1988 reports a number of
successes including a new State Nonpoint Source Pollution Program; the
completion of a strategy for a State-run loan program to finance
construction of municipal wastewater treatment facilities; and the initiation
of source reduction impact statements as part of the State permitting
process to address toxic discharges. Future initiatives are also outlined in
the Report. These include (1) a Michigan Environmental Enforcement and
Research Trust Fund that would use judgments against and settlements
with polluters to fund enforcement of environmental laws and sponsor
Great Lakes research and (2) the establishment of a Great Lakes Congress
to inform Michigan citizens about Great Lakes issues.
The State of New York is carrying out provisions of a Declaration of
Intent, signed in February 1987 by the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation, Ontario Ministry of the Environment,
Environment Canada, and EPA. This four-party agreement includes a
commitment for a 50 percent reduction in persistent toxic chemicals of
concern to the Niagara River by 1996. The State's Niagara River Toxic
Management Plan, first produced in July 1987 in response to the toxics
commitment, calls for controls on both point and nonpoint sources of
pollution. Another four-party toxic management plan, for Lake Ontario, is
also being developed in 1988.
The State of Wisconsin has had important achievements toward the goals
of the Agreement. The Remedial Action Plan for the Lower Green
Bay/Lower Fox River was signed by the Governor of Wisconsin as an
amendment to Wisconsin's Water Quality Management Plan. The
development of this plan is a good example of the value of public
participation. A 70-member Citizen's Advisory Committee, with four
technical subcommittees, advised the Wisconsin Department of Natural
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Resources in the preparation of the plan. All parties worked together to
identify their goals for the Bay and River in the year 2000 and to develop
16 Key Actions and many specific recommendations necessary to achieve
this "Desired Future State." The "Desired Future State" includes a healthy
bay environment, a balanced edible sport/commercial fishery, water-based
recreational opportunities, good water quality that protects public health
and wildlife, balanced shoreline use, productive wildlife and plant
communities, and an economical transportation network that minimizes
adverse environmental effects.
Key actions include reducing phosphorus and sediment loads, increasing
the numbers of sport fish, enhancing public and private shoreline uses,
and increasing public education efforts. The all-encompassing nature of the
plan led to inclusion of a recommendation to create a coordinating council
as an institutional structure for implementation. The council members will
include local, State, and Federal officials, and citizen members representing
business, industry, recreational, and environmental interests.
The Great Lakes States have also worked jointly toward achieving the
goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. In June 1986, the
Governors of the eight Great Lakes States signed "The Great Lakes Toxic
Substances Control Agreement." This agreement pledges the States to treat
the Lakes as a single ecosystem despite political boundaries, acknowledges
that toxic pollutants are the foremost problem to be addressed, and lays
out goals for the States. More recently, the Governors agreed to establish a
permanent fund for Great Lakes studies.
During the next five years, GLNPO will work closely with State and EPA
Headquarters and Regional programs to focus regulatory, permitting, and
enforcement actions in the Basin on the most critical pollution problems.
GLNPO has already begun to work with new programs for ground-water
pollution, for example, to ensure that the information needed to support
management decisions is made available in a format that facilitates
decision'tnaking. In the next five years, GLNPO will expand its work with
hazardous and solid waste programs and will play an active role in assisting
State water programs with planning for cleanup of toxic pollution in
surface waters.
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CHAPTER 5
The Clean Water Act
GLNPO's Charter to coordinate the U.S. Response to
the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
The Clean Water Act Amendments of 1987 included Section 118, which
formally recognizes the Great Lakes as a valuable national resource and
establishes a Congressional mandate for the Great Lakes National Program
Office. Under various elements of Section 118, the Program Office is
specifically mandated to:
• Develop and implement specific action plans to carry out the
responsibilities of the U.S. under the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement, in cooperation with appropriate agencies and with full
public participation (c)(l)(A)
• Establish a Great Lakes system-wide surveillance network to monitor
the water quality of the Lakes, with emphasis on monitoring toxic
pollutants (c)(l)(B)
• Serve as liaison with, and provide information to, the Canadian
Members of the International Joint Commission, and the Canadian
counterpart to EPA (c)(l)(C)
• Coordinate actions of the Agency aimed at improving Great Lakes
water quality (c)(l)(D)
• Coordinate actions of the Agency with the actions of other Federal,
State, and local agencies so as to ensure the input of those agencies
and authorities in developing water quality strategies and obtain the
support of those agencies and authorities in achieving the objectives
of such agreement (c)(l)(E)
• Develop a five year plan and program for reducing the amount of
nutrients introduced into the Great Lakes (c)(2)
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Carry out a five year study and demonstration projects relating to
the control and removal of toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes, with
emphasis on the removal of toxic pollutants from bottom sediments
The EPA Administrator is required to:
• Ensure that GLNPO enters into agreements concerning Great Lakes
activities with appropriate EPA offices and State agencies that
describe duties and responsibilities, time periods, and resources to be
committed (c)(4)
• Include a separate budget line item for GLNPO annually (c)(5)
• Submit a comprehensive annual report to Congress that describes
the achievements of the preceding fiscal year, progress in
implementing a Great Lakes water quality surveillance system, long-
term prospects for Great Lakes water quality improvement, and
efforts planned for the succeeding year (c)(6).
The Act also establishes a Great Lakes Research Office (GLRO) within the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to identify
research issues, inventory research programs, establish a research exchange,
develop a data base and comprehensive research program, and conduct
research and monitoring activities (d). GLNPO and GLRO are required to
prepare a joint research plan annually (e).
The Army Corps of Engineers, Soil Conservation Service, Coast Guard,
Fish and Wildlife Service, and NOAA are required to submit annual
reports to the EPA Administrator on activities affecting compliance with
the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The Clean Water Act Amendments of 1987 contain other sections that
will be important for supporting Great Lakes objectives over the next five
years. Two of these sections address control strategies for toxic pollutants
and management of nonpoint sources of pollution:
• The toxics provision, Section 304, requires States to submit to EPA a
list of waters that are expected to fall short of water quality
standards even after discharges have met current cleanup
requirements, due to the presence of toxic pollutants. States must
identify the specific discharges responsible for the toxic pollution and
propose strategies for reducing toxic discharges from these facilities.
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A new program, Section 319, was created to control nonpoint source
pollution. This program requires a State assessment of waters that
are not expected to meet water quality standards because of
nonpoint source pollution and development of a management
program for controlling this pollution.
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CHAPTER 6
The Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement
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An Overview of the 1972, 1978, 1983, and 1987
Water Quality Agreements with Canada
6.1 Overview
The Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 affirmed that Canada and the United
States have equal rights to the use of waterways that cross the
international border and that neither country has the right to pollute its
neighbor's resources. The International Joint Commission (IJC) was
established as an independent body to assist the two governments under
the treaty. For many years the treaty primarily provided a non-
confrontational process for limited regulation of water levels and flows for
navigation and power production.
The first Water Quality Agreement between the U.S. and Canada was
signed in 1972. In response to an increasing understanding of the Great
Lakes and their pollution problems, the 1978 Agreement, and the 1983
supplement, evolved in several important respects. First, while the 1972
Agreement called for control of pesticides as the principal means for
controlling toxic pollution, the 1978 Agreement called for control of all
toxic substances that could endanger the health and well-being of any
living organism. Second, under the 1978 Agreement, water quality
restoration and enhancements were called for throughout the Great Lakes
Basin, not just in the waters of the Great Lakes. Third, the 1983
supplement required phosphorus target loads and required commitments to
prepare and implement load reduction plans.
In 1987 the Water Quality Agreement was again amended. The basic
purpose of the Agreement remained to "restore and maintain the chemical,
physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin
ecosystem." To achieve this purpose, the Parties agreed to:
• Develop programs, practices, and technology necessary for a better
understanding of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem; and
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• Eliminate or reduce to the maximum extent practicable the discharge
of pollutants into the Great Lakes system.
A major provision of the 1972 Agreement that has been carried over to
the present Agreement is the setting of specific water quality objectives.
These objectives specify ambient levels of pollutants that must be attained
to protect beneficial uses. Attainment of these water quality objectives is
the major mechanism for implementing the purpose and goals of the
Agreement.
In addition to setting objectives, the Agreement calls for preparation of
management plans, implementation of remedial actions to address
pollution sources, and monitoring of compliance and environmental
conditions. Implementation in each country depends on the integration of
remedial programs into National, Provincial, and State laws and policies.
Responsibilities under the Agreement are shared equally by the Parties (the
two governments as Parties to the Agreement).
The 1987 revision recognizes the need for strengthened efforts to address
the continuing contamination of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem,
particularly by persistent toxic substances. It acknowledges that many of
these toxic substances result in part from sources of air pollution within
and beyond the Great Lakes Basin and that these substances may lead to
polluted ground water and sediments that become potential sources of
contaminant loadings to the Lakes. The revised Agreement provides an
awareness that further research and program development is required to
enable effective remedial actions and recognizes the need for decisive
leadership in the implementation of control measures. In placing new
emphasis on management and accountability, the roles of the two
governments and the IJC are given clearer definition. For example, the
Parties are called upon to provide numerous reports to the IJC as
summarized in Table 4. The IJC is to then conduct reviews and evaluations
followed by recommendations to the two countries (the Department of
State in the U.S.) on the adequacy of the reported activities in satisfying
the terms of the Agreement.
6,2 Role of the International Joint Commission
The IJC consists of six Commissioners, half appointed by the Chief
Executive of each country. The Commission addresses a variety of
boundary waters concerns along the international border by calling
attention to problems, recommending actions to the governments, or
evaluating actions of the governments.
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Table 4. Summary of Reporting Requirements and Milestones
Added by the 1987 Water Quality Agreement
Annex
Dates
Subject
Annex 1; Specific Objectives
4/1/88
7/1/88 & biennially
12/31/88
Annex 2; Remedial Action Plans and 12/31/88 & biennally
Lakewide Management Plans 9/30/89 & biennally
Annex 12; Persistent Toxic Substances 12/31/88 & biennally
Annex 13; Pollution from Nonpoint
Sources
Annex 14; Contaminated Sediment
6/30/88
12/31/88 &. biennally
12/31/88 & biennally
12/31/88
12/31/88 & biennally
Annex 15; Airborne Toxic Substances 10/1/88
12/31/88 & biennally
Annex 16; Pollution from 12/31/88 & biennally
Contaminated Ground Water
Resolve toxicity definitions
Review specific water quality objectives
and establish toxic substance action
levels
Compile and maintain lists of known
or suspected toxic pollutants
Progress Report
Identification and review of Point
Source Impact Zones
Progress Report on reducing generation
of contaminants
12/31/88 &. biennally Progress Report
Begin design of demonstration program
Progress Report
Methods evaluation
Approach and procedure for
management of contaminated
sediments
Evaluate technologies
Confer on air deposition network
Progress report
Progress Report
The Water Quality Agreement created two boards to provide advice to the
IJC concerning water quality within the Great Lakes Basin: the Water
Quality Board and the Science Advisory Board.
The purpose of the Water Quality Board is to advise the IJC about
progress under the Agreement and to propose needed actions. Members
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serve as resource experts rather than as representatives of their agencies.
U.S. members are generally drawn from State environmental management
agencies, with the Great Lakes National Program Manager traditionally
serving as chairman of the U.S. section.
The Science Advisory Board advises both the IJC and the Water Quality
Board about needed scientific research and carries out special investigations
on request. Its membership includes managers of Great Lakes research
programs and other experts. Both boards are assisted by committees and
task forces.
The IJC operates a binational Great Lakes Regional Office in Windsor,
Ontario, that provides secretariat services to the two boards of experts
called for in the Agreement. The agencies represented on the boards fund
the participation of their staffs and the activities required to serve the
boards. No reimbursement for services by government agencies is provided
by the IJC.
6.3 Role of the Parties
The role of the U.S. and Canada (the Parties) is to implement their Water
Quality Agreement. Formal international communication between the U.S.
and foreign governments is conducted in the U.S. by the Department of
State. The State Department led the delegation that negotiated the 1987
Amendments to the Agreement. In addition to clarifying the role of the
Parties, these Amendments also call upon the Parties, in Article X(3), to
meet twice a year to "coordinate their respective work plans with regard to
implementation . . . and to evaluate progress made."
The U.S. Department of State and its Canadian counterpart, External
Affairs, Canada, have delegated lead responsibility to USEPA and its
counterpart, Environment Canada, for the semiannual meetings. These
agencies, in turn, have assigned this responsibility to their respective
national program managers. Thus the Great Lakes National Program
Manager in Chicago now has three distinct Great Lakes roles: 1) Great
Lakes National Program Manager for USEPA across the eight Great Lakes
States; 2) U.S. co-chairman of the binational coordination meetings; and 3)
U.S. co-chairman of the IJC Water Quality Board. Staff support for all
three of these functions is provided by GLNPO.
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6.4 Summary of the Water Quality Agreement
General purposes and obligations are described in the text of the
Agreement. Specific measures to reduce and prevent pollution are listed in
the annexes. For EPA, the following provisions are the most important:
Article II of the Agreement sets forth the intent of the Parties "to restore
and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters
of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem." It also states the policy that "The
discharge of toxic substances in toxic amounts be prohibited and the discharge of
any or all persistent toxic substances be virtually eliminated."
Article III sets forth general objectives that state that the waters of the
Great Lakes should be free from materials that adversely affect various
beneficial uses or adversely affect aquatic life.
Article IV calls for the development of specific water quality objectives
according to a process identified in Annex 1. The article states that, "The
Specific Objectives adopted pursuant to this Article represent the minimum levels
of water quality desired in the boundary waters of the Great Lakes System and
are not intended to preclude the establishment of more stringent requirements."
Article IV also sets forth the basis for the management framework
contained in Annex 2. "The Parties recognize that there are areas in the
boundary waters of the Great Lakes System where, due to human activity, one or
more of the General or Specific Objectives of the Agreement are not being met.
Pending virtual elimination of persistent toxic substances in the Great Lakes
System, the Parties, in cooperation with State and Provincial Governments and
the Commission, shall identify and work toward the elimination of: (i) Areas of
Concern pursuant to Annex 2; (ii) Critical Pollutants pursuant to Annex 2; and
(Hi) Point Source Impact Zones pursuant to Annex 2."
Annex 1 identifies specific water quality objectives. The 1987 supplement
to Annex 1 calls for priority lists of substances to be periodically reviewed
and considered in the development of new objectives. The supplement also
calls for the development of ecosystem objectives for each Lake.
Annex 2 (1987) sets forth general principles for Remedial Action Plans to
address geographic Areas of Concern and for Lakewide Management Plans
to address Critical Pollutants in the Lakes. It also identifies various
beneficial uses to be protected and describes how Areas of Concern and
Critical Pollutants are to be designated.
Annex 3 (1978) focuses on phosphorus control. It calls for restoration of
aerobic conditions year-round in the central basin of Lake Erie, substantial
elimination of nuisance algal growth in Ontario and Michigan, and
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maintenance of the oligotrophic status and relative algal biomass of
Lakes Huron and Superior. The need to meet target loads for phosphorus
for each lake established under this annex is recognized in the
administration of the NPDES and construction grants programs under the
Clean Water Act.
Plans to meet additional load reductions to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and
Saginaw Bay were submitted by the States in June 1986.
Annex 11 (1978) addresses surveillance and monitoring. It calls for joint
surveillance and monitoring to assess compliance with requirements for
pollution control in the various jurisdictions, to identify the need for
improved pollution control, to evaluate water quality trends, and to
identify emerging problems. GLNPO operates the U.S. Great Lakes
surveillance and monitoring program under the Agreement. Compliance
monitoring is conducted by the individual States with EPA oversight.
Annex 12 (1978) addresses persistent toxic substances. It states that
"persistent toxic substances" should be regulated in order to virtually
eliminate the input of toxic substances to the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Regulation should protect human health and assure continued productivity
of aquatic resources. This annex requires research on how to protect fish
and wildlife as well as humans from exposure to toxic pollutants and
establishes an early warning system for future problems due to these
pollutants. This Annex reinforces the function of the Great Lakes as a
national indicator for environmental problems in the biosphere. U.S.
compliance with the Great Lakes Agreement depends on the integration of
remedial activities, research, and monitoring with domestic environmental
programs.
Annex 13 (1987) addresses pollution from nonpoint sources. It recognizes
the contribution of nonpoint source pollution by requiring that land-based
activities that contribute to water quality problems be identified and that
watershed management plans be prepared for high priority hydrologic units
to reduce nonpoint source inputs. It also calls for the identification,
preservation and, where necessary, rehabilitation of wetlands threatened by
urban and agricultural development and waste disposal activities.
Annex 14 (1987) focuses on contaminated sediment. It calls for
identification of the nature and extent of sediment pollution of the
ecosystem. It also calls for the development of methods to evaluate the
impact of polluted sediment, for the development of technologies to
remedy this pollution, and for demonstrations of new technologies.
Annex 15 (1987) addresses airborne toxic substances. It requires research,
surveillance and monitoring, and implementation of pollution control
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measures to reduce atmospheric deposition of toxic pollutants, particularly
persistent toxic substances, to the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem.
Annex 16 (1987) addresses pollution from contaminated ground water. It
calls for coordination of existing programs to control contaminated ground
water affecting the boundary waters of the Great Lakes System.
Annex 17 (1987) deals with research and development. It recognizes the
need for research to determine the mass transfer of pollutants between the
ecosystem components of water, sediment, air, land, and biota and the
need for development of load reduction models for pollutants in the Great
Lakes system.
Provisions were also added in 1987 to strengthen accountability and
management of the Agreement. A number of reporting dates were added
that are shown in Table 4. In addition, the Annex 1 Supplement requires
biennial consultation on specific water quality objectives; revised ranking
lists for toxics; and the development of ecosystem objectives for the
boundary waters of the Great Lakes system.
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CHAPTER 7
A Five Year Program Strategy
Specific Activities Planned by the
Great Lakes National Program Office
7.1 Overview
The principal goals of the five year program strategy for the Great Lakes
National Program Office are to:
• Support the completion of Lakewide Management Plans for Lakes
Michigan, Ontario, and Erie to determine the steps needed to make
fish safe to eat.
• Support the completion and implementation of Remedial Action
Plans to restore beneficial uses in all geographic Areas of Concern.
• Obtain sufficient information about sources, fates, and effects of
pollutants to support a mass balance approach in remedial programs,
using GLNPO surveillance activities including the Green Bay study
and the GLAD network.
• Conduct a demonstration program to assess and address
contaminated bottom sediments.
• Evaluate results of point source and nonpoint source remedial
programs to determine whether additional controls are needed to
restore oxygen levels in Lake Erie.
• Strengthen partnerships with the Great Lakes States, other EPA
programs, and other Federal agencies in carrying out all
responsibilities.
• Protect the Lakes from human abuse by improving public
understanding of the Great Lakes system and related issues.
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Actions described in this chapter are responsive to both the Clean Water
Act and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Although many of the
actions are dependent upon the level of funding and implementation of
EPA's regulatory programs, the overall strategy enables GLNPO to focus its
own activities logically, use available resources more effectively, and provide
priorities for directing available and projected resources. The strategy will
also help EPA Regional and State programs to understand how GLNPO
priorities align with their own program priorities. As described in Chapter
1, Great Lakes environmental management activities are carried out by
organizations at all levels of government in the U.S. GLNPO's success is
dependent on close and continuing cooperation with other Federal
agencies, EPA offices, the States, and public groups. This strategy will serve
as a starting point for establishing working relationships that will be
formalized in Memoranda of Understanding, as required by Section 118 of
the Clean Water Act.
The remainder of this chapter provides a brief status report and list of
planned activities for each of nine major areas: eutrophication, toxic
pollutants, surveillance and monitoring, environmental management plans,
remedial activities, research, technology development and transfer,
international/interagency/intra-agency coordination, and public education
and involvement.
7.2. Eutrophication
7.2.1 Background
Great progress has been made in controlling conventional pollution in the
Great Lakes. In particular, over the last 15 years, substantial reductions in
phosphorus concentrations have been achieved. A concerted effort by the
U.S. and Canada to reduce phosphorus loadings began in 1972 and
represents an unprecedented international accomplishment. Phosphorus
loadings from point sources have been reduced by an estimated 80 to 90
percent through regulation and financial assistance for environmental
controls on point sources. The primary form of financial assistance has
been the upgrading of sewage treatment plants. Reductions in phosphorus
from industry and in domestic laundry detergents have also contributed.
These reductions have resulted in dramatic improvements in near shore
water quality and some improvement in open lake conditions.
In 1983, the U.S. and Canada approved a supplement to the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement confirming the maximum phosphorus loads that
the Lakes could tolerate. The countries agreed to prepare load reduction
plans to achieve further reductions.
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Presently, all major U.S. dischargers as a group are meeting a 1 milligram
per liter (mg/1) effluent limit for phosphorus. Although some individual
dischargers are not meeting the effluent limit, these dischargers are offset
by those doing better than the effluent limit. By 1990 all publicly owned
treatment works should be meeting the 1 mg/1 effluent limit for
phosphorus; however, phosphorus contributions from combined sewer
overflows and treatment plant bypasses still need to be addressed.
Detergent phosphate bans have played an important role in reducing the
amount of phosphorus reaching the lakes and continue to be an important
means of control, especially for combined sewer overflows and treatment
plant bypasses.
The nonpoint source phosphorus program was started more recently.
Additional reductions from these sources will be needed to meet target
load reduction plans. This program focuses on management oi crop
residues to prevent soil erosion and nutrient loss and on management of
animal wastes and commercial fertilizers to minimize nutrient loadings to
streams. The program relies heavily on conservation tillage, particularly no-
till management practices, and on public education concerning prudent
and economical uses of phosphorus-containing fertilizers.
Several recent technological advancements have implications for Great
Lakes eutrophication. GLNPO has participated in evaluating and
demonstrating techniques such as biological and physical phosphorus
removal technology, and in-line storm flow control devices. Each of these
has shown great potential for reducing phosphorus and other pollutant
input to the Lakes from point sources. GLNPO recognizes the necessity of
a continuing commitment to advancing new technologies and, especially,
promoting the use of new technologies throughout the farming
communities in the Great Lakes Basin.
7.2.2 GLNPO'S Five Year Strategy — Eutrophication
FY 1989 • Based on the 1983 Agreement on Phosphorus Load Reduction, GLNPO
will coordinate a five year review of State phosphorus plans, due in
December 1988, to determine the effectiveness of existing control
programs.
• Based on the 1987 Amendments to the Clean Water Act, GLNPO will
develop, in consultation with the States and water programs, an update
of the U.S. Phosphorus Load Reduction Plan to fulfill the requirement
for a five year plan and program for reducing the amount of nutrients
introduced into the Lakes. This plan will incorporate any management
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program for reducing nutrient runoff from nonpoint sources established
under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.
• GLNPO will coordinate the development of a biennial report on
progress in developing specific watershed management plans and
implementing programs and measures to control nonpoint sources of
pollution, as required by the Water Quality Agreement. The first is due
December 31, 1988.
• In cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
GLNPO will continue to develop remote sensing methods for tracking
nonpoint source best management practice (BMP) adoption.
• In cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, GLNPO will track
the extent to which nonpoint source management practices have been
adopted, through both observation and predetermined onsite visits and
measurements.
* GLNPO will participate in the National Association of Conservation
Districts Great Lakes committee to integrate soil conservation and water
quality concerns and activities.
* GLNPO will monitor the implementation of phosphorus management
plans and will also monitor and analyze other conventional parameters
such as sodium, chlorides, and nitrogen to determine their contribution
to any changes in lake trophic status. Results will be incorporated in an
annual report to Congress.
• GLNPO will initiate an inventory of nitrogen sources to the Great
Lakes.
• GLNPO will convene a technology workshop for State and local govern-
ments on low-cost nutrient control techniques.
* GLNPO will guide and support other EPA programs in carrying out
remedial activities by participating in annual program guidance
development and by providing technical expertise regarding the Great
Lakes.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will complete a series of algal productivity tests using the
shipboard laboratory and produce a report on the feasibility of this
methodology and any future recommendations.
• GLNPO will complete the development of remote sensing methods for
tracking nonpoint source BMP adoption.
An ongoing activity throughout the five year period
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• GLNPO will complete the nitrogen inventory begun in FY 1989.
• GLNPO will continue to coordinate activities with the Soil
Conservation Service to support the implementation of nonpoint source
management practices.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 * GLNPO will coordinate the development of the second biennial report
on progress in developing specific watershed management plans and
implementing programs and measures to control nonpoint sources of
pollution as required by the Water Quality Agreement.
• GLNPO will coordinate the implementation of appropriate remote
sensing methods to track nonpoint source BMP adoption.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 * GLNPO will initiate an assessment of eutrophication control strategies
within the Basin in preparation for the 1993 renegotiation of the
Agreement with Canada.
• GLNPO will continue to coordinate activities with the Soil
Conservation Service to support the implementation of nonpoint source
management practices.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1993 * GLNPO will coordinate the development and submission of the third
biennial report on progress in developing specific watershed management
plans and implementing programs and measures to control nonpoint
sources of pollution as required by the Water Quality Agreement.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
7.3 Toxic Pollutants
7.3.1 Background
Toxic pollutants are the most significant environmental problem facing the
Great Lakes. Toxic pollutants are numerous, their pathways into the Lakes
are varied, and their effects on the environment, aquatic life, and human
health are not well understood. Studies have shown that toxic pollutants
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within the Great Lakes Basin are associated with changes in human infant
behavior; other national studies associate toxic pollutants with reproductive
disorders and cancer. As noted in Table 3, certain species of fish at some
sites in the Great Lakes have been found to have toxic contamination at
levels requiring health advisories. About 30,000 chemical compounds are
used in the Great Lakes Basin, and an additional 1,000 new chemicals are
developed each year within the United States. As of 1987, 362 compounds
of concern had been identified within the Great Lakes ecosystem. These
compounds are being reviewed to identify their toxic effects. The problem
of toxic pollutants has therefore raised water quality management to a new
level of complexity.
Both the 1987 Amendments to the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement place an unprecedented policy emphasis on the
control of toxics. They require that:
• The discharge of toxic substances in toxic amounts be prohibited,
• The discharge of persistent toxic substances be virtually eliminated,
• The water quality of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem be restored
and enhanced.
The primary management approach anticipated by the Clean Water Act
and the Agreement is to set and attain specific ambient water quality
objectives and standards for pollutants. This does not mean that some
specific level of pollution is acceptable. Rather, management priorities will
direct resources to achieve reductions sufficient to attain the water quality
objectives of the Agreement as a key step toward total restoration.
To attain the objectives, Lakewide Management Plans will be prepared and
implemented to guide basin-wide remedial efforts for Critical Pollutants;
Remedial Action Plans will be prepared and implemented to restore
beneficial uses in Areas of Concern; and Point Source Impact Zones will
be identified and reduced to the maximum extent possible. Also, watershed
management plans, as called for in Annex 13 of the Agreement, will be
prepared and implemented to address nonpoint sources of toxic pollution.
All of these activities will be carried out primarily by the States with
assistance and guidance from appropriate EPA Regional programs and from
GLNPO. As the Great Lakes States implement new provisions of the
Clean Water Act aimed at controlling discharges of toxic pollutants to
surface waters, GLNPO will work with Regional water programs to ensure
that the State priorities and management plans are based on the best
available information and reflect both the goals of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement and the Clean Water Act.
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Of particular importance for GLNPO will be the development of a mass
balance approach for describing and analyzing sources and fates of toxic
pollutants on a regional basis. The mass balance approach for studying
toxic pollutants will become an important element of Lakewide
Management Plans in the future.
Preliminary work on the mass balance approach was conducted on the
River Raisin and the Upper Great Lakes Connecting Channels in
Michigan. GLNPO and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
in conjunction with NOAA, and EPA's Office of Research and
Development, now plan to pilot the mass balance study for toxics in a
midsized ecosystem prior to expansion to whole-lake situations. Green Bay
has been chosen for this pilot effort. For this study, a modeling framework
will be tested and applied to provide greater understanding of the sources,
transport, and fate of toxic pollutants with the objective of guiding future
regulatory activity. The model must be capable of alerting managers to the
presence of previously unidentified sources, of describing the relative
significance of the sources, and of predicting the response of the ecosystem
to proposed regulatory actions involving a single source or a combination
of sources. To accomplish this, the transfer of toxic compounds from
sources to important sport and commercial fish species will be modeled.
Due to the high costs of monitoring contaminants, indicator compounds
have been selected to serve as surrogates for larger classes of contaminants
known to be problems in the Great Lakes. This study will test the ability
of involved Federal, State and local governments, and academic institutions
to mobilize their technical and physical resources to carry out and apply
the results of multimedia studies.
7.3.2 GLNPO'S Five Year Strategy — Toxic Pollutants
FY 1989 • As required by Annex 1 of the Water Quality Agreement, GLNPO will
coordinate activities to produce, by December of 1988, a listing of
substances believed to have the potential to cause acute or chronic toxic
effects in aquatic, wildlife, or human populations and which are believed
to have the potential of being discharged to the Great Lakes (based on
the definition of chronic toxicity developed in FY 1988).
• GLNPO will coordinate the development of an approach, including risk
assessment, for designating Critical Pollutants, as required by Annex 2 of
the Water Quality Agreement.
• GLNPO will continue the field monitoring program for the mass balance
pilot study in Green Bay.
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• As required by Annex 12 of the Water Quality Agreement, GLNPO
will coordinate the preparation of a progress report on activities
undertaken to reduce the discharge of contaminants to the Great Lakes.
* GLNPO will assist the States in developing a common process for
generating fish consumption advisories.
* GLNPO will provide assistance as necessary in the development and
implementation of water-quality based effluent limits for NPDES
permits, including reviewing standards and pretreatment requirements,
wasteload allocations and selected permit modifications.
* GLNPO will work with EPA Headquarters and Regional waste manage-
ment programs to ensure that remedial plans for Superfund sites and
that permitting and enforcement actions for RCRA facilities reflect
the long-term goals of the Agreement.
• GLNPO will initiate a formal review of specific water quality objectives
as required by the Water Quality Agreement.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will coordinate the completion of the water quality objectives
review process as required by the Water Quality Agreement and support
the implementation of any recommendations. GLNPO will coordinate
and support the designation of any additional Critical Pollutants.
• GLNPO will complete the field monitoring program for the mass
balance pilot study in Green Bay.
• GLNPO will work with EPA and State waste management programs to
ensure that information on waste minimization, developed under RCRA,
is reported to the IJC by December 31, 1989.
• GLNPO will complete all modeling studies addressing toxic pollutant
sources, transport, and fate in Green Bay.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 • GLNPO will produce a final report on the Green Bay mass balance
study.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the second biennial progress
report on activities undertaken to reduce the discharge of contaminants
to the Great Lakes.
• GLNPO will initiate the application of the mass balance approach for
toxics in Lake Ontario and/or Lake Michigan.
An ongoing activity throughout the five year period -'-'
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• GLNPO will review all toxic modeling studies completed and under way
and assess capabilities to support decisionmaking.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 • GLNPO will coordinate a formal review of specific water quality
objectives as required by the Water Quality Agreement in preparation for
the 1993 renegotiation of the Agreement with Canada.
• GLNPO will coordinate and support the designation of any additional
Critical Pollutants.
• GLNPO will continue the application of the toxics mass balance
approach on a lakewide basis as intiated in FY 1991.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1993 • GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the third biennial progress
report on activities undertaken to reduce the discharge of contaminants
to the Great Lakes.
• GLNPO will continue the application of the toxics mass balance
approach on a lakewide basis as initiated in FY 1991.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
7.4 Surveillance and Monitoring
7.4.1 Background
The Great Lakes surveillance and monitoring program has five major
objectives, which derive from the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement:
1. Assess the degree to which jurisdictional control requirements are
being met.
2. Provide definitive information on achievement of water quality
objectives.
3. Evaluate water quality trends.
4. Identify emerging environmental problems.
5. Support development of Lakewide Management Plans and Remedial
Action Plans.
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The original Great Lakes International Surveillance Plan (GLISP), initiated
in 1976, called for intensive monitoring of one lake at a time with each
lake monitored once or twice a decade. This cycle of intensive surveys was
completed with Lake Superior in 1983. For conventional pollutants, a new
long-term surveillance program has now evolved that requires less intensive
collection of chemistry data but provides information about each lake
annually.
The focus of GLNPO's monitoring efforts also has changed over time.
Originally, the surveillance program was principally concerned with
describing water chemistry. This focus resulted mainly from overriding con-
cerns about eutrophication and high phosphorus loadings. The new em-
phasis on toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes has added a new focus to
surveillance and monitoring efforts. Determining the relative importance of
toxic pollutants requires an understanding of ecosystem structures, interac-
tions between biota, and the relationship of biota to environmental condi-
tions. GLNPO's surveillance and monitoring program has responded to
this change by strengthening the biological monitoring components of its
programs.
The present Great Lakes surveillance and monitoring program has four
major components: limnology, fish, sediments, and pollutant loadings.
GLNPO efforts in each area are described below.
7.4.2 Limnology
The limnology program describes and tracks trophic status of the Lakes.
This program supports the development, testing, and refinement of
eutrophication models that assist in annual monitoring of water chemistry,
plankton populations, and biological productivity. The models are used for
data interpretation, for defining the applicability of specific data sets, and
for the design of monitoring programs for the collection of data. The
models were transferred from EPA's mainframe computer to personal com-
puters in 1986 and new software was developed to assist the surveillance-
research-management process. The productivity measurements made as part
of the limnology program will assist in describing the trophic status and
the effect of nutrients in the Lakes. The measurements will also assist in
interpreting trends in algal and plankton productivity and in anticipating
resultant impacts on fish communities.
Over the next five years, the major emphases of the limnology program
will be (1) monitoring the attainment of open lake nutrient objectives;
(2) determining biological responses to nutrient control; and (3) restoring
aerobic conditions in the bottom waters of the central basin of Lake Erie.
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7.4.3 Fish
The Great Lakes Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program, since its
inception in 1977, has been a coordinated effort by 20 State and Federal
agencies. Because of the difficulty of measuring toxic chemicals in lake
water, the monitoring program measures the bioconcentration of certain
indicator chemicals in fish. Through this program, major declines in
contaminants such as DDT, PCBs, and dieldrin have been documented in
Great Lakes fish following regulatory action. However, during the same
period, numerous other persistent pesticide and industrial chemicals have
been identified in Great Lakes fish as part of the early warning component
of the program. For some of these compounds, such as toxaphene, mirex
and dioxin, regulatory action has since been taken. For the majority of
these compounds, however, there is insufficient information to judge their
effects on human health and the environment. Until further information
on such compounds is obtained, regulatory programs cannot be initiated.
Over the next five years, emphases of the fish program will be (1) trend
monitoring in the open lakes; (2) detection of emerging problems in
harbors and tributary mouths; (3) monitoring potential human exposures;
and (4) monitoring other indicators of ecosystem health.
7.4.4 Sediments
GLNPO conducts harbor and estuary sediment sampling to identify toxic
hot spots and to aid in the identification of areas that are contributing
large amounts of toxics to the Lakes. Future plans are to extend sampling
to sediments in the main body of the Lakes to measure the distribution,
storage, and fate of toxics in the ecosystem. This sampling will provide a
chronology of toxic inputs to the Lakes and will support mass balance
models for Critical Pollutants. Sampling will also support development of
Lakewide Management Plans as required in the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement and the Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated
Sediment program mandated by the Clean Water Act Amendments of
1987. GLNPO coordinates this work with the development of national
sediment criteria and sediment contaminant cycling studies conducted by
EPA's Office of Research and Development laboratories at Duluth,
Minnesota and at Grosse He, Michigan.
7.4.5 Pollutant Loadings
GLNPO conducts and supports numerous monitoring and surveillance
activities designed to provide information on the magnitude and types of
pollutant loadings to the Great Lakes. One of the most important
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purposes of collecting this information is to support the development of
the mass balance approach for describing and analyzing pollutants on a
regional basis. Pollutant loading data therefore must describe inputs
through all potential pathways. Some, such as air deposition, GLNPO
monitors directly. Others, such as point source loadings to surface water,
are monitored by the States with assistance or advice as needed from
GLNPO. Still others, such as pollutant transfers from contaminated
sediments, are or will be estimated using predictive models and limited
environmental monitoring data. Monitoring techniques, technologies, and
pollutant loading measurements of principal concern to GLNPO over the
next five years include:
• Air Deposition loading monitoring by the Great Lakes Air Deposition
(GLAD) network, established in 1981 and currently being expanded.
• Tributary loading monitoring by the Great Lakes States (coordinated
by GLNPO).
• Point source loading information gathered through the water
programs in EPA and the Great Lakes States in their efforts to track
NPDES permits and monitor compliance rates.
• Nonpoint source loading information gathered by the EPA water
programs as they identify and monitor land runoff from a variety of
practices.
• Ground-water loading information that will be developed by EPA
ground-water programs as they identify potential problem areas.
• Sediment release rate information that is being developed as part of
GLNPO's program for contaminated sediments.
7.4.6 GLNPO'S Five Year Strategy—Surveillance and Monitoring
FY 1989 • GLNPO will acquire a research vessel to replace the Roger R. Simons, as
anticipated by EPA's FY 1988 Appropriations Act.
* GLNPO will conduct a comprehensive, annual water quality sampling
and analysis program of water chemistry, plankton populations, and fish
contaminants in the open waters of the Great Lakes in response to the
Great Lakes International Surveillance Plan (GLISP) using its research
vessel and other appropriate approaches such as winter helicopter
surveys.
* An ongoing actu itv throughout the five year period
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* GLNPO will prepare a synthesis of the sampling results and incorporate
the information in an annual report to Congress.
* GLNPO will track U.S. implementation of GLISP by the States and
report progress to the IJC.
* GLNPO will continue to monitor the fish contaminant problem in the
Great Lakes, report on trends in fish contamination, and coordinate
interagency activities on fish monitoring, advisories, and risk
assessments.
• GLNPO will co-chair an international symposium on the measurement
of fish community health and produce a summary report.
• As required by the Water Quality Agreement, GLNPO will coordinate
activities for an agreement on the air deposition network components by
October of 1988 and produce the first biennial report on the
implementation of the joint U.S./Canadian air deposition network by
December 31, 1988.
• GLNPO will set up the U.S. routine air toxic deposition sites for Lake
Huron and Lake Erie and initiate monitoring programs.
• GLNPO will conduct an implementation workshop for the States on
enhanced tributary monitoring programs.
* GLNPO will continue to coordinate development of approaches for
quantifying and assessing the impacts of ground-water/surface water
interactions.
* GLNPO will work to establish risk-based procedures and criteria for
assessing ground-water impacts on surface water bodies.
* GLNPO will begin to evaluate the effectiveness of using chronic and
acute biotoxicity screening tests of ground-water near surface water
bodies to determine potential toxic impacts.
* GLNPO will continue other efforts to better quantify loading informa-
tion and to describe the relationship between the various inputs and
ambient water quality and ecosystem health.
* GLNPO will support studies and programs aimed at the development of
ecosystem indicators for use in the Great Lakes.
if GLNPO will continue to support water program activities to track point
and nonpoint loadings and to target available resources to appropriate
source controls.
60
An ongoing activit\ throughout the fi\e vear period
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* GLNPO will coordinate and support research to improve understanding
of intermedia transfer of toxics for development of mass balance models,
e.g., air-water exchange and sediment-water exchange.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will complete refitting the replacement research vessel and outfit
the vessel for toxic monitoring programs in the open waters of the Great
Lakes.
• GLNPO will complete its evaluation of, and issue recommendations on,
the use of water intakes in water quality monitoring programs.
• GLNPO will coordinate appropriate changes to the fish health
monitoring program based on results of the FY 1989 symposium.
• GLNPO will begin a series of field studies to determine ground-water
flux and contaminant loadings through ground water to the Lakes.
• GLNPO will initiate programs for sediment sampling on a whole-lake
basis to support the development of Lakewide Management Plans and
the mass balance approach.
• GLNPO will set up the U.S. master and routine air toxic deposition sites
for Lake Superior and initiate monitoring programs.
• GLNPO will coordinate and assist States in the implementation of
enhanced tributary monitoring programs.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 * GLNPO will design and implement enhanced toxics monitoring
programs in the open waters of the Great Lakes.
• GLNPO will set up the U.S. master and routine air toxic deposition sites
for Lake Ontario and initiate monitoring programs.
• GLNPO will produce the second biennial report on the implementation
of the joint U.S./Canadian air deposition network.
• GLNPO will initiate, as available and appropriate, routine monitoring of
indicators of ecosystem health in the Great Lakes.
• GLNPO will begin work with EPA's ORD and Office of Ground-Water
Protection and USGS to develop estimates of contaminant loadings
derived from field measurements and from models of ground-water
contaminant transport.
•*• An ongoing activity throughout the five yeat period 01
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• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 * GLNPO will conduct a review of the effectiveness of monitoring
programs.
• GLNPO will summarize surveillance and monitoring activities under
Annex 11 in preparation for the 1993 renegotiation of the Agreement.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
• GLNPO will continue to work with EPA's ORD and Office of Ground-
Water Protection and USGS to develop estimates of contaminant
loadings derived from field measurements and from models of ground-
water contaminant transport.
FY 1993 • GLNPO will produce the third biennial report on the implementation of
the joint U.S./Canadian air deposition network.
• GLNPO will report on the evaluation of ground-water toxic loadings to
the Lakes.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
• GLNPO will continue to work with EPA's ORD and Office of Ground-
Water Protection and USGS to develop estimates of contaminant
loadings derived from field measurements and from models of ground-
water contaminant transport.
7.5 Environmental Management Plans
7.5.1 Background
The 1987 amendments to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement call
for three responses when water quality objectives are not met: development
and implementation of Remedial Action Plans for addressing geographic
Areas of Concern, development of Lakewide Management Plans, and
designation of Point Source Impact Zones.
7.5.2 Remedial Action Plans for Areas of Concern
Since 1985 the International Joint Commission has focused binational
activities on geographic Areas of Concern. These are areas in the Great
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Lakes Basin that fail to meet the objectives of the Water Quality
Agreement where such failure has caused or is likely to cause impairment
of beneficial uses. The purpose of establishing Areas of Concern is to
encourage jurisdictions to rehabilitate these acute, localized problem areas
and to restore their beneficial uses. It is also expected that restoration of
Areas of Concern will reduce loadings to the open lakes. The areas are
classified according to their stage in the remedial process. In these areas,
existing programs are not expected to be sufficient to restore water quality
to acceptable levels.
States are responsible for preparing Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) to guide
specific rehabilitation activities in all 30 Areas of Concern in the U.S.
RAPs are intended to define actions and timetables for restoring beneficial
uses in Areas of Concern. Restoration of uses is to be achieved through
implementation of existing programs operated under Federal and State
legislation and any additional measures required to control sources and
remedy environmental problems.
GLNPO assists the States with RAP development by providing contract
services to the States for preparing draft RAP documents and by reviewing
draft RAPs and providing technical guidance. GLNPO is responsible for
monitoring RAP development activities in the U.S. and, beginning in 1988,
will report biennially to the IJC on the status of RAP development and
implementation in the U.S.
7.5.3 Lakewide Management Plans
The 1987 Agreement places renewed emphasis on lakewide management.
In Annex 2, Lakewide Management Plans (LMPs) are required for open
lake waters. This is a new provision designed to reduce loadings of
designated Critical Pollutants on a lakewide basis in order to meet specific
water quality objectives.
GLNPO has begun working with the States and EPA Regional water
programs staff to define the contents of LMPs and to initiate the
development of specific plans. The mass balance pilot study, underway in
Green Bay, Wisconsin, will be one of GLNPO's most important
contributions to the LMP process. GLNPO is also responsible for reporting
to the IJC on the status of LMP development in the U.S. The first
biennial report will be completed in December of 1988; subsequent reports
will be provided every other year. Two lakewide initiatives are already
under way—for Lakes Michigan and Ontario.
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Lake Michigan loxic Pollutant Control/Reduction Strategy
Lake Michigan is the largest body of fresh water totally within the borders of
the United States. It is used by millions for drinking water and for recreation,
such as boating, swimming, and sport fishing. It is also an important
commercial fishery and transportation resource. At present, however, Lake
uses are impaired because of the concentrations of toxic pollutants found in
its waters, sediments, fish, and birds. For example, Lake Michigan lake trout
contain the second highest levels of PCBs and DDT in the Great Lakes
system, and cannot be sold commercially because their level of pollutants
exceed human health-related U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
Region V and the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin have
agreed to work together to end the Lake's toxic substances pollution problem.
To do this, they have prepared the Lake Michigan Toxic Pollutant
Control/Reduction Strategy. The objective of the strategy is to fully restore
the multiple uses of Lake Michigan and to protect human health and the
Lake Michigan ecosystem by achieving a significant reduction in the loading
rates of problem toxic pollutants. Each of the States has negotiated specific
commitments for FY 1988 and 1989 in their annual State program plans.
Lake Ontario Toxics Management Plan
On February 4, 1987, the "Four Parties" (Environment Canada, the Ontario
Ministry of the Environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and
the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation) signed a
Declaration of Intent to prepare a Toxics Management Plan for Lake Ontario.
A draft plan has been prepared and has undergone extensive public review; a
final plan will be available in late 1988.
The draft plan cites bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals in fish to levels that
make them unsafe for human consumption as the most serious known
problem in the Lake. Toxics are also suspected of causing such other adverse
ecosystem impacts as deformities and reproductive failures in fish-eating birds.
The goal of the Lake Ontario Toxics Management Plan is a lake that provides
drinking water and fish that are safe for unlimited human consumption and
allows natural reproduction within the ecosystem of the most sensitive native
species, such as bald eagles, osprey, mink, and otters.
In order to achieve this goal, it is anticipated that the Plan will include four
objectives:
* Reductions in toxic inputs driven by existing and developing programs
• Further reductions in toxic inputs driven by special efforts in geographic
Areas of Concern
• Further reductions in toxic inputs driven by lakewide analyses of
pollutant fate, and
* Zero discharge.
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7.5.4 Point Source Impact Zones
Another environmental management tool for addressing nonattainment
areas is designation of Point Source Impact Zones. The 1987 Water Quality
Agreement defines a Point Source Impact Zone as an area of water
contiguous to a point source where water quality does not comply with
Agreement objectives. The Agreement requires listing these zones and
reducing their size and effect as much as possible through improved
management and regulatory controls and the application of advanced
waste treatment technologies.
GLNPO is working with the EPA Regional water programs and States to
define strategies for reducing Point Source Impact Zones. Beginning in
September of 1989, GLNPO will also issue biennial reports to the IJC
concerning the status of efforts in the U.S. to reduce Point Source Impact
Zones.
7.5.5 GLNPO'S Five Year Strategy—Environmental Management Plans
FY 1989 • The 1987 Water Quality Agreement calls for the elimination of Areas of
Concern through the completion and implementation of Remedial
Action Plans and requires biennial reporting. GLNPO will coordinate
the preparation of the first biennial progress report on the status of
efforts to eliminate Areas of Concern through completion and
implementation of Remedial Action Plans, as required by the
Agreement, by December 31, 1988.
* GLNPO will continue to support the Great Lakes States in completing
RAPs.
* GLNPO will work with the States and EPA Regional water programs to
have completed RAPs certified as amendments to State Water Quality
Management Plans and monitor their implementation.
* GLNPO will work with Regional and State programs to ensure that all
applicable laws are used to the fullest extent in the implementation
of RAPs.
* With the staff of the IJC, GLNPO will monitor the restoration of
designated uses within the Areas of Concern.
• GLNPO will conduct a workshop with the States and Canada to
develop a prototype for the contents of Lakewide Management Plans.
it An ongoing activity throughout the five venr period
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• GLNPO will work with EPA Region II and the State of New York to
begin implementing the Lake Ontario Toxic Management Plan.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the first biennial progress
report on Lakewide Management Plans, as required by the Water
Quality Agreement, by December 31, 1988.
• GLNPO will coordinate the development and implementation of a
strategy to reduce Point Source Impact Zones, in accordance with the
Water Quality Agreement, and will produce the first biennial progress
report in September of 1989.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will support and assist EPA's water program in Region V and
the States adjoining Lake Michigan to complete a draft Lakewide
Management Plan for Lake Michigan.
• GLNPO will work with appropriate EPA offices and with States to
initiate a Lakewide Management Plan for Lake Erie.
• GLNPO will develop a schedule for completion of remaining Lakewide
Management Plans.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 • GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the second biennial progress
report on the completion and implementation of RAPs.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the second biennial progress
report on Lakewide Management Plans.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the second biennial
progress report on Point Source Impact Zones.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 • GLNPO will review the status of all environmental management
planning activities (RAPs, LMPs, and Point Source Impact Zones) in
preparation for the 1993 renegotiation of the Agreement.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
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FY 1993 • GLNPO will support the States in completing all RAPs.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the third biennial progress
report on the completion and implementation of RAPs.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the third biennial progress
report on Lakewide Management Plans.
• GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the third biennial progress
report on Point Source Impact Zones.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
7.6 Remedial Activities
7.6.1 Background
Remedial programs are carried out by Federal, State, and local
governmental organizations throughout the Great Lakes Basin, working
under authorities granted by Federal and State environmental statutes.
GLNPO's primary responsibility is to participate in, coordinate, and
facilitate the activities conducted under those programs that influence
priority problems in the Great Lakes Basin. On an ongoing basis, GLNPO
is concerned with all environmental programs that operate in the Basin. In
addition, GLNPO has, in the past, played an active role in conducting
research and demonstration projects involving remedial technologies.
Over the next five years, GLNPO will continue to work with EPA
Regional and State programs to ensure that both ongoing and new
program initiatives, such as biomonitoring and pretreatment, uphold the
objectives of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. In addition,
GLNPO will focus special efforts in four emerging areas:
• The importance of contaminated sediments to the overall problem of
toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes;
• The significance of pollutant contributions made or potentially made by
ground water that is discharged to the Great Lakes;
• The significance of pollutants deposited in the Great Lakes from the
atmosphere; and
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• The development of a Geographic Information System to integrate
existing data bases and provide for analyses of multimedia information
on Great Lakes problems.
Special efforts in these areas that GLNPO will pursue during the next five
years are described briefly below.
7.6.2 Contaminated Sediments
All of the Great Lakes Areas of Concern in the U.S. have known polluted
sediment problems. GLNPO has begun to address this problem by
providing assistance to the States to develop Remedial Action Plans that
address the problems of polluted sediments.
Both the 1987 Amendments to the Clean Water Act and Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement direct GLNPO to assume an active, leadership
role on this issue. The Act requires GLNPO to develop a five year study
and demonstration projects relating to the control and removal of toxic
pollutants from contaminated sediments. Priority consideration is to be
given to projects at the following locations: Saginaw Bay, Michigan;
Sheboygan Harbor, Wisconsin; Grand Calumet River, Indiana; Ashtabula
River, Ohio; and Buffalo River, New York. Annex 14 of the Agreement
calls for identification of the nature and extent of sediment pollution of
the ecosystem and the development of methods to evaluate the impact of
this polluted sediment and for development and demonstration of remedial
technologies.
7.6.3 Ground Water
Contaminated ground water in the Great Lakes Basin, from both direct
and tributary sources, has recently been recognized by the U.S. Congress,
the International Joint Commission and the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement to be an important potential source of Great Lakes
contamination, the impacts of which must be investigated and evaluated.
Annex 16 of the Water Quality Agreement requires the coordination of all
ground-water control programs affecting the Great Lakes system. GLNPO
has developed a draft Ground-Water/Hazardous Waste Strategy to (1)
estimate the extent and magnitude of ground-water pollution (particularly
ground-water pollution from hazardous and solid waste disposal sites) in
the Great Lakes and (2) develop plans to eliminate or minimize this
pollution, in specific areas and basin-wide. This strategy is a first step
toward addressing the requirements of both the Agreement and the Clean
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Water Act. This strategy will be closely coordinated with activities in
response to Annex 13 of the Water Quality Agreement, which requires
that wetlands threatened by waste disposal activities be identified, preserv-
ed, and where necessary, rehabilitated.
7.6.4 Air Deposition
EPA began a strategy for the control of both routine and accidental
releases of toxic air pollutants in 1985. In 1986, the Agency began plann-
ing for and conducting activities to encourage States to assess the scope
and severity of current air toxic exposures. Air program grants are available
to States for compiling emission inventories for certain source categories,
investigating capabilities to model deposition patterns for toxic pollutants,
and developing permit review procedures that explicitly consider air toxic
impacts on the Great Lakes. More information is needed, however, to
determine the nature, sources, and magnitude of the air toxic deposition
problem in the Great Lakes. GLNPO is collecting data and information to
support an analysis of the problem, including data resulting from the
Green Bay mass balance study and from the fish contaminant monitoring
program. The Great Lakes Air Deposition (GLAD) Network will be an im-
portant source of information for this effort. Expansion of GLAD, with
the cooperation and assistance of the States, will allow regular monitoring
for toxic pollutants that are or may be deposited to the Lakes.
7.6.5 Geographic Information System
To support all of its work in remedial programs, GLNPO, in conjunction
with a Region V initiative, will be developing a geographic information
system (CIS) for the Great Lakes Basin over the next few years. The pur-
pose of this system will be to facilitate automated geographic analyses of
multimedia data. The system will integrate existing data bases maintained
by EPA, the Great Lakes States, and other Federal agencies with the Great
Lakes programs. It will be an important tool for identifying critical pollu-
tion problems and pollutant sources in the Basin.
Initially, the Great Lakes CIS will be used in ground-water, wetlands, and
remedial action plan applications. Ultimately, however, it will become an
important management tool for developing and evaluating remedial and
regulatory options by EPA and the States. The EPA National Water
Quality Laboratory in Duluth, Minnesota will provide assistance in the
development of the GIS. The Great Lakes States and other Federal agen-
cies will also participate in planning and design of the system.
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7.6.6. GLNPO'S Five Year Strategy—Remedial Activities
FY 1989 • GLNPO will develop a strategy and ranking scheme for the Assessment
and Remediation of Contaminated Sediment (ARCS) program to
systematically and objectively rank Areas of Concern for inclusion in
the demonstration phase of the program.
• Under the ARCS program, GLNPO will initiate research and
pilot-scale demonstrations on promising remedial technologies.
• GLNPO will perform assessments of the nature and extent of the
contaminated sediment problem at selected Areas of Concern to test
the assessment methodology and provide information for matching
technologies with locations for the demonstration phase of the program.
* GLNPO will monitor progress and coordinate with other programs and
agencies to clean up contaminated sediments in Areas of Concern.
* GLNPO will work with Canada, the EPA Regions, and States to fulfill
activities under Annexes 7 and 15 of the Water Quality Agreement
including, for example, an assessment of the efficacy of Confined
Disposal Facilities in containing toxics.
* GLNPO will work with EPA Headquarters on the development of
freshwater sediment criteria.
* GLNPO will continue research on the fate and effects of sediment-
bound contaminants to predict effects of alternative actions.
• GLNPO will, as required by the Water Quality Agreement, complete the
first biennial progress report on the ARCS program by December
of 1988.
* GLNPO will assess combined sewer overflows (CSO) and work with the
EPA water program to initiate appropriate regulatory actions.
• GLNPO will work with EPA Headquarters and Region II, III, and V
water and waste management programs to develop a coherent
interactive approach for meeting Annex 16 ground-water requirements.
• GLNPO will work with EPA's Office of Information Resources Manage-
ment (OIRM), Office of Research and Development (ORD), appropriate
EPA Regions and States, and the IJC to convene a conference on Great
Lakes Basin GIS efforts.
* GLNPO will begin to assemble and map, using (GIS) technology, an
inventory of known and potential sources of ground-water contamina-
tion including waste disposal sites that may affect the Great Lakes.
70 * An ongoing aimitv throughout the five vear period
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* GLNPO will support EPA's Office of Ground-Water Protection in its
efforts to develop a national ground-water data base on STORET, which
will include information developed by all regulatory programs.
* GLNPO will work with EPA's ORD and the Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response (OSWER) to develop and apply ground-water flux
measurement methods and ground-water flow and contaminant transport
models that will be used to estimate loadings to the Great Lakes.
• As required by the Water Quality Agreement, GLNPO will coordinate
existing control programs that influence ground-water quality in the
Great Lakes and produce the first biennial progress report by December
31, 1988.
• GLNPO will begin to integrate EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service, and
other Federal agency activities affecting Great Lakes wetlands protection
programs.
* GLNPO will work with Region V to develop a CIS project for wetlands
in Region V and the Great Lakes Basin to support coordination of the
Advance Identification of Disposal Sites (AIDS) program with
RAP initiatives.
* GLNPO will work to pilot the use of GIS technology for mass balance
modeling in Green Bay and for multimedia environmental assessment
tracking in support of the Ashtabula RAP.
* GLNPO will work with EPA Headquarters and Regions II, III and V to
address environmental concerns, in addition to human health concerns,
in Superfund actions.
• GLNPO will work with EPA Headquarters to develop a Superfund
Environmental Assessment Manual that is responsive to Great Lakes
issues.
* GLNPO will provide technical support to EPA Regional waste
management and water programs to ensure that regulatory actions are
consistent with the Agreement.
• GLNPO will initiate EPA and State program reviews of the implementa-
tion of point source biomonitoring and associated stream biosurvey
programs.
• GLNPO will review the need for an overall assessment of pretreatment
program effectiveness based on Water Quality Board reports.
* An ongoing activity throughout the fiveyear period. I 1
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• GLNPO will work with the EPA's air program to complete an emission
inventory for air toxics to the Great Lakes.
* GLNPO will support EPA's air program initiatives for State toxic
programs and monitor results.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will select sites and sponsor full scale demonstrations at selected
locations for the ARCS program.
• GLNPO will begin mapping hydrologic conditions around known and
suspected sources of contaminated ground water in the Great Lakes
Basin.
• GLNPO will initiate the development of an overall Great Lakes wetland
strategy.
• GLNPO will work with the Regions to map Great Lakes wetlands using
remote sensing procedures.
• GLNPO will work with OIRM, ORD, Regions, States, and the IJC to
form a Great Lakes GIS technical advisory committee.
• GLNPO will work with the Great Lakes community in applying GIS
techniques to the development of Lakewide Management Plans and in
tracking remedial progress in Great Lakes AOC's.
• GLNPO will complete program reviews of the implementation of point
source biomonitoring and associated stream biosurvey programs.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 • By December of 1990, GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of the
second biennial progress report on the ARCS Program.
• GLNPO will continue full-scale demonstrations of contaminated
sediment remedial technologies.
• By December of 1990, GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of
the second biennial progress report on ground-water contamination
affecting the Lakes.
• GLNPO will complete the development of an overall Great Lakes
wetland strategy.
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• GLNPO will review how GIS technology is applied in analyzing Great
Lakes problems, and plan future projects.
• GLNPO will work with the Regions and States to determine potential
impacts of waste sites on wetlands using GIS technology.
• GLNPO will continue to support the GIS technical advisory committee.
• GLNPO will apply GIS mass balance techniques to a specific Lakewide
Management Plan.
• GLNPO will continue mapping hydrologic conditions around known
and suspected sources of contaminated ground water in the Great
Lakes Basin.
• GLNPO will assess the adequacy of combined sewer overflow controls in
conjunction with a review of the effectiveness of remedial action plans.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 • GLNPO will perform assessments of overall Great Lakes vulnerability to
contamination from ground water.
• GLNPO will continue to support the GIS technical advisory committee.
• GLNPO will summarize all available information on point source
loadings of toxics and nutrients to the Lakes in preparation for the 1993
renegotiation of the Agreement.
• GLNPO will summarize the effectiveness of the Great Lakes wetlands
strategy in preparation for the 1993 renegotiation of the Agreement.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1993 • By December of 1992, GLNPO will issue a final report on the ARCS
program, including guidance on characterization of contaminated
sediments, selection of remedial technologies, estimating costs, and
predicting effectiveness of alternative actions versus no action.
• Also by December of 1992, GLNPO will coordinate the preparation of
the third biennial progress report on ground-water contamination
affecting the Lakes.
• GLNPO will continue to support the GIS technical advisory committee.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
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7.7 Research
7.7.1 Background
In the United States, Great Lakes research programs are spread among
several agencies and many locations. U.S. research for the Lakes can be
categorized as water quality management research, ecosystem dynamics
research, and fishery resources research. These various components are
carried out by several agencies, including EPA, that coordinate and
cooperate with each other, as shown in Figure 6.
Within EPA, Great Lakes research is carried out principally by the Large
Lakes Research Station (LLRS) at Grosse He, Michigan and by the
National Water Quality Laboratory at Duluth, Minnesota. Research is
sponsored by the Office of Research and Development in EPA
Headquarters as well as by GLNPO. Contracts with universities, private
consultants, and other Federal agencies supplement EPA programs.
The NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), at
Ann Arbor, Michigan, carries out basic hydrologic and limnologic
research. GLERL research has contributed to an increased understanding
of the role of phosphorus in the Great Lakes ecosystem. A long-term
GLERL study of how toxic pollutants cycle in the Great Lakes will assist
in the development of management programs.
The National Fisheries Research Center—Great Lakes (NFRC), of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, provides research and monitoring in support of
Great Lakes fishery management agencies and coordinates with the Great
Lakes Fishery Commission, a joint Canada-U.S. agency. The Fish and
Wildlife Service also participates in the fish contaminant monitoring
programs that are coordinated by GLNPO. Finally, the Fish and Wildlife
Service funds Cooperative Fishery Research Units at selected universities.
These units conduct research on fishery management and contaminants in
freshwater areas, including the Great Lakes.
State and Federal funding for Great Lakes research is provided to the Sea
Grant College programs in State universities. Federal Sea Grant funding is
provided by NOAA. The Sea Grant colleges presently conduct research on
bioaccumulation of pollutants in fish and effects on other biota.
GLNPO has supported research by the Argonne National Laboratory, the
Illinois Water Survey, and various universities on atmospheric deposition to
Lake Michigan. Argonne has also carried out research on Lake Michigan
biological systems. Research by the Army Corps of Engineers has focused
on Great Lakes water levels and flows and on dredging and disposing of
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Water Quality Management
Ecosystem Dynamics Research
Fishery Resources Research
KEY
EPA: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
GLERL: Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (NOAA)
NFRC: National Fisheries Research Center, Great Lakes (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
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dredged materials. GLNPO also funds a variety of research and
development activities to address toxics in the Great Lakes, including
studies on improved tributary monitoring methods for toxics and an
investigation of the toxic effects of contaminants unique to the Great
Lakes.
Funds for research on Great Lakes issues are provided through EPA, the
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As each of these
organizations operates under separate regulatory or resource management
missions, it is important for these agencies to coordinate efforts to optimize
Federal expenditures. The Clean Water Act Amendments of 1987 establish
a Great Lakes Research Office (GLRO) within NOAA that is tasked to
coordinate Great Lakes Research.
7.7.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy—Federally Funded Research
FY 1989 • GLNPO will develop with NOAA an overall research needs listing for
the Great Lakes.
* GLNPO will coordinate within EPA and with other Federal agencies
and national research programs to focus Great Lakes research on the
following topics identified in the Water Quality Agreement:
—Mass transfer of pollutants within and between Great Lakes
components of water, sediment, air, land, and biota;
—Pollutant load reduction models;
—Processes affecting delivery of pollutants by tributaries;
—Relationships between productivity and exotic species;
—Relationship of contaminated sediments and ecosystem health;
—Pollutant exchange between Areas of Concern and other parts of the
Great Lakes;
—Effects of varying lake levels on aquatic life;
—Ecotoxicity effects of pollutants (for use in developing water quality
objectives);
—Options for the recovery of fish and wildlife populations affected by
water quality problems and by non-native species;
—Pollution control technologies;
—Health-based exposure standards for contamination, considering multi-
media exposure routes and the interactive effects of chemicals; and
—Approaches to population-based studies on the effects of toxic
substances on human health.
76 * An ongoing aetnitv throughout the five-year period
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** As required by the Clean Water Act, GLNPO will develop a joint
research plan with NOAA's Great Lakes Research Office by the end
of each fiscal year.
FY 1990
through 1993 • GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
7.8 Technology Development and Transfer
7.8.1 Background
As a National Program Office and an international participant in the field
of environmental protection, GLNPO has an important role in the
development of environmental technology and is an information
clearinghouse for such technology. For example, GLNPO works with the
National Estuary Program on approaches to solving common problems.
GLNPO also has been active in international forums for technology
exchange and provides technical support for the U.S.-U.S.S.R.
environmental exchange program on water quality management research.
The management approach used by the U.S. and Canada to address Great
Lakes environmental problems is of continuing interest to environmental
scientists and managers throughout Europe and Asia. GLNPO provides
information about these approaches and their results through participation
in international meetings on Large Lakes issues and individual briefings for
visiting scientists and officials.
The Great Lakes have been a proving ground for the testing of new
environmental technology. In 1972, Section 108(a) of the Clean Water Act
authorized $20 million for EPA to demonstrate the engineering and
economic feasibility, and the practicality, of pollution control in the Great
Lakes Basin—probably the largest continuous nonpoint source control
demonstration program in the United States. GLNPO worked closely with
EPA's Office of Research and Development, Headquarters and Regional
water programs, and State and local government organizations, to conduct
projects that covered a range of objectives including the demonstration of
specific control technologies; the control of agricultural pollution through
implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs); public education on
water issues; the documentation of water quality results through
monitoring; the evaluation of combined sewer systems; and the evaluation
of various land application techniques for sewage disposal.
irir The Clean \K'ater Act Amendments of 1987 establish, under Section 118(d), a Great Lakes Research Offue
(GLRO) within NOAA and require GLNPO and GLRO to prepare a joint research pi,in annually [Section IKS(e) ] —,^
The conduct of this activits for FY 1989 and am subsequent fiscal year is dependcm on the funding of GLRO
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The Black Creek project, in Allen County, Indiana, provided important
information relating to stream bank erosion, sedimentation basin
effectiveness, and water quality modeling. A particularly important concept
emerging from Black Creek was the concept of treating critical areas. The
ANSWERS computer model (Areal Nonpoint Source Watershed
Environmental Response Simulation) was developed to identify those areas
that contribute most to water quality problems and therefore support the
targeting of limited resources. The approach provides an effective, coherent
identification of pollutant sources and simulates the effect of treatment.
The project also reinforced the concept that a vigorous information and
education program is essential to implementing BMPs.
The Washington County, Wisconsin, project, after extensive researching
and drafting, resulted in two model sediment control ordinances, one
controlling agricultural sources of pollution, and the other controlling
construction sources of sediment. An extensive county-wide education
program increased public awareness of soil conservation and water quality,
and a comprehensive school curriculum was developed by local teachers.
The Red Clay project developed a nine-step "Framework for Local
Management Agency Implementation," based on more than four years of
erosion and sediment control activities and water quality demonstrations
in four northwest Wisconsin counties and one Minnesota county. This
framework provides a generalized problem-solving methodology for local
governments, which can guide the implementation of long-range nonpoint
source water pollution abatement programs.
Other conservation tillage projects encouraged farmers to implement
conservation practices and showed the effectiveness of locally sponsored
projects. Combined sewer overflow projects demonstrated effective flow
control devices. Sewage application projects showed that applying sewage
effluent to the land improved the quality of receiving lakes. Adoption of
demonstrated techniques in Saginaw Bay, Michigan, resulted in estimated
savings of $20 million.
These projects will provide an important historical base and institutional
and technical insights from which new State and local nonpoint source
initiatives can draw. Moreover, GLNPO will continue to conduct and
sponsor demonstration projects and technology transfer efforts throughout
the Great Lakes Basin.
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7.8.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy—Technology Development and Transfer
FY 1989 • GLNPO will continue to transfer phosphorus control technology to
States and local agencies by cosponsoring a technology transfer
workshop.
* GLNPO will continue to advise and assist the National Estuary
Program and will participate in annual technology transfer forums.
* GLNPO will continue to distribute information on low-cost alternatives
for combined sewer overflow problems.
• GLNPO will initiate the development of a technology transfer strategy
working with the Office of Marine and Estuarine Protection and other
appropriate offices.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will begin a technology transfer program based on the results of
the contaminated sediment demonstrations.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 • GLNPO will begin technology transfer programs on mass
balance modeling and air deposition monitoring.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 • GLNPO will conduct an assessment of technology transfer programs for
phosphorus controls, National Estuary Program support, combined sewer
overflow problems, contaminated sediment demonstrations, mass balance
modeling, and air deposition monitoring.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1993 • Based on the FY 1992 assessment, GLNPO will either continue or phase
out existing programs and determine new topics for technology transfer.
if An ongoing activity throughout the five-year period
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7.9 International/lnteragency/Intra-agency Coordination
7.9.1 Background
GLNPO is often a coordinator or facilitator of other organizations. Nearly
all of GLNPO's ongoing activities and special projects involve coordination
with groups outside the United States, with other Federal agencies in the
U.S., with other organizations in EPA, or with State and local
governments.
Interactions with Canada and the IJC are the most important
international responsibilities of GLNPO. Another significant international
activity that GLNPO supports is implementation of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint
Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection,
signed in 1972. This agreement is a comprehensive bilateral commitment to
cooperation in eleven major areas of mutual interest, including the
Prevention of Water Pollution. A Working Group meets annually to plan
the program and cooperative efforts for future joint work.
To date, a total of five international symposia have been held and their
proceedings jointly published. Topics have included aquatic toxicology,
microbiology, remote sensing, and mathematical modeling. Current projects
are:
• River Basin Water Quality Planning and Management — During 1987,
information was exchanged on water quality management programs and
sediment studies, and on the impacts of agriculture on water quality and
related modeling techniques.
• Protection and Management of Water Quality in Lakes and Estuaries —
Mesocosm studies were conducted on the effects of a pesticide and other
pollutants on aquatic plants and animals.
• Effects of Pollutants on Aquatic Organisms and Ecosystems — Two American
specialists visited the U.S.S.R. in 1987 and conducted joint research on
interactions of atmospheric acid deposition and mobilization of trace
metals in soil.
GLNPO frequently works with other Federal agencies. This responsibility
has received renewed attention in the Clean Water Act Amendments of
1987, which require GLNPO to develop specific action plans in
cooperation with appropriate agencies. As a result of the Amendments, the
Army Corps of Engineers, Soil Conservation Service, Coast Guard, Fish
and Wildlife Service and NOAA will submit annual reports to EPA on
activities affecting compliance with the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
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GLNPO has a regular need for coordination with other EPA programs, in
Headquarters and in Regions II, III, and IV. GLNPO interaction with the
Region V Water Program has been formalized through a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) that is periodically evaluated. In accordance with
the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1987, GLNPO will be writing similar
agreements with all appropriate programs and Regions to define
responsibilities associated with protecting the Great Lakes.
7.9.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — International/Interagency/
Intra-agency Coordination
FY 1989 if GLNPO will continue to support the Parties in implementation of all
aspects of the Water Quality Agreement.
* GLNPO will implement and coordinate joint surveillance and
monitoring plans with Canada to work toward the goal of designing
data systems with compatible information.
* GLNPO will enter into joint studies and agreements to transfer
technology applicable to the Great Lakes to other nations and to State
and local organizations.
* GLNPO will continue to support the implementation of the U.S.-
U.S.S.R. Joint Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of
Environmental Protection.
* GLNPO will work cooperatively with other Federal agencies to develop
and implement specific plans and programs.
• GLNPO will enter into agreements with NOAA, the Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, and the Soil
Conservation Service to fulfill specific provisions of the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement.
* GLNPO will coordinate the preparation and submission of annual
reports, as required by the Clean Water Act, to the EPA Administrator.
* GLNPO will conduct regular meetings with State representatives prior
to binational water quality meetings.
* GLNPO will track and assist the implementation of the Governors
Toxic Substances Control Agreement.
if An ongoing
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* GLNPO will work cooperatively with the Regions to ensure that Great
Lakes priorities under the Clean Water Act and Water Quality
Agreement are implemented through annual State program plans.
* GLNPO will work cooperatively with Headquarters offices to ensure
that annual guidance to the Regions includes Great Lakes priorities
based on the Clean Water Act and Water Quality Agreement.
• GLNPO will enter into or revise existing Memoranda of Understanding,
as required by the Clean Water Act, with appropriate program offices
in EPA Region V.
* GLNPO will provide support for the development and implementation
of a Great Lakes geographic information system in conjunction with the
EPA Environmental Research Laboratory in Duluth, and EPA Region V.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will enter into Memoranda of Understanding, as required by
the Clean Water Act, with appropriate Offices in Regions II, III, and
Headquarters.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 • GLNPO will review the effectiveness of existing agreements with other
Federal agencies and initiate revisions as appropriate.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 • GLNPO will develop an overall strategy for renegotiating the Water
Quality Agreement and initiate the process.
• GLNPO will evaluate the effectiveness of existing Memoranda of
Understanding with other EPA offices and initiate revisions as
appropriate.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
•*• An ongoing activity throughout the five vcar period
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FY 1993 • GLNPO will complete the review of all program areas assessed in
preparation for renegotiating the Agreement and conduct the
renegotiation.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
7.10 Public Education and Involvement
7.10.1 Background
The Clean Water Act mandates that "public participation be provided for,
encouraged, and assisted in the development of any plan or program."
States share responsibility with EPA for this participation.
Public support has been essential in implementing programs to control
conventional pollutants. Accordingly, GLNPO plans a public information
program to increase public understanding of toxic pollution and the new
approaches to environmental management called for by the 1987
Amendments to the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement. Public participation has been very effective in local projects,
such as the remedial action planning process.
The Center for the Great Lakes recently completed a survey of the status
of public involvement in RAPs around the Lakes. In 18 of the 42 Areas of
Concern, a specialist in public involvement has been hired. In 44 percent
of these areas, written materials have been distributed to the public, such
as status reports, newsletters, or draft plans. In 13 of the areas, a group of
key individuals representing a variety of interests in the community has
been appointed to a public or citizens advisory committee.
One of GLNPO's five year goals is to improve public understanding of the
Great Lakes system. GLNPO's approach to achieving this goal includes:
providing the public with information concerning the Great Lakes, their
condition, and issues concerning their use and abuse; making use of
existing information and education resources; developing a series of issue
papers; developing materials targeted to specific audiences; and supporting
State activities for public involvement in local planning.
7.10.2 GLNPO's Five Year Strategy — Public Education and Involvement
FY 1989 • GLNPO will complete a comprehensive strategy for public education and
involvement.
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* GLNPO will support and encourage State actions for public
involvement in development of Remedial Action Plans and Lakewide
Management Plans.
• GLNPO will compile and disseminate existing teaching materials on
Great Lakes issues, including the Great Lakes Atlas.
• GLNPO will support a pilot project to integrate Great Lakes material
with existing curricula work in selected school districts.
* GLNPO will conduct regular meetings with representatives of public
interest groups on a schedule consistent with the Parties' semiannual
meetings.
FY 1990 • GLNPO will begin implementing the public education strategy developed
in FY 1989.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1991 • GLNPO will continue implementing the public education strategy and
assess the effectiveness of completed activities.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1992 • GLNPO will evaluate the effectiveness of, and appropriate vehicles for,
public participation in the renegotiation process.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
FY 1993 • GLNPO will ensure opportunities for public participation in the
renegotiation of the Agreement.
• GLNPO will continue ongoing activities identified above.
As GLNPO coordinates with other Federal, State, and local programs and
initiatives over the next five years and beyond, an integrated program
strategy for protecting the Great Lakes resources will emerge. This
integrated strategy will be founded on the common goals of the various
governmental institutions entrusted with protecting and preserving the
ecological integrity of the Great Lakes. GLNPO will continue to articulate
and clarify this strategy throughout its evolution, and will serve as a focus
for its continued development.
OT ie An ongoing a^tmtv throughout the five year period
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