Draft
Report to Congress
on the Great Lakes Ecosystem
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Juh IV
Note: an illustration will be added to this cover
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DRAFT July 1991
This report is prepared pursuant to Sections 118(c)(6) and 118(f) of the Clean Water Act, which state:
118(c)(6) Comprehensive Report. — Within 90 days after the end of each fiscal year, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a
comprehensive report which —
(A) describes the achievements in the preceding fiscal year in implementing the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978 and
shows by categories (including judicial enforcement, research, State cooperative efforts, and general administration) the amounts
expended on Great Lakes water quality initiatives in such preceding fiscal year;
(B) describes the progress made in such preceding fiscal year in implementing the system of surveillance of the water quality in the
Great Lakes System, including the monitoring of groundwater and sediment, with particular reference to toxic pollutants;
(C) describes the long-term prospects for improving the condition of the Great Lakes; and
(D) provides a comprehensive assessment of the planned efforts to be pursued in the succeeding fiscal year for implementing the Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978, which assessment shall —
(i) show by categories (including judicial enforcement, research, State cooperative efforts, and general administration) the amount
anticipated to be expended on Great Lakes water quality initiatives in the fiscal year to which the assessment relates; and
(ii) include a report of current programs administered by other Federal agencies which make available resources to the Great Lakes
water quality management efforts.
118(f) Interagency Cooperation. — The head of each department, agency, or other instrumentality of the Federal Government which
is engaged in, is concerned with, or has authority over programs relating to research, monitoring, and planning to maintain, enhance,
preserve, or rehabilitate the environmental quality and natural resources of the Great Lakes, including the Chief of Engineers of the
Army, the Chief of the Soil Conservation Service, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service,
and the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shall submit an annual report to the Administrator with
respect to the activities of that agency or office affecting compliance with the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978.
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DRAFT July 1991
Letterhead
Dear Mr. President:
Dear Mr. Speaker:
Over the past two decades, the United States and Canada have achieved a world-class success in abating nutrient-re-
lated algae problems in Lake Erie. They have likewise reduced dramatically the numbers of sea lampreys, a parasitic
eel-like invader that by the 1950s had devastated lake trout populations. Levels of many targeted contaminants have
declined drastically in fish and wildlife, resulting in clear improvements in the health of many species.
These successes have been obtained by substituting away from high phosphate detergents, restrictions on targeted
contaminants, and huge public and private investments in pollution treatment and abatement. The United States alone
has invested more than $8 billion in municipal wastewater treatment facilities in the Great Lakes watershed since 1971.
The governors of the eight Great Lakes States have signed a historic charter to protect their vital ecosystem and have
begun to endow a trust fund to help finance the elimination of toxic substances from the lakes. EPA and States, through
hazardous waste programs, are pursuing major cleanups around the Great Lakes.
We should not allow this heartening progress to make us complacent. The health of the ecosystem remains a matter
of concern. Unacceptable levels of persistent toxic substances continue to show up in the tissues of fish and wildlife.
These substances are associated with a number of health problems in fish and wildlife, including tumors and impaired
reproduction. Humans who ingest these substances by consuming fish face increased risk of cancer. Moreover, there
is some disturbing evidence that children of mothers who have eaten Great Lakes fish may suffer small but detectable
developmental deficits.
Two additional concerns are the loss of fish and wildlife habitat and the introduction of harmful exotic (non-native)
species. It has been estimated that since 1800, two-thirds of Great Lakes wetlands, which perform vital ecological
functions, have been lost. There are development pressures on the remainder. A second impaired habitat is nearshore
bottom sediment that in many locations has been poisoned by past or continuing loadings of toxicants. One recent exotic
intruder to the Great Lakes, likely via the ballast water of a transoceanic vessel, is the zebra mussel. A prolific breeder,
this mollusc may cause catastrophic ecological effects. It devours microscopic plants at the foundation of the food web
and may create a food shortage, threatening top predators such as walleye, salmon, and lake trout.
At my behest, EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB), a distinguished panel of independent scientists, engineers, and
other technical experts, reviewed the Agency's ability to identify and solve our most serious environmental issues.
Released in September 1990, the SAB report, Reducing Risk: Setting Priorities and Strategies for Environmental
Protection, cited EPA's relative neglect of natural ecosystems. The SAB noted that both environmental statutes and
EPA have focused on risks to human health, less so on ecological degradation. The SAB urged EPA to give increased
emphasis to ecological protection.
During its first two decades, EPA became highly compartmental, organized to treat and retroactively cleanup
pollution, medium-by-medium, chemical-by-chemical—not to prevent it. As a result, we sometimes have cycled
problems through the environment, rather than solved them. For instance, we redirected contaminants from pipes into
sludge, spread the nutrient-rich sludge on farm land, and then witnessed the inevitable runoff contaminate surface
waters. Treatment regulations have brought us a long way in protecting the environment. But they are not sufficient
and in some cases can actually be counterproductive, serving to inhibit innovation and discourage regulated industries
from going beyond minimum legal requirements.
To protect ecosystems, we need to go beyond treatment and prudent handling of contaminants. This is not to say that
EPA will in any way abandon its regulatory responsibilities. It is to say that EPA also needs to seek out the best
opportunities to reduce environmental risks, in toto, and to do this by harnessing the innovatory energy of our entire
society in the search for the most efficient, cost-effective ways to do this. We need change of a fundamental
nature—generators must prevent.pollutants by adopting processes that are more environmentally kind. Pollution
prevention can take many forms. It is the product of everyday industrial, agricultural, governmental, and personal
decisions in favor of choices that generate the least pollution. Industries can use a substance more efficiently, or
substitute one substance or process for another, as has been demonstrated so successfully in the Great Lakes by the
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DRAFT July 1991
switch to low phosphorus detergents. One means for farmers to prevent pollution is through conservation tillage to
reduce the erosion of soil particles by wind and water. Governments can practice pollution prevention by providing
environmental education or ensuring accurate ecological labeling of consumer products. Individuals hold the key to
much further environmental progress in their choices of lifestyle and purchases of products.
To solve current problems facing the Great Lakes, environmental protection agencies need to invent new ways to
protect an ecosystem. States, EPA, and other Federal agencies are now joined in pioneering such a holistic approach
for the Great Lakes. Our broad agenda is to prevent, abate, and remediate toxic pollution, and to inventory, protect,
and restore damaged habitat and native species. To accomplish this agenda efficiently, we will set priorities based on
comparative assessment of risks to the ecosystem. Pollution prevention will be a preferred means to reduce risks; we
want to work with industries to cut their toxic emissions voluntarily, sharply, rapidly. At the same time, we will better
integrate our enforcement of environmental laws to address the overall pollution problem at a facility. We will
aggressively inform the public about environmental issues, out of the related convictions that it is their right to know
and that an informed public is the ultimate guardian of the Great Lakes. Local stakeholders are integral to successful
solutions; we will invite both citizens and industries to participate in planning the restoration of Great Lakes toxic
hotspots. We will apply appropriate measures from our suite of air, water, and waste programs to fit the needs of these
areas. And we will judge our progress hi tangible, ecological terms, as in the health of sensitive fish and wildlife species.
In all this, we will take the utmost advantage of opportunities for cooperative actions with Canada.
The two nations will know that they have succeeded when their citizens can safely consume Great Lakes fish and
wildlife in unlimited quantities, and when a vulnerable species like the bald eagle, our proud national symbol, can thrive
in its traditional domain along the shores of the Great Lakes.
The world is at a historic crossroads with respect to the environment. Environmental concerns are sweeping the globe
in conjunction with humankind's burgeoning numbers and the spread of industrialization. In environmental affairs, as
in our championing of democracy, human rights, and a market economy, the United States is an example for much of
the world. Many nations will look to the successes of our shared stewardship of the Great Lakes for encouragement in
protecting and restoring their own living resources. As I look ahead, I feel confident that the United States and Canada
will continue to reverse many decades of environmental abuse to the Great Lakes. It is our responsibility, both to our
own and to future generations.
Sincerely,
William K. Reilly
Honorable J. Danforth Quayle
President of the Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Honorable Thomas Foley
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
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Draft
Report to Congress on the Great Lakes Ecosystem
Second Report
July 1991
Great Lakes National Program Office
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Chicago, Illinois
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DRAFT July 1991
A Progress Report
I his is the second report by the Environmental Protection Agency on United States actions
-*- to implement the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement with Canada and, more broadly,
on Great Lakes ecosystem trends and programs. It is developed pursuant to Sections 118(c)(6)
and 118(f) of the Clean Water Act and is organized into the following chapters:
Introduction: Chapter One helps to place today's Great Lakes ecological issues in perspec-
tive. It sketches some aspects of the physical features of the lakes, economic development in
the region over the last three centuries, and ecological outcomes associated with this develop-
ment.
The State of the Lakes: Chapter Two discusses five broad problems currently facing the Great
Lakes: contamination of fish and wildlife; contaminated bottom sediments; lost, degraded,
and threatened wetlands; damage to native species from exotic (non-native) ones; and
undesirable effects from excessive nutrients.
The Great Lakes Program in 1991: Chapter Three describes a model, holistic approach to
ecosystem protection that EPA is pioneering on the Great Lakes. This approach will seek to
cut loadings of toxic pollution to the Lakes and to protect and restore habitats necessary for
healthy plant and animal communities. It will pursue these broad goals by promoting pollution
prevention as the preferred means to reduce environmental damage and by focusing the
Agency's programs around an ecosystem. EPA will direct its activities on the basis of
ecological needs and measure progress by ecological yardsticks.
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement: Chapter Four presents achievements
for Fiscal Years 1989 and 1990 and plans for FY1991 under the Agreement with Canada. The
chapter focuses on the three major approaches under the Agreement for improving the Great
Lakes ecosystem: Remedial Action Plans for Areas of Concern; Lakewide Management Plans
for Critical Pollutants; and the Phosphorus Load Reduction Plan.
Actions By Federal Partners: Chapter Five provides highlights from five other agencies on
their programs relating to the Great Lakes. These agencies are the Army Corps of Engineers;
the Coast Guard; the Fish and Wildlife Service; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration; and the Soil Conservation Service.
Great Lakes Science: Chapter Six discusses surveillance of the Great Lakes system, including
3 EPA initiatives relating to persistent toxic contaminants. These are a binational network to
monitor atmospheric deposition of trace organic substances; a multi-year study of the sources
and fates of several contaminants in Green Bay; and the outfitting of a new research vessel to
monitor trace organics in open-lake waters.
Expenditures: Chapter Seven provides Federal expenditures on Great Lakes water quality
over 3 fiscal years.
Except where noted otherwise, this report is written as of the start of Federal Fiscal Year 1991
(October 1,1990).
THE STATE OF THE LAKES
Contamination of Fish and Wildlife: The Great Lakes food web is contaminated by a variety
of persistent toxic substances, causing unacceptable levels in certain fish and wildlife. Due to use
restrictions and major investments in pollution treatment and abatement, levels of some con-
taminants are much lower than in the early 1970s and continue to decline, but still justify the
issuance of public health advisories regarding fish consumption. Contaminants have been as-
sociated with reproductive and other health problems in fish and wildlife, though with the sharp
decline of targeted pollutants many species seem to be recovering. Problems persist for fish and
wildlife in certain locations, particularly in harbors and rivers with highly contaminated bottom
sediments and for predators high in the food web like lake trout, mink, herring gulls, and bald
eagles.
Contaminated Bottom Sediments: Bottom sediments of many harbors and rivers are poisoned
by a variety of persistent toxic substances. Contaminated sediments are of ecological concern
because they are associated with tumors in bottom fish; they serve as a reservoir of contaminants
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DRAFT July 1991
that recycle into the food web through resuspension or uptake by benthic (bottom-dwelling)
organisms; and they injure sensitive benthic organisms. Contaminated sediments also increase
the costs of navigational dredging, because they require special measures during dredging and
disposal. In various locations, sediment contamination has delayed navigational dredging for
years.
Lost, Degraded, and Threatened Wetlands: Wetlands are invaluable habitat for a variety of
birds, fish, and other wildlife. It has been estimated that since 1800 about two-thirds of Great
Lakes wetlands have been lost, primarily because of conversion to what landowners regard as
more useful purposes. The present rate of destruction is much less than in prior eras, but
development continues to pressure remaining wetlands.
Damage to Native Species from Exotics: About 100 exotic (non-native) species have been
introduced to the Great Lakes since 1800, one-third carried by ships. The rate of introduction of
exotics has sharply increased over the last 30 years, since completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway
in 1959 allowed more transoceanic shipping. Some exotics have profoundly damaged native
species. A threatening recent invader, the zebra mussel, probably entered the Great Lakes about
1988 via ballast water discharge from an ocean-going vessel. Ecological effects of the mussel are
as yet unknown, but potentially catastrophic. A prolific breeder, the striped mollusc devours
microscopic plants at the foundation of the food web and may create a food shortage for other
phytoplankton eaters, ultimately threatening predator fish such as walleye, salmon, and lake trout.
Some other introduced species of concern are the sea lamprey (although a program of lampricide
application controls its numbers), the river ruffe, and the spiny water flea.
Undesirable Effects from Excessive Nutrients: Shallow waters that receive agricultural runoff
of fertilizers or have high surrounding populations—such as Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Saginaw
Bay, and Green Bay—are overenriched with nutrients, notably phosphorus. The situation has
improved since the late 1960s, when Erie was clogged by mats of algae that depleted dissolved
oxygen from bottom waters. Phosphorus concentrations are approaching those predicted to end
undesirable effects. Partly as a result, the walleye population of Lake Erie has increased and the
numbers of plankton-grazing fish have diminished. Erie has a much reduced mass of algae and
the mix between types of algae has improved. In 1989, the rate of depletion of dissolved oxygen
in the bottom waters of Erie's central basin was at a twenty year low and the duration of the period
of oxygen depletion in these waters was shorter than in the mid-1980s. Nevertheless, the bottom
waters of central Lake Erie continue to suffer oxygen depletion in late summer.
THE GREAT LAKES PROGRAM IN 1991: A MODEL, ECOSYSTEM APPROACH
To attack current Great Lakes problems, EPA will launch a new, holistic approach to ecosystem
protection. In general, this approach will aim to reduce toxic pollutant loadings to the Lakes and
to protect and restore habitats necessary for healthy plant and animal communities. In pursuing
these broad goals, EPA will examine ecological and human health risks facing the Great Lakes
region; target priority problems and geographic areas; promote pollution prevention as the
preferred, efficient means to reduce risks; integrate regulatory and enforcement actions in order
to address the overall pollution problem at a given facility; meet local needs with an appropriate
blend of solutions from across the entire range of the Agency's programs; encourage public
participation; and evaluate progress using ecological indicators. In all these elements, the Agency
will take advantage of opportunities for cooperative actions with Canada.
EPA has successfully used many individual elements of this approach in the past. The fundamen-
tal changes being pioneered on the Great Lakes are to promote innovative pollution prevention
measures and to focus and integrate the Agency's programs around an ecosystem, setting goals
on the basis of environmental needs and measuring progress by ecological yardsticks.
Setting a Risk Based Agenda
EPA will invite other stakeholders to join in the development of a 5-year strategy for the Great
Lakes, to kick-off in FY1992. Stakeholders include Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments,
representatives from industry, agriculture, and environmental groups, and other concerned
members of the public. The strategy will emphasize the ecosystem approach, strongly rely on
pollution prevention methods, and seek to reduce loadings of toxic substances and to protect and
restore healthy plant and animal communities.
To support development of this strategy, EPA will conduct its first risk-based comparative
examination of human health and ecological hazards facing the Great Lakes region. The study
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will look at the available evidence on 23 different types or sources of problems including those
addressed by the Agency's various air, waste, and water programs, and other problems of import
to the Great Lakes like the introduction of exotic species, changing lake levels, and contaminated
fresh water bottom sediments. This study will help the Agency to target the most pressing sources
of Great Lakes problems.
Promoting Pollution Prevention
EPA will use the Great Lakes as a proving ground for promoting pollution prevention. Pollution
prevention is the adoption of "greener" technologies or practices. It entails everyday decisions
by industry, agriculture, governments, universities, individuals—in short, by everyone—that cause
the least environmental harm. Pollution prevention heads-off environmental injury at its origins.
Buttressed by other Agency activities, pollution prevention will be the preferred means to reduce
risks to the Great Lakes ecosystem. EPA will weave pollution prevention into the fabric of all its
Great Lakes activities and encourage all sectors of society to contribute their energies and ideas
to the ecological imperative to reduce the quantity and hannfulness of resources used to satisfy
human needs.
In concert with the eight Governors of Great Lakes States, EPA will launch a Great Lakes
Pollution Prevention Action Plan aimed at reducing toxic substances found in the Great Lakes
food web. The Action Plan will augment State pollution prevention programs. During recent
years, the Great Lakes States have launched various prevention initiatives, involving education,
research, technical assistance, and recognition of prevention successes via awards. Some States
are also exploring ideas such as issuing one permit to cover all the emissions from a facility;
incorporating pollution prevention into enforcement settlements; and linking permit fees to toxic
generation.
The Action Plan will also complement EPA's national Pollution Prevention Strategy that
includes the 33/50 Program. EPA has identified 17 high risk chemicals that offer strong oppor-
tunities for prevention. During 1991, EPA will announce a goal of encouraging firms to voluntarily
cut their nationwide releases of these substances 33 percent by the end of 1992 and 50 percent by
the end of 1995. Large manufacturing firms report their annual releases or transfers of over 300
toxic substances. On a national basis these firms released or transferred over 1.4 billion pounds
of the 17 chemicals in 1988. EPA will ask firms who have reported releases of the target chemicals
to voluntarily reduce these through pollution prevention. EPA expects widespread cooperation
because pollution prevention offers economic benefits and is good corporate citizenship.
The Action Plan will be predicated on challenging all sectors of society to prevent pollution;
focusing on high risk pollutants and areas; and measuring progress. It will launch five initiatives
dedicated to the Great Lakes:
• The Challenge: The Governors of the Great Lakes States will challenge all sectors of society
to voluntarily reduce releases of pollutants harmful to the Great Lakes. They will develop a
regional award program to recognize excellence in pollution prevention, and also examine
technical and/or regulatory disincentives to prevention.
• Lake Superior: Superior has not experienced surrounding development as intensely as other
lakes, and remains relatively pristine. As the fountainhead of the Great Lakes system, it is
important that it remain so. EPA and the Lake Superior States will agree on common
procedures to prevent degradation; agree on key pollutants; and establish air deposition
monitoring sites to measure loadings of air pollution to the lake.
• Auto Manufacturing and Related Industries: EPA and States will work with Chrysler, Ford,
and General Motors to promote prevention of persistent toxic substances, which they or their
suppliers may use, that could injure the Great Lakes ecosystem.
• Urban Non-point Pollution: EPA and New York will support educational programs to
prevent urban non-point source pollution from households. These will target the public
around Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, and Watertown.
• Binationai Symposium: In the fall of 1991, EPA will co-sponsor with Environment Canada
a symposium to share information on pollution prevention.
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Geographic Targeting
A hallmark of the ecosystem approach will be to focus on priority ecological problems and
geographic areas. This will be achieved through implementation of ecosystem restoration plans—
Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) for Areas of Concern and Lakewide Management Plans
(LAMPs) for Critical Pollutants on a whole-lake basis. Related efforts include geographic
enforcement initiatives; development of guidance regarding water quality criteria for the Great
Lakes; and the ARCS program to demonstrate technologies for the treatment of contaminated
sediments.
During FY 1991, EPA and States will especially target two locations encompassing Areas of
Concern, because of their profiles of high ecological risk and non-compliance with permits and
regulations. The Agency and States will focus remediation, inspection and enforcement, and
prevention activities on Southeast Chicago-Northwest Indiana and along the Niagara River.
The Agency believes that hi some cases criteria specific for the Great Lakes are necessary to
protect aquatic biota and wildlife, and human health—primarily from fish consumption risks—on
a long-term basis. In FY 1989, EPA and States began a "Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative"
to develop EPA guidance to States regarding water quality criteria for the Great Lakes, a Great
Lakes antidegradation policy, implementation procedures, and pollution prevention measures.
EPA is responsible for developing national water quality criteria that numerically define man-
mum allowable concentrations of certain pollutants in surface waters across the nation. These
criteria are used by States as a basis for their water quality standards and water quality-based
regulation under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The initiative
will continue in FY 1991. EPA envisions that the guidance will be completed in time to be
incorporated into the next triennial State water quality standard review process (1991 to 1993).
During 1989-90, the ARCS program assessed the nature of sediment contamination in several
areas: Ashtabula River, Ohio; Buffalo River, New York; Grand Calumet River, Indiana; Saginaw
River, Michigan; and Sheboygan River, Wisconsin. The program also began comprehensive
hazard evaluations of the Buffalo and Saginaw Rivers to assess risks under various remedial
alternatives that are continuing. Beginning in 1991 and continuing into 1992, ARCS will undertake
pilot-scale, field demonstrations of sediment treatment technologies in each of the study areas.
By December 1993, the ARCS program will develop guidance on remedial alternatives to assist
local decision-makers in addressing the different sediment situations in Areas of Concern.
Integrated Enforcement
Another aspect of EPA's integration will be to follow a "multi-media" enforcement strategy.
Traditionally, EPA has relied on enforcement under a single statute, addressing a single medium
(air, waste, or water). This may have sometimes had the effect of allowing a polluter to transfer
an environmental problem from one medium to another (e.g., soil to air). On a national basis,
EPA will seek to make 25% of all enforcement actions in 199 "multi-media" cases so as to address
the overall pollution problem at a given facility. During 1989-90, EPA took several multi-media
enforcement actions in the Great Lakes region for alleged violations of environmental permits
and regulations in Northwest Indiana.
Assessing Progress
Another hallmark of EPA's approach to the Great Lakes will be to set goals and assess progress
towards them, using demonstrable measures. In 1987, EPA, the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation and counterpart Canadian agencies dedicated themselves to cut in
half loadings of priority tone chemicals to the Niagara River by 1996. Progress towards this goal
is ascertained by monitoring water quality at both ends of the river. Ecosystem indicators will be
established for each lake as part of the Lakewide Management Planning process. EPA will
develop a better understanding of the significance of atmospheric deposition of pollutants by
establishing a monitoring network.
ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE WATER QUALITY AGREEMENT
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is a joint commitment by the United States and
Canada to protect and restore the Great Lakes. Its three major approaches for doing this are
Remedial Action Plans for Areas of Concern, Lakewide Management Plans for Critical Pol-
lutants, and the Phosphorus Load Reduction Plan.
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Remedial Action Planning
In 1987, the U.S. formally committed to develop and implement ecosystem cleanup plans for
the most impaired areas around the lakes, called Areas of Concern. These tend to be bays,
harbors, and river mouths with damaged fish and wildlife populations, contaminated bottom
sediments, or ongoing loadings of toxic or bacterial pollutants. Though they are still impaired,
there have been notable improvements in many of these areas since the 1960s. Improved water
quality in the Cuyahoga, Black, and Ashtabula Rivers in Ohio and the Buffalo River in New York
have allowed fish to return. However, contaminants remain in these areas, rendering some fish
species unsafe for human consumption and causing an increased incidence of tumors or other
abnormalities in some fish.
With the addition of Presque Isle Bay during 1991, the U. S. has 31 Areas of Concern, including
5 shared with Canada. RAPs are principally developed and implemented by States with support
from EPA, consistent with the Federal/State partnership in national environmental legislation.
Other Federal agencies are also supporting the RAP process in valuable ways.
Another notable feature of the RAP process is that community stakeholder groups are strongly
involved in working with local and State governments on many RAPs. This grass roots participa-
tion has molded the goals of RAPs and strengthened the sense of local "ownership" of both
problems and their solutions. These groups have also provided a valuable channel for local
industries to join in the restoration process and to look for ways to prevent pollution. The RAPs
developed to date have also served to inform the public and to justify needed investments in Great
Lakes restoration (e.g., Great Lakes Governors launched a $100 million Great Lakes Protection
Fund in 1988).
An indicator of progress toward the restoration of Areas of Concern is completion of editions
of Remedial Action Plans. States have committed to completing 9 Stage One (problem definition)
and 2 Stage Two (remedial action definition) during FY 1991. This will bring their cumulative
totals thus far to 22 Stage One and 12 Stage Two RAPs. Many other RAPs are under development.
RAPs will be continually improved as more is learned about the problems of Areas of Concern,
and as warranted by the results of preventive and remedial measures. EPA views Remedial Action
Planning as a valuable ongoing management process to identify priority environmental problems,
steps needed to solve these, and ecological progress.
Actions to Restore Areas of Concern
EPA, States, and other participants do not wait for the completion of plans before taking
warranted actions to reduce toxic loadings or protect habitat. Some highlights of recent ac-
complishments:
• The cleanup process is continuing through various stages at 13 Superfund sites that are
integral to restoring 7 Areas of Concern—Ashtabula River, Kalamazoo River, Niagara River,
St. Lawrence River, Sheboygan River, Torch Lake, and Waukegan Harbor. This process is
also continuing at another 4 Superfund sites that are significant, though generally to a lesser
degree, to restoring 3 other Areas of Concern—the Clinton River, St. Louis River, and
Saginaw River. Over the course of these multi-year remediations, hundreds of millions of
dollars will be invested, by potentially responsible parties and EPA, in redressing environ-
mental problems.
• Multi-year programs to eliminate combined sewer overflows of untreated waste water are
underway in many communities around the Great Lakes. These are of particular importance
to 8 Areas of Concern—the Detroit River, Maumee River, Menominee River, Milwaukee
Harbor, Rochester Embayment, Rouge River, St. Clair River, and St. Marys River.
• Major long-term investments in municipal wastewater treatment plants are improving 3
Areas of Concern—the Black River, Cuyahoga River, and Green Bay.
• The Federal government has filed suit to enforce the pretreatment of industrial effluent in a
case relating to two Areas of Concern—the Rouge River and Detroit River.
• Pursuant to RCRA, EPA and States have taken measures that are significant to two Areas
of Concern—the Menominee River and River Raisin.
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Actions to Restore Areas of Concern
Lake Michigan
Contamination of sport fish with PCBs is the principal basis for the issuance of health
advisories regarding Great Lakes fish. Various actions ringing Lake Michigan attack this
priority problem.
• The largest known reservoir of PCBs in the Great Lakes is Waukegan Harbor. Under
a Superfund remedial plan being carried out through 1993,99 percent of the PCBs in
the harbor will be removed.
• Another important source of PCBs has been the Sheboygan River; it is the subject of a
Superfund remedial investigation and feasibility study. On the eastern side of the lake,
the Kalamazoo River has PCB-contaminated bottom sediments. In 1989, EPA and
Michigan proposed a 35 mile stretch of the river as a Superfund site and a remedial
investigation Is beginning in 1991.
• The Fox River and Green Bay have suffered high levels of PCBs; EPA and Wisconsin
are studying the sources and fates of PCBs in this area.
• At the base of Lake Michigan, various enforcement actions have been taken and the
area remains the focus of EPA and State activities. Under a recent innovative settle-
ment, USX Corporation will dredge sediments from a stretch of the Grand Calumet
River to prevent movement of contaminants, including PCBs, to the lake.
The Niagara River
The other most contaminated lake is Ontario. The U.S. side of the Niagara River, which after
World War II attracted a cluster of chemical companies, has been a leading source of toxic
pollutants, including 10 of the 15 most troublesome in the Lake Ontario food web. Studies
indicate that non-point loadings, such as leachate and runoff from waste sites, are the
dominant source of priority pollutants to the Niagara. There are many hazardous waste sites
near the river, the most infamous of which may be a former landfill called Love Canal which
became a residential area.
The Niagara Frontier has been a sustained emphasis of EPA and New York over many years.
A major binational study of the river was completed in 1985. In 1987, EPA and the State joined
Canadian counterparts in a declaration dedicated to halving toxic loadings to the Niagara by
1996. They have taken many actions related to remediating waste sites, including five Super-
fund sites and others addressed by the State's waste program. Some of the residential areas
near Love Canal that were once deemed unsafe have recently been judged to be habitable.
EPA and the State have announced schedules to remediate, by 1996, the 20 waste sites
considered responsible for 99 percent of U.S. waste site loadings to the Niagara.
The St. Lawrence River
EPA and State actions are also aimed at profound local problems. One of the most pressing
is the St. Lawrence River Area of Concern. Largely during the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. and
Canadian industries poured wastes including PCBs and mercury into riverside landfills, even
the St. Lawrence River itself. Aluminum smelters emitted fluroide into the air. This pollution
damaged the traditional fishing, farming, and hunting economy of Mohawks living on the
Akwesasne Indian Reservation in New York State. Fish, ducks, and turtles, long principal
sources of protein for the Mohawks, became contaminated with PCBs or mercury.
In 1983, EPA added a General Motors site on the St. Lawrence to its Superfund NPL fist. In
1990, EPA selected a remedial plan for part of this site' that is estimated to cost $78 million.
In 1991, EPA also issued Superfund Administrative Orders to the Aluminum Company of
America (ALCOA) and the Reynolds Metal Company to perform remedial investigations,
designs, and cleanups of PCB-contaminated bottom sediments in the St. Lawrence River
system.
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DRAFT July 1991
• Agricultural nonpoint pollution control measures, many including Department of Agricul-
ture participation, are focusing on Areas of Concern where this type of pollutant source is
notably significant—Green Bay, Maumee River, and Saginaw Bay.
• Regulation of point source water dischargers is especially helping 2 Areas of Concern—the
Grand Calumet River and Manistique River.
Lakewide Management Planning
The second major restoration approach under the Water Quality Agreement is the development
of Lakewide Management Plans for Critical Pollutants to address whole-lake problems that
extend beyond Areas of Concern. While EPA has the lead responsibility for developing these
plans, participation by other Federal agencies, States, and local communities is integral to their
success. During 1991, EPA and the States will develop LAMPs for Lakes Ontario and Michigan,
as accumulations of persistent toxic substances in fish and wildlife are highest in these lakes. In
FY1992, the Agency will begin work on a LAMP for Lake Superior.
Phosphorus Load Reduction Plan
In 1983, the U. S. and Canada agreed to develop and implement Phosphorus Load Reduction
Plans to reduce phosphorus loadings to the two lower lakes and Saginaw Bay. Implementation
of the U.S. Plan relies on programs aimed at increasing the use of best management practices in
agricultural areas, including increased adoption of conservation tillage practices, better manage-
ment of livestock waste, and better management of fertilizers. Through 1988, the apparent rate
of adoption of conservation tillage was about a quarter of that targeted for the Lake Erie
watershed.
However, phosphorus levels in Lake Erie have continued to decline and are approaching target
concentrations, though this success may be partly attributable to several recent years of below
average rainfall. In 1989, the rate of depletion of dissolved oxygen in the bottom waters of central
Lake Erie was at a twenty year low. Phosphorus concentrations in Lake Erie are significantly
affected by both weather and agricultural land use. Better agricultural land use practices will
continue to be important to improving waters vulnerable to nutrient overenrichment.
FEDERAL PARTNERS
Five other Federal agencies have provided information on their programs as these affect the
Great Lakes ecosystem. These agencies are the Army Corps of Engineers; the Coast Guard; the
Fish and Wildlife Service; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the Soil
Conservation Service.
The Army Corps of Engineers
The Corps maintains navigational channels in authorized harbors and rivers; administers the
Federal program that regulates the discharge of dredge or fill materials into U.S. waters; and
conducts civil works projects, including flood and shoreline erosion control projects. Some recent
highlights and upcoming plans:
• During both FY 1989 and 1990, the Corps analyzed bottom sediments at 19 navigational
projects to determine sediment disposal needs.
• To maintain navigation, the Corps removed about 4 million cubic yards of bottom sediments
from the Great Lakes during each year, placing about half this volume in confined disposal
facilities because of contaminants in the sediments. The Corps also studied potential con-
taminant loss from 2 CDFs.
• In FY 1990, the Corps issued 6,500 dredge and fill permits within the Great Lakes watershed,
and took 343 enforcement actions.
• The Corps worked with EPA and States on technical reviews of several Superfund site plans,
on the ARCS program to demonstrate contaminated sediment remediation technologies,
and on Remedial Action Planning for several Areas of Concern.
• The Corps began construction of two major flood damage reduction projects in Chicago and
northwest Indiana.
XI
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DRAFT July 1991
• During FY1991, the Corps will continue the dredge and fill permit and navigational dredging
programs. The Corps will begin to construct or modify 6 CDFs and start construction of two
small boat harbors. The Corps will also continue to remediate hazardous waste at former
defense sites.
The Coast Guard
Through promulgation of regulations and inspections for marine safety and law enforcement,
the Coast Guard promotes prevention of pollution from vessels. The Coast Guard is also
responsible for responding to spills of oil and hazardous substances into the Great Lakes. As the
Federal On-Scene Coordinator for spills from ships, the Coast Guard monitors cleanup activities
and conducts the cleanup when responsible parties do not do so effectively. A further Coast
Guard activity that is important to the Great Lakes ecosystem is prevention of the introduction
of exotic species from ships. Some recent highlights and upcoming plans:
• In May 1989, the Coast Guard collaborated with the Canadian Coast Guard to establish
voluntary guidelines to protect the Great Lakes from further introduction of exotic species
through discharge of ship ballast water. Under these guidelines, ships scheduled to enter the
Great Lakes system are advised to exchange their ballast water beyond the continental shelf,
or if this is not possible, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These guidelines were distributed by
the International Maritime Organization to its 133 member governments and organizations.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Authority is monitoring compliance with the guidelines, and the
Canadian Coast Guard plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the guidelines, with assistance
from the U.S. Coast Guard as necessary. The Authority reported 85 percent compliance with
the guidelines during the 1989 shipping season. Ballast water was not sampled to verify that
it had been exchanged.
• In April 1989, the Coast Guard promulgated regulations to implement Annex V of the
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78).
These regulations prohibit the discharge of garbage into the navigable waters of the United
States, and apply to all ships, including recreational boats.
• The Coast Guard continued to verify pollution incidents in the U.S. waters of the Great
Lakes. During calendar year 1989, the Coast Guard recorded 262 such incidents. Of these,
13 involved hazardous materials, the remainder involved oil. The Federal government funded
cleanups for 17 incidents.
The Fish and Wildlife Service
The Service maintains fish and wildlife resources and provides access to them for the public.
The Service collects and interprets information on fish and wildlife species, populations, and
habitats to assist resource managers in making decisions about the protection and restoration of
the Great Lakes ecosystem. Many of its activities fall into three functional areas: fisheries; refuges
and wildlife; and fish and wildlife enhancement. Activities include permit reviews; land acquisi-
tion and habitat management; management of migratory birds, anadromous fish, and endangered
species, including the surveillance and stocking of lake trout and the control of a leading trout
predator, sea lamprey, and research on the causes and effects of habitat change and chemical
contaminants.
Fisheries
• During 1989 and 1990, the Service stocked 9.8 million lake trout into the Great Lakes. Many
of these were stocked offshore over traditional spawning reefs to increase the likelihood of
their survival.
• The Service applied lampricides to tributaries where sea lamprey spawn; 31 rivers were
treated in 1989,28 the next year, and 39 will be targeted in 1991.
• The Service continued to monitor contaminants in Lake Michigan bloater chubs, a program
that has been maintained since 1969.
JHI
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DRAFT July 1991
Refuges and Wildlife
• During 1990, the Service continued to support wetland restorations through cooperative
agreements with landowners; two national wildlife refuges supported the restoration of 971
acres of wetlands, including 109 acres in counties bordering Lake Erie.
• The Service is supporting a survey of colonial waterbirds of the Great Lakes; this three year
study, begun in 1989, will update a survey from the late 1970s and indicate where the Service
should direct future management efforts.
• The Service is working with Ohio in monitoring bald eagles near Lake Erie; active eagle nests
have risen from 2 to 16 over the past 8 years.
• During 1991, the Service will finish a preliminary study, begun in 1990, to identify lands within
10 miles of Lake Erie that have potential for wildlife habitat and public recreation, and that
have unique natural, historic, or scenic features.
Fish and Wildlife Enhancement
• In 1989, the Service prepared natural resource damage surveys for two Superfund sites
(General Motors Central Foundry located along the St. Lawrence River and Hooker
Chemical along the Niagara River). In 1990, the Service continued a pre-assessment of
natural resource damages for Waukegan Harbor, Illinois, and began a natural resources
damage assessment for Saginaw Bay. In 1991, the Service will begin a natural resource
damage assessment for the Grand Calumet River.
• To support EPA's ARCS program, the Service conducted surveys of fish (bullheads) and
sediments in Saginaw, Grand Calumet, and Buffalo River for tumors and abnormalities. The
sediment collected will be used to study bioaccumulation of chemicals in fish collected at
these three locations.
• During 1990, the Service reviewed bald eagle population and productivity data as a review
of the species' endangered status.
• In cooperation with States and duck hunter organizations, the Service continued efforts to
restore beds of wild celery along the Great Lakes. Wild celery provides foraging oppor-
tunities for fish and the vegetation is eaten by waterfowl. In the spring of 1988, celery was
planted at 2 locations in the lower Detroit River. While the celery failed at one site, about
5,000 plants took hold at the other. This work indicates that restoration of wild celery in the
lower Detroit River is possible under proper conditions.
• The Service studied gulls and bald eagles around the Torch Lake, Michigan, Area of Concern
to determine if the high copper level in the lake was hurting their reproductive success. Initial
indications were that the productivity of the species was normal. A companion study looked
at yellow perch reproduction in Torch Lake, finding impaired hatchability of perch eggs.
• The Service plans to propose the Lake Erie water snake for threatened status and
Hungerford's crawling water beetle for endangered status. The snake is found only on several
Ohio and Ontario islands, while the beetle is found in only 2 Michigan sites and 1 in Ontario.
• The Service will support the advanced identification of important wetland resources in
northwest Ohio that are unsuitable for the discharge of dredged or filled materials. This is a
joint activity with EPA, OEPA, Ohio DNR, and the Army Corps of Engineers. The Service
will also continue to support a similar advanced identification of wetlands near Green Bay.
The Soil Conservation Service
The Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides technical
and financial assistance to land users including farmers, ranchers, and foresters, and to other
government agencies on a variety of natural resource issues. The Service contributes to conserving
the Nation's soil, water, plant, and animal resources by informing land users of management
practices that control erosion, protect the quality of surface water, and reduce the contamination
of groundwater by agricultural chemicals.
xui
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DRAFT July 1991
Through its nationwide network of conservation specialists, the Service provides assistance on
topics such as pesticide and nutrient management, reduced tillage practices, fish and wildlife
habitat development, soil mapping and interpretation, and watershed protection. It also conducts
natural resource inventories and maintains data on soil erosion and land use. To assist land users
in protecting natural resources, the USDA also administers cost-sharing programs to pay land
users for following conservation practices, protecting wetlands, and improving water quality.
The Service is participating in 10 major USDA projects that are underway or planned in the
Great Lakes watershed. Some recent highlights and upcoming plans:
• The Service is participating in five Water Quality Special Projects that seek to reduce
agricultural releases of nutrients and sediment to surface waters: Cattaraugus Creek, New
York; LaGrange County Lake Enhancement Program, Indiana; Vermillion River and the
West Branch of the Black River, Ohio; and the Clam River, Michigan.
• USDA is also conducting two long-term demonstration projects, within the Green Bay and
Saginaw Bay watersheds. These seek to demonstrate crop management systems that reduce
the quantities of nutrients and pesticides needed to produce acceptable crop yields, and the
Saginaw project will also implement Integrated Pest Management practices to prevent
groundwater contamination. The two projects provide land users up to 70 percent cost-shar-
ing for improving their land management.
• The Service is participating in the Saline Valley Water Project that is aimed at reducing the
loadings of phosphorus from southeastern Michigan to Lake Erie.
• The Service is also participating in two hydrologic unit projects, one for Sycamore Creek,
Michigan, that is attempting to prevent pesticide and sediment contamination. The other, in
the Wolf Creek watershed of Michigan is working to protect Lake Adrian from sediment,
phosphorus, and pesticides.
Note to Reviewers: The Executive Summary of the next draft will address chapters 6 and 7 of this
report on, respectively, Great Lakes science and expenditures.
xiv
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DRAFT July 1991
Table of Contents
A Progress Report v
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
The Great Lakes 1
Economy in Historical Perspective 4
Some Ecological Impacts of Development 6
Chapter 2: The State of the Ecosystem 9
Persistent Toxic Substances 9
Contaminated Bottom Sediments 16
Degraded Wetlands 18
Exotic Species 19
Excessive Nutrients 22
Chapter 3: The Great Lakes Program in FY1991: A Model, Ecosystem Approach 25
A Risk-Based Agenda 25
Promote Pollution Prevention 25
Geographic Targeting 27
Integrated Regulation and Enforcement 28
Engage the Public 28
Assess Progress 29
Cooperation With Canada 29
Chapter 4: Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement 31
Framework 31
Remedial Action Planning 32
Arcs Program 35
Lakewide Management Planning 37
Phosphorus Load Reduction Plan 38
Chapter 5: Actions By Federal Partners 43
The Army Corps of Engineers 43
The Coast Guard 45
The Fish and Wildlife Service 46
Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory 48
The Soil Conservation Service 50
Chapter 6: Great Lakes Science 53
Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network 53
Green Bay Study 54
New Research Vessel 55
System-Wide Surveillance 55
Chapter 7: Expenditures 59
Appendix: Actions in Areas of Concern 63
End Notes 93
Sources for Figures and Tables 95
Glossary 99
Acknowledgements 105
xv
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DRAFT July 1991
Figures
1-1 The Great Lakes Watershed 2
1-2 Depth Profile of the Great Lakes and Summary of Their Physical Features 4
2-1 Simplified View of the Great Lakes Food Web 9
2-2 Lake Ontario Food Web Biomagnification 10
2-3 Contaminants in Herring Gull Eggs on Sister Island (Green Bay), Wisconsin 10
2-4 Pesticides and PCBs in Lake Michigan Bloater Chubs 11
2-5 Chemical Compounds in Hatchery Versus Great Lakes Lake Trout (1977) 14
2-6 Combined Sewer Overflows along the Detroit River 14
2-7 Routes of Releases of Toxic Substances around the Great Lakes (1988) 17
2-8 Releases of Toxic Substances in Great Lakes Counties (1988) 17
2-9 Releases of Toxic Substances around the Great Lakes by Industrial Group (1988) 18
2-10 Sediment Contamination in the Detroit River as Suggested by Impacts on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities 18
2-11 Presettlement Extent of the Black Swamp in Northwestern Ohio 19
2-12 Timing of the Entry of Exotic Species into the Great Lakes 19
2-13 Entry Routes of Exotic Species 20
2-14 Phosphorous Concentrations in the Great Lakes 22
2-15 Annual Average Corrected Oxygen Depletion Rate, Re, for Central Basin of Lake Erie 23
4-1 Areas of Concern 33
4-2 Cropland in the Great Lakes Watershed (1988) 39
4-3 Conservation Tillage in the Great Lakes Watershed (1988) 40
5-1 Great Lakes Harbors with Most Recorded Oil and Chemical Spills, January 1980-September 1989 45
6-1 Green Bay/Fox River Study Area 54
6-2 Contaminants in Several Species of Lake Michigan Fish 56
7-1 Superfund Expenditures in Great Lakes Counties in FYs 1987 through 1989 59
7-2 Construction Grant Awards in the Great Lakes Watershed 60
Tables
2-1 Great Lakes Fish Consumption Advisories (1989) 13
2-2 Some Key Contaminants in the Great Lakes 15
7-1 Selected FY 1989 Federal Expenditures on Great Lakes Water Quality 61
7-2 Selected FY 1990 Federal Expenditures on Great Lakes Water Quality 61
7-3 Selected FY 1991 Estimated Federal Expenditures on Great Lakes Water Quality 62
A-l Submittals of U.S. Remedial Action Plans to the International Joint Commission 63
A-2 Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern 65
XVI
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DRAFT July 1991
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
Introduction
I he Great Lakes basin is a region
•*• where America's inventive and
productive genius has been amply real-
ized. Early in the last century, steam-
ships and the Erie Canal helped to open
a 2,200 mile waterway into the heart of a
continent. From this corridor, poured
forth timber to build a growing nation,
and ores to feed the successive industrial
ages of iron, then steel. America's first
oil refineries were within the Great
Lakes basin, helping to spark the
region's automobile industry that grew
into the preeminent industry of 20 cen-
tury America. The connection of rail-
roads and canals to the lakes contributed
to unprecedented agricultural develop-
ment in the Midwest and Great Plains.
And the tradition continues, vigorous-
ly, today. Forest products, shipping,
agriculture, food processing, chemicals,
mining, metals, and heavy manufactur-
ing remain important to both the
regional economy and America's.
Before its development, the Great
Lakes basin was also a region of extraor-
dinary natural abundance—oceans of
freshwater, vast and splendid stands of
timber, plentiful fur-bearing animals,
rich soil, immense wetlands, multitudes
of waterfowl. The waters teemed with
fish. Sturgeon up to 9 feet long were
common. Fisherman using hand-held
dipnets could reap many hundreds of
whitefish in a day.
Much of the natural beauty and abun-
dance of the Great Lakes remain, al-
though development has often changed
or damaged the ecosystem. The blue
pike is extinct, Atlantic salmon long gone
from Lake Ontario. The numbers of sur-
viving sturgeon are few. Lake trout
populations are not self-sustaining and
must be stocked. A sensitive top
predator, the bald eagle, finds it relative-
ly more difficult to reproduce along the
shores of the Great Lakes than inland.
The extent of habitat available to fish and
wildlife is much reduced, as are their
populations.
To help place today's Great Lakes en-
vironmental issues in context, this chap-
ter discusses some aspects of the
physical features of the lakes, their
economic development during the past
three centuries, and ecological out-
comes associated with this development.
THE GREAT LAKES
By many measures, the five Great
Lakes are freshwater seas. Formed by
the melting retreat of mile-thick glaciers
10 to 12 thousand years ago, the Great
Lakes water system represents about 18
percent of the world's surface freshwater
and 95 percent of the surface freshwater
of the United States. If poured over the
continental United States, the 6 qua-
drillion gallons of the Great Lakes would
immerse the "lower 48" States to a depth
of almost 10 feet. The breadth of the
lakes, between eastern and western ex-
tremes, is about 800 miles. The Great
Lakes and then- connecting channels
have 7,437 miles of shoreline within eight
States and the Province of Ontario.
Their surface area is 96,394 square miles,
an area about that of the State of Oregon.
Their 201,000 square mile watershed
holds'nearly 80,000 small lakes-one-
third within the United States —that
would collectively cover an area larger
than Lake Erie.
By virtue of their size, the Great Lakes
have pronounced effects upon the
climate of their region. Heat stored in
the surface waters of the lakes during the
summer warms adjacent land in the fall
and winter. As a result, areas of
Michigan, southern Ontario, and
western New York have warmer winters
than some other parts of North America
at similar latitudes. However, these same
areas receive heavy snowfalls as prevail-
ing winds from the west pick up moisture
over the lakes. In the spring and summer,
the lakes are slow to warm, cooling near-
shore land.
As would be expected across such a
large geographical area, the physical
characteristics of the Great Lakes water-
shed are varied. In the north, the land is
heavily forested, particularly by conifers.
The soil is generally thin and acidic,
covering a hard, ancient bedrock called
the Laurentian Shield. The climate is
cold. Principal industries are timber,
mining, and hydroelectric power. In the
south, soils are deeper and fertile, rocks
sedimentary and nutrient rich, tempera-
tures warmer, the density of human
population greater. Vast wetlands and
deciduous forests have generally been
replaced by agricultural, industrial, and
residential uses.
By surface area, Lake Superior is the
largest freshwater lake in the world. It is
the second largest in terms of water
volume, trailing only the immensely deep
Lake Baikal in Siberia. Superior holds
just over one-half of the water in the
Great Lakes system. It is the coldest and
deepest of the lakes. About 90 percent of
the Superior watershed is forested; only
3 percent is used for agriculture. Due to
its huge volume, Lake Superior has the
longest water retention time of any of the
Great Lakes—191 years. Superior's out-
let is the St. Marys River that flows
south-easterly into Lake Huron.
Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake
that lies wholly within the United States.
It is the second largest in terms of water
volume, holding about 21 percent of the
water in the Great Lakes system. With
the exception of Wisconsin's Fox River
Valley, the northern part of Lake
Michigan's watershed is sparsely popu-
lated. The southern end of the lake is
ringed by lakefront cities, including Mil-
waukee, Chicago, and Gary. Lake
Michigan's watershed holds the largest
human population of all of the Great
Lakes —about 14 million. Lake
Michigan's water retention time is 99
years, the second longest of the hikes.
Water from Lake Michigan primarily
flows out through the Straits of Mack-
mac into Lake Huron. A much smaller
outflow is artificially diverted into the
-------
PENNSYLVANIA
I
K,
S
Figure 1-1. The Great Lakes Watershed
-------
DRAFT Jufyl991
Introduction 3
Mississippi River system via the Chicago
Sanitary and Ship Canal.
More than 100 rivers flow into Lake
Michigan. Just nine of these have an
average flow in excess of 1,000 cubic feet
per second (cfs). The four largest—the
Fox, St. Joseph, Grand (Michigan), and
Menominee — have flows of around
4,000 cfs. To put these flows into some
perspective, the natural flow of the
Niagara River over Niagara Falls
averages about 200,000 cfs.
Lake Huron is the second largest in
terms of surface area, slightly larger than
Lake Michigan in this regard. Lake
Huron receives both the outflow of Lake
Superior and a net outflow from Lake
Michigan through the Straits of Mack-
inac. Lake Huron holds about 16 percent
of the water of the Great Lakes. About
two-thirds of Huron's watershed is
forested; another quarter is devoted to
agriculture, particularly around Saginaw
Bay. Lake Huron's water retention time
is 22 years. The lake's outlet is the St.
Clair River that flows into Lake St. Clan-,
a shallow lake (average depth 11 feet)
northeast of Detroit.
Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great
Lakes in water volume, with an average
depth of only 62 feet. Lake Erie has three
distinct basins that are defined by water
depth and underwater ridges. The
western basin is shallow, with an average
depth of 24 feet; its waters are well
mixed. The central basin is deeper; its
waters stratify by temperature, and its
narrow bottom layer is vulnerable to
oxygen depletion. The eastern basin is
the deepest of the three. Its bottom layer
is thicker than that of the central basin,
making it much less vulnerable to oxygen
depletion. Lake Erie has the shortest
water retention time, 2.6 years, making it
the lake most responsive to both en-
vironmental abuse and cleanup.
Lake Erie is the southernmost of the
Great Lakes. Its waters are the wannest
in summer and the most productive
biologically, supporting abundant
fisheries. Because of its shallowness,
Erie is the lake most affected by air
temperature. As a result, Lake Erie
regularly has 95 percent ice cover in the
winter in contrast to the deeper Lake
Ontario that has an average cover of only
15 percent. Lake Erie's watershed is the
most agricultural, most urban, and least
forested; about two-thirds of it is used
for farming Erie has the highest rate of
sedimentation of the five lakes, receiving
soil particles from the rich farmlands of
its watershed. Erie's western basin
receives water from the upper lakes via
the Detroit River and from the Maumee
River that joins the lake near Toledo.
The Niagara River, flowing north into
Lake Ontario, is Erie's primary outlet.
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the
lakes in surface area, but contains more
than three times the water volume of
Lake Erie. About one-quarter of the
Lake Ontario watershed is used for
agriculture; dairy and cattle farms are
the most common types of agriculture.
The Canadian population within Lake
Ontario's watershed is about twice that
of the United States and has increased
significantly through the 1970s and
1980s, whereas the U. S. population has
remained stable. Canada's largest in-
dustrial region h'es along the western and
northwestern shores of Lake Ontario,
and includes Toronto, a city of 3 million
people. The southern portion of the
Lake Ontario watershed contains Buf-
falo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, and
Syracuse, New York.
The major source of water into Lake
Ontario is the Niagara River flowing
from Lake Erie. The Niagara provides
about three-quarters of the estimated
net inflow to the lake. Water from the
Niagara River circulates rapidly; any
contaminant borne by the Niagara is well
distributed around the lake in 1 or 2
years. A smaller inflow is artificially
diverted into Lake Ontario via Canada's
Welland Canal that provides a navigable
connection to Erie. Stretches of the
Niagara River are industrialized, prin-
cipally on the U.S. side. Lake Ontario is
about 325 feet lower in elevation than
Lake Erie, causing the Niagara River to
cascade spectacularly at the famous
Niagara Falls. Lake Ontario's water
retention time is 6 years. Its outlet is the
St. Lawrence River, which has an annual
flow that represents less than one-half of
1 percent of the water volume of the
entire Great Lakes system.
This relatively small outflow is an im-
portant characteristic of the Great
Lakes. The lakes are a nearly closed sys-
tem. Persistent pollutants introduced
into the lakes, especially into Superior
and Michigan with their long water
retention times, are primarily removed
from the water column by evaporation,
burial, or induction into the food web.
The system does not flush contaminants
quickly. This attribute makes the Great
Lakes ecosystem sensitive to environ-
mental stresses.
Another important characteristic of
the Great Lakes is their clarity. Before
intense European settlement of the
region began around 1800, the Great
Lakes contained little phosphorus, were
rich in oxygen, and, with the exception of
western Lake Erie and shallow bays,
were very clear (oligotrophic or poorly
nourished). One reason for these
phenomena was that the lakes'
shorelines were for the most part
rimmed by forests and wetlands, provid-
ing little nutrient runoff to stimulate the
production of microscopic plants (i.e.,
phytoplankton, such as algae). While
phytoplankton are a necessary building
block of the Great Lakes food web, over-
enrichment and excessive algal growth
cloud water and decay, depleting
oxygen. Today, most of Superior and
Huron remain oligotrophic, as do parts
of the northern basin of Lake Michigan.
The most biologically productive
waters are those of shallow embayments,
such as Green Bay, Saginaw Bay, and
western Lake Erie that are fed by the
Fox, Saginaw, and Maumee Rivers,
respectively, and that have warmer
waters than the open lakes. Green Bay
was so named by early settlers because
of the hue imparted by its
phytoplankton.
Before 1800, there were about 170 na-
tive fish species in the Great Lakes.
Nearshore species included smallmouth
and largemouth bass, muskellunge,
northern pike, channel catfish and stur-
geon. Lake herring, blue pike, lake
whitefish, grayling, walleye, sauger,
freshwater drum, lake trout and white
bass inhabited deeper waters. Sturgeon
lived to 150 years, reaching 9 feet in
length and 400 pounds, whereas lake
trout lived to 75 years.
The species mix varied between lakes.
A large population of Atlantic salmon
was confined to Lake Ontario. The deep
eastern basin of Lake Erie supported
lake trout, whereas the shallower and
wanner western basin did not. Lake Erie
sustained the most inshore species,
-------
4 Chapter 1
DRAFT July 1991
StM<*y>
Si Uwnra* Mw
Feature
Average
Depth
(feet)
Volume
(cubic
miles)
Area:Watei
(sq. mi.)
Superior
483
2,900
31,700
Michigan
279
1,180
22,300
Huron
195
850
23,000
Erie
62
116
9,910
Ontario
283
393
7,340
-600
-800
Figure 1-2: Depth Profile of the Great Lakes and Summary of Their Physical Features
whereas cold Superior was the least
productive. Superior, however, provided
the best habitat for the whitefish. Atlan-
tic salmon, grayling, blue pike, whitefish,
and lake trout were top predators among
fish. These species were staples in the
diet of Native Americans.
The composition offish populations in
the Great Lakes is very different today.
Fish are generally smaller than two cen-
turies ago, and many non-native fish
have been introduced, increasing the
number of species to about 190. Fish
populations have changed for a variety
of reasons, including alterations to the
food web; deliberate introduction of
sport-fish, notably Pacific salmon; inad-
vertent introduction of non-native
species, such as alewife, smelt, and sea
lamprey, habitat loss or disruption; over-
fishing; and the effects of pollutants on
fish reproduction.
Grayling are now extinct in the Great
Lakes. By 1900, Atlantic salmon disap-
peared from Lake Ontario. Blue pike
vanished from Lake Erie, and thus from
the world, in the 1950s. Lake trout, stur-
geon, and lake herring survive in
decreased numbers. Even in relatively
pristine Superior, hatchery-reared lake
trout must be stocked to bolster the
population. Populations of some native
species, such as walleye and white bass,
are more robust, and the whitefish
populations in Superior and parts of
Michigan and Huron are sufficient to
support commercial fishing. Stocked,
non-native Pacific salmon—coho and
chinook—are the most abundant top
predators in the open lakes, except in
western Lake Erie, where the top
predator is walleye.
The Great Lakes region also sustains a
rich diversity of birds and other wildlife.
Following the Atlantic and Mississippi
flyways, an estimated 3 million waterfowl
migrate through the Great Lakes each
year, using the lakes for food and shelter.
During their spring and fall migrations,
up to 25,000 raptors (birds of prey) can
be observed each day from Whitefish
Point in eastern Lake Superior. The
lakes are home to multitudes of terns,
herons, gulls, egrets, and cormorants.
Native animals include moose, deer, fox,
wolves, and fur-bearing mammals—
mink, muskrats, and beaver— that
fueled the early development of the
region by European settlers.
ECONOMY IN HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE
During the past 300 years, various in-
dustries have boomed in the Great Lakes
region. Fur trapping, especially of
beavers, thrived from the last half of the
17th century until the early 19th century.
As trapping depleted beaver popula-
tions in the region, the fur trade ex-
panded throughout the continent, to
California, Oregon, the Arctic Ocean.
Even after trapping had moved to the
west, the Great Lakes remained vital to
the industry as a transportation system.
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River
provided a 2,200 mile waterway to the
Atlantic coast whence furs were shipped
to customers in Europe. Many early set-
tlements on the Great Lakes were fur-
trading posts, among them Detroit,
Chicago, Green Bay, and Duluth.
Chicago's first non-Indian settler, Jean
Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a Haitian of
African and French descent, was a fur
trader who built a cabin on the north
shore of the Chicago River in 1779.
About the time the beaver industry
ended because of the scarcity of beavers
and the whims of fashion, early settlers
to the Great Lakes region began a mas-
sive harvest of trees. There were three
principal types of forests surrounding
the lakes. Spruce and fir trees grew in the
north, on the Laurentian Shield above
Superior and down to the eastern shore
of Huron. The second forest of birch,
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DRAFT July 1991
Introduction 5
hemlock, and pines ranged from south of
Lake Superior, to northern Michigan, to
the north shore of Lake Erie, and en-
circled Lake Ontario. South of this
region were hardwoods: ash, oak, maple,
and dogwood. The first deforestation
was by local settlers clearing land for
agriculture and buildings. Commercial
logging began in the 1830s after the
opening of the Erie Canal and the advent
of steamships provided access to eastern
markets. Logging began in Michigan and
soon extended to Minnesota and Wis-
consin. Loggers cut softwoods first,
chiefly white pine, often hundreds of
years old and more than 100 feet high.
Softwood timber framed homes and
ships. Hardwoods became barrels and
furniture.
The heyday of Great Lakes lumbering
was 1850 to 1900. Grand Rapids, today
Michigan's second largest city, was a
sawmill boom town in the 1850s that used
the rapids for power; later it became a
center for furniture making. During the
1890s, there were 100 sawmills adjacent
to the Saginaw River; by tonnage
shipped, Saginaw was the largest port on
the Great Lakes. Tugboats pulled enor-
mous floating trains of trees from
Canada to the Saginaw mills. Around
Muskegon Lake, beside Lake Michigan,
there were 50 active sawmills in 1900. By
1910, there were none.
The Great Lakes lumber industry ran
out of trees early in the 20th century. The
soils of the North Woods and the
Laurentian Shield are generally not con-
ducive to farming. With the passage of
time, forests have now returned to much
of their former domain in the northern
hah7 of the Great Lakes region, though
the trees are much younger and smaller
than their predecessors. Today, these
woods are harvested for paper. The
paper-making industry, begun in the
1860s, remains important in both the
United States and Canada. In 1982, the
forest industry of Michigan, Minnesota,
and Wisconsin employed about 150,000
people with sales of $15 billion. An addi-
tional 80,000 persons were employed in
forest recreation.
The mining industry grew concurrently
with the lumber industry and remains
important. In 1845, rich iron ore was
found in the Marquette Range of
Michigan's upper peninsula. Additional
iron ranges were later discovered near
Lake Superior—the Cuyuna, Mesabi,
and Vermillion Ranges in Minnesota,
the Menominee Range in Michigan's
upper peninsula, and the Gogebic
Range on the Wisconsin and Michigan
border. In 1855, completion of the Sault
Canal opened Superior to shipping and
permitted mining of these ranges.
Iron ore from the mineral-rich Lake
Superior watershed subsequently
helped to make the Great Lakes a center
of iron-making, steel-making, and heavy
manufacturing. The Great Lakes
provided an efficient waterway for ore to
be shipped to lakeside cities, like Buf-
falo, Detroit, Cleveland, Gary, Sault-
Sainte Marie, and Hamilton. Another
key ingredient for steel-making, lime-
stone, was quarried near the northeast
shore of Michigan's lower peninsula.
Coal from Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsyl-
vania fired industrial hearths.
Oil became another significant in-
dustry. The world's first oil well was
tapped in the northwestern Pennsylvania
town of Titusville in 1859. Oil was later
found near such locations as Midland,
Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and north-east
of Lake St. Clair around Petrolia and
London, Ontario. Cleveland, Ohio, al-
ready an industrial hub in part owing to
being the terminus of a canal that linked
the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, be-
came the nation's oil-refining center. In
1863, a 23-year old bookkeeper, John D.
Rockefeller, invested $4,000 in a
Cleveland oil refinery. By 1880, his
Standard Oil Company refined 95 per-
cent of the nation's oil. Ten years later,
Cleveland had a population of 260,000.
Chicago, too, grew rapidly after be-
coming a canal terminus. The canal was
completed in the 1830s, connecting Lake
Michigan and the Mississippi River sys-
tem. Chicago's first railroad, to
northwest Illinois' lead mining district,
was completed in 1853. Other railroads
followed, to establish the city as the
midwest's transportation center by the
time of the Civil War. Chicago grew 800-
fold from 350 inhabitants in 1833 to
300,000 by 1870, receiving waves of Irish,
German, and other European im-
migrants.
Owing to the easy confluence of iron
ore, limestone, coal, oil, and water
transportation, the Great Lakes region
became an industrial heartland of both
the United States and Canada. The
automotive industry was born in a
Michigan triangle bounded by Lansing,
Flint, and Detroit, drawing on and sup-
planting the carriage industry that had
been thriving there. Detroit's population
soared by almost 400 percent between
1890 to 1920 as Ford Motor Company
began mass production of automobiles.
The Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors
corporations were producing eight mil-
lion cars and trucks a year by 1950.
Industries associated with the
automobile business, such as tool and
die, machining, aluminum, and rubber,
were drawn to the area. By the 1920s,
Akron, Ohio, where Benjamin Goodrich
had opened a rubber factory in 1871, was
processing almost half the world's rub-
ber. Proximity to the steel industry
helped to attract agricultural equipment
and appliance manufacturers. Proximity
to industrial and agricultural customers
helped to attract chemical manufac-
turers. Chemical companies were fur-
ther encouraged by the brine wells of
southeastern Michigan. To draw on
these wells, Herbert Dow founded what
became one of America's largest chemi-
cal firms, Dow Chemical Company, in
Midland, Michigan, in 1891.
During the 1970s and early 1980s,
foreign competition and rising energy
costs caused red-ink and job losses in
Great Lakes heavy industry, especially in
the United States. By that time, foreign
economies devastated by the Second
World War had developed into strong
competitors to Detroit's automobile
manufacturers. The demand for fuel-ef-
ficient cars made lighter materials, such
as plastics and aluminum, desirable al-
ternatives to steel. During the 1970s,
Detroit lost 20 percent of its residents.
About one million manufacturing jobs
were eliminated in the early 1980s in just
five Great Lakes States.
Yet heavy industries, including mining,
steel, and auto-making, have adjusted,
reducing production to meet demand
and investing in new facilities. Today,
manufacturing remains the largest single
sector in the economy of most Great
Lakes States, although the steel industry
in particular will face increasing com-
petition from higher strength, lighter
weight composite materials.
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6 Chapter 1
DRAFT July 1991
Mining and manufacturing are likewise
major elements in the economy of the
Province of Ontario. The Sudbury area
produces the largest quantity of nickel in
the world. Ontario is a major producer
of gold, silver, platinum, uranium, zinc,
iron, copper, salt, and gypsum. The
province produces nearly 50 percent of
Canada's manufactured goods.
Agriculture is another productive ele-
ment of the Great Lakes economy.
During the 19th century, cheap land with
ample top soil, flat terrain, horse-drawn
harvesting machines, and railroads that
brought crops to distant markets con-
tributed to extraordinary agricultural
productivity in the American Midwest.
After 1914, combustion engines sup-
planted horses in powering farm
machinery. Since 1950, farm yields have
soared further, owing to advances in
biology, chemistry, and engineering.
Breeding of plants has provided varieties
with higher yields. Fertilizers, especially
nitrogen, have raised soil productivity,
and pesticides have abated crop losses to
weeds, fungi, and insects. Farm
machines have become vastly more ef-
fective.
As a result of these improvements,
agricultural output within the U. S.
Great Lakes watershed has increased
over the last 40 years, although farm
acreage has actually shrunk by one-third.
Cropland accounts for 18 percent of the
lands in the U. S. counties of the Great
Lakes watershed, predominantly in the
south. Major cropland areas include
east-central Wisconsin, the Saginaw Bay
watershed, and northwest Ohio. The
largest crop is corn (42 percent of farm
acreage), followed by soybeans (24 per-
cent), and small grams, especially wheat
(17 percent). Dairy products, fruits,
vegetables, and tobacco are other im-
portant crops. Wisconsin ranks first
among States in milk output; Michigan
leads the nation in production of
blueberries, tart cherries, and navy
beans.
Convenient waterways have abetted
the economic successes of the region.
The Erie Canal was completed in 1825,
connecting Buffalo to the Hudson River
at Albany. (Rebuilt, it still operates
today as the New York State Barge
Canal.) About the same time, Canada
constructed the Lachine Canal to bypass
rapids on the St. Lawrence and the first
Welland Canal between Ontario and
Erie to bypass Niagara Falls. The 27-
mile long Welland has been enlarged a
number of times. Its locks are now 30 feet
deep and 859 feet long.
These dimensions set size limits on
transoceanic vessels that enter the Great
Lakes. There are about 300 "lakers" that
ply the Great Lakes. Long and narrow,
they tend to be 650 to 730 feet long with
a maximum width of 75 feet and a cargo
capacity of 20,000 tons. The most recent
lock at Sault-Sainte Marie, completed in
1969, permits larger ships on the upper
lakes. About 25 vessels, up to 1,100 feet
in length with a capacity of 60,000 tons,
traverse the lakes west of Buffalo.
The five parallel locks at Sault-Sainte
Marie, connecting Superior and Huron,
are among the busiest hi the world. In
1990, five thousand vessels carrying 90
million tons of cargo (including 50 mil-
lion tons of iron ore) passed through
these locks. Many of these vessels are
headed to or from the port of Duluth/Su-
perior, which ranked 14th in the United
States by tonnage shipped in 1987.
Among its products, Duluth ships low-
sulfur coal from the American west.
Thunder Bay, Ontario, is the port of em-
barkation for about one-half of Canada's
total grain production.
The St. Lawrence Seaway connects
Lake Ontario to Montreal and provides
the final link in a 2,200 mile commercial
waterway between Duluth and
Montreal. Completed in 1959, the
Seaway is 27 feet deep, as are the ship-
ping channels that cut through the St.
Marys, St. Clair, and Detroit Rivers, and
through shallow Lake St. Clair. This in-
land waterway is navigable by about
three-quarters of the world's saltwater
fleet. In 1986, 40 million tons of cargo
passed through the St. Lawrence
Seaway.
The waters of the Great Lakes confer
other economic benefits, as well. They
provide abundant drinking water to mil-
lions. Industries use water as an in-
gredient (as in the beer for which
Milwaukee is famous) and as a coolant
for manufacturing processes. Some
rivers are harnessed to generate
electricity, up to one-half of the natural
flow of the Niagara River is diverted for
electrical generation. Another connect-
ing channel, the St. Marys River, is also
harnessed for electricity.
Another large element of the Great
Lakes economy is recreation, including
sight-seeing, fishingj boating, camping,
hiking, and lodging. In 1987, Michigan
had more registered boat owners than
any other State. The Great Lakes sustain
both sport and commercial fisheries, al-
though recreational fishing is the more
important of the two today. As the value
of recreational fishing has increased in
comparison with commercial fisheries,
some jurisdictions have established
policies that favor sport fishing. The
Great Lakes Fisheries Commission has
estimated that five million sport fisher-
man on the Great Lakes spent $2 billion
in 1985; during the same year, the value
of the commercial fish catch was just $41
million. The largest recorded commer-
cial fish harvests were in 1889 and 1899.
By weight, the commercial yield in
recent years has been about two-thirds
of these peak years, yet the value is small
since the size and species harvested are
less desirable. The economic potential of
Great Lakes fisheries is much higher
than their recent value.
At the onset of the 20th century, the
human population of the Great Lakes
watershed was just over 10 million. Ac-
cording to 1986 census data, the region
has 35 million residents—27.5 million
U.S. citizens and 7.5 million Canadians.
The Lake Superior and Lake Huron
basins are sparsely inhabited. The south
and southwestern shorelines of Lake
Michigan, the Canadian shore of Lake
Ontario, and the U.S. side of Lake Erie
are far more heavily populated. The
third and fourth highest populated U.S.
metropolitan areas (Chicago and
Detroit) and the largest Canadian one
(Toronto) are situated by lakes or a con-
necting channel. Among the inhabitants
of the Great Lakes region are Indian
Tribes. Five Indian reservations within
the United States touch upon the shores
of the Great Lakes; 14 do so on the
Canadian side.
SOME ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF
DEVELOPMENT
Intense development of the Great
Lakes region has wrought vast changes
to the ecosystem. Humans have altered
habitat, introduced exotic (non-native)
-------
DRAFT July 1991
Introduction 7
species, and cast a wide range of con-
taminants into the lakes.
Some effects have been dramatic.
Through discharge of raw sewage into
the lakes, cities infected their water sup-
plies with typhoid and cholera during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the
mid-1950s, non-native sea lampreys
(small, parasitic eel-like fish) decimated
lake trout to the extent that commercial
catches in Lakes Huron and Michigan
fell to 1 percent of the yield obtained 20
years before. By the 1960s, the overen-
richment of Lake Erie was infamous;
mats of algae fouled beaches and water
intakes. In 1967, millions of another ex-
otic fish, alewife, a member of the her-
ring family, washed up on the Lake
Michigan shore, victims of the combined
effects of cold weather and starvation.
Overpopulation, related to the decline
of alewife predators such as lake trout,
contributed to the massive die-off. In
1969, a stretch of the Cuyahoga River in
Cleveland was so laden with oil
products, chemicals, and debris that it
caught fire. During the 1970s, re-
searchers began to note tragic birth
defects, probably caused by persistent
toxic chemicals, in birds such as double-
crested cormorants, born with
grotesquely crossed beaks.
Many of these once acute problems
have abated. Treatment of both drinking
water and sewage ended water-related
epidemics. Application of a toxicant to
spawning grounds has slashed the
population of sea lampreys, though this
exotic is firmly established as a resident
of the Great Lakes. Stocking of lake
trout have bolstered their numbers,
though the species generally continues
to be unable to sustain itself. Reductions
in loadings of phosphorus have lessened
many of the problems associated with
nutrient overenrichment, like excessive
algae. Stocking of salmon and trout have
controlled alewife numbers. Since the
passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972,
the reduction in pollutant loadings from
dischargers has generally and greatly im-
proved water quality, allowing fish to
return to many harbors from which they
had disappeared. The health of many
populations of fish and wildlife has im-
proved after their body burdens of some
contaminants have declined.
Yet the Great Lakes ecosystem has
been pervasively changed in other, less
dramatic fashions, many permanent.
The decline in the beaver population
resulted in fewer beaver dams, which
had impeded tributaries and helped to
create wetlands. In their absence, river
flows increased; faster rivers captured
and carried more silt, burying the spawn-
ing grounds of fish.
The reaping of forests had profound
ecological consequences. Forests were
cleared, exposing soil to drying by direct
sunlight and to erosion by wind and
water, increasing the silting of rivers.
Loggers floated trees down tributaries,
gouging soil from river banks to cover
gravel bottoms where fish spawned and
fed. Debris from sawmills heaped upon
spawning grounds and, through decay,
depleted oxygen from the water. Forests
had provided shade along tributaries. In
their absence, the temperature of
streams increased, further modifying the
habitat of fish. Forest clearance also in-
creased seasonal variation in tributary
flow. Low wintertime flows exposed
streambeds, freezing the eggs of fish.
Agriculture also increased soil erosion.
Erosion of soil from tilled fields is often
imperceptible, yet inexorable. It has
been estimated that by 1910 between a
quarter to a half of the deep original
topsoil of the great Missouri and Missis-
sippi river drainage basins had been
washed away, largely through profligate
agricultural practices. Since 1950, erod-
ing soil particles and rainfall runoff have
carried agricultural chemicals—pes-
ticides and fertilizers. The overenrich-
ment of Lake Erie by the 1960s was
partly the result of increased nutrient use
by farmers.
The growth of human population
around the Great Lakes has imposed
further ecological change. Roads and
sidewalks, roofs, and parking lots distort
natural infiltration of water into the
ground. Rain that would otherwise seep
into the soil is caught by drainage sys-
tems and discharged to streams. As a
result, tributaries have become more
variable in their flow and less hospitable
to fish.
The Great Lakes have been vastly al-
tered for shipping and flood control.
River mouths, critical habitat for fish and
wildlife, have especially attracted
development. Hundreds of them have
been dredged and surrounded by break-
waters. Dredging and the wash from ship
propellers injure organisms in bottom
sediments upon which fish feed. Canals
and ships have introduced non-native
species. Unchecked by natural
predators, some of these have wreaked
profound damage to native species. One
canal has notably diverted pollution
from the Great Lakes. The Chicago
Sanitary and Ship Canal, completed in
1900, reversed the flow of the Chicago
River, flushing Chicago's wastewater
into the Illinois River and protecting
Chicago's beaches and water supply, at
a cost of tapping Lake Michigan's water
volume.
Wetlands and sand dunes are other
habitats that humans have profoundly
modified. Wetlands have vital ecological
functions, acting as buffers against
floods and erosion, and serving as nurs-
ery, resting, and breeding habitat for fish
and wildlife. It is thought that wetlands
once constituted 60 percent of southwest
Ontario and 30 percent of Michigan.
Perhaps two-thirds of region's wetlands
have been drained or filled since 1800,
including the huge Black Swamp of
northwest Ohio, almost entirely con-
verted to rich farmland. The downtown
areas of Milwaukee and Chicago largely
rest on filled-in wetlands. In fact,
Chicago takes its name from an Indian
word for the wild onions that once grew
in marshlands beside Lake Michigan.
Before parks were established to
preserve the remainder, a vast array of
sand dunes at the base of Lake Michigan,
home to a rich diversity of wildlife, was
mined for glass production and for rail-
way bed fill. Cheap lakefront land and a
large nearby labor force in Chicago also
made the dunes and adjacent wild rice
swamps attractive to heavy industry.
Standard Oil Company (now Amoco)
established a refinery in Whiting, In-
diana, in 1889; Inland Steel Company
opened in East Chicago in 1901; and the
city of Gary took its name from the sur-
name of the chairman of United States
Steel when America's first billion dollar
corporation opened a huge works there
in 1906. Bethlehem, National, and LTV
steel companies followed. Today,
northwestern Indiana is an American
Ruhr of metal, oil, and petrochemical
facilities. In places, large amounts of oil
float on the groundwater; during rainfall,
the rising water table lifts oil into
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8 Chapter 1
DRAFT July 1991
municipal drainage systems. Through
this region meanders the Grand
Calumet River that receives most of its
waters from industrial and municipal
dischargers. Its river bed holds con-
taminants of extraordinary toxicity.
Manufacturing firms have contributed
a broad range of contaminants to the
lakes. One of the most ecologically in-
jurious is the family of organic chemical
compounds called polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs were widely
used from 1929 until banned by EPA in
1977. They are highly stable, which made
them useful as hydraulic fluids and
lubricants in high temperature or pres-
sure processes. They were also used in
paint, ink, plastics, caulking compounds,
and metals. Tests have shown that PCBs
may cause reproductive disorders, birth
defects, and cancers in laboratory
animals. The stability that made PCBs
desirable in commercial applications has
undesirable environmental consequen-
ces; they magnify up the Great Lakes
food web and do not degrade. PCB con-
tamination is the most frequent grounds
for health advisories regarding con-
sumption of Great Lakes fish. PCB con-
tamination is greatest in Waukegan
Harbor, Illinois, from where it is es-
timated that hundreds of thousands of
pounds of PCBs have entered Lake
Michigan.
Though the practice ceased in the U.S.
during the 1970s, some pulp and paper
mills released mercury, a persistent toxic
substance that magnified in concentra-
tion up the Great Lakes food web. Mer-
cury was found in fish from Lake Huron,
Lake St. Clair, western Lake Erie, east-
ern Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence
River at levels that required the closing
of some commercial fisheries. In the
1980s, EPA recognized that pulp and
paper mills, particularly those using the
bleached kraft process, discharge very
low concentrations of chlorinated diben-
zodioxins and dibenzofurans as
byproducts of pulp and paper bleaching
with chlorine. Dioxins and furans repre-
sent a family of 210 structurally related
chemical compounds. The most in-
famous of the dioxin compounds—
2,3,7,8-TCDD — produces a variety of
toxic effects in laboratory animals at very
low doses.
The pulp and paper industry also con-
tinues to be a significant source of con-
ventional pollutants to the Great Lakes,
particularly to Lake Superior. Accord-
ing to a 1989 report by the International
Joint Commission, pulp and paper mills
in the Province of Ontario generally do
not use secondary (biological) processes
to treat their wastewater. Secondary
treatments, usually practiced by U. S.
mills, decrease conventional pollutants
and can reduce 25 to 60 percent of the
toxic organic byproducts of paper-
making.
Chemical companies have left a toxic
heritage in the ground water, bottom
sediments, and soils of the Great Lakes
region. EPA's Superfund program to
clean-up abandoned hazardous waste
sites in large measure had its origin in the
Great Lakes, being in part a response to
the widely-publicized 1978 discovery of
toxicants in the infamous Love Canal,
near the Niagara River. Chemical com-
panies attracted by hydroelectric power
generated from the Niagara, situated
near its banks. Canadian chemical com-
panies similarly clustered along the St.
Clair River, around Sarnia, Ontario.
Waste sites along the U.S. side of the
Niagara have been a major source of
contamination to Lake Ontario, which
with Lake Michigan are the two most
contaminated lakes. Since its inception,
these sites have been a major focus of the
Superfund program, with the result that
their loadings to the Niagara are being
substantially reduced.
Metals-based industries, including
mining and steel-making, have been a
significant source of pollutants to the
Great Lakes. Torch Lake, a tributary to
Lake Superior near the base of the
Keweenaw Peninsula, received copper
tailings for more than 100 years before
mining ceased in 1969. Two hundred
million tons of tilings fill more than 20
percent of the lake's original volume.
Many steel-making technologies that are
presently in use generate such
byproducts as ammonia, cyanide, coal
tar, zinc, lead, and a range of air pol-
lutants, including fly ash, sulfur com-
pounds, and the gases benzene, toluene,
and xylene. Steel mills are a source of
benzo(a)pyrene, the most toxic member
of the family of polyaromatic hydrocar-
bons (PAHs). Like other PAHs,
benzo(a)pyrene is a product of incom-
plete combustion of fossil fuels and is
suspected of causing lip and liver tumors
in bottom-dwelling fish. PAHs are com-
mon in nearshore bottom sediments.
The intent of this chapter has not been
to attribute environmental damage sole-
ly and simplistically to a few leading in-
dustries. Degradation of the Great
Lakes ecosystem over the past three cen-
turies has been the collective result of
actions throughout society, by in-
dividuals and the governments they
elect, as well as by industry and agricul-
ture. And the prominent industries men-
tioned in this chapter, especially
productive sectors like farming, forest
products, metals, and manufacturing,
have made a vital contribution to a
steady rise in the national standard of
living. Their heritage of economic
achievement has been of national impor-
tance. The future promise of the U.S.
economy will continue to rely on such
productive industries.
Rather it has been the intent of this
chapter to suggest, however sketchily,
the vastness of the changes to the Great
Lakes ecosystem over the last three cen-
turies. Without a long-term perspective,
one has little appreciation for the mag-
nitude of some damage, such as that to
fish populations. Whereas the drastic
decline during the 1980s in striped bass
populations off the eastern seaboard of
the United States has been a relatively
recent and well known phenomena, the
steep declines of sturgeon and lake trout
in the Great Lakes occurred earlier and
the passage of time has accustomed
many people to these ecological dis-
asters.
Chapter 2 focuses on some ecological
problems in the Great Lakes that are the
object of government programs dis-
cussed thereafter in this report.
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DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 9
Chapter 2
The State of the Ecosystem
r|1his chapter discusses five broad
-*- problems facing the Great Lakes
ecosystem:
• Contamination of fish and wildlife
with persistent toxic substances,
• Contaminated bottom sediments,
• Lost, degraded, and threatened wet-
lands,
• Damage to native species from exotic
ones, and
• Undesirable effects from excessive
nutrients.
PERSISTENT TOXIC SUBSTANCES
Persistent toxic substances do not pose
a problem for humans drinking Great
Lakes water. Their concentrations in the
Great Lakes water column are extremely
low, because they tend to quickly bind to
particles — sediment or phytoplankton
— and fall to the bottom or enter the
food web. They also volatilize into the
atmosphere. Open lake concentrations
of contaminants are measured in parts
per billion or trillion. A part per trillion
represents a teaspoon in 1.3 billion gal-
lons of water. A person would have to
drink two or three million gallons of
water to be exposed to a quantity of con-
taminants equivalent to that ingested by
eating a single mature lake trout (1).
Low levels of contaminants in water
concentrate in the tissues of predators
through the phenomena of bioac-
cumulation and biomagnification up the
food web. At the base of the food web,
microscopic plants —called
phytoplankton —use sunlight and
mineral nutrients for nourishment.
Microscopic animals, known as
zooplankton, feed on such vegetation
and are in turn eaten by fish. Tiny sedi-
ment-dwelling insects and crustaceans
are another source of food for some
small fish. Higher predators, fish and
birds, consume smaller fish. A simplified
view of the Great Lakes food web is
shown by Figure 2-1. It does not show
many different species of
phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic
animals, fish, and wildlife, but displays
the food web concept.
Phytoplankton and zooplankton con-
tinually bathed in contaminants and ben-
thic organisms living in contaminated
bottom sediments adsorb and bioac-
cumulate persistent toxic substances. As
higher organisms in the food web graze
on large quantities of plants and other
organisms, they accumulate higher
quantities of contaminants. The increas-
ing concentration of contaminants at
upper levels of the food web is known as
biomagnification.
Zooplankton
Bacteria
and
Fungi
Dead Plants
and Animals
SunD^rt
Mineral
Nutrients
Figure 2-1. Simplified View of the Great Lakes Food Web
-------
10 Chapter 2
DRAFT July 1991
Fish and birds living in or around Lake
Michigan and Lake Ontario tend to have
markedly higher levels of contaminants
than those of the other three lakes. The
relatively low levels in Lake Erie biota
are a bit surprising, since that lake has a
high surrounding population and is
known to receive high loadings of toxic
substances. Scientists offer two possible
explanations. First, Erie's relatively high
sedimentation may adsorb and remove
toxic substances from the water column,
making them less available to the food
web. Second, Erie's abundance of
phytoplankton may result in a lower con-
taminant concentration at the bottom of
the food web than in Lakes Michigan
and Ontario, resulting in lower con-
centration higher up the web.
There have been striking declines in
levels of some targeted substances over
the last two decades. Figures 2-3 and 2-4
show declines in two substances, PCBs
and the pesticide DDT, in Lake
Michigan herring gulls and bloater
chubs. Further evidence of the decline in
PCBs across several Lake Michigan fish
species is provided in Figure 6-2 in
Chapter 6.
Despite these marked declines, levels
of contaminants remain unacceptably
high. State public health authorities
issue fish consumption advisories for
some species in each lake and in various
rivers and bays. These tend to be based
on risks from PCBs, mercury, and the
pesticide chlordane. Table 2-1 sum-
marizes advisories issued for 1989.
EPA has no formal role in setting sport
fish consumption advisories, although
the Agency shares responsibilities with
States, under the Clean Water Act, to
protect the quality of surface waters
through establishment of State Water
Quality Standards and the regulation of
water dischargers under the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES). State standards are some-
times governed by the risks posed by
human consumption of fish that bear
bioaccumulative pollutants. In Septem-
ber 1989, EPA's Office of Water Regula-
tions and Standards released a guidance
manual, entitled Assessing Human
Health Risks from Chemically Con-
taminated Fish and Shellfish, which
provides the Agency's recommended
procedures for assessing risks related to
the consumption of fish. States have
Some persistent toxic sub-
stances concentrate up the
food web. Top predators,
such as herring gulls and lake
trout, can accumulate PCB
levels that are, respectively,
51,000 and 5,600 times
greater than those found in
plankton.
Herring Gull Eggs
LakeTroul
Smelt
Sculpln
Scud
Shrimp
Plankton
23456789
concentrations (mg/kg wet weight)
Figure 2-2. Lake Ontario Food Web Biomagnification
Fish-eating birds like the herring gull are near the top of the food web. Only top
predators such as the bald eagle, that eats gulls and other foods, builds up higher
concentrations of contaminants. Herring gulls' diet is about three quarters fish and
the remainder includes mammals, insects, birds and bird eggs, amphibians,
earthworms and crayfish, as well as garbage. Herring gulls remain on the Great
Lakes all year around rather than migrating. Thus, they are good indicators of local
levels of contamination. Herring gulls nest in established colonies, making it easy
to collect egg samples regularly from the same colony. By collecting eggs, birds do
not have to be killed to be sampled. The gulls usually lay more eggs to replace ones
lost early in the nesting season, so this kind of sampling does not threaten their
populations.
Total PCB
Total DDE
71 73 76 77 79 81 83 86 87 88
Year
Figure 2-3. Contaminants in Herring Gull Eggs on Sister Island (Green
Bay), Wisconsin
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 11
69 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87
Year
Total PCB
Total DDT
Dieldrln
Figure 2-4. Pesticides and PCBs in Lake Michigan Bloater Chubs
(analyses of whole fish — mg/kg wet weight.)
traditionally used grounds for fish ad-
visories that have often not been based
on estimates of human health risks.
Effects on Wildlife
Over the last few decades, researchers
have observed population declines and
health problems in excess of 15 Great
Lakes fish and wildlife species that have
seemed to be associated with exposure
to various persistent toxic substances.
Effects have usually been most
pronounced at the top of the food web
and across generations, as expressed in
birth defects. Other problems, seeming-
ly associated with exposure to toxicants,
that have been noted in Great Lakes
species include: loss of appetite and
weight; hormonal changes; poor
reproductive success; tumors; increased
susceptibility to disease; and behavioral
changes. With the reduction of many tar-
geted pollutants in the food web, the
populations of affected species generally
seem to be improving.
The bald eagle, a top predator, began
to decline in population across the na-
tion during the 1940s. Since EPA banned
and restricted the persistent pesticides
DDT and dieldrin in the 1970s, im-
proved bald eagle reproductive success
has led to a recovery in the national
population. However, bald eagles have
not recovered so vigorously along the
shores of the Great Lakes. Researchers
have noted that eagles do not reproduce
as successfully along the lakes as they do
further inland. Great Lakes fish may
provide too toxic a diet for bald eagles to
raise viable young.
During the 1970s, herring gulls around
the Great Lakes were also found to have
reproductive problems (2). Changes in
behavior were a contributing factor—
herring gulls neglected their nests, which
caused low hatching success. Herring
gull populations have increased as PCBs
and pesticides have decreased in the
food web.
Also during the 1970s, scientists ob-
served deformities in various bird
species, such as double crested cor-
morants, common terns, Caspian terns,
ring-billed terns, and herring gulls. Birds
were found with crossed bills, jaw
defects, and malformed feet and joints.
Although the incidence of these deform-
ities has declined in conjunction with
contaminant levels, such problems
remain in relatively contaminated areas.
Mink have proved extremely sensitive
to a diet of Great Lakes fish. In the mid-
1960s, mink breeders found that their
animals were experiencing high mor-
tality rates and almost complete
reproductive failure. The ranch animals
were being fed fish from Lake Michigan
tributaries. Laboratory toxicology ex-
periments determined that mink are
highly susceptible to such contaminants
as PCBs. As with bald eagles, it is
thought that wild mink populations are
larger inland than along the shores of the
Great Lakes.
Great Lakes contaminants may also
have contributed to a sharp decline since
the 19th century in the population of
beluga whales in the St. Lawrence es-
tuary. The whales are burdened by many
contaminants, including mirex, a persist-
ent toxic substance known to be present
in Lake Ontario. Though beluga do not
enter the Great Lakes, they eat Atlantic
eels that migrate from Lake Ontario and
that are suspected to contain mirex.
Another suspected impact of persist-
ent toxic substances on fish has been
Contamination of Fish and Wildlife
The Great Lakes food web is contaminated by a variety of persistent toxic
substances, leading to nnacceptably high levels in certain fish and wildlife. Due to
use restrictions and major investments in pollution treatment and abatement,
levels of some contaminants are much lower than in the early 1970s and continue
to decline, but still justify the issuance of public health advisories regarding fish
consumption. Consumption of some fish present risks to human health, though the
degree of risk is contingent on the species and location of fish, the amount
consumed, the method of cleaning and cooking, and the gender and age of the
consumer, among other factors. Fish contamination detracts from the potential
value of sport and commercial fisheries. Contaminants have been associated with
reproductive and other health problems in Great Lakes fish and wildlife; however,
with the sharp decline of targeted pollutants, many species seem to be recovering.
Problems persist for fish and wildlife in certain locations, particularly in harbors
-------
12 Chapter 2
DRAFT July 1991
Are Great Lakes Fish Safe to Eat?
A person who eats Great Lakes fish ingests potentially carcinogenic substances. As to whether eating these fish is "safe" is a
matter of personal judgment for an informed individual.
Fish of different species, locations, and size, different potential carcinogens; fish that bear the largest burdens tend to be large,
bottom-dwelling, high in the food web, and high in fat content. Modern risk assessment methods generally assume that die
probability of cancer is proportional to dose, so that there is zero probability at zero dosage. Because risk is based on cumulative
exposure, high consumption of "low risk" fish can actually pose greater risk than less consumption of "high risk" fish. It is
valuable to inform the public about which fish species tend to carry the highest burdens of contaminants. State health authorities
usually follow this approach when issuing fish advisories (see Table 2-1).
Some clarifications should be made about estimates of risk. First, risk assessments have substantial uncertainty in that they are
usually based on estimates of carcinogenic potency obtained by tests on animals; actual human effects are likely to be different.
Second, assessments produce a range of risk; health authorities commonly use the high end of the range. Third, some methods
of cleaning and cooking fish can lower the dose of potential carcinogens. Fourth, not all potential carcinogens may have been
detected, which would cause an assessment to underestimate actual risk. And fifth, risk assessments tend to be based on
estimates of cancer incidence and do not consider other harmful health effects.
This last point is important, since some research over the last decade suggests that there may be non-cancer, transgenerational
effects associated with contaminants found in the tissues of Great Lakes fish. A series of studies of human health effects from
eating Lake Michigan fish containing PCBs began in 1980 (3). The studies have focused on children whose mothers had regularly
eaten Lake Michigan fish, examining them at birth, at 7 months, and at 4 years of age. The studies concluded that infants whose
mothers consumed Lake Michigan fish showed lower birth weights, smaller head circumference, and slower responsiveness
than infants whose mothers had not consumed such fish. At 4 years, these same children had poorer short-term memory. The
deficits noted were small in magnitude and were not evident outside the testing situation. There was no indication that the
long-term memory of young children was affected. Since short-term memory is important in the acquisition of reading and
arithmetic skills, however, the deficits may augur later impacts on academic performance. One implication of these studies is
that a woman's lifetime exposure to PCBs may adversely affect her children. Eliminating exposure during pregnancy or lactation
may not prevent adverse affects.
Because of the Lake Michigan study and other research, public health authorities consider children and women who anticipate
bearing children to be the most vulnerable consumers of Great Lakes fish. Fish advisories recommend that these populations
avoid eating the fish species cited in Table 2-1.
noted in bottom-dwelling or bottom-
feeding fish, such as bullheads and suck-
ers. These fish have been found to suffer
a high incidence of dermal and liver
tumors at a number of Great Lakes loca-
tions (3). The causes of these tumors are
difficult to determine because of the
broad suite of substances to which these
fish are exposed. However, the in-
cidence of tumors is strongly correlated
with polluted conditions, especially with
the presence of polyaromatic hydrocar-
bon (PAH) contamination hi bottom
sediments (4). Several PAH compounds
are known or suspected carcinogens. Al-
though little is known about the sig-
nificance of tumors on either the health
of fish or on the health of humans who
might eat these fish, visible abnor-
malities reduce the commercial and
recreational value of fish.
While scientists have noted associa-
tions between contaminants and im-
paired fish and wildlife health, they have
thus far only established one cause and
effect relationship. DDE (a decay
product of DDT) accumulates hi some
species of birds, including double-
crested cormorants and black-crowned
night heron, and inhibits enzymes that
are responsible for incorporating cal-
cium carbonate into eggshells. As a
result, their eggs are too fragile for in-
cubation.
Contaminants
EPA has established water quality
criteria for about 130 substances that are
known or suspected to be harmful to
humans, fish, or wildlife. Criteria
numerically define maximum allowable
concentrations of a contaminant in water
and serve as a basis for the development
of enforceable State Water Quality
Standards.
EPA and States have identified a set of
pollutants deemed especially injurious
and often present in the Great Lakes
ecosystem. Table 2-2 summarizes some
priority pollutants. All pollutants listed
in this table are thought to biomagnify up
the food web. Several are the most toxic
members of groups of related chemicals.
Pathways
Persistent toxic substances reach the
Great Lakes from a broad range of
human activities. Some sources are
readily visible, such as discharges from
sewage systems and industry and spills
from ships and shore. Other sources are
much less obvious: transport and deposi-
tion of contaminants through the atmos-
phere, movement of contaminants
through groundwater, and urban and
agricultural runoff. Even substances that
are no longer used in this country con-
tinue to reach the Great Lakes, albeit in
smaller quantities, by incineration and
runoff or volatilization of terrestrial con-
tamination. Also, substances like DDT
are still used outside the U.S. and are
borne to the Great Lakes through the
atmosphere.
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 13
Table 2-1. Great Lakes Fish Consumption Advisories (1989)*
Location
(States)
Lake Superior
Michigan
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Lake Michigan
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Wisconsin
Lake Huron
Michigan
Lake Erie
Michigan
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Lake Ontario
New York
Lake St. Clalr
Michigan
Saginaw Bay
Michigan
Detroit River
Michigan
St Marys River
Michigan
Green Bay
Michigan
Wisconsin
Niagara River
New York
St. Louis River
Minnesota
Wisconsin
All Inland Lakes
Michigan
Pollutant of Concern
PCBs (Ml)
PCBs (Ml, IL. Wl)
Chlordane (IL)
PCBs (Ml)
PCBs (MI.NY.OH,
and PA)
Chlordane (PA)
PCBs, mirex, and
Dioxin (NY)
PCBs and mercury
(Ml)
PCBs (Ml)
PCBs and dioxin (Ml)
Mercury (Ml)
PCBs (Ml)
PCBs, Dioxins (MN)
Mercury (Wl)
Mercury
. Restrictions**
Lake Trout 20"-30"
Lake Trout 20"-23"
Coho Salmon over 26*
Chinook Salmon 21"-32"
Brown Trout over 23"
Brown Trout up to 21*
Lake Trout
Rainbow Trout
Carp, White Perch, smaller Coho
Salmon, Rainbow Trout, and Brown Trout
Walleye over 18", White Bass over 13",
Smallmouth Bass over 18", White Perch
over 16", Carp over 22", Rock Bass over
8", Largemouth Bass over 14*, Bluegill
over 8", Freshwater Drum over 14",
Carpsucker over 18", Brown Bullhead
over 14", Northern Pike over 22"
Rainbow Trout
Brown Trout
Freshwater Drum over 14"
Walleye over 19"
Splake up to 16 "
All species
Walleye 18"-26°
Rock Bass, Perch, and Croppie over 9",
and any Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth
Bass, Northern Pike, Muskie, and Walleye
Do Not Eat
Lake Trout over 30"
Lake Trout over 23 "
Chinook Salmon over 32"
Brown Trout over 22"
Carp (any size)
Catfish (any size)
Brown Trout over 21"
Carp (any size)
Catfish ( any size)
American Eel, Catfish, Lake Trout, Chinook Salmon,
Coho Salmon over 21", Rainbow Trout over 25", Brown
Trout over 20"
Muskie (any size)
Sturgeon (any size)
Catfish (any size)
Carp (any size)
Catfish (any size)
Carp (any size)
Rainbow Trout over 22", Chinook over 25", Brown Trout
over 12", Splake over 16", Northern Pike over 28",
Walleye over 20", White Bass, Carp
Any fish taken between Hyde Park Lake Dam and the
river mouth
Walleye over 26"
* Advisories also pertain to tributaries into which migratory species enter.
** Nursing mother, pregnant women, women who anticipate bearing children, female children of any age, and male children age 15 or under
should not eat these fish. Other persons should limit their consumption to one meal per week and follow preparation and cooking recom-
mendations.
Preparation and cooking recommendations: Sport fish can be prepared and cooked in ways that will reduce contaminants in the edible
portion. These techniques include removal of the skin and fatty tissue associated with the belly lateral line and dorsal area of large fish and
cooking by baking, broiling on a rack, or barbecuing so that fatty oil can drip away from the finished meal.
-------
14 Chapter 2
DRAFT July 1991
Hatchery Lake Trout
Lake Superior Lake Trout
J,
UUL
Jl
Lake Huron Lake Trout
1
Lake Michigan Lake Trout
Great Lakes fish and wildlife are ex-
posed to a wide variety of substances.
This is dearly illustrated in the figure
(left), which juxtaposes GC/MS (gas
chromatography/mass spectroscopy)
readings of chemical compounds
detected in the tissues of hatchery fish
with readings of fish obtained in 1977
from several of the lakes. Fish raised in
the protected environment of a hatchery
registered only eight compounds in their
tissues. A total of 476 different com-
pounds were found in the tissues of fish
taken from the Lakes. More than half of
these compounds are believed to be
man-made. An interesting finding from
these analyses is that many compounds
are unique to the fish of one lake, sug-
gesting that many contaminants are local
problems and are not spread through the
entire system either via the atmosphere
or by water currents.
Non-Polar Fraction
Polar Fraction
Figure 2-5. Chemical Compounds in Hatchery Versus Great Lakes Lake Trout (1977)
Many older urban areas have com-
bined sewer and stormwater systems
that deliver rain runoff as well as in-
dustrial and household effluents to
municipal wastewater treatment
facilities. During rainstorms, water flow
often exceeds the capacity of these sys-
tems, leading to releases of untreated
water. The significance of combined
sewer overflows (CSOs) varies around
the Great Lakes. Whereas Wisconsin
does not consider CSOs to have a major
impact on any of its rivers, Michigan
regards CSOs as a major source of im-
pairment to 317 miles of its rivers,
making this the second leading source of
impairments to the State's waters.
Michigan estimates that the 170 CSO
outfalls that empty to the Rouge River
release an annual volume of 7.8 billion
gallons of untreated water. Figure 2-6
shows the locations of another 75
Canadian and U.S. overflow points that
discharge directly to the Detroit River.
Overflows from the Detroit and Windsor
sewer systems represent a major con-
tinuing source of pollution to the Great
Lakes.
Accidental spills can be a significant,
temporary source of toxic substances as
well. The Coast Guard recorded 5,003
spills of oil or toxic substances into the
U.S. waters of the Great Lakes from
January 1980 through September 1989.
About 80 percent of these spills came
from land facilities, such as oil storage
tanks and pipelines; the balance came
from ships. Most were oil spills of small
volume. However, there have been oil
spills up to a million gallons and toxic
substance spills up to 200,000 gallons.
Transport of contaminants by
groundwater is known to be a problem in
some places, notably along the Niagara
River, owing to the coincidence of cer-
tain geological features and leaking ad-
jacent landfills. Rain runoff from farms
and urban areas brings with it pesticides
and surface contamination.
The atmosphere is another pollutant
pathway. Contaminants reach the at-
mosphere from combustion and
volatilization. They exist in the atmos-
phere attached to particles, associated
with water droplets, and in their gaseous
state. They leave the atmosphere via dry
deposition of particles, rain and snow,
and gas exchange to water.
In the late 1970s, studies on Isle Royale,
a relatively isolated island in Lake Supe-
rior, reported PCBs, DDT, and
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem IS
Table 2-2. Some Key Toxic Contaminants in the Great Lakes
Pollutant
Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs)
Mercury
Dioxins
2,3,7.8-
tetrachlorodibenzo-p-
dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD)
Furans - 2,3,7,8-
tetrachlorodibenzofura
(2,3,7,8-TCDF)
Benzo(a)pyrene
(B(a)P)
Mirex
DDT and metabolites
(DDE)
Alkylated lead
Dieldrin
Toxaphene
Hexachlorobenzene
(HCB)
Sources
PCBs were widely used in the U.S. from 1929 until 1976 when
banned from use except by special permit. Still used in
electrical equipment because of high heat resistance and
stability. PCBs continue to enter the environment through
accidental releases from transformers and capacitors and
volatilization of soil contamination.
A toxic metal and natural element, mercury was once used
widely by the pulp and paper industry and in the manufacture
of chlorine and caustic soda. There are high accumulations
in sediments near old industrial discharges. Coal burning
power plants and waste incinerators may be active sources.
Dioxins are contained in herbicides and are generated by
chlorine bleaching in pulp and paper manufacture. They are
also a byproduct of combustion of fossil fuels (leaded
gasoline) and waste incineration. Dioxins are widely present
in the environment.
Byproduct of similar processes that produce 2,3,7,8-TCDD.
i Furans were also an inadvertent contaminant to some PCB
products.
One of several polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons formed
by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood, and
tobacco, B(a)P is also a byproduct of steel and coke
production, coal liquification and gasification, and waste
incineration. B(a)P is present at high concentrations in the
sediments of some Great Lakes harbors.
An insecticide, Mirex was not applied in the Great Lakes
region. However, its manufacture in the area lead to its
introduction into the Lake Ontario food web. Use was banned
in the U.S. in 1978.
DDT, an insecticide introduced in 1946, was used widely until
banned in the U.S. in 1970. Environmental concentrations
have fallen significantly but seem to have stabilized. DDT is
carried atmospherically from other countries where it is still
used.
Alkylated lead compounds are used as additives for leaded
gasolines, solder, and paints. Levels have decreased since
1981 and continue to decrease as the use of leaded gasoline
has declined.
An insecticide once used extensively on fruit, dieldrin is now
restricted and is no longer manufactured in the U.S. Dieldrin
is highly persistent, and levels in the environment have
decreased little over time. Dieldrin accumulates in soil and
sediment.
Toxaphene was widely used on cotton crops in the south until
the late 1970s; its production in the U.S. was banned in 1982.
Lake Superior contains the highest levels of toxaphene in fish
apparently due to atmospheric deposition.
Originally manufactured as a fungicide, HCB is a by-product
of pesticides in current use and can be formed during the
combustion of substances containing chlorine.
Effects
PCBs are highly persistent and bioaccumulative. All five of
the Great Lakes have fish consumption advisories based on
PCBs. A series of studies has related maternal lifetime
consumption of Lake Michigan fish with delays in
neurobehavioral development in infants. PCBs are
suspected human carcinogens.
Methyl mercury (the organic form of mercury) is highly
bioaccumulative and is a known cause of brain damage and
birth defects in humans. Human exposures are greatest
through fish consumption. Fish advisories based on
mercury are in effect for the St. Marys River and Lake St.
Clair, 10,000 inland lakes in Michigan, and 400 others in
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Dioxins are highly persistent and bioacumulative. 2,3,7,8-
TCDD, the most toxic of a chemical family of 75, is an animal
carcinogen. It has been linked in humans to a skin disease.
A recent epidemiological study found greater incidence of
cancer among highly exposed persons.
2,3,7,8-TCDF is one-tenth as toxic as 2,3,7,8-TCDD, but it
has similar toxicoloical properties and is present in the
environment at much greater concentrations.
B(a)P is persistent and bioaccumulative. High
concentrations in river and lake sediments have been
associated with liver tumors in fish. B(a)P is an animal
carcinogen. B(a)P is not associated with increased cancer
in humans.
Mirex is highly persistent and bioaccumulative. Levels in
most fish have decreased since its control, but levels in
herring gull eggs have not decreased much during the same
period.
DDT is converted to DDE and retained within the tissues of
organisms. DDE is highly bioaccumulative. It has caused
eggshell thinning in birds.
Alkylated lead can cause anemia, fatigue, and brain
damage, especially in children. Lead compounds should
not pose a human health risk as long as fish consumption
advisories are followed.
Dieldrin is persistent and bioaccumulative.
Toxaphene is persistent and bioaccumulative. Toxaphene
levels in Great Lakes fish are not considered a significant
human health risk.
Hexachlorobenzene is bioaccumulative. It may cause skin
rash, nausea, and headaches in humans and is a suspected
carcinogen.
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16 Chapter 2
DRAFT July 1991
Figure 2-6. Combined Sewer Overflows Along the Detroit River
toxaphene in the waters of its lakes. Re-
searchers theorized that such pollution
must have been the result of deposition
from the air. Since toxaphene was prin-
cipally used to reduce insects on cotton
crops in the American south, there was
an implication that it had been
transported a great distance through the
atmosphere.
Researchers have subsequently tried to
estimate the extent of atmospheric
deposition of contaminants to the Great
Lakes. Atmospheric deposition may be
the largest path for some contaminants
— such as PCBs — to enter Lake Supe-
rior, for instance, because of the Lake's
relative lack of adjacent development
and its large surface area. Yet there are
great uncertainties surrounding such es-
timates because: there is not routine
lakewide monitoring of airborne deposi-
tion of organic toxicants such as PCBs,
and there is some evidence to suggest
that atmospheric deposition near urban
areas may be high, but understanding of
its extent is at an early point.
Recent research in Minnesota and
Wisconsin has concluded that the atmos-
phere is a significant pathway for mer-
cury, potentially emitted by garbage
incinerators and coal-burning power
plants, among various sources. In the last
several years, Michigan has issued ad-
visories regarding fish consumption for
thousands of its inland lakes based on
levels of mercury, while Minnesota and
Wisconsin have issued advisories for
hundreds of such lakes. The issuance of
these advisories is partly a reflection of
expanded fish monitoring programs of
inland lakes to include mercury. Though
there are atmospheric loadings of mer-
cury across the entire region, differences
in water chemistry and bacteria between
waterbodies causes mercury levels to be
more of a problem in the fish of some
lakes than hi others. Mercury levels in
walleye and lake trout have sharply fal-
len in areas of the Great Lakes where
they were highest two decades ago fol-
lowing the modification or closure of
pulp and paper mills that were then the
major source of loadings. In general,
there are not indications that mercury
levels are rising in Great Lakes fish, al-
though the evidence of atmospheric
loadings to the region may help account
for present levels of this contaminant in
fish and warrants continued monitoring.
Sources
Some evidence of the magnitude of
contaminants used, released, and trans-
ferred by industry is reported to the
public by large U.S. manufacturing
firms. Since 1987, these firms have
reported annual releases or transfers of
more than 300 toxic substances under
the Emergency Planning and Com-
munity Right-to-Know Act. EPA com-
piles this information into a data base
called the Toxics Release Inventory
(TRI). As shown in Figure 2-7, during
1988, firms in the counties of the Great
Lakes watershed reported that they
released or transferred more than 1 mil-
lion pounds of toxic substances. Rela-
tively little of this quantity was directly
released to surface water; additional
quantities may reach the Great Lakes
indirectly by pathways such as atmos-
pheric deposition. Many of these sub-
stances do not biomagnify in the food
web. The distribution of releases and
transfers is mapped in Figure 2-8. Figure
2-9 shows releases and transfers by in-
dustrial groups.
The TRI does not directly indicate the
amounts of toxicants to which humans or
the environment are exposed, nor does it
directly measure the risks that these sub-
stances pose to either. TRI data do not
necessarily indicate regulatory viola-
tions, in part because manufacturers
report transfers offsite to authorized dis-
posal facilities. Not all toxic substances
are included under TRI, nor are all sour-
ces of their release to the environment;
the TRI does not, for example, include
releases from small manufacturing firms
and from non-manufacturing firms.
CONTAMINATED BOTTOM
SEDIMENTS
Bottom sediments that hold such sub-
stances as PCBs and DDT are probably
the principal cause of the continuing
contamination of fish and wildlife with
these now banned chemicals. The trans-
fer of sediment-bound contaminants to
the base of the food web takes place both
directly, through accumulation of con-
taminants in bottom-dwelling or-
ganisms, and indirectly, through
resuspension of contaminants to the
water column and their ensuing adsorp-
tion by phytoplankton. Contaminated
sediments are also toxic to bottom-
dwelling organisms, either killing them
or impairing their normal functioning.
Sublethal effects include tumors in bot-
tom fish. Brown bullheads, a variety of
bottom-feeding catfish, have been found
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 17
Water
Other off-stte
100 150 200 250 300 350
Millions of Pounds per Year
400 450
Figure 2-7. Routes of Releases of Toxic Substances around the Great
Lakes (1988)
with a high incidence of ugly facial
tumors in the Buffalo River in New York
and the Black River hi Ohio where they
are exposed to contaminated sediments.
Contaminated sediments also impose
economic costs. Special steps are re-
quired to dredge and dispose of con-
taminated sediments, which increase the
cost of maintaining waterways for
navigation. In a number of locations, in-
cluding Indiana Harbor, Indiana, Ash-
tabula River, Ohio, Sheboygan Harbor,
Wisconsin, and Menominee River,
Michigan, navigational dredging has
been delayed for years because of con-
cerns over disposal of dredged sedi-
ments. Reduced dredging increases
transportation costs because industries
must find alternative transportation
methods or reduce their loading of ships.
Yet, the sedimentation process also
covers old sediments with new. In this
way, it may bury past contamination and
be an important natural means for the
recovery of the ecosystem. The rate of
burial differs from location to location
and lake to lake, with Lake Erie having a
relatively high rate of sedimentation,
Lakes Michigan and Superior low rates.
EPA and States have designated 31
harbors and rivers in the region, all of
which have contaminated bottom sedi-
ments, as Areas of Concern. Bottom
1-100,000
100,001 -1,000,000
1,000,001 • 10,000.000
10,000,001 -100,000,000
I > 100,000,000
Figure 2-8. Releases of Toxic Substances in Great Lakes Counties (1988)
-------
Chapter!
DRAFT July 1991
Primary Metals
Chemicals
Transportation
Fabricated Metal
Rubber and Plastic
Paper
Photographic
Stone, Clay, Glass
Food
Petroleum
Electronic
Ind & Comm Machinery
Printing
Leather
Furniture
Misc. Manufacturing
Lumber
Textile
Apparel
Tobacco
160 260 300 400 500600
Millions of Pounds/Year
Figure 2-9. Releases of Toxic Substances around the Great Lakes by In-
dustrial Group (1988)
V
\
Figure 2-10. Sediment Contamination in the Detroit River as Suggested
by Impacts on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities
sediments in these areas contain a wide
range of contaminants, including toxic
metals such as copper, lead, nickel, and
zinc as well as chemicals. Figure 2-10
illustrates the geographical zone of
highest sediment contamination in one
Area of Concern, the Detroit River, the
international channel that suffers the
most sediment pollution.
Another indication of the scope of the
contaminated sediment problem is that
in recent years, to maintain navigation
channels, the Army Corps of Engineers
has dredged a large volume of sediment
from the lakes that is too contaminated
for open-lake disposal. As directed by
the Water Resources Development Act,
the Corps places such material in con-
fined disposal facilities (CDFs), which
are manmade islands designed to hold
and isolate toxic substances. There are
38 CDFs, completed or under construc-
tion, in U.S. waters. Many of these are
not yet full and the Corps adds about two
million cubic yards of sediments to them
annually. When filled to capacity, the
contents of a CDF are covered by a layer
of clean soil.
CDFs are an imperfect solution, al-
though they may lower the transfer of
contaminants to the Great Lakes food
web that would otherwise take place if
contaminated bottom sediments
remained in place. CDFs encroach on
the lakes and require ongoing monitor-
ing and periodic maintenance. Some
also develop dense populations of
vegetation and insects, and sizable fish
communities. One CDF at the mouth of
the Buffalo River had a fish population
estimated at 20 thousand in an 8 hectare
pool during 1988. A survey of its brown
bullhead population found that 89 per-
cent had external abnormalities such as
tumors.
DEGRADED WETLANDS
A wetland is an area, such as a marsh,
swamp, bog, or fen with a predominance
of hydric soils that are inundated or
saturated by surface or ground water at
sufficient frequency to support vegeta-
tion that is adapted to an aquatic or very
wet environment.
A vital component of the Great Lakes
ecosystem, wetlands serve a variety of
important functions—providing nurs-
ery, resting, feeding, and breeding
grounds for a rich diversity of birds, fish,
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DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 19
Figure 2-11. Presettlement Extent of the Black Swamp in Northwestern
Ohio
and wildlife. These areas protect a
variety of fish species from waves and
predators. Coastal wetlands offer
warmer temperatures than open lake
waters, and their high biological produc-
tivity provides an abundant food supply.
The submerged plants of wetlands sup-
port bacteria, phytoplankton, and
zooplankton. Larval and juvenile fish
harbored by wetlands are an important
food source for waterfowl. Ducks con-
sume plants that extend above the water
and submerged ones, while geese graze
on the former. Wetlands also protect
shorelines from erosion; store flood
waters with their dense vegetation; and
trap sediments that can pollute water-
ways. Natural fluctuations in lake water
levels rejuvenate coastal marshes by
keeping plant life at an early succes-
sional stage and by releasing nutrients
from sediments and decaying vegetation
(5).
Many of the wetland areas of the Great
Lakes watershed have been lost over the
last two centuries. On the Canadian side,
it is estimated that between 1800 and
1982, more than 60 percent of the wet-
lands in southern Ontario were lost. In
southwestern Ontario, more than 90 per-
cent have been converted to other uses
(6). Similar losses have occurred in the
U.S. On a statewide basis, Illinois and
Indiana have each lost more than 80 per-
cent of then- original wetland acreage.
Ohio is believed to have lost 90 percent
of its wetlands, with the 1,500 square
mile Black Swamp of northwest Ohio
almost entirely converted to farmland by
the 1920s (Figure 2-11).
The most extensive wetland losses took
place in the 19th and early 20th centuries
when many wetlands were drained to
become suitable for agriculture.
Remaining wetlands continue to be
threatened by such purposes as building
construction, waste disposal, and mining
of sand and gravel. Consumption of
groundwater has diminished recharge of
certain wetlands. There are also indica-
tions that wetlands have been disrupted
by non-native plants, such as purple
loosestrife, and fish, such as carp.
EXOTIC SPECIES
Over the past two hundred years,
humans have introduced about 100 ex-
otic (non-native) species to the Great
Lakes, many of which have profoundly
hurt the populations of native species.
Exotics damage native populations
through direct competition for food, dis-
placement from physical environments,
direct attack, and through alteration of
the chemical or physical conditions
needed by other species.
Some introductions have been inten-
tional, such as those of carp and Pacific
salmon. Pacific (chinook and coho) sal-
mon were introduced to the lakes in the
1960s and are regularly stocked by States
and the Province of Ontario in order to
provide an additional predator to con-
trol the numbers of smelt and alewife.
Salmon also provide sport fishing alter-
natives to greatly diminished lake trout
populations. Many other introductions
of exotics have been unintended, such as
those of sea lamprey, alewife, zebra mus-
sel, and smelt.
The pace of the introductions of exotics
has accelerated over the last 30 years, as
shown by Figure 2-12. Of the just over
100 species introduced to the Great
Lakes since 1810, one third have ap-
peared since 1960. This increased pace
is largely due to greater transoceanic
shipping traffic on the Great Lakes since
completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway
in 1959. Such vessels have often taken-on
ballast water in a distant port that they
have later discharged into the Great
Lakes to compensate for the on or off-
loading of cargo or to allow a vessel to
accommodate the 27 foot maximum
draft of Great Lakes navigation chan-
1960-1990
ib ft&&
percentage of species
Figure 2-12. Timing of the Entry of Exotic Species into the Great Lakes
-------
20 Chapter 2
DRAFT July 1991
Canals
Rail or Highway
Ships
Accidental
10 15 20 25
Number of Species
Figure 2-13. Entry Routes of Exotic Species
nels. This water can bring and sustain
exotic organisms until it and they are
together released into the lakes. Thus,
ocean-going vessels have often spanned
saltwater barriers to freshwater species
from other continents.
The relative frequencies of the routes
by which exotic species are believed to
have entered the Great Lakes are shown
in Figure 2-13. More than one-third of
exotics have been stowaways by ships.
Organisms that can survive in ship bal-
last tanks are frequently very adaptable
and aggressive; when released to an
ecosystem in which they have few natural
predators, they can proliferate and
severely affect the existing balance be-
tween native species. The transfer of ex-
otics through ballast water can be
prevented if ships take-on ballast water
at sea before entering the Great Lakes.
Saltwater organisms are unlikely to sur-
vive in the Great Lakes. Exotics have
also made their way into the Great Lakes
via canals. Species that had been barred
from the upper lakes by Niagara Falls
were able to enter them after the Wei-
land Canal was completed or enlarged.
Fish species are among the best known
of the exotics. Yet, numerous other ex-
odes have also been introduced. Plants
represent about 40 percent of exotics,
fish 20 percent, and algae 18 percent.
Zebra Mussel
Zebra mussels may prove to be the
most harmful exotic ever introduced to
the Great Lakes. Named for their dis-
tinctive black and yellow bands, this tiny
barnacle-like shellfish (up to 2 inches
long) are found throughout Europe.
Zebra mussels are prolific breeders;
female mussels produce as many as 400
surviving offspring each year. They were
first noted in Lake St. Clair in 1988.
Since then, they have been found in
numerous locations, from Duluth to the
entrance of the St. Lawrence River. They
have infested Lake Erie to an astounding
degree and with equally impressive
speed, colonizing nearly every available
surface in just two years. It is expected
that the species will occupy most of its
suitable living environments within the
Lakes over the next several years. It also
seems inevitable that the zebra mussel
will in time spread through much of
America, through pathways such as the
Chicago River to the Mississippi River
system and carried by ships and recrea-
tional boats. The species was found in
the Hudson River in 1990.
Zebra mussels cement themselves to
hard surfaces, building grape-like
clusters six and more inches thick; den-
sities up to 700,000 to the square meter
have been found in Lake Erie. The
ufespan of the species is 3 to 5 years.
They favor relatively warm, nutrient-
rich, shallow water (6 to 30 feet deep).
Microscopic mussel larvae float freely
for 10 to 15 days, carried by lake currents
before finding a suitable hard surface to
which to attach themselves and mature
into the more familiar mussel form. The
mobility of the mussel larvae accounts
for the rapid spread of the species
through the Great Lakes.
The zebra mussel may pose many
ecological problems. One adult mussel
filters the suspended phytoplankton
from one liter of water per day. A vast
population of zebra mussels can devour
a vast quantity of phytoplankton, the
foundation of the Great Lakes food web,
and may in time create a food shortage
for other phytoplankton grazers and ul-
timately threaten the food supply of
predators such as lake trout, salmon,
walleye, and bass. Zebra mussels may
also threaten the spawning sites of native
fish. Many species, such as walleye,
prefer rocky shoals for spawning. Zebra
mussels prefer this habitat for coloniza-
tion. Zebra mussels also coat crayfish
and clams, making it difficult for them to
open or move.
The mussels have economic impacts as
well, clogging municipal and industrial
water intakes. Many hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars will have to be invested in
construction of new intakes, redesign of
present ones to reduce their vul-
nerability to mussel fouling, extension of
pipes into deeper water, and periodic
mussel removal. The mussels also
encrust and slow ships, and infiltrate and
clog their ballast and cooling systems.
Beaches can be fouled by the odor of
decaying zebra mussels and bathers at
some beaches will have to wear foot
protection to prevent cuts from the
sharp shells of the mussels. Dead mus-
sels also give off methane gas, imparting
a foul taste and smell to adjacent water.
The mussel also attaches to navigational
buoys, breakwater rocks, piers, and fish
nets.
Freshwater drum, also known as the
sheepshead, is a fish species present in
the Great Lakes that feed on zebra mus-
sels. Scaup, a diving duck that migrates
through the Great Lakes, is another
mussel predator. Yet, scientists consider
that these natural predators will be un-
able to curtail the explosive growth in
numbers of zebra mussels.
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 21
Damage to native fish populations from exotic species
More than 100 exotic (non-native) species have been introduced to the Great
Lakes since 1800, one-third carried by ships. Only about 21 percent of the exotics
have been fish species; the majority have been plants, plankton, and benthic
organisms. The pace of the introductions of exotic species has steadily accelerated
over the past 30 years since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway spurred an
increase in transoceanic shipping. Exotics have profoundly damaged the popula-
tions of some desirable native species. The sea lamprey, a parasitic, eel-like fish,
entered the upper lakes via the Welland Canal in the 1930s; within 20 years, it
decimated lake trout populations that to this day are not self-sustaining, though a
program of lampricide application has reduced the sea lamprey population. A
notable recent invader, likely via the ballast water of an ocean vessel, is the zebra
mussel. A prolific breeder, this mollusc forms dense colonies on hard surfaces like
water intake pipes, imposing immediate economic costs. Ecological effects of the
zebra mussel are as yet unknown, but potentially catastrophic. The zebra mussel
devours microscopic plants at the foundation of the food web and may create a
Sea Lamprey
The sea lamprey was one of the first
exotic species to devastate native
populations. This small, parasitic, eel-
like fish attaches to larger fish and lives
off their bodily fluids, often killing the
host. Sea lamprey are native to the At-
lantic Ocean. They may have made their
way into Lake Ontario via the St.
Lawrence River or the species may have
entered the Lake through the Erie
Canal. By whichever path, sea lamprey
were present in Lake Ontario by the
mid-19* century but were barred from
the other lakes by Niagara Falls. In the
1920s after enlargement of the Welland
Canal, they escaped into the upper lakes
and over the next three decades spread
throughout them.
Partly as a result of sea lamprey
depredations, lake trout populations in
Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior
collapsed; commercial catches in the
1950s were only 1 percent of those 20
years earlier. Whitefish and burbot
populations were likewise decimated,
and walleye and suckers attacked. As
large prey disappeared, lamprey turned
to forage fish, virtually extinguishing
several of the larger species of cisco in
the three upper lakes.
The sea lamprey has wreaked less
destruction on Lake Erie fish popula-
tions. This may be because Erie is
warmer and the lamprey prefers the cold
environment of the upper lakes. Or it
may be that the lamprey has lacked
spawning areas in Lake Erie.
In 1961, the U. S. and Canada began to
apply a chemical to sea lamprey spawn-
ing grounds. This lampricide application
program has slashed numbers of
lampreys by about 90 percent. However,
complete eradication of the lamprey is
probably not feasible and the control
program will need to continue in-
definitely to keep the lamprey's preda-
tions in check. Today, the lamprey is
concentrated in northern Lakes Huron
and Michigan, and in Lake Superior.
The strong currents of the St. Marys
River have lessened the effectiveness of
lampricide application. As a result, a
large population of lampreys live in the
river and in nearby reaches of Lake
Huron.
River Ruffe
The river ruffe, a small (typically 6 to 8
niches) perch-like fish from northern
Eurasian fresh waters, entered the
Duluth harbor around 1986, probably
from the discharge of ballast water from
an ocean-going vessel. The ruffe is hardy
and a rapid breeder. A growing popula-
tion has been noted in the relatively
warm and nutrient-rich St. Louis River
estuary. In 1989, the ruffe's population
was estimated at 300,000. A year later, its
population was estimated to have
doubled.
Scientists doubt that the temperature
or food supply of Lake Superior will be
a barrier to the ruffe. They think the ruffe
will spread in time, although its pace will
not rival that of the zebra mussel. If the
ruffe spreads, it may injure desirable na-
tive species. It competes for food with
native fish, such as yellow perch, and
feeds on the eggs of whitefish.
As a first attempt to control the ruffe
population in Duluth harbor, fisheries
managers stocked walleye and northern
pike to assess their predation of ruffe.
Early indications are that walleye are not
effective in controlling ruffe, if alterna-
tive prey is available. Of 400 walleye ob-
tained from Duluth harbor, none were
found to have recently eaten ruffe. Wall-
eye also have not eaten ruffe in
laboratory feeding studies. Limited sam-
pling of burbot, a voracious member of
the cod family, and northern pike show
that some had eaten ruffe, and further
work is underway to assess the potential
of these predators to control the ruffe
population in the harbor.
Spiny Water Flea
Another recent invader to the Great
Lakes is the large zooplankton,
Bythotrephes cederstroemii or spiny
water flea. At up to one-half inch in
length, it derives its name from a long
spiny tail. First noted in Lake Huron in
1984, the spiny water flea is native to
Eurasian freshwaters.
It is not yet apparent what impacts the
spiny water flea may have on the Great
Lakes ecosystem. One concern is that it
may not be palatable to potential
predators, which could lead to its uncon-
strained population growth. It feeds on a
few species of Daphnia, another form of
zooplankton that grazes on
phytoplankton. Daphnia are an impor-
tant food source for young fish such as
the bloater chub and its decline might
also bring about an increase in algae on
which it feeds. Some recent evidence in-
dicates that alewife may consume the
spiny water flea, providing a constraint
on its population (7).
Alewife
The sardine-like alewife is a 4- to 11-
inch long member of the herring family.
Alewife are native to northeastern U.S.
salt waters and entered Lake Ontario,
presumably through the Erie Canal, in
the mid-1800s. Alewife spread to the
other lakes during 1931 to 1954, after
enlargement of the Welland Canal al-
lowed the species a pathway to bypass
Niagara Falls.
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22 Chapter 2
DRAFT July 1991
Undesirable Effects From Excessive Nutrients
In some shallow waters that receive agricultural runoff of fertilizers and/or in areas
having a high surrounding population, such as Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Saginaw
Bay, and Green Bay, water is over-enriched with nutrients, particularly phos-
phorus. The situation has improved since the late 1960s when Lake Erie was
infamously clogged by foul-smelling mats of algae that depleted dissolved oxygen
from bottom waters by its seasonal die-off and decay. Nevertheless, the bottom
waters of central Lake Erie continue to suffer periods of oxygen depletion.
Phosphorus concentrations in the water column of Lake Erie are approaching
those predicted to achieve desired water quality, although this success may be
partly attributable to several recent years of below average rainfall. Conservation
Ullage and other farming practices that reduce runoff remain important to achiev-
ing desired concentrations of phosphorus. Zebra mussels are expected to reduce
Alewife have become a favored food of
lake trout and salmon. With the
precipitous decline of lake trout popula-
tions, alewife populations exploded. In
1967, millions of alewife in Lake
Michigan died and washed ashore,
owing to the twin effects of cold
temperatures and starvation. Another
notable alewife die-off occurred in
southern Lake Huron.
Stocking of salmon and lake trout have
subsequently helped to control alewife
numbers, and the species has been har-
vested commercially for fertilizer and
pet food. Alewife are believed to have
damaged the populations of several na-
tive species through competition for
food. Among these are lake herring and
emerald shiner whose numbers have not
recovered since the control of alewife.
EXCESSIVE NUTRIENTS
By the late 1960s, various areas of the
Great Lakes exhibited eutrophic condi-
tions, marked by thick algal blooms, un-
pleasant odor from and taste to the
water, and depletion of dissolved oxygen
from the water due to the decay of algae
following their seasonal die-off. These
conditions were most pronounced in
Lake Erie, which as the shallowest,
warmest, and biologically most produc-
tive lake is most susceptible to nuisance
levels of algae. Lake Erie has also been
vulnerable because it surpasses other
lakes in receipt of effluent from sewage
treatment plants and of sediment from
the rich farmland in its watershed. Both
effluent and sediment carried nutrients
to the Lake, notably phosphorus, alter-
ing its chemistry and, as a result, its algae
populations. To a lesser degree,
eutrophic conditions were also evident
in Lake Ontario and in shallow, naturally
productive embayments including
Saginaw Bay, Green Bay, and the Bay of
Quinte.
Over the last two decades, the U.S. and
Canada have generally improved water
quality across the Great Lakes by reduc-
ing phosphorus levels. Lake Erie's im-
provement, in particular, has been
visible and dramatic. Scientists deter-
mined that lowering phosphorus con-
centrations would have the greatest
limiting effect on algal productivity. The
U.S. and Canada passed laws limiting
phosphorus content in household deter-
gents and constructed more effective
municipal sewage treatment plants, cut-
ting their phosphorus discharges. As a
result, open-lake phosphorus con-
centrations have declined. As seen in
Figure 2-14, phosphorus concentrations
in Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron
continue to be below levels that scientists
regard as the highest that will still allow
desirable biological conditions. Phos-
phorus concentrations in Lakes Ontario
and Erie have declined markedly, ap-
proaching their target levels.
Lake Superior
Lake Huron
Lake Michigan
707274/67880828486
Year
30
25.
20.
15.
10.
5.
15
10.
5.
0
target level = S ug/l
68707274767880828486
Year
77 7B 79 80 8'1 82 83 84 85 86 87
Year
Lake Erie
Lake Ontario
west basin target
east and central basin target level - 10 ug/l
70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86
Year
68 70 fZ 74 76 78 80 82 84 86
Year
Figure 2-14. Phosphorus Concentrations in the Great Lakes
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The State of the Ecosystem 23
5.0
4.5.
4.0.
3.5.
3.0.
2.5.
2.0.
1.5.
1.0.
0.5.
0.0
70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Year
Figure 2-15. Annual Average Corrected Oxygen Depletion Rate, Rc, for
the bottom waters of the Central Basin of Lake Erie
(mg Oa/L/month)
Phosphorus levels have also declined in
Saginaw Bay and Green Bay. A facility
that draws drinking water from Saginaw
Bay has not found taste or odor
problems since 1980. This same facility
had 56 days of such problems in 1974.
Michigan also reports that phosphorus
concentrations in the Saginaw River
have fallen 73 percent since 1970 (8).
During the 1980s, phosphorus levels in
lower Green Bay fell by about 25 percent
from the average during the 1970s (9).
Wisconsin has set a goal of reducing
phosphorus levels in Green Bay to under
125 micrograms per liter by the year
2000.
The bottom waters of Lake Erie's
central basin continue to suffer deple-
tion of dissolved oxygen during late sum-
mer. During the summer, the central
basin stratifies by temperature, forming
a thin bottom layer. When algae die and
sink to the bottom, their decay exhausts
the limited supply of dissolved oxygen in
that layer, creating for several months a
zone that cannot support bottom dwell-
ing fish. However, an indication of Lake
Erie's improved water quality is that the
rate of oxygen depletion in the bottom
layer of tie central basin has steadily
declined and in 1989 was at its lowest
rate in twenty years. This reduction
means that the bottom layer is depleted
of oxygen later in the summer and the
period of oxygen depletion is shorter
than in the past (see Figure 2-15).
Levels of another nutrient, nitrogen,
found in the water as nitrate-plus-nitrite,
have been steadily rising throughout the
Great Lakes for many years. The likely
sources of this increase are atmospheric
deposition of combustion byproducts
and runoff of nitrogen fertilizers used on
farms and lawns. The rise in nitrate-plus-
nitrite concentrations may affect
phytoplankton communities, causing
ripples up the food web.
-------
DRAFT July 1991
The Great Lakes Program in FY1991 25
Chapter 3
The Great Lakes Program in FY 1991:
A Model, Ecosystem Approach
I his chapter presents the holistic ap-
•*- proach to ecosystem protection that
EPA will launch during FY 1991 to at-
tack current Great Lakes environmental
problems. In general, this approach will
aim to reduce tone pollutant loadings to
the Lakes and to protect and restore
habitats necessary for healthy plant and
animal communities. In pursuing these
broad goals, EPA will examine ecologi-
cal and human health risks facing the
Great Lakes region; target priority
problems and geographic areas;
promote pollution prevention as the
preferred, efficient means to reduce
risks; integrate regulatory and enforce-
ment actions in order to address the
overall pollution problem at a given
facility; meet local needs with an ap-
propriate blend of solutions from across
the entire range of the Agency's
programs; encourage public participa-
tion; and evaluate progress using
ecological indicators. In all these ele-
ments, the Agency will take advantage of
opportunities for cooperative actions
with Canada.
EPA has successfully used many in-
dividual elements of this approach in the
past. The fundamental changes now
being pioneered on the Great Lakes are
to promote innovative pollution preven-
tion measures and to focus and integrate
the Agency's programs around an
ecosystem, setting goals on the basis of
environmental needs and measuring
progress by ecological yardsticks.
A RISK-BASED AGENDA
The previous chapter discussed some
leading problems facing the Great Lakes
ecosystem—continuing unacceptable
levels of persistent toxic substances in
fish and wildlife; damaged, lost, or
threatened habitat; damage to native fish
populations from the accelerating intro-
duction of exotic species; and remaining
undesirable effects owing to excessive
levels of phosphorus. To attack these
problems, EPA will focus on slashing
levels of persistent toxicants, and on
protecting and restoring habitat and na-
tive species. The Agency will also con-
tinue activities to lower loadings of
phosphorus and join other Federal and
State agencies in efforts to control and
prevent exotic species. These are interim
steps towards EPA's long-term goal of a
healthy Great Lakes ecosystem which
contains fish that humans can safely con-
sume in unlimited quantities and thriving
populations of vulnerable species like
bald eagle and lake trout.
To address this agenda, EPA will invite
other stakeholders to join in the develop-
ment of a five year strategy, that will
begin in FY 1992. Stakeholders include
Federal, State, Tribal, and local govern-
ments, representatives from industry,
agriculture, and environmental groups,
and other concerned members of the
public. The strategy will emphasize the
ecosystem approach, rely strongly on
pollution prevention methods, and seek
to reduce loadings of toxic substances
and to protect and restore healthy plant
and animal communities.
To support development of this
strategy, EPA will also conduct its first
risk-based comparative examination of
human health and ecological hazards
facing the Great Lakes region. The study
will look at the available evidence on 23
different types or sources of problems,
including those addressed by the
Agency's various air, waste, and water
programs, and other problems of import
to the Great Lakes such as the introduc-
tion of exotic species, changing lake
levels, and contaminated fresh water
bottom sediments. This study will help
the Agency target the most pressing
sources of Great Lakes problems.
PROMOTE POLLUTION
PREVENTION
EPA will use the Great Lakes as a prov-
ing ground for pollution prevention ef-
forts. While buttressed by other Agency
activities, pollution prevention will be
the preferred means to reduce risks to
the Great Lakes ecosystem. EPA will
weave pollution prevention into the
fabric of all its Great Lakes activities and
encourage all sectors of society to con-
tribute their inspiration to the ecological
imperative to reduce the quantity and
harmfulness of resources used to satisfy
human needs.
In concert with the eight Governors of
Great Lakes States, EPA will launch a
Pollution Prevention Action Plan for the
Great Lakes. This will aim to reduce
levels of toxic substances found in the
Great Lakes food web by promoting pol-
lution prevention. The Action Plan will
augment State pollution prevention
programs. During recent years, the
Great Lakes States have launched
various prevention initiatives, involving
education, research, technical assis-
tance, and recognition of prevention
successes via awards. Some States are
also exploring ideas such as issuing one
permit to cover all the emissions from a
facility; incorporating pollution preven-
tion into enforcement settlements; and
linking permit fees to toxic generation.
EPA will continue to work closely with
States and support their pollution
prevention programs.
The Action Plan will also complement
EPA's national Pollution Prevention
strategy, which includes the 33/50 Pro-
gram. EPA has identified 17 high risk
chemicals that offer strong oppor-
tunities for prevention. During 1991,
EPA will announce a goal of encourag-
ing firms to cut their nationwide releases
of these substances 33 percent by the end
of 1992 and 50 percent by the end of
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26 Chapters
DRAFT July 1991
1995. Among the 17 are three metals —
cadmium, lead, and mercury — that
biomagnify in the aquatic food web and
are thus of special concern to the Great
Lakes ecosystem. Large manufacturing
firms report their annual releases or
transfers of over 300 toxic substances.
On a national basis these firms released
or transferred over 1.4 billion pounds of
the 17 chemicals in 1988. EPA will ask
firms who have reported releases of the
target chemicals to voluntarily reduce
these through pollution prevention.
Many of the 17 substances will be subject
to more stringent regulation under the
newly amended Clean Air Act. Under
that law's "early reductions" provisions,
a company may receive a six-year defer-
ral from meeting a maximum achievable
control technology (MACT) standard if
it voluntarily reduces its toxic emissions
by 90 percent before a MACT is
proposed. EPA also expects widespread
cooperation because pollution preven-
tion offers economic benefits and is good
corporate citizenship.
Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Ac-
tion Plan
The Pollution Prevention Action Plan
will launch five initiatives dedicated to
the Great Lakes and incorporate
prevention into all environmental
programs. It will be predicated on chal-
lenging all sectors of society, focusing on
high risk pollutants, sources, and areas;
and measuring progress. The five initia-
tives will be:
• The Challenge: The Governors of the
Great Lakes States, in cooperation
with EPA, will challenge all sectors of
society to voluntarily reduce releases
of pollutants harmful to the Great
Lakes. They will develop a regional
award program to recognize excel-
lence in pollution prevention, and also
examine technical and/or regulatory
disincentives to prevention.
Lake Superior: Superior has not ex-
perienced surrounding development
as intensely as other lakes, and
remains relatively pristine. As the
fountainhead of the Great Lakes sys-
tem, it is important that it remain so.
Among other measures, EPA and the
Lake Superior States will: agree on
common procedures to prevent
degradation; agree on key pollutants;
and establish air deposition sites to
monitor loadings of air pollution to
the lake.
Auto Manufacturing and Related In-
dustries: EPA and States will work
with Chrysler, Ford, and General
Motors to promote prevention of per-
sistent toxic substances that injure the
Great Lakes ecosystem. These com-
Pollution Prevention: Some Whats, Whys, and Hows
Pollution prevention is the adoption of
"greener" technologies or practices. It
entails everyday decisions by industry,
agriculture, governments, universities,
individuals—in short, by everyone—
that cause the least environmental
harm. Pollution prevention heads-off
environmental injury at its origins.
Pollution prevention takes in-
numerable forms. In the manufactur-
ing context, pollution prevention
involves forethought about the ul-
timate disposal of a product at the
stages of its conception and design;
firms prevent pollution by such
methods as product reformulation,
changes in processes, and equipment
redesign. Farmers prevent pollution
by sound tillage practices and handling
of pesticides and fertilizers. Univer-
sities conduct research on promising
preventive technologies. Individuals
hold a key to environmental progress
in their purchases of consumer
products and in their lifestyles.
For many manufacturing firms, pollu-
tion prevention has compelling attrac-
tions. It can reduce worker exposure to
toxic substances, lowering medical and
insurance costs. It can lower the cost
of compliance with environmental
regulations regarding treatment,
cleanup, or disposal of hazardous sub-
stances. And can save raw materials
wasted as pollutant byproducts and
lower the disposal costs of non-haz-
ardous rubbish.
Pollution prevention also adds luster
to a firm's reputation with its cus-
tomers, surrounding community, and
employees. Increasingly, consumers
stop buying products that they regard
as environmentally unkind in their
generation or disposal, presenting
profit opportunities for firms clever
enough to provide green products.
Firms with green records may find it
easier to earn community support for
new facilities, and to recruit and
motivate employees.
For such reasons, many U.S. firms
have well-established pollution
prevention programs. This welcome
development harnesses their in-
novatory energies to go beyond EPA's
traditional standards for treatment
technologies. In some cases, such
standards have served to freeze tech-''
nology within industries, forestalling
cleaner products and processes.
EPA will encourage and assist firms in
preventing pollution and is examining
innovative ways to do so. The Agency
will continue to release information on
polluters, bringing companies that
need to prevent pollution to public
notice. EPA will support the sharing of
pollution prevention information, and
sponsor research into preventive tech-
nologies. Also, regulatory barriers to
development of cleaner technologies
will be identified. Other potential
means of fostering prevention are
market incentives for firms that reduce
their use of virgin materials, their toxic
emissions, or energy consumption.
Government regulation of advertise-
ments can help consumers receive ac-
curate green information on which to
base purchases.
EPA also places a high priority on en-
couraging all sectors of society to
prevent pollution. Education is one vital
means to engage the public. The Agency
is providing educational materials on
prevention opportunities. Educational
campaigns can help homeowners deal
with household hazardous products or
help farmers protect wells from pes-
ticide contamination.
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DRAFT July 1991
The Great Lakes Program in FY1991 27
panies will join with EPA and States
to determine the substances of
greatest concern and evaluate which
may be used in their operations. The
companies will seek to reduce both
their own use of such substances and
that by their suppliers. They will also
participate in technology transfer
forums to share non-proprietary in-
formation on prevention techniques.
• Urban Non-point Pollution: EPA and
New York will support three pilot
programs to prevent urban non-point
source pollution from households. In
conjunction with county and
municipal governments, New York
will launch a consumer education
campaign around Buffalo, Niagara
Falls, Rochester, and Watertown, on
the use and disposal of hazardous
waste by households. Also, fact sheets
will be used to inform the public of the
potential risks associated with lawn
chemicals and suggest lawn care pro-
cedures.
• Binational Symposium: In the fall of
1991, EPA will co-sponsor with En-
vironment Canada a symposium to
share information on pollution
prevention.
Under the Action Plan, EPA and
States will also weave prevention into the
fabric of all their activities, including
permits, enforcement, and educational
programs. For instance, they will at-
tempt to arrange settlements of enforce-
ment actions under which a polluter will,
in lieu of merely a fine, invest in pollution
prevention or clean-up past contamina-
tion. Pollution prevention measures will
also be incorporated into clean-up
plans—Remedial Action and Lakewide
Management Plans—for geographical
problem areas.
GEOGRAPHIC TARGETING
A hallmark of the ecosystem approach
will be to focus on priority ecological
problems and geographic areas. As
problems abate in areas that have been
targeted, EPA's focus will shift to other
geographic areas. This targeting will be
shaped by the development, implemen-
tation, and continual improvement of
Remedial Action and Lakewide
Management Plans. Related efforts in-
clude development of guidance regard-
ing water quality criteria for the Great
Lakes, and various measures to redress
leading ecological risks like degraded
habitat, the invasion of non-native
species, and excessive nutrients.
Remedial Action Planning
In 1987, the United States and Canada
each formally committed to develop and
implement plans —termed Remedial
Action Plans (RAPs) —to restore the
most impaired areas around the Great
Lakes. In general, these so called "Areas
of Concern" are bays, harbors, and river
mouths with damaged fish and wildlife
populations, contaminated bottom sedi-
ments, and past or continuing loadings
of toxic and bacterial pollutants. Includ-
ing 5 shared with Canada, the U.S. has
31 Areas of Concern. The Remedial Ac-
tion Planning process is intended to
define ecological problems, apply ap-
propriate solutions, and assess progress
towards ecological goals. RAPs are prin-
cipally developed and implemented by
States with EPA support, consistent with
the Federal/State partnership in nation-
al environmental legislation.
One measure of RAP progress is the
completion of editions of these planning
documents. States have committed to
completing initial versions of 9 Stage
One (problem definition) and 2 Stage
Two (remedial action definition) RAPs
during FY 1991. This will bring the
cumulative totals thus far to 22 Stage
One and 12 Stage Two RAPs.
While RAPs are being developed,
EPA and States concurrently take many
warranted actions to protect and restore
Areas of Concern. Such actions to re-
store Areas of Concern will be discussed
in the next chapter.
During FY 1991, EPA and States will
especially target two locations encom-
passing Areas of Concern, because of
their profiles of high ecological risk and
non-compliance with permits and
regulations. EPA and States will focus
remediation, inspection and enforce-
ment, and prevention activities on
Southeast Chicago-Northwest Indiana
and along the Niagara River.
In further support of Remedial Action
Plans, EPA will also continue its ARCS
program (see chapter 4) that has as-
sessed contaminated sediment problems
in five Areas of Concern and will
demonstrate pilot scale treatment tech-
nologies in the Buffalo, Saginaw, and
Grand Calumet Rivers during 1991. In
FY 1992, this program will test addition-
al technologies in the other two Areas of
Concern —the Ashtabula and
Sheboygan Rivers. The ARCS program
will develop guidance on assessment
methods and on remedial alternatives to
assist local decision-makers in address-
ing the contaminated sediment situa-
tions of Areas of Concern.
Lakewide Management Planning
Also in 1987, the United States and
Canada committed to develop and im-
plement plans, called Lakewide
Management Plans (LAMPs), to ad-
dress whole-lake problems that extend
beyond Areas of Concern. While EPA
has the lead responsibility for develop-
ing these plans, participation by other
Federal agencies, States, and local com-
munities is fundamental to their success.
A joint Federal-State policy committee
has been established to guide the LAMP
process and to incorporate participation
by the interested public.
During FY 1991, EPA will focus on
completing Stage One LAMPs for the
lakes that have experienced the greatest
contamination—Michigan and Ontario.
The objectives of Stage One LAMPs are
to identify key pollutants and their sour-
ces, and to schedule reduction measures.
In FY 1992, the Agency will begin work
on a LAMP for Lake Superior; Lakes
Erie and Huron will follow. EPA and
State LAMP activities will be treated
more fully hi the next chapter.
EPA regards the completion of an ini-
tial version of a RAP or LAMP to be an
important, though interim, achievement.
These plans must, of course, be imple-
mented to obtain desired results. RAPs
and LAMPs will also be continually im-
proved as more is learned about
problems and their sources, and as the
results of preventive and remedial
measures warrant.
Water Quality Initiative
In view of the unique features of the
Great Lakes system, EPA and States
believe that in some cases criteria
specific for the Great Lakes are neces-
sary to protect aquatic biota and wildlife,
and human health—primarily from fish
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28 Chapters
DRAFT July 1991
consumption risks —on a long-term
basis. In FY1989, EPA and States began
a "Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative"
to develop EPA guidance to States
regarding water quality criteria for the
Great Lakes, a Great Lakes an-
tidegradation policy, implementation
procedures, and pollution prevention
measures. EPA is responsible for
developing national water quality
criteria that numerically define maxi-
mum allowable concentrations of cer-
tain pollutants in surface waters across
the nation. These criteria are used by
States as a basis for their water quality
standards and water quality-based
regulation under the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES). The initiative will continue in
FY 1991. EPA envisions that the
guidance will be completed in time to be
incorporated into the next triennial State
water quality standard review process
(1991 to 1993).
The Initiative will fulfill a number of
purposes. It will help ensure that Great
Lakes environmental needs are incor-
porated into State water quality
programs, thereby providing a sound
scientific basis for water quality-based
protection of the Great Lakes under the
Clean Water Act. It will support greater
consistency among States in their stand-
ards and implementation procedures for
the Great Lakes. And it will help to
define water quality objectives for
Lakewide Management Plans; com-
pliance with standards will provide an
opportunity to adopt pollution preven-
tion technologies and methods.
Water quality guidance developed
under the Initiative will represent an in-
terim accomplishment. Over the long-
term, EPA and States will seek to
prevent loadings of toxic substances,
with a goal of virtual elimination. Tech-
nology-based regulatory requirements
will supplement water-quality require-
ments.
Habitat Protection and Restoration
EPA will work with other Federal
agencies, State, and local governments
on protection of wetlands and critical
plant communities. This will entail
development of a joint Great Lakes wet-
lands strategy. Also, critical plant com-
munities will be inventoried and
assessed for their ability to sustain fish
and wildlife populations.
Prevention and Mitigation of Exotic
Species
EPA will research the impact of zebra
mussels on the health of the Great Lakes,
identify areas susceptible to the spread
of this exotic species, and evaluate the
environmental risks posed by possible
control options. In conjunction with the
Coast Guard, EPA will also study the
effectiveness of ballast water exchange
by transoceanic vessels before they enter
the Great Lakes at preventing the intro-
duction of exotic species. The Fish and
Wildlife Service will also continue to
apply lampricides to sea lamprey spawn-
ing grounds and to stock lake trout in
order to mitigate the effects of this ex-
otic.
Excessive Nutrients
Through its base programs, EPA will
continue working with the Department
of Agriculture and with States on as-
sorted programs to reduce the non-point
loadings of agricultural nutrients like
phosphorus and nitrogen to the Great
Lakes.
INTEGRATED REGULATION AND
ENFORCEMENT
EPA will increasingly transcend
statutory and organizational seams in its
development and enforcement of
regulations and permits. One instance of
the integration of regulations, with im-
plications for the Great Lakes, is the
revision of pulp and paper industry
regulations. EPA will develop integrated
regulations for pulp and paper mills so
that technology-based effluent treat-
ment standards under the Clean Water
Act and requirements under the Clean
Air Act are considered together for op-
timal environmental results and for in-
corporation of pollution prevention
opportunities. One aim will be to further
reduce the discharge of dioxins from this
industrial sector. Mills throughout the
nation will be required to install the best
available effluent treatment technology
by 1995. The Agency will also establish
guidelines for managing landfills that
receive dioxin-contaminated wastewater
treatment sludge from pulp and paper
mills.
Another aspect of EPA's integration
will be to follow a "multi-media" enfor-
cement strategy. Traditionally, EPA has
relied on enforcement under a single
statute, addressing a single medium (air,
waste, or water). This may have some-
tunes had the effect of encouraging a
polluter to transfer an environmental
problem from one medium to another
(e.g., soil to air). On a national basis,
EPA will seek to make 25 percent of all
enforcement actions in 1991 "multi-
media" cases so as to address the overall
pollution problem at a given facility.
During 1989-90, EPA filed several multi-
media suits for alleged violations of en-
vironmental permits and regulations in
Northwest Indiana.
ENGAGE THE PUBLIC
EPA and States will also continue to
encourage involvement by interested
members of the public in many aspects
of their Great Lakes activities:
• Local community "stakeholders" are
strongly involved in the development,
and in overseeing the implementa-
tion, of many RAPs. This grass-roots
participation has molded the goals of
these planning efforts, strengthened
the sense of local ownership of both
problems and their solutions, and is
helping governments be more respon-
sive to local concerns.
• Public participation will also be en-
couraged as part of the LAMP
process and in the formation of a 5-
year Great Lakes strategy.
• EPA and the Governors of the Great
Lakes States will encourage public in-
volvement in pollution prevention by
such means as recognition for excel-
lence in pollution prevention.
• Representatives from environmental
groups, business associations, and
municipalities have been invited to
comment during the development of
the Water Quality Initiative. A public
record on the Initiative is being
developed and public hearings will be
held once findings and recommenda-
tions are reached. Proposed guidance
will be available in the Federal
Register for public review and com-
ment.
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DRAFT July 1991
The Great Lakes Program in FY1991 29
• EPA's ARCS program has held
public meetings to inform residents
living near the areas of study about its
activities and results.
ASSESS PROGRESS
Another hallmark of EPA's approach
to the Great Lakes will be to set goals
and assess progress towards them, using
demonstrable measures. The national
33/50 program sets goals to reduce
releases of 17 target substances by 1992
and 1995, respectively, and will track
progress through Toxic Release Inven-
tory reporting. In 1987, EPA, the New
York State Department of Environmen-
tal Conservation and counterpart
Canadian agencies dedicated themsel-
ves to cut in half loadings of priority toxic
chemicals to the Niagara River by 1996.
Progress towards this goal is ascertained
by monitoring water quality at both ends
of the river.
EPA and States will pursue a variety of
other activities to assess the health of the
ecosystem and the efficacy of preventive
and remedial actions:
• During FY 1991, EPA will join States
and other Federal agencies in the first
of what will be annual comprehensive
reviews of research and monitoring
priorities to ensure that scientific
work supports program management
needs.
• As part of LAMP processes,
proposed ecosystem objectives for
Lake Ontario will be presented for
public comment, and ecosystem ob-
jectives for Lake Michigan will also be
begun.
• EPA will develop a better under-
standing of the extent and significance
of atmospheric deposition of pol-
lutants by establishing three stations
to monitor this pollutant pathway.
When these are added to two stations
that Canada will establish, each lake
will have one master station.
• EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service,
and States will continue to monitor
contaminant levels in different fish
and wildlife species to judge the
health of the ecosystem.
• During 1991, EPA will begin to
sample open lake water column con-
centrations of priority pollutants on
Lakes Ontario and Michigan.
• EPA and Wisconsin will conclude the
analytic aspects of their multi-year
study of the sources, paths, and fates
of several persistent toxic substances
in Green Bay. Lessons from this study
will be transferred to whole-lake
analyses in support of LAMPs.
COOPERATION WITH CANADA
EPA and States will look for all oppor-
tunities to work with counterparts in
Canada. Canadian representatives have
been invited to ARCS program meetings
so as to keep apprised of U.S. findings
regarding technologies to address con-
taminated sediments. Canadian ob-
servers have also been invited to attend
meetings of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Initiative work groups, since this
initiative will provide a basis for the
revision of binational "specific objec-
tives" under the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement. EPA and States will
also continue to work with Canadian
counterparts on RAPs for shared Areas
of Concern and on LAMPs for shared
lakes. They will also work with Canada
to coordinate pollution prevention ac-
tivities for the Great Lakes.
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement 31
Chapter 4
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement
This chapter reports recent actions by
EPA and States to cut pollutant
loadings to the Great Lakes and to
protect fish and wildlife habitats. Many
of these actions support the three major
approaches of the Water Quality Agree-
ment with Canada: Remedial Action
Plans, Lakewide Management Plans,
and the Phosphorus Load Reduction
Plan. This chapter also discusses EPA's
ARCS Program that is testing remedial
technologies and will develop guidance
on addressing contaminated bottom
sediments.
FRAMEWORK
The United States and Canada have a
long history of cooperation on issues
pertaining to their joint stewardship of
the Great Lakes. In 1905, the two nations
formed an International Waterways
Commission to advise them about Great
Lakes water levels and flows. Created
under the Boundary Waters Treaty of
1909, the International Joint Commis-
sion (LIC) superseded this commission
and continues to function today.
The LIC has six members, three ap-
pointed by each nation. It has limited
authority to approve diversions, obstruc-
tions, and uses of Great Lakes waters
that affect water flow or levels on the
other side of the international boundary.
A major activity of the LIC has been to
advise the two Federal governments
about Great Lakes water issues and to
conduct studies at the request of the
governments. Since 1972, the LJC has
had the additional function of reviewing
progress of the two nations under their
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The UC has two advisory boards to
assist it. The Great Lakes Water Quality
Board, comprising members from
Federal, State, and Provincial environ-
mental agencies, promotes coordination
of programs and the sharing of environ-
mental information. The Science Ad-
visory Board consists of government and
academic experts who advise the LTC
concerning scientific findings and needs.
Many of the committees and work
groups of these boards convene at the
LIC's Great Lakes Regional Office in
Windsor, Ontario.
Widespread public concern over the
health of the Great Lakes led the United
States and Canada to sign the first Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement in
1972. The primary thrust of the first
Agreement was to reduce excessive
levels of phosphorus in the Great Lakes
that were causing nuisance levels of
aquatic plant life, particularly un-
desirable algae. The Agreement also
called for coordinated international en-
vironmental research and surveillance of
Great Lakes conditions.
In 1978, the two nations signed a new
Agreement. By that time, there had been
clear progress in reducing phosphorus
loadings to the Great Lakes. There was
also a growing appreciation of a subtler
risk to fish, wildlife, and human health—
persistent toxic substances. Certain
species offish in many locations through
the Great Lakes had been found to con-
tain unsafe levels of persistent toxic sub-
stances, such as polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, chlordane,
and mirex. The second Agreement
added commitments to prohibit the dis-
charge of toxic substances in toxic
amounts into the Great Lakes, virtually
eliminate all persistent toxic substances,
and restore the chemical, physical, and
biological integrity of the waters of the
Great Lakes basin ecosystem. In 1983,
the two nations added provisions under
which they pledged to develop phos-
phorus reduction plans to reduce exces-
sive plant life in areas of the Great Lakes.
In November 1987, the nations revised
the Agreement again. Under this
revision, they committed to preparing
and executing ecosystem cleanup plans
for Areas of Concern and for whole-lake
problems associated with certain critical
pollutants. The two types of cleanup
plans are respectively called Remedial
Action Plans (RAPs) and Lakewide
Management Plans (LAMPs). The
Agreement stated that these plans would
be submitted to the LTC for review and
comment at various stages. The 1987
revision also added some management
commitments. The two nations formally
agreed to meet twice a year to coor-
dinate their respective work and to
evaluate progress. They also agreed to
report to the LIC on a biennial basis
concerning progress on certain ac-
tivities.
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agree-
ment sets forth a joint agenda for inter-
national stewardship of the Great Lakes
ecosystem. To carry out this agenda,
Canada and the United States each con-
trol pollution and protect natural
resources under their respective nation-
al, state, and local laws. Implementation
of the Agreement relies on the full range
of U.S. environmental programs. Most
U.S. environmental legislation is ad-
ministered by EPA and States in
partnership. In addition, other Federal
agencies play important roles in protect-
ing the Great Lakes: the Army Corps of
Engineers, the Coast Guard, the Fish
and Wildlife Service, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion, and the Soil Conservation Service.
EPA is the lead Federal agency for
carrying out the Agreement. EPA's
Great Lakes National Program Office
coordinates within the Agency and with
appropriate Federal, State, Tribal, and
international agencies to implement the
Agreement. The Program Office also
administers a system-wide surveillance
network to monitor the water quality of
the Great Lakes, with emphasis on the
monitoring of toxic pollutants. In addi-
tion, it serves as liaison with and provides
information to the LIC and to EPA's
Canadian counterpart, Environment
Canada. The Program Office conducts
studies pertaining to the Great Lakes
ecosystem, demonstrates cleanup tech-
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32 Chapter 4
DRAFT July 1991
oologies and methods, works with States
to develop cleanup plans, and develops
this comprehensive report that discusses
Federal programs and the long-term
prospects for improving the condition of
the Great Lakes.
Areas of Concern
Since 1973, the U.S. and Canada have
identified geographic problem areas in
the Great Lakes. Over time, the number
of areas has increased or decreased as
more environmental data have become
available, environmental conditions
have changed, and definitions of impair-
ments have evolved. In 1976, the two
nations identified 47 "problem areas."
In 1981, they identified 39 "Areas of
Concern," grouping them into two clas-
ses according to their severity of impair-
ment: 18 Areas of Concern were
classified as "significantly degraded"
and 21 others as "exhibiting degrada-
tion." Of the 18 significantly degraded
areas, 13 were wholly in the United
States, 4 were shared by the two nations,
and 1 was in Canada. In 1985, the U.S.
added 3 Areas of Concern: the
Kalamazoo River in the Lake Michigan
basin and Torch Lake and Deer
Lake/Carp River in the Lake Superior
basin.
In 1991, the United States will add
Presque Isle Bay in the Lake Erie basin.
With this addition, there will be 43 Areas
of Concern. The U.S. has 31 Areas of
Concern—26 located wholly in the U.S.
and 5 shared with Canada. Figure 4-1
shows their locations.
A problem common to all U.S. Areas
of Concern is the presence of sediments
contaminated by toxic substances. Even
though the problem of contaminated
sediments is common, solutions are like-
ly to be varied and site-specific, depend-
ing on such factors as the nature of the
contamination, the type of sediment par-
ticle, whether the source of the con-
tamination has stopped, and the degree
of risk posed by the sediments to the
ecosystem.
Other common problems within Areas
of Concern include fish with tumors and
human health advisories for consump-
tion of fish. As of 1987, there were ad-
visories regarding consumption of fish
within 26 of 30 U.S. Areas of Concern.
In addition, 12 U.S. Areas of Concern
were known to contain fish with clearly
evident problems, such as tumors.
REMEDIAL ACTION PLANNING
In 1985, EPA and the Great Lakes
States agreed to develop and implement
RAPs for Areas of Concern. They recog-
nized that many lakewide problems
originate in certain nearshore areas, so
that addressing these through RAPs
would also reduce lakewide impair-
ments. The U.S. and Canada formally
added provisions concerning RAPs to
the Great Lakes Water Quality Agree-
ment in November 1987.
One of the Agreement's general prin-
ciples regarding RAPs calls for the use
of an ecosystem approach to restoring
Areas of Concern. Each RAP is to iden-
tify the nature and causes of problems,
remedial actions, and responsible or-
ganizations. Pursuant to the Agreement,
RAPs will be submitted to the IJC for
independent review and comment at
three stages —after definition of
problems, after development of ap-
propriate remedial measures, and after
monitoring indicates that beneficial uses
have been restored.
Another important provision of the
Agreement is that the public, particular-
ly from communities adjacent to the
Area of Concern, be involved in RAP
planning and implementation. The two
nations realize that cleanup of many
Areas of Concern will be a lengthy, costly
process. Continuing public interest is in-
tegral to the success of this process.
RAPs are developed and implemented
by States, consistent with the
Federal/State partnership in national
environmental legislation. To supple-
ment State funding, EPA provides an-
nual grants to States for administering
national water, waste, and air programs.
Some of these funds are applied to
remedial measures in Areas of Concern.
In addition, EPA gives grants specifical-
ly for RAP development and provides
technical assistance. EPA has joined
States in supporting a series of major
studies on a number of Areas of Con-
cern, including the Niagara River (com-
pleted 1985); the St. Marys, St. Clair, and
Detroit Rivers (completed 1988); and
Green Bay (in progress). The Agency is
also conducting a major study on con-
taminated bottom sediments in five
Areas of Concern. All these studies have
developed information that is useful in
understanding the problems of Areas of
Concern.
Progress
One administrative measure of RAP
progress is the completion of editions of
these planning documents. Through FY
1990, States had developed 13 Stage One
(problem definition) and 10 Stage Two
(proposal of remedial actions) RAPs to
the point of submission to the IIC. States
have committed to completing initial
versions of 9 additional Stage One and 2
Stage Two RAPs during FY 1991. This
will bring the cumulative totals thus far
to 22 Stage One and 12 Stage Two RAPs.
Many other RAPs are under develop-
ment. Table A-l in the Appendix sum-
marizes RAP submission status, past
and planned.
RAPs will be continually improved as
more is learned about the problems of
Areas of Concern, and as warranted by
the results of preventive and remedial
measures. EPA views Remedial Action
Planning as a valuable ongoing manage-
ment process to identify priority en-
vironmental problems, steps needed to
solve these, and resulting demonstrable
ecological progress.
Yet, EPA, States, and other par-
ticipants do not wait for the completion
of editions of these plans before taking
warranted actions to reduce toxic load-
ings or protect habitat. Table A-2 in the
Appendix provides some recent ac-
complishments and planned activities in
U.S. Areas of Concern. Some highlights
of recent accomplishments:
• The cleanup process is continuing
through various stages at 13 Super-
fund sites which are integral to restor-
ing 7 Areas of Concern—Ashtabula
River, Kalamazoo River, Niagara
River, St. Lawrence River, Sheboygan
River, Torch Lake, and Waukegan
Harbor. This process is also continu-
ing at another 4 Superfund sites that
are clearly significant, though
generally to a lesser degree, to restor-
ing 3 other Areas of Concern—the
Clinton River, St. Louis River, and
Saginaw River (its Shiawasee River
tributary). Over the course of these
multi-year Superfund program
-------
MUWAUKEE CSTVMRV
WAUKEOAN HARBOR
*
I
Figure 4-1. Areas of Concern
-------
34 Chapter 4
DRAFT July 1991
remediations, hundreds of millions of
dollars will be invested, by potentially
responsible parties and EPA
together, in redressing environmental
problems.
• Multi-year programs to eliminate
combined sewer overflows of un-
treated waste water are underway in
many communities around the Great
Lakes. These are of particular impor-
tance to 8 Areas of Concern—the
Detroit River, Maumee River,
Menominee River, Milwaukee Har-
bor, Rochester Embayment, Rouge
River, St. Clair River, and St. Marys
River.
• Major long-term investments in
municipal wastewater treatment
plants are improving 3 Areas of Con-
cern—the Black River, Cuyahoga
River, and Green Bay.
• The Federal government has sued to
enforce the pretreatment of industrial
effluent in a case relating to two Areas
of Concern—the Rouge River and
Detroit River.
• Pursuant to RCRA, EPA and States
have taken measures that are sig-
nificant to two Areas of Concern—the
Menominee River and River Raisin.
• Agricultural nonpoint pollution con-
trol measures are focusing on Areas
of Concern where this type of pol-
lutant source is notably significant—
Green Bay, Maumee River, and
Saginaw Bay.
• Regulation of point source water dis-
chargers is especially helping 2 Areas
of Concern —the Grand Calumet
River and Manistique River.
Although the U.S. has identified Areas
of Concern for over a decade, it should
be noted that, generally, there have been
substantial environmental improve-
ments in these areas as a result of pollu-
tion abatement. Improved water quality
in areas such as the Cuyahoga, Black,
and Ashtabula Rivers in Ohio and the
Buffalo River in New York have allowed
fish to return, though contaminants
remain in those areas, causing the fish to
develop tumors or other abnormalities
and to be unsafe for human consump-
tion.
Another Area of Concern where there
are strong biological responses to im-
proved water quality is the Fox River and
Green Bay. A recent report on the area
noted that the number of different bot-
tom-dwelling species doubled in the 10
years after 1978. Wild celery, a favored
food of waterfowl, has been recovering.
The reproductive success of Forster's
terns in Green Bay improved during the
1980s, and the number of nesting pairs
increased about 500 percent from 1986
through 1988 (10).
RAP Process Lessons
Some successes of the RAP process to
date:
• Local community "stakeholder"
groups are strongly involved in many
RAPs. This grass roots participation
has molded the goals of RAPs and
strengthened the sense of local
"ownership" of both problems and
their solutions.
• Stakeholder participation has helped
to increase public awareness of en-
vironmental issues.
• Stakeholder groups have provided an
opportunity for industrial firms to join
in restoration planning. One State en-
vironmental agency participant has
noted: "In the RAP process, we work
with firms to prevent pollution, talk-
ing to their engineers rather than their
lawyers."
• The development of some RAPs has
brought together nearby
municipalities in addressing common
regional problems (e.g., Green Bay,
Rouge, and Maumee RAPs).
• RAPs developed to date represent an
impressive assemblage of information
on environmental problems and solu-
tions. They serve to inform the public,
guide government actions, and justify
investments in Great Lakes restora-
tion (e.g., the Great Lakes Governors
launched a $100 million Great Lakes
protection fund in 1988).
• RAPs have called upon a broad range
of environmental programs to meet
ecological needs. For instance, they
rely on nonpoint source measures
(Saginaw and Green Bays), industrial
pretreatment (Rouge River),
groundwater remediation (Niagara
River), better sewage treatment, and
wetlands restoration (Green Bay),
among other measures.
Some general lessons that have been
learned from the Remedial Action Plan-
ning process include the following:
• The development of a strong RAP can
be complex and protracted. The
Rouge River RAP became seven
separate volumes.
• Some RAP development efforts en-
counter a host of questions about the
extent and causes of ecosystem im-
pairments. Establishing "causality"
between known sources of pollution
and impaired fish and wildlife may
entail years of study.
• The RAP process will be iterative and
incremental. The first generation of
the Rouge River RAP, for instance, is
a superb achievement, resulting from
exemplary involvement by many com-
munities. It addresses the most imme-
diate problems of the Area of
Concern—overflows from combined
sewers and bacteria problems. In the
future, the Rouge River RAP will be
updated to address the problem of
toxic substances.
• There can be a considerable asym-
metry of information available to dif-
ferent RAP teams. Sometimes there is
extensive information about an Area
of Concern upon which the RAP may
draw (e.g., Green Bay). In other cases,
the development effort must include
analyses of water, fish, and sediment
samples to fully define use impair-
ments and their causes (e.g.,
Cuyahoga and Maumee Rivers).
• Some communities have citizens with
a strong knowledge of local environ-
mental conditions that has helped
their stakeholder groups (e.g.,
Duluth, Green Bay, and Milwaukee).
• The RAP development process can
be greatly helped by information
-------
DRAFT Jufyl991
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement 35
Actions to Restore Areas of Concern
Lake Michigan
Contamination of sport fish with PCBs
is the principal basis for the issuance
of health advisories regarding Great
Lakes fish. Various actions ringing
Lake Michigan attack this priority
problem.
* The largest known reservoir of
PCBs in the Great Lakes is
Waukegan Harbor. Under a Su-
perfund remedial plan being
carried out through 1993, 99
percent of the PCBs in the har-
bor wifl be removed.
• Another important source of
PCBs has been the Sheboygan
Riverj it is the subject of a Su-
perfund remedial investigation
and feasibility study. On the
eastern side of the lake, the
Kalamazoo River has PCB-con-
taminated bottom sediments. In
1989, EPA and Michigan
proposed a35 mile stretch of the
river as a Superfund site and a
remedial investigation is begin-
ning in 1991.
• The Fox River and Green Bay
have suffered high levels of
PCBs; EPA and Wisconsin are
studying the sources and fates of
PCBs in this area.
• At the base of Lake Michigan,
various enforcement actions
have been taken and the area
remains the focus of EPA and
State activities. Under a recent
innovative settlement, USX
Corporation will dredge sedi-
ments from a stretch of the
Grand Calumet River to
prevent movement of con-
taminants, including PCBs, to
the lake.
The Niagara River
The other most contaminated lake is
Ontario. The U.S. side of the Niagara
River, which after World War II at-
tracted a cluster of chemical com-
panies, has been a leading source of
toxic pollutants, including 10 of the 15
most troublesome in the Lake Ontario
food web. Studies indicate that non-
point loadings, such as leachate and
runoff from waste sites, are the
dominant source of priority pollutants
to the Niagara. There are many haz-
ardous waste sites near the river, the
most infamous of which may be a
former landfill called Love Canal
which became a residential area.
The Niagara Frontier has been a sus-
tained emphasis of EPA and New
York over many years. A major bina-
tional study of the river was completed
in 1985. In 1987, EPA and the State
joined Canadian counterparts in a
declaration dedicated to halving toxic
loadings to the Niagara by 1996. They
have taken many actions related to
remediating waste sites, including five
Superfund sites and others addressed
by the State's waste program. Some of
the residential areas near Love Canal
that were once deemed unsafe have
recently been judged to be habitable.
EPA and the State have announced
schedules to remediate, by 1996, the
20 waste sites considered responsible
for 99 percent of U.S. waste site load-
ings to the Niagara.
Hie St Lawrence River
EPA and State actions are also aimed
at profound local problems. One of
the most pressing is the St. Lawrence
River Area of Concern. Largely
during the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. and
Canadian industries poured wastes in-
cluding PCBs and mercury into river-
side landfills, even the St. Lawrence
River itself. Aluminum smelters
emitted fluroide into the air. This pol-
lution damaged the traditional fishing,
farming, and hunting economy of
Mohawks living on the Akwesasne In-
dian Reservation in New York State.
Fish, ducks, and turtles, long principal
sources of protein for the Mohawks,
became contaminated with PCBs or
mercury.
In 1983, EPA added a General Motors
site on the St. Lawrence to its Super-
fund NPL list. In 1990, EPA selected
a remedial plan for part of this site that
is estimated to cost $78 million. In
1991, EPA also issued Superfund Ad-
ministrative Orders to the Aluminum
Company of America (ALCOA) and
the Reynolds Metal Company to per-
form remedial investigations, designs,
and cleanups of PCB-contaminated
bottom sediments in the St. Lawrence
River system.
provided by potentially responsible
parties pursuant to enforcement ac-
tions (e.g., Ashtabula, Kalamazoo,
and Sheboygan).
Major investments will be required to
restore some Areas of Concern.
Large sewage system and treatment
facility improvements are underway
or will be needed in many Areas of
Concern (e.g., Maumee, Rouge, and
Detroit Rivers, and Milwaukee Har-
bor). Michigan estimates that the total
cost of all improvements for CSOs
that discharge into the Rouge River to
be $1 billion and for those that dis-
charge into the Detroit River to be
$2.6 billion.
It is often unclear how to address the
common problem of contaminated
bottom sediments in rivers and har-
bors. EPA is testing technologies and
will develop guidance to assist local
decision-makers.
ARCS PROGRAM
During FYs 1989-90, EPA continued
its sponsorship of a study and
demonstration program — the Assess-
ment and Remediation of Contaminated
Sediments (ARCS) Program - to assess
contaminated Great Lakes bottom sedi-
ments, test remedial technologies, and
develop guidance on addressing bottom
sediment contamination in the Great
Lakes. Five areas are receiving priority
consideration: Ashtabula River (Ohio),
Buffalo River (New York), Grand
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36 Chapter 4
DRAFT July 1991
Calumet River (Indiana), Saginaw Bay
(Michigan), and Sheboygan Harbor
(Wisconsin). EPA is joined in the ARCS
program by various federal and State
agencies, including the Army Corps of
Engineers; Bureau of Mines; Fish and
Wildlife Service; National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's Great
Lakes Environmental Research
Laboratory; Indiana Department of En-
vironmental Management; Michigan
Department of Natural Resources; New
York State Department of Environmen-
tal Conservation; Ohio Environmental
Protection Agency, Wisconsin Depart-
ment of Natural Resources; and a num-
ber of universities.
All 31U. S. Areas of Concern, includ-
ing the 5 given priority by ARCS, have
contaminated bottom sediments.
Developing scientific grounds and im-
proved technologies for addressing con-
taminated sediments will be critical to
restoring the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Many existing technologies for removing
contaminated sediments have unwanted
environmental side effects. Many
present methods of dredging bottom
sediments, for instance, release and
resuspend some contaminants from
sediments.
The ARCS program assesses the scope
and nature of contamination in the study
areas, assesses human and ecological
health impacts of the contamination and
of alternative remedial measures, and
tests the efficacy of new remedial tech-
nologies. Another aspect of ARCS is to
inform and solicit comments from inter-
ested citizens in communities adjacent
to the study areas about the intent and
findings of the program.
A final report on the ARCS program
will be available in December 1993. It
will include guidance on how to assess
freshwater contaminated sediment
problems (i.e., models and risk assess-
ment tools), and guidance on remedial
alternatives.
Assessment
During FYs 1989-90, the ARCS pro-
gram sampled bottom sediments at dif-
ferent depths in the Indiana
Harbor/Grand Calumet River, Buffalo
River, and Saginaw River. ARCS started
analyses of sample chemistry, toxicity
(both acute and chronic) to aquatic or-
ganisms exposed to the sediment, and
identification of benthic organisms.
These analyses will be completed in FY
1991, and three-dimensional maps of the
extent and nature of contamination will
be prepared.
Preliminary data from Indiana Harbor
samples indicate their acute toxicity to
test organisms; they are among the most
toxic Great Lakes sediments ever
analyzed. Since this is true of samples
from the surface of bottom sediment,
there is the implication that contamina-
tion is continuing from sources in the
area. In the Grand Calumet River, sur-
face sediments were also found to be
highly toxic. Preliminary analytic results
of surface samples from the Buffalo
River indicate their toxicity was general-
ly lower than those of samples from In-
diana, though sediments from one
Buffalo River site were found to be
acutely toxic to some organisms. In
November 1989, ARCS took surficial
samples in the Saginaw River. Prelimi-
nary analysis of these generally indicates
less toxicity than in the Buffalo River,
though two Saginaw sites had notably
higher toxicity than others.
Benthic organisms found living in the
Indiana Harbor Canal were mainly pol-
lution tolerant species, whereas more
pollution sensitive species were found in
the Saginaw and Buffalo Rivers.
The Fish and Wildlife Service surveyed
fish (bullheads) for tumors and abnor-
malities in the Ashtabula, Saginaw,
Grand Calumet, and Buffalo Rivers. No
bullheads or white suckers could be
found in the Grand Calumet. The Ser-
vice also began studying, in the Saginaw
and Buffalo Rivers, the transfer of con-
taminants from sediment to fish.
ARCS is drawing on Superfund ac-
tivities in the Ashtabula River to obtain
samples and chemical analyses, both sur-
ficial and with depth. Sheboygan Harbor
also contains a Superfund site, allowing
ARCS to obtain its bioassays and
chemistry analyses.
Hazard Evaluations
As contaminants in sediments are iden-
tified, an important element of ARCS is
to evaluate the risks from them under
current conditions and under various
remedial alternatives. During FYs 1989-
90, ARCS continued to assess human
and ecological health impacts of sedi-
ment contamination and of remedial al-
ternatives. ARCS continued evalua-
tions, begun in FY 1989, of current
hazards at each of the five priority loca-
tions.
In the Buffalo and Saginaw Rivers,
ARCS began comprehensive hazard
evaluations to assess risks under various
remedial alternatives. Many industrial
firms along the Buffalo River have
closed since the 1970s or directed their
discharges to municipal treatment
facilities; thus, the Buffalo River analysis
may prove to be less complex than that
of the Saginaw River, which contains a
larger watershed and likely a greater
number of current sources of pollutants.
A FY 1991 aspect of these comprehen-
sive evaluations will be to study the sour-
ces and fates of contaminants in the
Buffalo and Saginaw Rivers over a six
week time span. Water column, fish, and
sediment samples will be collected to
analyze for selected pollutants. Con-
taminants being studied in the Buffalo
River are PCBs, DDT, dieldrin, chlor-
dane, lead, copper, benzo(a)anthra-
cene, benzo(a)pyrene,
benz(b/k)fluoranthene, and chrysene.
Contaminants being studied in the
Saginaw River are PCBs, zinc, copper,
and lead.
Once models of the sources and fates
of these pollutants are refined, ARCS
will predict risks under various remedial
alternatives, including: the no-action al-
ternative or leaving sediments undis-
turbed; dredging only the two or three
worst hot spots; capping stretches of
river with clean material rather than
dredging them; and complete removal of
contaminated sediment. ARCS is look-
ing at the complete picture of risks as-
sociated with each option, including
dredging, treatment, and ultimate dis-
posal of contaminated sediments.
Technology Evaluations
During FYs 1989-90, ARCS began
small-scale laboratory tests of treatment
technologies on sediments from the five
priority locations. These tests use be-
tween a few grams to a few kilograms of
sediment, and provide data for ensuing,
larger field demonstrations. Treatment
technologies being evaluated in a
laboratory setting include solidifica-
tion/stabilization, thermal extraction,
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement 37
chemical treatment, and biological treat-
ment. ARCS also sponsored a binational
research conference on biological treat-
ment of sediments contaminated by
PCBs, PAHs, and some metals.
To date, ARCS has chosen 16 tech-
nologies for testing consideration. Each
was selected based on a number of
criteria, including effectiveness and cost,
the latter an important consideration
given the large volume of contaminated
sediments across the Great Lakes. The
innovative technologies fall into five
general categories: thermal technologies
(including incineration, but more often
die use of high temperatures short of
combustion); chemical destruction
(using chemical reactions to break down
contaminants); biological treatment
(using bacteria or fungi to break down
contaminants); extraction technologies
(using solvents to separate contaminants
from sediments); and immobilization
(such as processes that mix cement with
sediments to reduce the availability of
contaminants to the Great Lakes food
web).
ARCS plans pilot-scale, field
demonstrations in all five priority loca-
tions during FYs 1991-92:
• On the Ashtabula River, ARCS will
demonstrate a thermal stripping
process to desorb semivolatile or-
ganic contaminants (such as PAHs)
from sediment.
• On the Buffalo River, ARCS will
demonstrate a thermal extraction
process to remove organic con-
taminants from sediment. Like the
low temperature thermal stripping,
this process is also a thermal desorp-
tion process that removes semivolatile
organic contaminants. Under it, sedi-
ments are heated to temperatures
high enough to volatilize con-
taminants, but beneath temperatures
used during incineration.
• On the Grand Calumet River/Indiana
Harbor, ARCS will demonstrate the
application of a solvent extraction
process to separate organic con-
taminants.
• On the Saginaw River, ARCS will
demonstrate physical separation of
sediments by particle size using a
hydrocyclone or another physical
separation technology. Since con-
taminants tend to adhere to a certain
size of sediment particle, this
demonstration is expected to reduce
the overall volume of heavily con-
taminated sediment by separating
sediment of one size that bears rela-
tively less contamination from
another size holds more con-
taminants. Thereafter, using the more
heavily contaminated product of the
physical separation demonstration,
ARCS will also consider demonstrat-
ing two further technologies: a solvent
extraction process to remove organic
contaminants; and a bioremediation
process to break down contaminants
into less harmful substances.
• On the Sheboygan River, ARCS will
provide technical assistance to Super-
fund remediation activities, through
EPA's Environmental Research
Laboratory-Athens. This will entail a
scientific review of the Sheboygan
bioremediation pilot project already
underway, including design and statis-
tical recommendations.
Public Communication
During FYs 1989-90, a work group in-
cluding citizens living near the study
areas was formed to promote informa-
tion exchange with the public. The work
group established repositories in
libraries near each of the five areas.
ARCS also developed a slide-show
presentation and sponsored public
meetings to inform residents living near
the priority areas about program ac-
tivities and results.
LAKEWIDE MANAGEMENT
PLANNING
The second major restoration ap-
proach under the Agreement is the
development of Lakewide Management
Plans (LAMPs) for critical pollutants to
address whole-lake problems that ex-
tend beyond Areas of Concern. As with
the RAP process, LAMPs are intended
to follow a comprehensive ecosystem ap-
proach, drawing on the full range of
Federal, State, and local environmental
programs, as needed. Again like the
RAP process, EPA views Lakewide
Management Planning as an ongoing
management process to identify priority
environmental problems, steps needed
to solve these, and ecological outcomes.
EPA and States are giving priority to
completing Stage One LAMPs for Lakes
Michigan and Ontario in FY1991. The
objectives of Stage One LAMPs are to
identify key pollutants and their sources,
and to schedule reduction measures. In
FY 1992, the Agency will begin work on
a LAMP for Lake Superior. LAMPs for
Lakes Erie and Huron will follow.
Lake Ontario
The LAMP will build upon the existing
Lake Ontario Toxics Management Plan.
In 1987, EPA, the New York State
Department of Environmental Conser-
vation (NYSDEC), and counterpart
agencies in Canada (Environment
Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the
Environment) agreed to develop such a
plan. Its first generation was adopted in
February 1989. The goal of the Toxics
Management Plan is a lake that provides
drinking water and fish that are safe for
unlimited human consumption and al-
lows natural reproduction of the most
sensitive native species, such as bald
eagles, ospreys, mink, and otters.
Under the plan, the four agencies have
compared concentrations of toxic sub-
stances in fish and in the Lake Ontario
water column with water quality stand-
ards for the protection of fish and human
health. No exceedences were found for
drinking water standards. However, fish
tissue concentrations exceeded human
health protection levels for such sub-
stances as dioxin, PCBs, chlordane,
mirex, mercury, dieldrin, DDT and its
metabolites, octachlorostyrene, and
hexachlorobenzene. DDT and its meta-
bolites, hexachlorobenzene, and
dieldrin were also found in the water
column at levels above EPA guidance
values for the protection of human
health from fish consumption.
The plan uses four elements to
eliminate these exceedences. First, it
relies on reduction of toxic inputs by
regulation of industrial and municipal
dischargers. Second, it calls for obtain-
ing further reductions through special
focus on the three New York Areas of
Concern and two others shared with the
Province of Ontario. Third, future
reductions will be obtained based on
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38 Chapter 4
DRAFT July 1991
lakewide analyses of pollutant fate to
provide grounds for water quality-based
regulation. Fourth, the plan calls for zero
discharge of toxic substances into Lake
Ontario.
During FY 1989, the four agencies
completed initial characterization of
toxics in Lake Ontario. Differences in
chemical-specific standards were iden-
tified and commitments made for their
resolution. Ontario Ministry of the En-
vironment and Environment Canada
committed to work with Health and Wel-
fare Canada to develop Canada's first
water quality criteria for the protection
of human health from contaminants in
fish. During FY 1990, work continued on
a model of steady-state exposure and
bioaccumulation for toxic chemicals in
Lake Ontario, including development of
a time-response model of exposure and
bioaccumulation of toxic substances. FY
1991 activities will include a comprehen-
sive estimation of loadings from
groundwater, air, and sediment to test
the bioaccumulation model. Also in
1991, EPA and NYSDEC will start to
incorporate pollution prevention
measures into their lakewide efforts.
Such measures include: targeting the
Rochester and Buffalo areas for urban
non-point source prevention; targeting
faculties that emit any of the priority
lakewide pollutants; and implementa-
tion of a New York regulation for 50
percent reduction of fugitive air emis-
sions.
During FY 1990, a binational team
from EPA, NYSDEC, New York State
Department of Health, Fish and Wildlife
Service, and counterpart Canadian
agencies developed ecosystem objec-
tives for Lake Ontario. The team will
develop measurable ecosystem objec-
tives during FY 1991 for nearshore and
open-lake water quality (trophic condi-
tion), human health, wildlife health, and
habitat.
Lake Michigan
During 1991, EPA will work with the
States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and
Wisconsin to develop a Stage One
LAMP for Lake Michigan. This entails
identification of critical pollutants, their
sources, and the scheduling of reduction
measures. The two broad objectives of
the Lake Michigan plan are:
• to reduce the release and deposition
of pollutants into the ecosystem and
to isolate, treat, or remove con-
taminated sediments to provide:
water quality and sediments capable
of supporting natural reproduction of
the most sensitive native species; and
drinking water and fish that are safe
for unlimited human and wildlife con-
sumption.
• to eliminate the release or deposition
of persistent or bioaccumulative pol-
lutants, whenever possible through
pollution prevention measures at pol-
lutant sources.
EPA will model loadings of target pol-
lutants based on evidence of their levels
in the water column and in fish and
wildlife. The Agency will also join States
and other Federal agencies in a review of
Great Lakes ecosystem monitoring
needs and programs. This will support
starting whole-lake sampling for critical
Lake Michigan pollutants in FY 1992.
EPA will also invite public participa-
tion in the Lake Michigan LAMP. The
Agency will notify the public of the
proposed Lake Michigan LAMP
through the Federal Register and con-
duct public meetings on the plan.
PHOSPHORUS LOAD REDUCTION
PLAN
This section discusses progress under
the U.S. Phosphorus Load Reduction
Plan. It focuses on and illustrates the
adoption of conservation tillage in the
Great Lakes watershed, since this prac-
tice is a key element of the plan.
By the 1960s, eutrophic conditions in
the lower lakes provoked wide public
concern. Lake Erie in particular suf-
fered from thick blooms of algae, un-
pleasant odor and taste in water
supplies, and depletion of dissolved
oxygen from the water due to the decay
of algae following their seasonal die-off.
Erie was the first of the lakes to show
eutrophic conditions, because it is the
shallowest, warmest, and most biologi-
cally productive. Its drainage basin con-
tains intense agricultural and urban uses.
About one-third of the Great Lakes
basin population lives within Erie's
watershed, and Erie surpasses other
lakes in receipt of effluent from sewage
treatment plants.
Loadings of phosphorus were the
primary cause of eutrophic conditions.
The U.S. and Canada have taken a num-
ber of measures over the past 20 years
that have reduced phosphorus con-
centrations to near desired levels.
Among these measures have been con-
struction and improvement of municipal
wastewater treatment plants and enact-
ment of State laws limiting the content of
phosphorus in laundry detergents. EPA
and States have estimated that in 1972
phosphorus loadings to Lake Erie from
U.S. municipal dischargers amounted to
almost 14,000 tons; similar loadings were
estimated to be 2,400 tons in 1986. All
States now limit the phosphorus content
of laundry detergents sold within the
Great Lakes watershed to 0.5 percent.
In 1983, the U.S. and Canada agreed to
develop and implement "Phosphorus
Load Reduction Plans" to reduce phos-
phorus loadings by 2,000 tons for Lake
Erie, 430 tons for Lake Ontario, and 220
tons for Saginaw Bay. These reductions
were calculated from an estimate of
loadings during 1982. They represented
about a 15 percent reduction in total
phosphorus loadings to Lake Erie and a
6 percent reduction in Lake Ontario
loadings. Under the U.S. Phosphorus
Load Reduction Plan, begun in 1986,
target open-lake phosphorus concentra-
tion levels are 15 micrograms per liter
(or parts per billion) in the western basin
of Lake Erie and in Saginaw Bay, and 10
micrograms per liter in the deeper
waters of Lake Ontario and the central
and eastern basins of Lake Erie.
Agricultural runoff is a major source of
phosphorus to the Great Lakes. The
Phosphorus Load Reduction Plan relies
on programs aimed at increasing the
practice of conservation tillage, better
management of livestock waste, and bet-
ter management of nutrients used in
crop production. Many of these
programs are administered by Soil and
Water Conservation Districts, with sup-
port from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) and States.
Progress
The U.S. Great Lakes Phosphorus
Task Force, including members from
EPA, USDA (i.e., Soil Conservation
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement 39
Percentage Cropland
of Total County Area
Q 0-15
I58 15-29
30-44
45-59
> 60
Figure 4-2. Cropland in the Great Lakes Watershed (1988)
Service, Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Service, and Cooperative
Extension Service), and agricultural and
environmental agencies in Indiana,
Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pen-
nsylvania, has evaluated plan implemen-
tation through 1988. Methods of
estimating phosphorus reductions vary
by State. In most cases, estimates of
agricultural loadings are derived from
assessments of conservation tillage
adoption, fertilizer and animal waste
management practices, and structural
improvements (e.g., drainage systems
and fertilizer storage facilities). Progress
is measured in reductions from es-
timated 1982 loadings.
New York State has estimated phos-
phorus load reductions through 1988
represent 46 percent of plan targets for
Lake Ontario.
Michigan estimates that it has achieved
about 78 percent of its target for Saginaw
Bay.
Indiana estimates that it has exceeded
its target reduction for Lake Erie.
However, Lake Erie requires substan-
tial further reductions in phosphorus
loadings from the agricultural sector in
Michigan and Ohio. Ohio estimates that
its farmers have reduced phosphorus
loadings by 198 metric tons; an addition-
al 1,032 tons in reductions are still
sought. Through 1988, only 24 percent of
the phosphorus load reduction target for
Lake Erie had been collectively achieved
by the five States bordering on it.
Yet, States also noted a partially offset-
ting reduction in phosphorus loadings
from municipal wastewater treatment
facilities. They estimate that in 1987
municipal dischargers reduced phos-
phorus discharge to Lake Erie by 502
tons and to Lake Ontario by 216 tons
from 1982 levels. These estimated reduc-
tions achieve about one half of the reduc-
tions sought from the agricultural sector
that were not met through 1988.
Conservation Tillage
Conservation tillage entails reduced
plowing and leaving crop residue on the
surface of fields. In relation to conven-
tional tillage, it reduces soil erosion by
water and wind. To meet the Soil Con-
servation Service's definition of conser-
vation tillage, at least 30 percent residue
must remain on the surface after plant-
ing to reduce water erosion, or at least 1,
000 pounds of flat small grain residue
must be on the surface during the critical
period for wind erosion.
There are four main types of conserva-
tion tillage practices: no till, mulch till,
ridge till, and strip till. These tillage
practices differ in degree of soil distur-
bance. No till is the most effective in
preventing erosion, as it entails elimina-
tion of mechanical cultivation. The other
practices are known collectively as
"reduced till." The tillage system
selected by a farmer depends on physical
circumstances, including soil type,
crops, availability of equipment, and
upon his/her understanding of the
benefits of conservation tillage.
Estimates of farm acreage under con-
servation tillage are an important basis
for evaluating progress under the Phos-
phorus Reduction Plan. Figures 4-2 and
4-3 illustrate, as of 1988, the distribution
of farmlands within the Great Lakes
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40 Chapter 4
DRAFT July 1991
Percentage of Total Cropland
In Conservation Tillage
I I 0-20
20-40
40-80
60-80
80-100
Figure 4-3. Conservation Tillage in the Great Lakes Watershed (1988)
watershed and of the rate of adoption of
conservation tillage. These maps use
data from the Conservation Technology
Information Center (CTIC), part of the
National Association of Conservation
Districts, located in West Lafayette, In-
diana. CTIC compiles agricultural and
tillage data provided by the Soil Conser-
vation Service on a county level nation-
wide.
As may be seen from Figure 4-2,
cropland accounts for 18 percent of the
total area of counties lying fully or partly
within the Great Lakes watershed.
Major farming areas are northwest
Ohio, west-central Wisconsin, and ad-
jacent to Saginaw River and Bay. Corn is
the largest crop (4 percent of farm
acres), followed by soybeans (24 per-
cent) and small grains, especially wheat
(17 percent). About 30 to 50 percent of
the corn and soybean acreage are in a
corn/soybean rotation. Major corn-
growing areas are located in east-central
and south-east Michigan, northwest
Ohio, and central Wisconsin.
As shown in Figure 4-3, conventional
tillage is much more common than con-
servation tillage, which is used on 21.6
percent of cropland. Mulch till is the
most frequently used method of conser-
vation tillage, accounting for 68 percent
of all conservation tillage acres. No till
practices are used on 24 percent of con-
servation tillage acres. Farmers who
grow corn use conservation tillage more
than those who grow other crops. Con-
servation tillage is used for about 38 per-
cent of the corn, 21 percent of the
soybean, and 16 percent of the small
grain crops.
In corn production areas, conservation
tillage practices are most prevalent in
northwest Indiana, central Wisconsin,
and central Michigan. In 1988, LaPorte
and Porter Counties in northwest In-
diana had the two highest rates of con-
servation tillage in corn production,
averaging 92 percent of acres producing
corn. However, the top 11 counties in the
Great Lakes watershed having the
highest proportion of cropland devoted
to corn, all in northwest Ohio, have rela-
tively low rates of conservation tillage,
averaging about 23.7 percent in 1988.
Higher rates of conservation tillage
have subsequently been reported from 5
Ohio counties participating in USDA's
Conservation Action Project (CAP).
This program involves farmers, agricul-
tural suppliers, and company repre-
sentatives in a joint effort to improve
water quality by promoting conservation
tillage. CAP sponsors field days, semi-
nars, demonstrations, field comparisons,
tours, and other educational and infor-
mation opportunities. In 1990, two CAP
counties, Defiance and Fulton, reported
an average of 40.5 percent of their corn
acreage under conservation tillage.
Varying rates of conservation tillage
are partly attributable to differences in
soil types. Some soils with clay content
limit conservation tillage practices, since
the soil becomes too tight to permit
drainage, thereby drowning seed or
denying sufficient moisture to near sur-
face soil. During the early 1980s, EPA
helped to support demonstrations of
conservation tillage in part of the
Maumee River watershed. One outcome
of these studies was to show that high
farm yields were obtainable under con-
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions to Implement the Water Quality Agreement 41
servation tillage in certain high clay soils,
given sufficient drainage systems. Con-
struction of such systems (e.g., parallel
tile outlet terraces) is expensive, how-
ever, and the drainage systems require
the availability of outlet streams. Al-
though Figure 4-3 does not adjust for soil
types, it is useful for displaying the ab-
solute rates of conservation tillage
among counties.
Long-Term Prospect
Over the past 20 years, the U.S. and
Canada have significantly decreased
phosphorus levels where they had been
excessive. Partly as a result, the walleye
population of Lake Erie has increased,
and the numbers of plankton-grazing
fish like alewife have diminished. Erie
also has a much reduced mass of algae,
and the mix between types of algae has
improved. In 1989, the rate of depletion
of dissolved oxygen in the bottom waters
of the central basin of Lake Erie was at
a 20-year low, and the duration of the
period of oxygen depletion in these
waters was shorter than in the mid-
1980s.
Scientific models of Lake Erie suggest
that restoration of year-round aerobic
conditions in the bottom waters of Lake
Erie will take up to 5 years beyond the
attainment of targeted levels of phos-
phorus. EPA will continue to survey
water quality indicators to monitor the
recovery of the lake to assess if further
reductions in phosphorus concentra-
tions are warranted.
Phosphorus concentrations in the lakes
are significantly affected by both
weather and agricultural land use.
Lower precipitation and tributary flows
during 1985-87 than in prior years con-
tributed to reduced nonpoint loadings of
phosphorus to Lake Erie from agricul-
ture. Without improved agricultural
land uses as called for under the Phos-
phorus Load Reduction Plan, Lake Erie
phosphorus concentrations may rise
again with increased rain storm activity,
higher tributary flows, and associated
higher loads of phosphorus.
Agricultural practices will continue to
be important for Great Lakes water
quality, especially around Lake Erie,
SaginawBay, and Green Bay. In addition
to conservation tillage, measures that
improve fertilizer management, protect
or restore wetlands, pay farmers not to
farm highly credible land, establish
vegetative filter-strips along stream and
ditch banks, and reduce direct access to
streams by livestock help to prevent
phosphorus loadings. Better agricultural
land use practices offer the most
promise for protection of Great Lakes
waters that are vulnerable to overenrich-
ment.
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DRAFT Jufyl991
Actions By Federal Partners 43
Chapter 5
Actions By Federal Partners
This chapter presents FY 1989 and
1990 accomplishments and FY 1991
plans pertaining to the Great Lakes, as
reported by 5 Federal agencies: the
Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast
Guard, the Fish and Wildlif e Service, the
Great Lakes Environmental Research
Laboratory of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
and the Soil Conservation Service.
THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS
Under the Rivers and Harbors and
Flood Control Acts, the Corps maintains
navigational channels in authorized har-
bors and rivers of the Great Lakes,
necessitating periodic dredging of bot-
tom sediments. In recent years, the
Corps has dredged four million cubic
yards of sediments annually from the
Great Lakes. Since half of this volume is
contaminated and unsuitable for dis-
posal in open-lake waters, the Corps
builds confined disposal facilities
(CDFs), manmade islands designed to
hold and isolate these sediments. There
are 38 CDFs, completed or under con-
struction, within the Great Lakes.
The following Corps activities also re-
late to the Great Lakes:
• Administration of the Federal pro-
gram under the Clean Water Act that
regulates the discharge of dredge or
fill materials into U.S. waters, includ-
ing most wetlands
• Flood control and shoreline erosion
projects
• Technical support to EPA and States
on Superfund site cleanups
• Technical support to EPA and States
in construction of municipal was-
tewater treatment plants
• Technical support to environmental
agencies on Great Lakes Remedial
Action Plans (RAPs)
• Technical support to EPA's Assess-
ment and Remediation of Con-
taminated Sediments (ARCS)
program
• Cleanup of hazardous materials at
formerly used defense sites, through
the Defense Environmental Restora-
tion Program (DERP)
• Participation on various International
Joint Commission boards that regu-
late lake water levels
FY 1989 Accomplishments
• The Corps administered the dredge
and fill permit program. Applications
were reviewed in cooperation with
Federal and State agencies, public
comments were reviewed, environ-
mental impacts assessed, and mitiga-
tion requirements determined.
• The Corps analyzed bottom sedi-
ments at 19 navigational projects in
the Great Lakes: Ashtabula,
Cleveland, and West Harbors in
Ohio; the Saginaw, Rouge, and St.
Clair Rivers, Manistique Harbor,
Keweenaw Waterway, and Lake St.
Clair in Michigan; Buffalo and Olcott
Harbors in New York; Chicago River
and Waukegan Harbor in Illinois;
Erie Harbor in Pennsylvania; Indiana
Harbor in Indiana; Milwaukee and
Sheboygan Harbors, and Green Bay
in Wisconsin; and Duluth/Superior
Harbor in Minnesota-Wisconsin.
Sediment analyses included physical,
chemical, and biological testing. The
results of Corps' sediment analyses
represent the largest data base of its
kind on the Great Lakes. Results have
been made available to Federal and
State agencies, and have been widely
used for Remedial Action Planning
(RAP). These analyses are applicable
to a wide range of water quality issues,
including bench-top investigations of
advanced treatment technologies for
contaminated sediments at Indiana
Harbor, studies of microbiological
degradation of polynuclear aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments,
and comparative analysis of sediment
bioassays.
• Navigational dredging and confined
disposal removed nearly two million
cubic yards of polluted sediments
from the Great Lakes. Navigation
projects where polluted sediments
were removed and placed in a CDF
included the Calumet River and Har-
bor in Illinois; Cleveland and Toledo
Harbors in Ohio; the Rouge and
Saginaw Rivers, Monroe Harbor, and
Keweenaw Waterway hi Michigan;
Milwaukee and Green Bay Harbors in
Wisconsin; and Duluth/Superior Har-
bor in Minnesota-Wisconsin.
• A new CDF was completed at Clinton
River, Michigan.
• The Corps participated in the
development of RAPs for several
Areas of Concern, including Ash-
tabula, Buffalo, Cleveland, Grand
Calumet River, and Milwaukee.
FY 1990 Accomplishments
• The Corps continued to administer
the dredge and fill permit program.
Approximately 6,500 permits were is-
sued and 343 enforcement actions
were taken by Corps districts within
the Great Lakes watershed.
• The Corps analyzed bottom sedi-
ments from 19 Great Lakes navigation
projects: Waukegan Harbor in Il-
linois; Cleveland, Conneaut, and San-
dusky Harbors, and Rocky River in
Ohio; Grand Traverse Bay, Manisti-
que, and Ontonagon Harbors, and the
Saginaw and Black Rivers in
Michigan; Ashland, Bayfield, Cor-
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44 Chapters
DRAFT July 1991
nucopia, LaPointe, Manitowoc, and
Milwaukee Harbors in Wisconsin;
Duluth-Superior Harbor in Min-
nesota/Wisconsin; Oswego Harbor
and Rochester Harbor in New York.
• Navigational dredging removed about
4.1 million cubic yards of bottom sedi-
ments. About 2 million cubic yards
were determined to be unsuitable for
open-water disposal and were placed
in CDFs. Dredging projects were con-
ducted in Buffalo Harbor, New York;
Cleveland, Huron, Lorain, and
Toledo Harbors in Ohio; the Detroit
River, Saginaw, and St. Clair Rivers,
Keweenaw Waterway, and Holland
and Monroe Harbors in Michigan;
Duluth-Superior Harbor in Min-
nesota/Wisconsin; and Green Bay
and Milwaukee Harbors in Wiscon-
sin. These projects included CDF
operation, maintenance, and water
quality monitoring.
• Support was provided to EPA's
ARCS program. The Corps provided
technical support, bench-scale testing
of treatment technologies, develop-
ment of plans for pilot-scale
demonstrations, development of pro-
cedures for estimating contaminant
losses, development of concept plans
for full-scale remediation, and par-
ticipation in five ARCS work groups.
• The Corps assessed contaminant loss
and bioaccumulation in fish at the
Saginaw CDF, and polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCB) bioaccumulation
and volatilization at the Chicago
CDF. No biologically significant
amounts of PCBs were found to be
leaving the Saginaw CDF.
• Construction of the Maumee Bay
Shoreline Erosion and Beach Res-
toration and Reno Beach-Howard
Farms Flood control projects were
started in Ohio.
• The Corps began a study of sediment
and water quality in Onondaga Lake,
Syracuse, New York.
• Construction of two major flood
damage reduction projects was
started. The Chicagoland Underflow
Plan is the reservoir portion of
Chicago's Tunnel and Reservoir
Project (TARP). The TARP will
reduce the backflow of stonnwater
and sewage from Chicago area rivers
into Lake Michigan. Construction
was also started on the Little Calumet
River Flood Protection and Recrea-
tion Project in northwest Indiana.
This project includes significant wet-
land mitigation and enhancement and
will provide a recreational corridor
along the river.
• The Corps removed underground
storage tanks and transformers from
a site near Sault St. Marie, Michigan
under the DERP program. Remedial
investigations and feasibility studies
are ongoing at this and other sites.
• Water level impacts on wetlands
along the St. Marys River were
evaluated in support of the IJC Levels
of Reference Study.
• The Corps provided technical sup-
port to EPA's Superfund project at
the Sinclair Oil Site in Wellsville, New
York.
• Technical review of a sediment sam-
pling plan was conducted for the
Fields Brook Superfund site in Ash-
tabula, Ohio.
• Technical review of remediation
designs was conducted for the Super-
fund site at Waukegan, Illinois.
• The Corps provided support to Wis-
consin in the development of manage-
ment alternatives for contaminated
sediments.
• The Corps studied wetland mitiga-
tion, restoration projects, and en-
vironmental management of CDFs for
the State of Michigan.
• The Corps assisted States in the
development and implementation of
RAPs at a number of the Areas of
Concern of the Great Lakes (e.g., Mil-
waukee, St. Louis River, and Manisti-
que).
• A study of the movement of dredged
material placed in Sandusky Bay,
Ohio was started under the Dredging
Research Program.
FY1991 Plans
• The Corps will continue to administer
the dredge and fill permit program.
• A EPA/Corps task group on Clean
Water Act Section 404(b)(l) im-
plementation will meet to develop
guidance on dredged material testing
and decision-making.
• Continuing support to the ARCS pro-
gram, the Corps will demonstrate
pilot-scale sediment remediation
technologies, and support an EPA
project to remove contaminated sedi-
ments from the Buffalo River.
• Testing of bottom sediment will be
conducted at 21 navigation projects:
Arcadia, Au Sable, Caseville, Hol-
land, Lexington, Ludington, Manis-
tee, Manistique, and Port Sanilac
Harbors, and the Detroit and St. Clair
Rivers in Michigan; Waukegan Har-
bor in Illinois; Burns Waterway and
Michigan City Harbors in Indiana;
Dunkirk Harbor in New York; Erie
Harbor in Pennsylvania; Fairport,
Huron, Port Clinton, and West Har-
bors in Ohio; and Sheboygan Harbor
in Wisconsin.
• Dredging of polluted sediments and
confined disposal is planned for the
following sites: the Clinton, Detroit,
Rouge, and Saginaw Rivers, and Lake
St. Clair and Bolles Harbor in
Michigan; Buffalo Harbor in New
York; Cleveland, Huron, Lorain, and
Toledo Harbors in Ohio; Duluth-Su-
perior Harbor in Minnesota/Wiscon-
sin; Green Bay and Manitowoc
Harbors in Wisconsin.
• The Corps will construct new CDFs,
offloading facilities, or major
modifications to existing confined dis-
posal facilities are planned at: Erie
Harbor in Pennsylvania; Duluth-Su-
perior Harbor in Minnesota/Wiscon-
sin; Green Bay Harbor and Sturgeon
Bay in Wisconsin; St. Joseph Harbor
in Michigan; and Toledo Harbor in
Ohio. Routine maintenance and
water quality monitoring will be per-
formed at other CDFs.
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions By Federal Partners 45
Grand Haven-Muskegon
100260 380 480 sOo 600TOO
Number of Spills
Most spills occur in port areas. According to the Coast Guard, the harbors with the
roost recorded spills during the 1980s were Detroit, Toledo, and Milwaukee.
Figure 5-1. Great Lakes Harbors with Most Recorded Oil and Chemical
Spill, January 1980 - September 1989
• The Corps will start construction of
small boat harbors in Buffalo, New
York, and in Little Calumet River,
Indiana, and continue the
Chicagoland Underflow Plan flood
damage reduction project.
• The Corps will continue to identify
and remediate hazardous wastes at
former defense sites. An analysis of a
sample of barrels from more than
1400 dumped into Lake Superior
more than 30 years ago will be com-
pleted.
• Through participation on boards and
committees, the Corps will continue
to support the IJC.
• The Corps will continue support to
EPA and State wastewater treatment
plant and Superfund activities.
• The Corps will participate in a Fish
and Wildlife Service assessment of the
management and restoration needs of
Great Lakes fisheries resources.
• The Corps will finish its assistance to
Wisconsin in the development of
management alternatives for con-
taminated sediments.
• The Corps will make grants to States
for programs aimed at reducing zebra
mussels at public facilities.
THE COAST GUARD
Through promulgation of regulations
and marine safety and law enforcement
inspections, the Coast Guard promotes
prevention of pollution from vessels. The
Coast Guard is also responsible for
responding to spills of oil and hazardous
substances into the Great Lakes. As the
Federal On-Scene Coordinator for spills
from ships, the Coast Guard monitors
cleanup activities and conducts the
cleanup when responsible parties do not
do so effectively. The Coast Guard
operates 9 marine safety units on the
Great Lakes to perform pollution
response and investigation functions. A
further Coast Guard activity that is im-
portant to the Great Lakes ecosystem is
prevention of the introduction of exotic
species from ships.
Recent Accomplishments
• In May 1989, the Coast Guard col-
laborated with the Canadian Coast
Guard to establish voluntary
guidelines to protect the Great Lakes
from further introduction of exotic
species through discharge of ship bal-
last water. Under these guidelines,
ships scheduled to enter the Great
Lakes system are advised to exchange
their ballast water beyond the con-
tinental shelf, or if this is not possible,
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These
guidelines were distributed by the In-
ternational Maritime Organization to
its 133 member governments and or-
ganizations. The St. Lawrence Seaway
Authority is monitoring compliance
with the guidelines, and the Canadian
Coast Guard plans to evaluate the ef-
fectiveness of the guidelines, with as-
sistance from the U.S. Coast Guard as
necessary. The Authority reported 85
percent compliance with the
guidelines during the 1989 shipping
season. Ballast water was not sampled
to verify that it had been exchanged.
• In April 1989, the Coast Guard
promulgated regulations to imple-
ment Annex V of the International
Convention for the Prevention of Pol-
lution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78).
These regulations prohibit the dis-
charge of garbage into the navigable
waters of the United States, and apply
to all ships, including recreational
boats.
• In May 1990, these regulations were
amended to require maintenance of
waste management plans and display
of MARPOL Annex V placards on all
oceangoing vessels greater than 26
feet in length. This amendment is to
ensure that all persons on board are
aware of garbage pollution laws and
to promote proper disposal.
• The Coast Guard continued to verify
pollution incidents in the U.S. waters
of the Great Lakes. During calendar
year 1989, the Coast Guard recorded
262 such incidents. Of these, 13 in-
volved hazardous materials, the
remainder involved oil. The Federal
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46 Chapters
DRAFT July 1991
government funded cleanups for 17
incidents.
• The U.S.-Canada Joint Marine Pollu-
tion Contingency Plan (JCP) was
amended to include provisions for pe-
riodic meetings and exercises of the
Joint Response Team and On-Scene
Coordinator organizations. A bina-
tional exercise of the JCP took place
at St. Catherine's, Ontario, in
February 1989.
• The Coast Guard reviewed all its oil
contingency plans, including those for
the Great Lakes. In conducting the
review, Coast Guard on-scene coor-
dinators considered preparedness to
respond to the average, largest, and
most complex oil spills that have oc-
curred in their zones. In addition, they
considered the most catastrophic
potential incidents, given shipping
patterns and cargos. The on-scene
coordinators have amended their
local contingency plans accordingly.
THE FISH AND WILDLIFE
SERVICE
The Fish and Wildlife Service main-
tains fish and wildlife resources and
provides access to them for the public.
The Service collects and interprets
diverse information on fish and wildlife
species, populations, and habitats to as-
sist resource managers in making
decisions about the protection and res-
toration of the Great Lakes ecosystem.
The Service's activities generally fall into
five functional categories: fisheries,
refuges and wildlife, law enforcement,
fish and wildlife enhancement, and
public affairs. Major activities include
permit review; land acquisition and
habitat management; management of
migratory birds, anadromous fish (fish
that spend their adult life in the sea but
swim up rivers to reproduce) and en-
dangered species; and research. As part
of the permit review process, the Service
reviews Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission hydroelectric projects,
Army Corps of Engineers dredge and fill
permits, Farm Bill habitat easements,
and wetland restorations. The Service's
research activities address both needs of
the Service and, when feasible, the needs
of other Federal agencies, Indian tribes,
State agencies, and international groups,
such as the LFC and the Great Lakes
Fisheries Commission.
The Service manages the National
Fishery Center-Great Lakes; five Na-
tional Fish Hatcheries that support
Great Lakes lake trout restoration ef-
forts; and six National Wildlife Refuges
within the Great Lakes watershed—Iro-
quois and Montezuma in New York,
Erie in Pennsylvania, Ottawa in Ohio,
and Seney and Shiawassee in Michigan.
In addition, the Service conducts surveys
of wetlands to support the National Wet-
lands Inventory Program.
Some recent accomplishments and FY
1991 plans are provided below by func-
tional area.
Fisheries
FY 1989 Accomplishments
• The Service stocked the Great Lakes
with about 6.4 million lake trout. This
native species serves as a valuable
biological indicator of water quality,
because of its need for clean water
and long life span.
• An offshore stocking vessel (the M/V
Togue) was used to stock fish over
traditional offshore spawning reefs to
enhance fish survival.
• The Service continued monitoring
bloater chubs from Lake Michigan.
The National Fisheries Research
Center-Great Lakes has analyzed
Lake Michigan bloater chubs for
DDT congeners and dieldrin since
1969 and added analysis for PCBs in
1972 and for chlordane hi 1982.
• As part of its sea lamprey control pro-
gram, the Service applied lampricides
to 31 Great Lakes tributaries.
Parasitic and spawning adult popula-
tions, larval populations, and non-tar-
get organism populations were also
evaluated. Operational fishery re-
search was conducted on alternate
control techniques, registration of
lampricides, and special problems en-
countered by field crews.
• Fishery assistance biologists con-
tinued to study exotic aquatic or-
ganisms that appear in the Great
Lakes.
FY 1990 Accomplishments
• The Service stocked the Great Lakes
with 3.4 million lake trout. More than
2 million were stocked by ship over
traditional off-shore spawning reefs
to increase their survival rate. Also,
more than 300 thousand were stocked
by airplane.
• The Service applied lampricides to 28
Great Lakes tributaries.
• The Service developed an interactive
computer program ("expert system")
that uses the structure of an organic
molecule to predict acute toxicity to
aquatic life. The system is being used
to estimate toxicity of chemicals
before starting bioassays.
FY 1991 Plans
• The Service will implement the Great
Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration
Act of 1990, signed into law in Novem-
ber, that calls for the Service to con-
duct a comprehensive fishery
resources study through FY 1994.
• The Service will continue the lake
trout stocking program.
• The Service will apply lampricides to
39 Great Lakes tributaries.
• The Service will continue monitoring
bloater chubs from Lake Michigan. In
addition, archived fish samples will be
analyzed by PCB and chlordane con-
geners to see historical trends in these
contaminants by congener.
• The Service will increase activities
with State and Tribal cooperators to
assess Great Lakes fish populations.
Refuges and Wildlife
FY 1989 Accomplishments
• The Service increased wetland
acreage in the Montezuma National
Wildlife Refuge as part of the North
American Waterfowl Management
Plan, a cooperative effort between the
Service and the Forest Service to
preserve waterfowl habitats.
• Under the Waterfowl Management
Plan, the Service conducted a water-
fowl breeding survey and developed a
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions By Federal Partners 47
plan for Fort Drum, New York, that
has 12,000 acres of wetlands.
• The Service funded 3 studies that as-
sessed the impacts of contaminants on
Great Lakes wildlife. The first study,
on St. Lawrence River contaminants,
analyzed water and bird eggs for
levels of PAHs. The others studied
contaminants in two bird species: the
double-crested cormorant and black-
crowned night heron.
• Samples of water, sediment, and biota
were collected in 5 national refuges
for analysis of chemical contamina-
tion.
• Substantial pump, levee, and dike res-
torations were made at the Ottawa
and Shiawassee Refuges to repair
flood damage.
FY1990 Accomplishments
• The staff of 2 refuges supported wet-
land restorations through cooperative
agreements with landowners. A total
of 971 acres of wetlands were res-
tored, including 109 acres in counties
adjacent to Lake Erie.
• The Service began a preliminary study
to identify lands within 10 miles of
Lake Erie that have potential for
wildlife habitat and public recreation,
and that have unique natural, historic,
or scenic features.
• The Service continued to assist the
Ohio Department of Natural Resour-
ces (ODNR) in monitoring reproduc-
tive success of bald eagles nesting
near Lake Erie. Over the previous 8
years, active nests have risen from 2 to
16.
• The Service continued to support a
survey of colonial waterbirds of the
Great Lakes. This 3-year study, begun
hi 1989, will indicate where the Ser-
vice should direct future management
activities.
• The Service began a study of the
physioecology of black ducks in
Ohio's Lake Erie marshes. This study
should provide information on black
duck habitat use, movements, and
temporal survival in this critical
migration area.
FY 1991 Plans
• In cooperation with Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wis-
consin, the Service will begin to imple-
ment the Upper Mississippi River and
Great Lakes Region Joint Venture.
• The Service will continue reintroduc-
ing common terns at Ottawa Refuge.
• The Service will continue funding the
restoration of wetlands on private
lands through challenge grants to
landowners.
• The Service will continue to monitor
black ducks on Lake Erie and bald
eagles.
• The Service will complete its prelimi-
nary Lake Erie shoreline study.
Fish and Wildlife Enhancement
FY 1989 Accomplishments
• The Service participated in the LJC's
water levels study that evaluated wet-
land changes and resulting ecosystem
effects during low and high water-
level years from 1979 to 1988. The
Service examined Kakagon Slough,
Wisconsin, on Lake Superior; Cecil
Bay Marsh, Michigan, on Lake
Michigan; Fish Point, Michigan, on
Lake Huron; Dickinson Island,
Michigan, on Lake St. Clair; and the
St. Lawrence River, Sage Creek, and
Campbell marshes, New York.
• Working with EPA, the Service began
to develop water quality criteria for
wildlife as part of the Great Lakes
Water Quality Initiative.
• The Service prepared natural
resource damage surveys for two Su-
perfund sites (General Motors
Central Foundry located along the St.
Lawrence River and Hooker Chemi-
cal along the Niagara River) and
reviewed a report concerning tumors
in fish at the 102nd Street site on the
Niagara River.
• To support EPA's ARCS program,
the Service conducted surveys of fish
(bullheads) and sediments in
Saginaw, Grand Calumet, and Buffalo
River for tumors and abnormalities.
The sediment collected will be used to
study bioaccumulation of chemicals in
fish collected at these three locations.
• In New York, the Service participated
in the licensing effort for 23
hydroelectric projects, recommend-
ing changes in operation or shutdown
of 3 projects and minimum flow re-
quirements at 6 plants because the
projects were causing adverse effects
on fish populations. Approximately
26 projects were reviewed by the East
Lansing Field Office.
• Also in New York, the Service
reviewed about 300 dredge and fill
permits, requesting modifications to
approximately 100 projects to reduce
habitat impacts and recommending
denial of 10 projects due to unaccep-
table impacts.
• Under its Farm Bill activities, in New
York the Service obtained easements
on about 700 acres of wildlife habitat,
transfers of approximately 500 acres
of wetlands, and a wetland restoration
project on a former farm. In the East
Lansing Office, conservation ease-
ments were staked for 36 proposals.
Twenty-one restorations under the
Conservation Reserve Program were
inspected—all are filled with water,
and wildlife have been observed on
most.
• Endangered species consultations
were conducted under Section 7 of
the Endangered Species Act on about
30 projects in New York.
• The Service began an effort with the
Forest Service to reduce beaver pond
destruction and to develop small
forest ponds to improve black duck
breeding habitat.
• The Service supported the develop-
ment and review of RAPs for the
Sheboygan, Marinette, Milwaukee,
Oswego, Niagara, and St. Lawrence
Rivers, Duluth-Superior Harbor, and
Saginaw Bay.
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48 Chapters
DRAFT July 1991
FY1990 Accomplishments
• The Service reviewed bald eagle
population and productivity data as a
review of the species' endangered
status.
• In cooperation with States and duck
hunter organizations, the Service con-
tinued efforts to restore beds of wild
celery along the Great Lakes. Wild
celery provides foraging oppor-
tunities for fish and the vegetation is
eaten by waterfowl. In the spring of
1988, celery was planted at 2 locations
in the lower Detroit River. While the
celery failed at one site, about 5,000
plants took hold at the other. This
work indicates that restoration of wild
celery in the lower Detroit River is
possible under proper conditions.
• The Service completed a recovery
plan for the lakeside daisy, found only
in Ottawa and Erie counties, Ohio,
and in Ontario.
• The Service continued involvement in
Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-
sion hydroelectric projects, Clean
Water Act dredge and fill permits,
Farm Bill habitat easements and wet-
land restorations, EPA's ARCS pro-
gram, and EPA's initiative to develop
water quality criteria for wildlife. In
New York, the Service participated in
the licensing effort for 12
hydroelectric projects, and reported
about 30 dredge and fill permit viola-
tions to the Corps.
• The Service worked with EPA on a
wetlands inventory in the Green Bay
watershed. This will be available to
planning and regulatory agencies to
assist them in decisions on permit is-
suance, zoning, etc.
• The Service continued a pre-assess-
ment of natural resource damages for
Waukegan Harbor, Illinois. The Ser-
vice began a natural resources
damage assessment for Saginaw Bay.
• The Service continued to work with
ODNR, Ohio EPA, EPA, and the
Army Corps of Engineers on the
proposed siting of a CDF for Toledo
Harbor dredged materials. The
proposed CDF would occupy 176
acres of productive shallow water
habitat in Maumee Bay.
• The Service studied gulls and bald
eagles around the Torch Lake,
Michigan, Area of Concern to deter-
mine if the high copper level in the
lake was hurting their reproductive
success. Initial indications were that
the productivity of the species was
normal. A companion study looked at
yellow perch reproduction in Torch
Lake, finding impaired hatchability of
perch eggs.
• The Service continued to support
Remedial Action Planning for the
Cuyahoga, Grand Calumet,
Menominee, and Maumee Rivers,
and Milwaukee Harbor.
FY 1991 Plans
• The Service will complete recovery
plans for Houghton's goldenrod and
Pitcher's thistle. Both exclusively in-
habit the Great Lakes watershed,
primarily in sand dunes and beaches.
The Service also will complete a
revision to the Eastern Timber Wolf
Recovery Plan that addressees wolf
populations in Minnesota, northern
Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula
of Michigan.
• The Service plans to propose the Lake
Erie water snake for threatened status
and Hungerford's crawling water
beetle for endangered status. The
snake is found only on several Ohio
and Ontario islands, while the beetle
is found in only 2 Michigan sites and 1
in Ontario.
• The Service will support the advanced
identification of important wetland
resources in northwest Ohio (Erie,
Lucas, Ottawa, and Sandusky coun-
ties) that are unsuitable for the dis-
charge of dredged or filled materials.
This is a joint activity with EPA,
OEPA, Ohio DNR, and the Army
Corps of Engineers. The Service will
also continue to support a similar ad-
vanced identification of wetlands near
Green Bay.
• The Service will continue its support
to Remedial Action Planning.
• The Service will begin a natural
resource damage assessment for the
Indiana Harbor and Grand Calumet
River Area of Concern.
Public Affairs
FY 1991 Plans
The Service will develop a volunteer
wetland watch program. In addition, the
Service will start a public information
program to inform the agricultural com-
munity and the general public about the
fish and wildlife benefits to be derived
from the Farm Bill.
GREAT LAKES ENVIRONMENTAL
RESEARCH LABORATORY
The Laboratory conducts research on
Great Lakes ecosystem dynamics and
physical processes, conducting in-
tegrated, interdisciplinary research in
support of resource management and
environmental services in coastal and es-
tuarine waters, with special emphasis on
the Great Lakes. This program includes
both basic and applied studies and com-
bines experimental, theoretical, and em-
pirical approaches. Field, analytical, and
laboratory investigations are performed
to improve understanding and predic-
tion of environmental interdependen-
cies between atmosphere, land, water,
and sediments. The Laboratory em-
phasizes a systems approach to environ-
mental problems and the development
of environmental service tools to assist
resource managers and others in the ap-
plication of scientific findings to specific
resource management problems. The
Laboratory's work is discussed below
under the topics: persistent toxic sub-
stances, ecological processes, and ben-
thic populations.
Persistent Toxic Substances
The Laboratory works with EPA, the
Fish and Wildlife Service, and various
Canadian agencies to improve under-
standing of the processes that control the
distribution, cycling, and fate of organic
contaminants, their toxicology, and the
kinetics of transfer. A major focus is the
association of toxic organics with
suspended and deposited sediments.
The adsorption of organic contaminants
onto sediment particles, followed by set-
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions By Federal Partners 49
ding and eventual burial, commonly con-
trols the residence time and concentra-
tion of these compounds in the water
column. Understanding the interactions
between different types of suspended
matter and dissolved organic con-
taminants is critical to modeling the be-
havior of such contaminants in the
environment. Resuspension of bottom
sediments in the Great Lakes is a
primary process that introduces
nutrients and contaminants into the
water. Direct exchanges between bot-
tom sediments and overlying water are
also important processes, but are poorly
understood.
The Laboratory uses radiotracers to
identify and model sediment transport
processes because of their relative ease
of measurement and dating. These
measurements are used to discriminate
between resuspended and fresh
materials and to study horizontal sedi-
ment transport and the movement of
sediments into ultimate depositional
zones, the seasonal resuspension of sedi-
ments, and geochemical changes to sedi-
ments over time.
The Laboratory has collected and
analyzed sediment cores from all of the
Great Lakes during the past 15 years and
has deployed sediment traps to obtain
samples of suspended sediments from
the water column. Sediment traps have
been deployed for 10 years, primarily in
Lake Michigan and to a lesser extent in
Lakes Superior and Huron.
Extensive resuspension of sediments
has been found in all three lakes, espe-
cially during winter months. Data are
being integrated with data obtained by
Canada in Lakes Erie and Ontario that
will permit a comprehensive view of
Great Lakes sediment resuspension.
The Laboratory's various sediment
projects provide understanding that can
be applied in the development of mass
balance models and Remedial Action
and Lakewide Management Planning.
Better understanding of the physics,
toxicology, and availability of Great
Lakes sediments can be used to help
define the assimilative capacity of the
lakes for certain pollutants, the hazards
that the reservoir of contaminated sedi-
ments pose to aquatic life, and the effects
of alternative ways of dealing with sedi-
ments. The effects of possible con-
taminated sediment remediation
measures are poorly understood and are
one of the fundamental unresolved is-
sues to long-term restoration of the
Great Lakes.
FY1989 Accomplishments
During FY 1989, some of the
Laboratory's projects in the area of toxic
organics focused on:
• The sediment resuspension process,
using radiotracers to identify fun-
damental sediment transport proces-
ses.
• The physics of the bottom 25 meters
of the Lake Michigan water column,
with focus on bottom currents and
resuspension of sediments.
• The toxicology and bioavailability of
contaminated Great Lakes sedi-
ments.
• A 28-day mortality bioassay using a
benthic organism to assess the
presence of toxic organic compounds.
• Testing of a gamma scan system to
measure the porosity of sediments in
a nondestructive manner.
• The development of tolerances to
toxic substances by exposing benthic
worms collected from offshore sites in
Lake Michigan near Grand Haven
and Benton Harbor to sediments col-
lected from these two sites. The Ben-
ton Harbor sediments were toxic to
the organisms from Grand Haven,
whereas the same type of organisms
from Benton Harbor were unaffected
by Grand Haven sediments. These
results indicated, but seldom
demonstrated, that organisms col-
lected off Benton Harbor have
developed tolerance to the generally
higher concentrations of con-
taminants found in their habitat.
In addition, the Laboratory conducted
three projects that contribute to the
major interagency study of Green Bay,
each of which was partially funded by
EPA's Great Lakes National Program
Office. These projects focused on:
• Water volume movement through the
bay and between the bay and Lake
Michigan
• The food web offish in Green Bay to
increase understanding of the relative
importance of the various food and
water pathways of PCB accumulation
by fish
• The relationship between current
velocity and sediment resuspension in
Green Bay.
FY 1990 Accomplishments
• The Laboratory completed the initial
examinations of major variables that
could affect the bioavailability of sedi-
ment associated toxicants to the food
chain.
• The Laboratory measured the water
volume exchange between the upper
and lower parts of Green Bay.
• The Laboratory quantified the
seasonal flux of resuspended sedi-
ments and estimated particulate and
POC settling velocities within Green
Bay.
FY 1991 Plans
During FY 1991, the Laboratory plans
to analyze trap samples for organic carb-
on and PCBs; develop empirical sedi-
ment resuspension models for Green
Bay, and complete projects in support of
EPA's Green Bay Study.
Ecological Processes
In addition to physical processes, the
Laboratory research focuses on ecologi-
cal processes and mechanisms. In
general, knowledge of many ecosystem
processes is at an early stage. Food web
processes have a dominant influence on
the transfer of energy and contaminants
throughout the ecosystem, yet predictive
and simulation models of these proces-
ses are rudimentary. The Laboratory
conducts research on both pelagic (i.e.,
water column) and benthic ecosystem
dynamics to advance understanding of
the flow of materials and energy within
the food web.
FY 1989 Accomplishments
• A project on the effects of con-
taminants on the fisheries and water
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50 Chapter 5
DRAFT July 1991
quality of Lake St. Clair. Lake St.
Clair food web models indicate that
the benthic food chain is twice as im-
portant to fish productivity as the
pelagic grazing food chain and that
four times more carbon is available
for aquatic food chains from external
particulate sources as from aquatic
vegetation and algae.
• A study of the interactions between
phosphorus, phytoplankton, and bac-
teria in Lake Michigan to help
develop a better understanding of the
seasonal succession of algae.
• A project that studied the feeding
dynamics of zooplankton to better un-
derstand the seasonal succession of
plankton.
• A project addressing benthic ecology
and sediment nutrient/energy trans-
formations. Benthic invertebrates
feed on material settled from the
water column and are in turn con-
sumed by most species of Great Lakes
fish.
FY1990 Accomplishments
• Analysis of two non-indigenous
species to the Great Lakes ecosystem:
the zebra mussel and the spiny water
flea
• A study of phytoplankton,
zooplankton, and benthic populations
in Saginaw Bay to determine the im-
pact of the zebra mussel on the lower
food web
• A study of the seasonal oxygen con-
sumption and nitrogen (ammonia) ex-
cretion of zebra mussels collected
from Lake St. Clair
• A study, using aquaria and fish-hold-
ing tanks, to demonstrate the develop-
ment of aversion conditioning in
perch to attacking the spiny water flea
• Initial analysis of the results of in situ
feeding experiments performed
during the past 2 years on the selec-
tivity and predation rates of the spiny
water flea on zooplankton in Great
Lakes, and determination of the effect
of the spiny water flea on the food web
structure
• Initial observations of ecosystem
components to demonstrate the
variability in time and space and to
improve predictions of food web
dynamics that support the Great
Lakes salmonid fishery.
FY 1991 Plans
During FY 1991, the Laboratory will
continue many studies started in FY
1990, including the identification of
causes of ecosystem variability and con-
tinued seasonal research on oxygen con-
sumption, nitrogen excretion, and lipid
content in zebra mussels of Lake St.
Clair and Saginaw Bay. New projects will
include examination of toxicokinetics
and bioaccumulation analysis of organic
contaminants in the zebra mussel and
examination of nutrient changes in zebra
mussels and the development of
eutrophication models.
Benthic Populations
A third area of research by the
Laboratory is long-term trends in ben-
thic populations and the relation of these
to water quality. Benthic communities
are excellent indicators of trophic trends
in the Great Lakes. Because of their
limited mobility and relatively long life
(compared to plankton), benthic fauna
form stable communities that reflect the
effects of environmental conditions over
long periods of time.
FY 1990 Accomplishments
• Identified benthic organisms col-
lected from Saginaw Bay during 1989.
Identification of the organisms col-
lected showed a two-fold increase in
pollution-tolerant worms since the
early 1970s that may be evidence of a
degraded habitat since that time.
• Collected additional benthic samples
from inside and outside fish
enclosures placed in Lake Superior
during FY 1986.
• Completed a study of long-term
trends in mussel abundance over the
past three decades in western Lake
Erie.
• Assembled and began to use of a per-
sonal computer-based micro-
scope/digitizer system that allows for
rapid and reliable completion of body
length measurements needed to es-
timate the energy budget in Great
Lakes amphipods.
FY 1991 Plans
During FY 1991, the Laboratory will
study whether nutrient sufficient cells
are preferred as food by copepods over
nutrient deficient cells at high algae con-
centrations. In addition, the Laboratory
plans to observe feeding mechanisms of
tethered copepods to make generaliza-
tions about appendage use patterns and
sensory clues.
THE SOIL CONSERVATION
SERVICE
The Soil Conservation Service of the
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
provides technical and financial assis-
tance to land users, including farmers,
ranchers, and foresters, and to other
government agencies on a variety of
natural resource issues. The Service con-
tributes to conserving the Nation's soil,
water, plant, and animal resources by
informing land users of best manage-
ment practices and resource manage-
ment systems that control erosion,
protect the quality of surface water, and
reduce the contamination of
groundwater by agricultural chemicals.
Through its nationwide network of
conservation specialists, the Service
provides assistance on topics such as
pesticide and nutrient management,
reduced tillage practices, fish and
wildlife habitat development, soil map-
ping and interpretation, and watershed
protection. It also conducts natural
resource inventories and maintains ex-
tensive data on soil erosion, land use and
cover, conservation practices, and land
treatment needs. To assist land users in
protecting natural resources, the USDA
(through the Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service) also ad-
ministers cost-sharing programs to pay
land users for following certain conser-
vation practices, protecting wetlands,
and improving water quality. The Ser-
vice is working with States in their
development of Nonpoint Source
Management Plans pursuant to Section
319 of the Clean Water Act.
The Service is participating in 10 major
USDA projects that are currently under-
way or planned in the Great Lakes
watershed. Five of these projects are
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DRAFT July 1991
Actions By Federal Partners 51
Water Quality Special Projects
(WQSP): Cattaraugus Creek, New
York; LaGrange County Lake Enhance-
ment Program, Indiana; Vermillion
River and the West Branch of the Black
River, Ohio; and the Clam River,
Michigan. These projects seek to cut
agricultural loadings of nutrients (phos-
phorus and nitrogen) and of sediments
to surface waters.
USDA is also conducting two
demonstration projects in the Basin. The
East River Watershed project in Wis-
consin, which affects the Green Bay
Area of Concern, seeks to demonstrate
crop management systems that reduce
the quantities of nitrogen, phosphorus,
and pesticides required to produce ac-
ceptable crop yields. The goals of the
project are to prevent excessive loadings
to surface water and groundwater and
enhance farm incomes. The 10-year, $50
million project will provide landowners
up to 70 percent cost-sharing for install-
ing land management improvements.
The Saginaw Bay project in Michigan
will not only focus on nutrients and sedi-
ment, but will also seek to implement
Integrated Pest Management practices
to prevent groundwater contamination.
In the Saline Valley Rural Clean Water
Project, the emphasis is on reducing the
amount of phosphorus entering Lake
Erie from southeastern Michigan. Final
evaluation of the project, including an
analysis of practices to reduce phos-
phorus in runoff, is underway. A
hydrologic unit project related to
Sycamore Creek,Michigan, is using fer-
tilizer, pesticide, and crop management
techniques to reduce agricultural pes-
ticides and sediment from entering sur-
face waters. Another hydrologic unit
project, in the Wolf Creek watershed, is
working to protect Lake Adrian from
sediment, phosphorus, and pesticides.
FY1989 Accomplishments
In FY 1989, the Service contributed to
the RAP development process in Ohio
(Maumee and Cuyahoga Rivers), Min-
nesota (St. Louis River), Wisconsin
(Menominee River and Green Bay),
New York (Rochester Embayment, Os-
wego River, St. Lawrence River, and
Buffalo River), and Michigan (multiple
sites). The Service assigned one staff
person to EPA's Great Lakes National
Program Office and another to the IJC's
Regional Office in Canada to work on
Great Lakes environmental issues. Ser-
vice personnel also evaluated progress
under the Great Lakes Phosphorus
Load Reduction Plan. Additional Ser-
vice accomplishments included:
• Completed transect tillage surveys in
the Saginaw Bay and Lake Erie water-
sheds
• Developed conservation plans for
250,000 acres of highly erodible lands
in Wisconsin
• Designed and installed 68 animal
waste management systems in Wis-
consin
• Completed the first phase of a direct
drainage study of Lake Ontario
• Completed inventories of Indiana
wetlands within the Great Lakes basin
and in 13 Michigan counties
• Completed a stream bank erosion sur-
vey for the Au Sable River, Michigan
• Contributed to a Saginaw Bay
drainage project to assess the effects
of crop production on surface water
and groundwater
• Participated in the Lost Creek Ex-
perimental Watershed Project in
Ohio with Defiance Soil and Water
Conservation District and Heidelberg
College, that assessed the movement
of pesticides, nutrients, and sedi-
ments
• Worked with Ottawa County, Ohio, to
measure effects of tillage practices on
water quality.
FY 1990 Accomplishments
During FY 1990, the Service continued
to emphasize water quality benefits in all
program delivery elements. All initia-
tives begun in FY 1989 continued into
FY 1990. The Service assigned one staff
person to the Michigan Department of
Natural Resources for two years to assist
in the prioritization of nonpoint source
pollution impacted watersheds. Sig-
nificant accomplishments include the
development of standards and specifica-
tions for nutrient and pest management,
and revision of the standard and
specification for waste utilization. Addi-
tional Service accomplishments in-
cluded:
• Completed wetland inventories in five
Michigan counties;
• Started a new river basin study for the
Menominee River Basin in the
Western Upper Peninsula of
Michigan and Northeastern Wiscon-
sin
• Started a streambank erosion inven-
tory on the Rifle River in north-
central Michigan
• Started implementation of the South
Branch Kawkawlin River Watershed
Work Plan
• Prepared a watershed work plan for
Mud Creek in Barry County, a highly
intensified agricultural area with
identified sediment and nutrient load-
ings
• Participated in the preparation and
implementation of four non-point
source watershed demonstration
projects.
FY 1991 Plans
The Service will continue to participate
in the 10 major USDA projects in the
Great Lakes watershed. It will also in-
creasingly emphasize Integrated Crop
Management in all its programs to
reduce agricultural use of nutrients and
pesticides to improve water quality.
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DRAFT July 1991
Great Lakes Science 53
Chapter 6
Great Lakes Science
|nis chapter discusses U.S. surveil-
•"• lance of the Great Lakes system,
including three EPA initiatives on per-
sistent toxic substances:
• Establishment of a binational In-
tegrated Atmospheric Deposition
Network (IADN) that will monitor
airborne deposition of trace organics
on a routine basis
• A multiagency study of the sources
and fates of several persistent toxic
substances in Green Bay
• Conversion and outfitting of a new
ship to establish a capability to
monitor trace organics in open-lake
waters on a routine basis.
The chapter also discusses accomplish-
ments and plans relating to system-wide
surveillance programs, including chemi-
cal and biological open-lake limnology,
fish monitoring programs, and the Great
Lakes Atmospheric Deposition
(GLAD) network.
Background
There are three primary elements to
the Great Lakes National Program
Office's surveillance efforts: open-lake
surveys of ambient water quality,
monitoring of toxicant levels in fish tis-
sues, and monitoring of atmospheric
deposition. The Program Office has con-
ducted open-lake spring and summer
surveys of ambient water quality in
Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie since
1983, and in Lake Ontario since 1986.
Prior to these routine surveys, each of
the lakes was surveyed intensively in
turn. EPA does not survey Superior an-
nually because it does not exhibit
eutrophic conditions and its great
volume precludes rapid changes in its
conditions. The current program in-
cludes nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen,
silica), conservative ions, alkalinity
(alkali and alkaline earth metals),
biological structure (phytoplankton and
zooplankton), chlorophyll a, and physi-
cal parameters. Surveys measure condi-
tions and trends in the open-waters of
the lakes. These waters best indicate
long-term trends, because they are less
influenced by local discharges of pol-
lutants than shallower, nearshore
waters. The productivity measures ob-
tained under the open-lake program
enable EPA to assess the response of the
lakes to nutrient control measures and
trends in plankton populations.
Since 1977, the Program Office, State,
and other Federal agencies have
monitored toxic organics in the Great
Lakes through analyses of chemical
residues in fish tissues. Fish are excellent
indicators of water quality and ecosys-
tem health because they tend to accumu-
late many persistent toxic substances,
whereas open-water concentrations of
toxic organics are generally so low that it
is difficult to monitor them directly on a
routine basis.
With lake-to-lake variations in the
number of collection sites and peri-
odicity, States collect adult resident fish
and spot-tail shiners from harbors and
tributaries on a 5-to-10-year cycle and
open-lake salmon as part of a game fish-
monitoring program. The Food and
Drug Administration provides analysis
of the fish samples. The Fish and
Wildlife Service also collects open-lake
whole-fish samples of lake trout (walleye
on Lake Erie) and smelt on a biennial
basis for analysis by EPA. The Service
has also analyzed Lake Michigan bloater
chubs for DDT and dieldrin since 1968,
for PCBs since 1972, and for chlordane
since 1982. States conduct additional
fish-monitoring programs that are
directed towards protecting human
health by issuance of fish consumption
health advisories.
The third primary element of the Pro-
gram Office's surveillance activities, also
a joint Federal/State endeavor, is
monitoring of atmospheric deposition.
The United States operates a 20 station
Great Lakes Atmospheric Deposition
(GLAD) network. GLAD presently ad-
dresses nutrients and metals, including
lead, cadmium, nitrate/nitrite, and phos-
phorus, among about 35 parameters.
In addition, States and the U.S.
Geological Survey monitor Great Lakes
tributaries for pollutants on an ongoing
basis, since tributaries are major con-
veyors of pollutants from both nonpoint
and point sources.
INTEGRATED ATMOSPHERIC
DEPOSITION NETWORK
Since the late 1970s, the Great Lakes
scientific community has been aware of
the potential significance of the atmos-
phere as a pollution pathway. Studies of
Isle Royale, a relatively isolated island in
Lake Superior, revealed levels of PCBs,
toxaphene, and other persistent toxic
substances in its lakes. Researchers
theorized that such pollutants could only
have been the result of deposition from
the air.
Since the Isle Royale findings, the Pro-
gram Office has promoted ways of as-
sessing the absolute and relative
magnitude of atmospheric loadings of
toxic substances. The Program Office
supported conferences in 1980, 1986,
and 1987 to assess the state of knowledge
of the airborne deposition problem, and
developed a strategy in 1987 to monitor
these substances. In recognition of the
potential importance of air deposition to
the Great Lakes, the United States and
Canada agreed in 1987 to establish an
Integrated Atmospheric Deposition
Network (IADN) to monitor both wet
and dry atmospheric loadings of toxic
substances to the Great Lakes.
It should be noted that the concentra-
tions of toxic organics in precipitation
are very minute and, therefore, difficult
to collect and analyze. Scientists are
developing methods to do this routinely,
and it is likely that the feasibility of
monitoring atmospheric deposition will
-------
54 Chapter 6
DRAFT July 1991
differ from parameter to parameter. The
Program Office implemented its first
master station and two satellite stations
for monitoring airborne PCBs and
dieldrin in fall 1988. These are located
around Green Bay. The two nations plan
to build on the experience gained from
the Green Bay master station and an
initial Canadian site on Lake Ontario in
order to design a basin-wide network.
During FYs 1989 and 1990, the United
States and Canada coordinated various
management, parameter, siting, and
methods issues pertaining to estab-
lishment of a network to monitor atmos-
pheric deposition of persistent toxic
substances. During FYs 1991-1992, the
two nations will establish one IADN
master station on each of the Great
Lakes. The United States will establish
master stations on Lake Superior, Lake
Erie, and Lake Michigan, while Canada
will establish one on Lake Huron to com-
plement the station already on Lake On-
tario. Data will be shared by each nation,
and the United States will be able to
co-locate equipment at the Ontario site.
Also in FY1992, the Program Office will
begin to establish six satellite stations,
one on each international lake and two
on Lake Michigan, while Canada will
begin to establish five satellite stations.
In FY 1994, based on data obtained to
that point, the two nations will consider
the need for establishing up to 11 addi-
tional satellite stations.
GREEN BAY STUDY
This special study, begun in FY 1987
and to continue through FY 1991, will
help EPA develop an understanding of
the sources, pathways, and fates of cer-
tain pollutants (i.e., cadmium, lead,
PCBs, and the pesticide dieldrin) within
a large waterbody.
One objective of the Green Bay study
is to determine the feasibility of a "mass
balance" analysis on one of the Great
Lakes. Therefore, the Green Bay study
is an important precursor to the surveil-
lance aspects of Lakewide Management
Plans. The Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources and EPA's Great
Lakes National Program Office are the
major sponsors of the study, with aspects
supported by EPA's Environmental Re-
search Laboratory-Duluth, Minnesota,
and its Large Lakes Research Station at
Grosse He, Michigan; the Great Lakes
(AT DE NOC
SCALE
Figure 6-1. Green Bay/Fox River Study Area
Environmental Research Laboratory
and Wisconsin Sea Grant of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion; the U.S. Geological Survey, the
Michigan Department of Natural
Resources; the U.S. Coast Guard; the
Illinois State Water Survey, and a num-
ber of universities.
Numerous Green Bay Study activities
were undertaken during FYs 1989 and
1990. EPA's research vessel, the Roger
Simons, conducted a field sampling
shakedown cruise on Green Bay in Oc-
tober 1988 and conducted five sampling
cruises in May, June, July, September,
and October 1989. A winter survey was
conducted from a U.S. Coast Guard
helicopter in February 1989. Another
winter survey and a spring survey were
conducted in FY 1990. In cooperation
with the Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources and the U.S.
Geological Survey, tributary monitoring
was performed on all important
tributaries to Green Bay. Wisconsin also
collected fish samples. A master and two
routine monitoring stations collected air
deposition samples. Other studies un-
derway include water/land/air vapor flux
of contaminants, groundwater loadings,
and sediment contamination.
-------
DRAFT July 1991
Great Lakes Science 55
The study has refined laboratory
methods for handling a large number of
samples that must be analyzed for trace
organics (i.e., PCB and dieldrin). Detec-
tion of these trace contaminants in the
water column requires the sampling of
large volumes of water. Previously, such
analyses were, in essence, small-scale re-
search activities. However, the Green
Bay study has developed methods that
can be employed on a more routine
basis.
The study team is beginning to obtain
the results of laboratory analyses on ini-
tial samples. Preliminary PCB data indi-
cate, as expected, a gradient in total
PCBs, with higher concentrations in the
Fox River and southern Green Bay sam-
pling stations. Preliminary results for
PCBs in plankton samples show a similar
trend, with higher concentrations in the
Fox River and southern Green Bay, and
a two- to three-fold decrease in northern
Green Bay. These data will be used in
developing models of contaminant
transport and levels in fish. Dieldrin
results do not follow the PCB trend. The
highest dieldrin concentrations in
plankton occur near the Door Peninsula
and may reflect the past use of dieldrin
in the agricultural practices of that
region; concentrations there are higher
than those in both the northern and
southern portions of the Bay.
In FY 1991, the study team will com-
plete analysis of samples, compile data,
and calibrate existing models. A study
report will be prepared in FY 1992.
NEW RESEARCH VESSEL
Early in 1990, EPA concluded negotia-
tions with the U.S. Department of
Transportation Maritime Administra-
tion for purchase of a vessel that is being
converted into a replacement research
vessel for open-lake water quality
monitoring. This vessel was needed be-
cause of the age (now more than 50 years
old) and size of the current ship, and to
expand the capability for routine
monitoring of persistent toxic substan-
ces in open-lake waters. The larger re-
placement vessel will have much more
space for analytic facilities that will
prepare samples for analysis on-board
and in land-based laboratories.
The new vessel, which will be chris-
tened the Lake Guardian, underwent
shipyard conversion during the second
half of 1990. It will be outfitted with on-
board laboratory equipment during FY
1991.
SYSTEM-WIDE SURVEILLANCE
EPA's planned spring 1989 surveys for
Lakes Erie, Huron, and Ontario were
prevented due to vessel breakdown. The
Program Office accomplished all sum-
mer 1989 open-lake water quality sam-
pling that was planned for Lakes Erie,
Huron, Michigan, and Ontario. During
the summer survey in Lake Erie, EPA
sampled for 33 parameters at 20 sites. In
Lake Huron, EPA sampled for 33
parameters at 20 locations. EPA
sampled for 33 parameters at 11 Lake
Michigan sites and for 33 parameters at
8 Lake Ontario sites. Spring and summer
cruises were also completed in 1990 and
are planned during 1991.
During 1989, the Program Office con-
tinued studies to examine whether water
from certain municipal drinking water
intakes is representative of open-lake
waters of Lakes Michigan and Ontario
and could be used in selected areas in
lieu of sampling by ship. Results indicate
that the composition of samples col-
lected from intake pipes is generally
similar to that of samples collected from
offshore waters. Storms and other
weather events can affect nearshore
water quality, requiring careful analysis
of data before they can be used reliably.
Through an agreement with the Fish
and Wildlife Service, the Program Office
supports an annual monitoring program
for dissolved oxygen in Lake Erie. Dis-
solved oxygen is measured from June
through September at 10 stations in the
central basin of Lake Erie. Oxygen
depletion rates in Lake Erie's central
basin were lower in 1988 and 1989 than
at any time in the last 20 years. In 1989,
the bottom waters did not become
anoxic until mid-September, an en-
couraging sign that phosphorus load
reductions may be achieving their
desired effect. In several previous years,
anoxic conditions developed about mid-
August. This monitoring program will
continue in 1991 in order to collect data
to further evaluate long-term responses
of central basin water quality to reduc-
tions in nutrient enrichment.
EPA, States, and the Fish and Wildlife
Service continued fish surveillance
programs during FYs 1989 and 1990; this
activity is planned to continue during FY
1991. In 1989,1 Lake Michigan site was
sampled for 14 organic parameters in
lake trout and smelt, and States sampled
chinook salmon at 8 sites for 21 organic
parameters. On Lake Erie, the Fish and
Wildlife Service sampled smelt and wall-
eye at one site for 11 parameters and
States sampled rainbow trout at 3 sites
for 21 organic parameters. On Lake
Huron, the Fish and Wildlife Service
sampled lake trout and smelt at 1 site for
7 parameters, and States sampled
chinook salmon at 2 sites for 21 organic
parameters. On Lake Ontario, the Fish
and Wildlife Service sampled lake trout
and smelt at 1 site for 11 parameters, and
States sampled chinook salmon at 3 sites
for 11 parameters. Figure 6-2 shows
some of the results of this monitoring
program over time. The figure depicts
average concentrations of PCBs and
DDT in Lake Michigan lake trout, chub,
coho, and smelt.
States and EPA continued their joint
support of a basin-wide 20-station at-
mospheric deposition network during
FYs 1989 and 1990; this activity is
planned to continue during FY 1991.
The sampling stations monitor nutrients,
metals, and acidity in precipitation, in-
cluding lead, cadmium, nitrate/nitrite,
mercury, and phosphorus, among about
35 parameters. States and universities
operate the sampling stations and pro-
vide samples to EPA on a weekly basis,
provided sufficient precipitation oc-
curred.
The States and the U.S. Geological
Survey conduct tributary monitoring.
The Program Office's activities have
centered on development of sampling
strategies to obtain data adequate for
estimating chemical loadings to the
Great Lakes and on dissemination of
these strategies to States. During FY
1989, research carried out under Pro-
gram Office grants led to the develop-
ment of enhanced (high-flow) strategies
for seven Great Lakes tributaries in
Michigan. In addition, Heidelberg Col-
lege, Ohio, has developed event-respon-
siveness ratings for all major Great
Lakes tributaries that will help EPA,
States, and Canada to assess which
tributaries require the most monitoring.
-------
56 Chapter 6
DRAFT July 1991
6 T
5 -
3
2
1 -
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
PCBs
/ V\
\ .
T 25
- 20
- 15
- 10
- 5
71 73
75
77 79 81 83 85 87
Year
Chubs
™ Smalt
™ Lake Trout
DDT
\
-• 20
18
16
14
" 12 €
..,. -
8 1=
69 71 73 75
85 87
Figure 6-2. Contaminants in Several Species of Lake Michigan Fish
-------
DRAFT July 1991 Great Lakes Science 57
With a few exceptions, present
tributary monitoring data are only mar-
ginally adequate for calculating loads for
conventional pollutants, and they are in-
adequate for calculating loadings of
toxic contaminants. Estimates of loads
for these parameters will require the
development of innovative sampling
technologies. One attempt at such in-
novation is a pilot monitoring station
that the New York Department of En-
vironmental Conservation is developing
for use on the Buffalo River.
The U.S. Geological Survey maintains
sampling stations on most major Great
Lakes tributaries. In FY1990, as part of
the Green Bay Mass Balance Study, the
Survey conducted tributary sampling
that will help to develop sampling
methods for trace contaminants. This
activity also addresses methods and in-
strumentation for monitoring tributaries
at or near their mouths, which is neces-
sary for estimating tributary loadings of
trace contaminants.
-------
DRAFT July 1991
Expenditures 59
Chapter 7
Touring FYs 1989 and 1990, Federal
•'-'expenditures on behalf of Great
Lakes water quality exceeded $150 mil-
lion each year. This total represents es-
timates of expenditures by a number of
major programs. The largest two
Federal outlays are for the cleanup of
abandoned hazardous waste sites by the
Superfund program and for the con-
struction of municipal wastewater treat-
ment system improvements.
Before discussing expenditures,
several general observations should be
made. First, although some appropria-
Expenditures
tions (e.g., EPA's Large Lakes Research
Station and Great Lakes National Pro-
gram Office) are specifically earmarked
for the Great Lakes, many programs are
broader in scope, and their funding is
administered on a State-wide basis. For
these, it is often difficult to distinguish
what portion of their expenditures was
for activities within the Great Lakes
watershed. Second, reported expendi-
tures usually comprise both actual
obligations through the time at which the
information was developed and an-
ticipated obligations during the
remainder of that fiscal year. Third, ex-
penditures of 2-year appropriated funds
will sometimes be incurred during the
second year. The net effect of these fac-
tors is to introduce some uncertainty into
expenditures estimates.
Superfund
Figure 7-1 shows expenditures by the
Superfund in the counties of the Great
Lakes basin during FYs 1987-1989.
These counties are wholly or partly lo-
cated within the Great Lakes basin. A
geographic area larger than the actual
Superfund Site Expenditures
(Thousands of Dollars)
Figure 7-1. Superfund Expenditures in Great Lakes Counties in FYs 1987 through 1989
-------
60 Chapter?
DRAFT July 1991
watershed of the Great Lakes is used,
since information from the Agency's Su-
perfund data base can best be extracted
by county.
Over this 3-year period, the Superfund
program spent more than $210 million in
the counties of the Great Lakes. These
costs are government outlays only and do
not include costs incurred by Potentially
Responsible Parties. Thus, total cleanup
expenditures for Superfund sites are ac-
tually greater than the expenditures
shown hi Figure 7-1. It should also be
noted that the Agency acts to recover
costs from Potentially Responsible Par-
ties, so that the Superfund will be reim-
bursed for some of these outlays.
During this period, the four counties
with the highest Superfund expenditures
were Lapeer County, Michigan; Niagara
County, New York; Ashtabula County,
Ohio; and Erie County, New York. The
principal sites in these counties were the
1000 ~r
900
900 -
400
200
72737475767778758081 • « M
88 87 88 SO 80
FEDERAL CONSTRUCTION GRANT AWARDS. BY FISCAL YEAR
9000 _
7279747S7B777I79M81 82 83 84 »« 87 88
FISCAL YEAR
CUMULATIVE FEDERAL CONSTRUCTION GRANT AWARDS
IN THE GREAT LAKES BASIN. BY LAKE BASIN
Figure 7-2. Construction Grant Awards in the Great Lakes Watershed
-------
DRAFT July 1991
Expenditures 61
Table 7-1. Selected FY 1989 Federal Expenditures on Great Lakes Water Quality ($ in thousands)
Judicial
Federal Agency Enforcement Research Surveillance
EPA
Great Lakes National 4,106
Program Office
Large Lakes Research 1 ,906
Station
NOAA
Great Lakes Environmental 4,374
Research Laboratory
DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
Soil Conservation Service 45 1,323
DEPARTMENT OF
INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service 2,151 769
DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE
Army Corps of Engineers 1,387 72 3,288
TOTAL 1,387 8,548 9,486
Remedial
Programs
3,110
600
7,969
582
16,254
28,515
State
General Cooperative
Administration Efforts Other Total
2,001 387 435 10,039
1,906
4,974
527 10 9,874
741 12,360 16,603
60 21,061
3,269 447 12,805 64,457
Table 7-2. Selected FY 1990 Federal Expenditures on Great Lakes Water Quality ($ in thousands)
Judicial
Federal Agency Enforcement Research
EPA
Great Lakes National
Program Office
Large Lakes Research 1,906
Station
NOAA
Great Lakes Environmental 4,400
Research Laboratory
DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
Soil Conservation Service
DEPARTMENT OF
INTERIOR
Rsh and Wildlife Service 74 981
DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE
Army Corps of Engineers 150 1,203
TOTAL 224 8,490
State
Remedial General Cooperative
Surveillance Programs Administration Efforts Other
5,651 3,741 2,562 490 387
600
1,668 7.620 548 10
1,341 633 200 2 2,023
824 19,223 106
9,484 31,817 3,310 598 2,420
Total
12,831
1,906
5,000
9,846
5,254
21,506
56,343
-------
62 Chapter?
DRAFT July 1991
Table 7-3. Selected FY 1991 Estimated Federal Expenditures on Great Lakes Water Quality ($ in thousands)
State
Judicial Remedial General Cooperative
Federal Agency Enforcement Research Surveillance Programs Administration Efforts Other
EPA
Great Lakes National
Program Office
Large Lakes Research
Station
NOAA
Great Lakes Environmental
Research Laboratory
DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
Soil Conservation Service 300 7,894 732 1,385 46
DEPARTMENT OF
INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service 17 964 385 672 244 3 2,087
DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE
Army Corps of Engineers 150 1,270 849 16,555 427
TOTAL 167 2,234 1,534 25,121 976 1,815 2,133
Total
10,357
4,372
19,251
33,980
Metamora Landfill in Lapeer; Love
Canal in Niagara; New Lyme Landfill
and Fields Brook in Ashtabula; and
Wide Beach Development in Erie.
Municipal Wastewater Treatment
Systems
Figure 7-2 shows Federal outlays for
the construction of improved municipal
wastewater treatment systems in the
Great Lakes, basin between 1972 and
1989. During this period, EPA provided
about $4.8 billion for wastewater treat-
ment plants around the Great Lakes.
More than one-half of this investment
has been made for plants in Lake Erie's
watershed. The second greatest Federal
investment has been made in Lake
Ontario's watershed.
Expenditures for the wastewater treat-
ment system for the largest U.S.
metropolitan area within the Great
Lakes watershed are not included, since
Chicago's treatment system discharges
into the Mississippi River drainage sys-
tem. It should be noted that State and
local governments also contributed
greatly to the funding of municipal treat-
ment systems. The total investment by
Federal, State, and local governments in
municipal treatment systems around the
Great Lakes basin between 1972 and
1989 is about $8 billion.
Other Programs
Tables 7-1 through 7-3 show Federal
expenditures on the Great Lakes by
selected organizations and programs for
FYs 1989 and 1990, and planned expen-
ditures for FY 1991.
Sections 118(c)(6)(A) and (D) of the
Clean Water Act specify that this report
characterize the nature of Federal ex-
penditures by at least four categories:
judicial enforcement, research, general
administration, and State cooperative
efforts. To further clarify the uses of the
expenditures, four additional categories
have been added for this report:
remedial programs, surveillance, was-
tewater treatment facilities, and other
expenditures. For the purposes of this
report, several operational definitions
were made. "Judicial enforcement" ex-
penditures are those relating to litigation
to obtain compliance with environmen-
tal regulations. "General Administra-
tion" refers to staff salaries, travel, and
administrative expenses. "State
Cooperative Efforts" are defined as
grants to State environmental agencies
either expressly for development of
Remedial Action Plans or more broadly
for water quality programs. This is a nar-
row definition in that it excludes, as two
examples, EPA's funding towards the
Green Bay study, jointly sponsored by
the Agency and by the State of Wiscon-
sin, and ARCS sediment assessments in
five Areas of Concern. Both of these
studies develop information pertinent to
the development of certain Remedial
Action Plans, and expenditures for them
are included under the categories of
"Surveillance" and "Remedial" ac-
tivities, respectively. Water grants are on
a whole-State basis, beyond the basin.
Air/Waste funding is not included.
-------
Table A-1. Submittals of U.S. Remedial Action Plans to the International Joint Commission
Area of Concern
Illinois
Waukegan Harbor
Indiana
Grand Calumet River/Indiana Harbor
Canal
Michigan
Clinton River
Deer Lake/Carp River/Carp Creek
Kalamazoo River
Manistique River
Muskegon Lake
River Raisin
Rouge River
Saginaw River/Saglnaw Bay
Torch Lake
White Lake
Michigan/Ontario
Detroit River
St. Clair River
St. Marys River
Minnesota/Wisconsin
St. Louis River/Bay
FY1988
Stage
1
^
/•
/
/
/
/
Stage
2
/
/
/
/
/
/
FY1989
Stage
1
s
y
/
Stage
2
/
/
/
FY1990
Stage
1
Stage
2
—
FY1991
Stage
1
X
y
X
X
Stage
2
X
FY1992
Stage
1
X
X
Stage
2
X
-
X
FY1993
Stage
1
Stage
2
X
X
X
Key:
/ = Actual Submittal
x = Estimated
-------
Table A-1. Submittals of U.S. Remedial Action Plans to the International Joint Commission (continued)
AIB& of ConoBfn
New York
Buffalo River
Eighteen Mile Creek
Oswego River
Rochester Embayment
New York/Ontario
Niagara River
St. Lawrence River
Ohio
Ashtabula River
Black River
Cuyahoga River
Maumee River
Wisconsin/Michigan
Menominee River
Wisconsin
Fox River/Green Bay
Milwaukee Estuary
Sheboygan Harbor
Cumulative Number Submitted
(out of 30 possible)
FY1988
Stage
1
/
7
23
Stage
2
/
7
23
FY1989
Stage
1
10
33
Stage
2
—
10
33
FY1990
Stage
1
/
/
— —
/•
13
43
Stage
2
10
33
FY1991
Stage
1
X
/
S
S
X
22
73
Stage
2
/
12
40
FY1992
Stage
1
X
X
26
86
Stage
2
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
22
73
FY1993
Stage
1
X
X
X
29
97
Stage
2
X
X
X
X
29
97
-------
Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern
Area of Concern/Major Known
Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Lang-Term Agenda
Lake Superior
St Louis FSver/Bay
AOC includes Duluth (Minne-
sota)/Superior (Wisconsin) har-
bor, upstream past town of Clo-
quet, and southwestern Lake
Superior. Sediments moderately
to heavily polluted with metals;
some are also contaminated
with PAHs, PCBs, mercury and
dioxin; fish consumption ad-
visories for walleye; dredging
delays over selection of dispo-
sal sites for polluted sediments.
Western Lake Superior Sanitary District WWTP
was formed in 1978, replacing nine smaller
community systems. It constructed an advanced
wastewater treatment facility, greatly improving
St. Louis River water quality and fisheries.
In 1984, two areas on the St. Louis River toget-
her were designated a Superfund NPL site called
the St. Louis River site. One area is the former
location of U. S. Steel-Duluth works between
1915 until its closure in 1979. This area has
coke and tar contamination. Four miles down-
stream from USS Duluth and 4 miles upstream
from Lake Superior, the "Interlake" area abuts
the north bank of the St. Louis River. Site con-
tamination includes tar seeping at the ground
surface, a residue of coking and other industrial
activities that started in the late 1800s and
continued to 1950. MPCA began RI/FS of
Interlake in 1987.
1989:
MPCA selected remedy for
U.S. Steel area of St. Louis
River NPL site.
Minnesota developing RAP
with Wisconsin. Active citizens
advisory group with five tech-
nical committees.
1990:
Stage 1 draft RAP provided to
EPA for comment.
MPCA completed RI/FS Interl-
ake area. The selected Inter-
lake remediation will include
construction of a slurry wall to
prevent coal tar from seeping
into the St. Louis River.
MPCA to submit Stage 1
RAP to UC.
Monitoring to further de-
fine the extent and
causes of problems.
EPA support to urban
nonpoint control project
in Duluth.
MPCA to submit Stage 2
RAP to UC in FY 1992.
Key:
AOC Area of Concern NYSDEC
ARCS Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments PAH
BMP Best Management Practice PCB
COE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers PRP
CSO Combined Sewer Overflow RAP
IDEM Indiana Department of Environmental Management RCRA
UC International Joint Commission RI/FS
MDNR Michigan Department of Natural Resources ROD
MDPH Michigan Department of Public Health SCS
MPCA Minnesota Pollution Control Agency USDA
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration USGS
NPDES National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System WDNR
NPL National Priorities List WWTP
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons
Polychlorinated Biphenyls
Potentially Responsible Party
Remedial Action Plan
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study
Record of Decision
Soil Conservation Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
U.S. Geological Survey
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Wastewater Treatment Plant
-------
Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Terrn Agenda
Torch Lake
This AOC is located in Mich-
igan's Keweenaw Peninsula.
About 200 million tons of
copper mine tailings were
dumped into 2,718 acre
Torch Lake between 1868-
1968, filling 20% of the lake's
original volume. Sediments
are highly contaminated with
copper; in late 1970s, tumors
were found in mature walleye
and sauger; fish consump-
tion advisories for walleye,
sauger and larger small-
mouth bass.
EPA designated lake as a NPL
site in 1984, began search for
PRPs in 1985 and concluded
negotiations with three in 1988.
The site is large, encompassing
Torch Lake, the northern half of
Portage Lake, tributaries, and the
northern half of the Keewenaw
Waterway. It is divided into three
"Operable Units."
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAPtolJCinFY1988.
1989:
EPA and MDNR began RI/FS on
operable unit 1 (surface tailings
on western shore of Torch Lake).
MDNR completed analyses of
fish taken from lake in 1988.
Tumors were not found and
contaminant levels in fish were
very low.
1990*
EPA and MDNR continued RI/FS
for operable unit 1. EPA started
RI/FS for operable units 2 (Torch
Lake) and 3 (Keweenaw Water-
way). Reid investigations com-
pleted December 1990.
EPA to issue an ROD for operable
unit 1 in September.
Implement Superfund remedi-
ations and RAP.
Deer Lake/Carp Fiver/Carp
Creek
This AOC in Michigan's Up-
per Peninsula includes 907
acre Deer Lake and 20 miles
of Carp River to Lake Superi-
or. Sediments are highly
contaminated with mercury;
fish consumption advisories
for all fish species since
1981.
Sources of mercury eliminated in
early 1980s. Consent Agreement
between State and Cleveland
Cliffs Iron Company signed in
1984 under which monitoring
studies of mercury in fish will be
conducted for 10 years. Lake
drawn down and contaminated
fish were killed with rotenone in
1985/1986. Lake restocked with
walleye and perch in 1987. New
regional WWTP with secondary
treatment replaced three primary
WWTPs that previously dis-
charged to Deer Lake via Carp
Creek.
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to IJC in FY 1988.
1989 and 1990:
MDNR conducted fish tissue,
water quality, bottom sediment,
and sedimentation rate studies
to monitor recovery.
MDNR designated Deer Lake as
a catch and release fishery until
1996 to limit consumption of
contaminated fish. Levels of
mercury in northern pike have
fallen by one-half since 1987.
MDNR will continue monitoring
contaminants in fish.
Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company
and MDNR will continue to mon-
itor concentrations of mercury in
fish tissues through 1996.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impsivmonts
Background
Rscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AQC
Rscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Tenn Agenda
Lake Michigan
Manistique Rver
AOC is the lower 1.7 miles of
river flowing into northern
Michigan from Michigan's
Upper Peninsula. Adjacent
town: Manistique (Michigan).
Sediments heavily polluted
with PCBs and metals; fish
consumption advisories for
carp.
Manistique WWTP was upgraded
to secondary treatment in 1977.
In 1986, Manistique Papers In-
corporated placed a temporary
erosion barrier over soils sus-
pected to be a source of PCBs to
the river and upgraded its waste-
water quality. Result is greatly
reduced oxygen demand and
toxic substance loads to the riv-
er.
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to UC in FY 1988.
1989:
MDNR analysis of channel cat-
fish from Manistique harbor
found PCB levels less than half
those that would justify a fish
consumption advisory by MDPH.
1990:
MDNR and COE conducted sedi-
ment contamination character-
ization of river.
Michigan Water Resources Com-
mission approved a new 5-year
NPDES permit for Manis-tique
Papers with stricter limits on
zinc, copper, and silver.
MDNR conducted 28-day caged-
fish study to determine uptake of
PCBs.
Study effects of dredging con-
taminated sediments in harbor.
Evaluate contaminated sediment
effects on biota and evaluate
remedial options.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Menominee River
AOC is the lower 3 miles of
river flowing into Green Bay.
The river forms the boundary
between Wisconsin and the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Adjacent towns: Menominee
(Michigan) and Marinette
(Wisconsin). Groundwater
grossly contaminated with
arsenic near Ansul Company;
sediments in river highly
contaminated with arsenic
and also with mercury and
PCBs; fish consumption
advisories for smallmouth
bass, perch, white bass,
white sucker, bullheads,
carp, trout, walleye, splake,
salmon and pike; dredging
delayed due to concerns
over disposal of polluted
sediments; bacteriological
contamination caused by
CSOs; loss of fish and wild-
life habitat.
Ansul Company began pumping
and treating arsenic contaminat-
ed groundwater in 1981 under a
Consent Order.
1989:
Wastewater connection from
Menominee Paper to the Meno-
minee WWTP eliminated. This
action should improve effluent
quality at both facilities. Menomi-
nee Paper also started enhanced
wastewater treatment at its faci-
lity.
City of Menominee signed EPA
and WDNR Consent Order,
agreeing to submit plan for the
elimination of CSOs.
Wisconsin developed RAP with
support from Michigan. Active
citizens advisory group, with
three technical subcommittees.
1990:
EPA and WDNR issued RCRA
Consent Order regarding arsenic
contamination to Ansul Com-
pany. Menominee Paper paid
$2.1 million penalty for Clean
Water Act violations under Con-
sent Decree.
City of Menominee entered into
Consent Agreement with EPA to
correct its CSOs.
Submit Stage 1 RAP to IJC in
October 1990. Continue Stage 2
RAP preparation. Analytical work
to support RAP includes: fish
contaminants, sediment and
water quality monitoring; and
toxicity testing of bottom waters.
COE to conduct sediment quality
reconnaissance to prepare for
dredging of navigational channel.
Ansul Company to conduct RCRA
facility investigation with correc-
tive measures study under Con-
sent Order.
Ansul Company entered into a
RCRA Consent Agreement with
State of Wisconsin and EPA to
outline and implement corrective
actions for arsenic contaminated
sediments.
Paint sludge from a site owned
by Randers Industries leaches
into Green Bay. MDNRto remove
sludge and metal in Spring 1991.
WDNR and MDNR plan to sub-
mit Stage 2 RAP to IJC in
FY1992.
Upgrade municipal sewer sys-
tems by correcting combined
sewer overflows.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Rscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Rscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-term Agenda
Fox River/Green Bay
Sediments heavily polluted
with metals, oil and grease,
and PCBs; high tumor inci-
dence in some fish; deformi-
ties and reproductive impair-
ments in fish-eating birds;
eutrophic conditions in lower
bay; bacterial contamination;
fish consumption advisories
for smallmouth bass, perch,
white bass, white sucker,
bullheads, drum, channel
catfish, carp, trout, walleye,
splake, salmon and pike;
concerns over polluted sedi-
ments have made siting of
dredged material disposal
facilty problematic.
Citizens advisory group met
monthly from 1986 to 1988 to
assist in RAP development.
WDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to UC in FY 1988.
During 1987-88, WDNR and EPA,
joined by universities and other
agencies, designed a major
study of the sources and fates of
four pollutants (PCBs, cadmium,
lead, and dieldrin) in Green Bay.
EPA Proposed Fort Howard
Paper Company sludge lagoons
in city of Green Bay as Super-
fund NPL site in 1988. Lagoons
contain heavy metals and PCB
contamination in sludge. In 1986
Ft. Howard installed a slurry wall
to prevent migration of contam-
inates through groundwater.
1989:
Wisconsin established new water
quality standards to limit toxics
discharges.
Green Bay Mass Balance Study
field work began.
Plans established to upgrade
municipal wastewater treatment
at Green Bay and Appleton.
Nonpoint source control model
ordinances drafted and public
participationincentivesinstituted.
Wetlands preservation and res-
toration activities begun. USDA
began a 10-year East River Prior-
ity Watershed Project that will
share costs with landowners for
installing land management
improvements.
Barrier to sea lamprey migration
up Fox River completed.
1990:
Green Bay Mass Balance Study
field work finished and analysis
of samples continued.
RAP implementation committee
has been meeting regularly since
mid-1988 and published two
annual reports.
City of DePere urban runoff de-
tention ponds begun.
EPA, WDNR, and partners will
prepare report on Green Bay
Mass Balance Study findings.
City of Green Bay and WDNR to
complete purchase of land along
Fox River in Green Bay to im-
prove public access to waterfront.
USDA to continue priority water-
shed projects for Winnebago
Lake, Arrowhead-Daggets Creeks,
and the East River.
Green Bay and Appleton WWTPs
are constructing improvements to
reduce ammonia, chlorine, and
bacteria discharges.
City of DePere to construct 2
spawning beds for walleye on
Fox River.
WDNR to stock musky to re-es-
tablish this native predator fish.
Develop approaches for dealing
with contaminated sediments.
Other emphases are rural and
urban nonpoint sources, fish and
wildlife habitat, and public ac-
cess to the shoreline.
University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay report notes biological re-
sponses to improved water qual-
ity over the last decade:
• A doubling of benthic
organisms (1978-88)
• Improved growth of
wild celery
• Improvedreproductive
success of Forster's
terns and growth in
their population.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Fox Fiver/Green Bay (coot)
1990 (cont)
Ft. Howard Paper Co. began
RI/FS at Superfund NPL site.
EPA began a Wetlands Inventory
to map critical coastal wetlands
and to advise public of areas
where dredging or filling will not
be permitted.
U.W.-Green Bay issued a report
on the environmental condition
of Green Bay. The report draws
on more than two decades of
bay research and is accessible to
the public. It lists 14 impaired
uses of the bay, 9 of which can
be tied to nutrients and
sediments.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known knpaimients
Background
Fiscal Years 1909-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Terni Agenda
Sheboygan Rrver and Harbor
The AOC includes She-
boygan Harbor and about 12
miles of river up to Sheboy-
gan Falls. Sediments heavily
polluted with PCBs and met-
als; fish consumption adviso-
ries for bluegill, crappie, rock
bass, carp, smallmouth bass,
walleye, pike, trout, catfish
and salmon; waterfowl con-
sumption advisory; bacterial
contamination in water col-
umn; navigational dredging
discontinued in 1969 due to
lack of acceptable disposal
site for polluted sediments.
Kohler Company landfill, which
approaches within 300 feet of
river, was designated Superfund
NPLsite in 1984. RI/FS begun in
1986. Site is a potential source
of metals to river.
River and harbor were desig-
nated Superfund NPL site in
1985. In April 1986, EPA and
WDNR signed Consent Order
with Tecumseh Products Com-
pany, a PRP, to conduct the
RI/FS for the Superfund site.
Company plant is potential
source of PCB contamination in
river.
WDNR began drafting RAP in
June 1987.
WDNR prepared draft RAP dur-
ing 1988.
1989:
WDNR held public meetings and
hearings to obtain public com-
ment on draft RAP.
Tecumseh Products Incorporated
continued RI/FS of river and har-
bor.
1990:
WDNR submitted Stage 1 RAP to
IJC.
As part of RI/FS for river and
harbor, about 2,000 cubic yards
of sediments were removed from
the upper river in December
1989. These were placed into a
confined treatment facility for
biodegradation studies that will
use bacteria to try to decompose
PCBs in the sediments. The
RI/FS also continued to study
other remedial alternatives.
Kohler landfill RI/FS continued.
Continue RI/FS of two Superfund
NPL sites.
WDNR to stock Sheboygan River
with steelhead trout for study of
PCB uptake.
Re-establish Sheboygan County
Water Quality Task Force as citi-
zen advisory committee and es-
tablish committee structure to
work towards Stage 2 RAP.
Complete Sheboygan River Priori-
ty Watershed Plan addressing
nonpoint sources of pollution.
Continue to implement Onion
River Watershed Project.
WDNR plans to submit Stage 2
RAP to UC in FY 1992.
Superfund proposed cleanup
plan due in Spring 1992.
Clean up sediments, protect
wetlands, improve sewage sys-
tems to reduce bacterial con-
tamination, control sources of
toxics.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
B&dcQround
Fiscal Years 1965-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Milwaukee Harbor
Water and sediment contam-
ination with conventional
pollutants; sediments heavily
polluted with metals and
PCBs and also contaminated
with pesticides; eutrophic
conditions; fish consumption
advisories for crappie, perch,
carp, northern pike, small-
mouth bass, redhorse suck-
er, white sucker and rock
bass; waterfowl consumption
advisories; dredging restric-
tions; absence of desirable
fish and aquatic species; loss
of habitat; beach closings.
Over $500 million in sewage
system upgrades have been
made since 1972.
Moss-American site, a source of
PAHs to Little Menominee River,
was designated a Superfund
NPLsite in 1983. RI/FS begun in
1987.
1989:
Major combined sewer overflow
abatement project and upgrade
of WWTP by Milwaukee Metro-
politan Sewerage District under-
way. WDNR implementing five
priority watershed nonpoint
source control projects in the
basin. Corps of Engineers con-
ducted harbor sediment sam-
pling program, including chem-
ical and bioassay testing.
1990:
WDNR provided Stage 1 draft
RAP to EPA for comment. Public
meeting held in June to obtain
comments.
Continued sewage system im-
provements.
Study of causes of contaminant
levels in resident waterfowl un-
derway.
WDNR plans to submit Stage 1
RAP to UC.
MMSD to continue improvements
to sewage system.
Technical Advisory Committee to
develop a monitoring strategy.
EPA support to monitoring of
Milwaukee River Priority
Watershed.
WDNR plans to submit Stage 2
RAP to UC in FY 1993.
Startup of deep-tunnel to in-
crease wet weather treatment
capacity.
Corps of Engineers may develop
a second confined disposal fa-
cility for dredged material
from the harbor.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Kn
impflin
Background
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
fiscal Year 1991
Activities hi AOC
Loog-Term Agenda
Waukegan Harbor
Waukegan is located on the
west shore of Lake Michigan.
about 40 miles north of Chi-
cago, Illinois. Gross PCB
contamination of sediments;
fish consumption advisories
for all fish species; dredging
delayed by problems in sit-
ing disposal facility for pollut-
ed sediments.
Legal actions undertaken against
Outboard Marine Corporation
(OMC) starting in 1978. Site in-
cluded on original Superfund
NPL in 1982. EPA conducted
RI/FS and issued ROD in 1984.
1989:
OMC entered into Consent Order
that stipulated it would clean up
(under EPA supervision) areas of
Waukegan Harbor and of OMC
property containing PCB con-
tamination. Cleanup plans call
for dredging parts of the harbor,
constructing containment cells
for less contaminated soil and
sediment, and extracting PCBs
from soil and sediment for incin-
eration. More than 99% of the
mass of PCBs in the harbor will
be removed and either confined
or destroyed. The cleanup is
estimated to cost $20 million.
1990:
OMC continued cleanup plan
implementation. Construction of
a new slip was delayed by dis-
covery of unrelated site of PAH
contamination near intended
location of new slip.
Illinois EPA plans to submit
Stages 1 and 2 RAPs to IJC.
OMC to continue cleanup activi-
ties.
Cleanup actions by OMC to be
completed during 1993.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
**-lnlirinn _ji_rl
DoCKgrouna
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Grand Calumet Fiver/ Mi-
ana Harbor Canal
AOC is 13 miles long. The
river flows Into the southern-
most part of Lake Michigan.
Sediments heavily contami-
nated with metals, conven-
tional pollutants, PCBs, and
PAHs; water quality prob-
lems due to conventional
pollutants; fish tumors and
fin rot found; fish consump-
tion advisory for all fish spe-
cies; dredging delayed over
problems in siting disposal
facility for polluted sedi-
ments.
Settlement of Federal suit
against U.S. Steel for alleged re-
fusal to enter Gary plant in
NPDES permit program (1980).
EPA developed a master reme-
dial plan for Grand Calumet in
1985.
EPA and IDEM completed N.W.
Indiana Environmental Action
Plan in 1987.
1969:
USGS completed study of
groundwater flow in the area.
EPA ARCS study sampled con-
taminated sediments.
1990:
Settlement of 1989 Federal suit
against USX for alleged NPDES
permit violations. Consent Order
calls for USX to undertake $34
million in sediment studies and
cleanup.
EPA ARCS study sampling con-
tinued.
EPA issued adminstrative order
to certain PRPs to cleanup NPL
Midco I and II sites in accor-
dance with their RODs.
Federal suit filed against Inland
Steel under Clean Water Act,
Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking
Water Act, and Resource Conser-
vation and Recovery Act.
Federal suit filed against Beth-
lehem Steel under multiple en-
vironmental laws.
IDEM to submit Stage 1 RAP to
IJC.
USX to begin stream characteri-
zation study for 13 miles of
Grand Calumet.
COE to draft Environmental Im-
pact Statement on dredging of
Federal navigation channel.
IDEM plans to submit Stage 2
RAP to UC In FY 1992.
Address problems posed by
large quantity of highly toxic
sediments and by combined
sewer overflows during rain
storms.
IDEM/EPA implement NW Indi-
ana Environmental Action plan.
Its 6 elements:
(1) Assist COE dredge Federal
navigation channel
(2) Ensure high levels of com-
pliance with Federal en-
vironmental laws
(3) Address petroleum distillate
contaminated groundwater
(4) Complete Remedial Action
Plan
(5) Communicate to public on
environmental issues
(6) Incorporate pollution pre-
vention measures.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Kalamazoo Ffiver
AOC is the lower 35 miles of
river that flows into south-
eastern Lake Michigan. Sedi-
ments heavily polluted with
PCBs; fish consumption
advisories for all fish species.
MDNR finished a Michigan Act
307 RI/FS of the Kalamazoo
River in 1986. This study recom-
mended remedial actions at
Bryant Mill Pond and at three
impoundments (Plainwell,
Otsego, and Trowbridge), and
further study of Otsego City and
Allegan impoundments, as well
as of Lake Allegan. The RI/FS
found PCB contamination of a 3-
mile stretch of Portage Creek
where the creek joins the river
and of 35 miles of the Kalama-
zoo River. Contamination starts
where Allied Paper Bryant Mill
Pond discharges to Portage
Creek. Allied Paper has opera-
ted paper mills at an 80 acre site
since 1925.
Second draft of RAP completed
in December 1987.
1969:
EPA proposed Allied Paper Inc/
Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River
for Superfund NPL RAP deferred
due to legal actions. Three PRPs
identified: Allied Paper Incorpo-
rated, Georgia Pacific Corpora-
tion, and Simpson Plainwell
Paper Company. Under Federal
court supervision, Allied Paper is
developing plans for interim
remedial actions at Bryant Mill
Pond on Portage Creek. Georgia
Pacific is developing remedial
plan for the Willow site.
1990:
MDNR began interim remedial
measures for Plainwell, Otsego,
and Trowbridge impoundments.
MDNR conducted studies to
identify extent of contamination
and feasible remedial actions at
Lake Allegan and at the Allegan
and Otsego impoundments.
Three PRPs agreed to conduct
RI/FS for Kalamazoo River NPL
site. Allied Paper began removal
action at Bryant Mill Pond.
PRPs to begin 'Superfund RI/FS
under EPA and MDNR super-
vision.
Georgia Pacific Corporation to
complete investigation of PCB
disposal site "A". Georgia Pacific
to submit proposed remedial
action at the Willow site and to
complete investigation of PCB
disposal site at Kings Highway.
Followup studies on sediment
burial, partition coefficients, and
erosion rates for Otsego City
Impoundment, Allegan City Im-
poundment, and Lake Allegan to
be completed.
Complete RAP with results from
Superfund RI/FS. RI/FS will take
.3 to 5 years to complete. While
Superfund RI/FS is underway,
public will be consulted pursuant
to the Superfund process.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Muskegon Lake
Lake is 4,150 acres in size
located along east shore of
Lake Michigan just north of
City of Muskegon. Eutrophi-
cation; some shoreline sedi-
ments heavily polluted with
metals; fish consumption
advisories for carp, large-
mouth bass, large walleye.
Diversion of municipal and in-
dustrial wastewater discharges
from the lake and its tributaries
to the Muskegon County Waste-
water Treatment System and
implementation of an industrial
pretreatment program have
greatly reduced waste loads to
the lake and improved water
quality and fish habitat. EPA
listed the Cm/Story/Cordova
Chemical Company site on the
Superfund NPLin 1982. Contam-
inated groundwater from the site
was found to be contaminating
sediments and water in Little
Bear Creek, which flows into
Bear Lake, which connects to
Muskegon Lake. EPA began an
RI/FS at the site in January 1988.
MONR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to IJC in FY 1988.
1989:
MDNR collected fish from Lake
Michigan off the mouth of Musk-
egon Lake in 1988. These fish
were also found with unaccept-
able levels of PCBs and mercury,
which may indicate a regional
phenomenon like atmospheric
deposition of contaminants
rather than one localized to Mus-
kegon Lake.
EPA completed Rl at the Ott/
Story/Cordova Chemical Co. site
and began FS. EPA and MDNR
proposed a cleanup plan to
pump, treat, and monitor
groundwater.
Average spring phosphorus con-
centrations have fallen below
desired maximum level.
1990:
EPA completed FS at the Ott/
Story/Cordova Chemical Co.
site.
MDNR to complete analyses of
sediment and benthic samples.
The RAP recommends continued
implementation of ongoing pro-
grams and additional studies of
stormwater runoff effects on
Ryerson and Ruddiman creeks,
Division Street stormwater dis-
charge, sediment and benthic
health, and fish tissues.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Rscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AQC
Rscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Twin Agenda
White Lake
Lake is 2,570 acres in size
located along east shore of
Lake Michigan near the com-
munities of Montague and
Whitehall. Groundwater con-
taminated with organic sol-
vents; some sediments are
heavily polluted with chromi-
um; fish consumption advi-
sory for carp due to PCBs
and chlordane.
Diversion of municipal and in-
dustrial wastewater discharges
from the lake and its tributaries
to the Muskegon County Waste-
water Treatment System and
implementation of an industrial
pretreatment program have
greatly reduced waste loads to
the lake and improved water
quality and fish habitat.
A 1979 Consent Judgement be-
tween Hooker Chemical Com-
pany and the State of Michigan
required company to halt flow of
contaminated groundwaterto the
lake. Company installed purge
wells and a carbon absorption
treatment system. In 1985, the
State filed to enforce provisions
of the Consent Judgement to
force company to improve its
purge well system.
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to IJC in FY 1988.
1969
Hooker Chemical Company con-
tinued treatment of contamina-
ted groundwater.
1990
System of cluster wells was in-
stalled to monitor static water
levels and to ensure the contami-
nant plume did not reach the
lake. Data collected from March
1987 to January 1990 for the
purge-well system indicated that
the plume is being captured.
MDNR to complete analyses of
sediment and benthic samples.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Aro& of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Rscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Rscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Lake Huron
Saginaw Rwer/Saginaw Bay
Bay is 1,143 square miles,
with an 8,709 square mile
drainage basin, the largest in
Michigan. Water contaminat-
ed with metals, PCBs, dio-
xins and phenols; sediments
moderately to heavily pol-
luted with metals and PCBs;
eutrophic conditions; appar-
ent reproductive impairments
and deformities in fish-eating
birds; fish consumption ad-
visories for trout, carp and
catfish in the bay and for all
species in the river; dredging
in upper river delayed over
problems in siting disposal
facility for polluted sedi-
ments; bacterial con-
tamination.
Ban on the use of high phos-
phate detergents in 1977 and
wastewater treatment improve-
ments have greatly reduced
phosphorus loads to the river
and bay.
RAP was completed in Septem-
ber 1988 and identified 101 ac-
tions over a 10-year period that
should be taken to address envi-
ronmental problems.
Surveys of benthic macro-
invertebrate communities by
NOAA and MDNR (1986-89).
1987 ongoing: MDNR has pur-
chased $7 million worth of land
in the Saginaw Bay area for the
preservation of habitat and to
improve recreational access.
Shiawasee River designated
Superfund NPL site in 1983.
Cast Forge Company cleaned up
PCB-contaminated soil and sedi-
ment from its property. In 1982,
1 mile of the south beach of the
Shiawasee dredged, removing
2,600 Ibs of PCBS.
1989:
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to IJC.
MDNR and U. of Michigan con-
tinued extensive sediment sam-
pling in the river and bay to as-
sess the impacts of the severe
flood in 1986 on the distribution
of sediment contamination
(1988-93).
MDNR began stocking mayfly
eggs in Saginaw Bay to re-estab-
lish this native benthic macro-
invertebrate (1989-ongoing).
General Motors Grey Iron facility
ended direct discharge to Sag-
inaw River and began waste-
water pretreatment before deliv-
ery to Saginaw WWTP.
As part of ARCS study, EPA to
sample water, fish tissues, and
Saginaw River sediments over a
6-week period as part of a com-
prehensive evaluation of the ha-
zards of sediment contamination.
EPA Saginaw Bay Watershed
Project to characterize aquatic
biota impacts from impaired
streams and formulate remedial
strategies.
EPA, USDA, and MDNR to imple-
ment nonpoint source control
measures in the Saginaw Bay
watershed, including BMPs for
agricultural nonpoint pollution
control, urban stormwater man-
agement, and sedimentation con-
trol (1991-ongoing). USDA will
also begin a 5-year program to
encourage agribusinesses to use
BMPs to decrease phosphorus,
nitrate and pesticide runoff.
Saginaw Township to construct
retention basin to control CSOs.
MDNR, with EPA assistance, to
complete Rl of Shiawasee River
NPL site.
Develop approaches to address
contaminated sediment prob-
lems.
Locate sources of ongoing pol-
lutant loadings, including inflow
of contaminated groundwater.
There are a large number of
discontinued waste disposal
sites along the Saginaw River.
Continued use of USDA. BMP
efforts.
Continued implementation of
nonpoint source BMPs.
Construct retention basins for
CSOs.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
B&ckground
fiscal Years 1988-1990
Activities in AOC
fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Saginaw Hver/Saginaw Bay
(continued)
1987 ongoing: At its Engine Divi-
sion site, General Motors has
constructed a 65-ft. deep slurry-
wall to stop PCB migration into
the Saginaw River via groundwa-
ter flow. Contaminated sedi-
ments have been removed from
facility sewers.
EPA study of Saginaw Bay con-
fined disposal facility assessed
whether contaminant transport
through dike walls posed ecolog-
ical risk. Results indicated that
transport could not be demon-
strated (1987-89).
Saginaw township constructed
newWWTPin 1988.
MDNR and U. of Michigan began
surveys to evaluate walleye natu-
ral reproduction.
1990:
Interpreted results of MDNR/U.
of Michigan sediment survey of
river and bay conducted in previ-
ous year.
EPA ARCS study collected Sag-
inaw Bay sediment samples for
their chemistry, biological tox-
icity, and benthic community
structure.
The U.S. Rsh and Wildlife Ser-
vice began to survey fish (bull-
heads) for tumors.
City of Saginaw's new discharge
permit mandates construction of
six retention basins for CSOs.
Two to be completed by 1992.
Restocking of benthic macro-
invertebrates in selected Sagi-
naw Bay locations.
NOAA's Sea Grant Program
opened Saginaw Bay Research
Institute at Saginaw Valley State.
NOAA began a multi-year study
to characterize the Saginaw Bay
plankton community before and
after the expected invasion of
zebra mussels.
DOW Chemical Company is oper-
ating under a MDNR order to
conduct additional studies to
reduce dioxin discharge.
MDNR will continue investigation
of the Act 307 landfill site on
Middle Ground Island, 2 miles
upstream from Saginaw Bay. Bay
City, a PRP, is cooperating.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Lake Erie
Clinton River
The Clinton River flows north
of Detroit and empties into
Lake St. Clair. Sediments are
moderately to heavily pollut-
ed with PCBs, metals, oil
and grease; eutrophication
and bacterial problems in
water column; fish consump-
tion advisory for carp.
G & H Landfill, adjoining the
Clinton River near Utica, Michi-
gan, was placed on Superfund
NPL in 1983. EPA and MDNR
conducted an RI/FS of the near-
by Liquid-Disposal NPL site from
1984-87. This property is one-
quarter mile from the Clinton
River and was the site of an in-
dustrial waste incinerator from
1967 until closed by EPA in
1982. EPA conducted four re-
moval actions between 1982 and
1985 to end immediate threats to
human health. EPA issued ROD
for the Liquid-Disposal site clean-
up in 1987.
Improvements to WWTPs of
seven towns made during the
1980s have greatly reduced con-
ventional pollutant and bacterial
contamination.
1989:
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to IJC.
MDNR conducted caged-fish
study to evaluate PCB uptake at
the mouth of the Clinton River.
Results expected in 1991.
EPA and MDNR continued RI/FS
for G & H Landfill site.
500 PRPs agreed to sign Con-
sent Decree for completion of
the remedy at Liquid Disposal,
Inc. site. Remedial action valued
at $22 million.
1990:
EPA and MDNR proposed clean-
up plan for G & H Landfill site.
Corps of Engineers dredged
navigation channel, placing sedi-
ments in confined disposal fa-
cility.
Armada and Mt. Clemens
WWTPs completed upgrades to
reduce the discharge of both
conventional and toxic pollut-
ants.
MDNR plans to investigate the
sources of PCBs to the Clinton
River from Mt. Clemens to its
mouth. This river segment is de-
signated an Act 307 site.
MDNR to determine BMPs to
control nonpoint sources of pollu-
tion to Gallagher Creek.
Army Corps of Engineers plans
dredging project in navigation
channel.
Complete remedial design and
begin its implementation at Liq-
uid-Disposal site.
Correction of combined sewer
overflows in Red Run drainage
will require large capital invest-
ment.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities hi AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Rouge River
The Rouge River watershed
is the longest and most
densely populated and in-
dustrialized area in south-
eastern Michigan. About 40
miles of river flowing through
metropolitan Detroit do not
meet water quality stan-
dards. Some eutrophication
problems in the water col-
umn; bacteriological contam-
ination of water column;
sediments heavily polluted
with metals, PCBs, and other
organics; fish consumption
advisories for carp, pike,
largemouth bass, white suck-
ers, and catfish.
Development of RAP (1985-1988)
with assistance of Southeast
Michigan Council of Govern-
ments.
1989:
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAP to IJC.
Since 1988, local, State, and
Federal governments have
agreed to fund over $450 million
in sewer improvements.
Wayne County Health Depart-
ment began to investigate illegal
discharges via storm sewers.
1990:
EPA awarded $400 thousand for
studies of Rouge River combined
sewer overflow/stormwater.
Studies of Rouge indicate water
column toxicity follows rain-
storms, indicating that CSOs,
stormwater, and nonpoint runoff
are major sources of problems.
MDNR issued CSO permits to all
Rouge River municipalities with
CSOs. All are being contested in
court.
SCS to implement BMPs in a
three county area, including the
Lower Branch of the Rouge River.
Town of Farmington to complete
separation of combined sewers.
PCS contamination appears to
be the result of discontinued
discharges, spills, and CSOs.
CSOs and nonpoint source
stormwater runoff are the largest
sources of pollutants to the river.
Large long-term sewer system
improvements needed to reduce
combined sewer overflow loads
to river.
MDNR plans annual updates of
RAP executive summary.
Development of regional GIS
system.
°»
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Rscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
raver Raisin
AOC is the lower 2.6 miles of
river and extending one-half
mile into western Lake Erie.
Numerous landfills and in-
dustrial sites border the river.
Metals and PCB contamina-
tion of water column; sedi-
ments heavily polluted with
metals and PCBs; fish con-
sumption advisories for carp
and large white bass.
MDNR submitted Stages 1 and 2
RAPtoUCinFY1988.
Michigan designated the lower
portion of the river an Act 307
site in August 1986.
MDNR removed 300 PCB-con-
taminated barrels and transform-
ers from Consolidated Packaging
site.
MDNR completed Phase One of
Rl of east side of the Port of
Monroe landfill.
MDNR conducted sediment sam-
pling of river. Cleanups pending
at five waste sites along river:
Port of Monroe landfill, Ford
Motor Company property, Con-
solidated Packaging-South Plant,
Detroit Edison property, and City
of Monroe landfill. All have doc-
umented overland and suspect-
ed groundwater routes for move-
ment of metals and toxic or-
ganics (PCBs).
Sediment sampling in 1988-89
showed the most impacted area
to be from the turning basin to
the mouth. Caged-fish studies
showed River Raisin fish to have
PCB uptake rates greater than
Kalamazoo or Saginaw Rivers.
Rl of the west side of the Port of
Monroe landfill scheduled for
spring. Rl to begin for entire Con-
solidated Packaging Plant.
Ford Motor Company is develop-
ing cleanup plan for its hazard-
ous waste site.
MDNR to begin RI/FS for Consol-
idated Packaging site.
MDNR to begin RI/FS, for west
side of Port of Monroe landfill.
Reduce loadings from waste and
industrial sites along the river.
Reid studies to determine the
lateral and vertical extent of
sediment contamination and
transport of contaminants from
shore.
Conduct RIs of Detroit Edison
property and City of Monroe
landfill.
MaumeeRrver
AOC is the lower 21 miles of
river flowing into western
Lake Erie. Water quality
problems due to ammonia,
metals and bacteria; sedi-
ments moderately to heavily
polluted with metals, PCBs,
and PAHs.
City of Toledo CSO abatement
program began in 1985, to be
completed in 1996. Dura and
Stickney landfills were investigat-
ed and cleanup begun in 1986.
Upgrades of Toledo WWTP com-
pleted in 1988.
Ohio EPA contracted with Toledo
Metropolitan Area Council of
Governments to provide assis-
tance with public involvement in
RAP process (1985-ongoing).
1989:
Nonpoint source and combined
sewer overflows control mea-
sures instituted. Remedial inves-
tigations and actions underway
at several landfills and dump
sites in river basin.
1990:
Ohio EPA continued RAP devel-
opment activities. Stage 1 RAP
drafted.
Continued WWTP improvements
and combined sewer overflows
projects.
Ohio EPA to submit Stage 1 RAP
to IJC.
EPA/Ohio EPA/ODNR/SCS non-
point source project to educate
local land users on how to pre-
vent pollution.
COE to dredge contaminated
sediments from Toledo Harbor
for confined disposal.
State, FWS, EPA, and COE to
negotiate plan for long-term dis-
posal of dredged materials, inclu-
ding CDF siting.
Continue development of Swan
Creek Wetland Recreation Pro-
ject.
Investigate contamination from
landfills, dumps, and waste
sites.
Continued public education and
involvement, establish a commit-
tee to review the success of
remedial actions.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Black River
Water quality problems due
to metals, ammonia, phenol,
bacteria, and cyanide; sedi-
ments heavily polluted with
metals, oil and grease, and
PAHs; fish consumption ad-
visories for all fish species;
bacteriological contamina-
tion of water column.
Agreement reached between
EPA and U.S. Steel in 1985 un-
der which the company will
dredge PAH-contaminated sedi-
ments around one of its outfalls.
1989:
New westside Lorain WWTP put
into operation to relieve the over-
loaded eastside plant. Upgrades
to Syria WWTP under a Consent
Judgement from U.S. District
Court.
1990:
USX/Kobe completed dredging
of contaminated sediments.
Ohio EPA to establish a local
advisory board and begin public
involvement process. Oberlin
College to receive a grant from
the Nord Family Foundation to
produce public information ma-
terials and to begin compiling
available data for the phase I
draft.
Ohio EPA plans to submit Stage
1 RAP to UC in FY 1992.
Ohio EPA plans to submit Stage
2 RAP to UC in FY 1993.
Ohio EPA plans to conduct an
intensive survey of the river in
1992.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Cuyahoga Ffiver
The lower 6 miles of the river
flowing through Cleveland is
most degraded. Water qua-
lity problems due to metals,
cyanide, ammonia, phenol,
and bacteria; sediments
heavily polluted with metals,
oil and grease, RGBs, DDT,
PAHs, and phthalates.
Ohio EPA surveys find recovering
biological communities down
river from Akron WWTP after
reductions in toxicity of its dis-
charge (1987).
NE Ohio Regional Sewer District
Southerly WWTP completed
construction that enabled treat-
ment of ammonia (1988).
Ohio EPA begins RAP process
by forming 35 member Cuya-
hoga coordinating committee
(1988).
1989:
Ohio EPA began 3-year fish tis-
sue sampling program. Study
conducted of bacterial contamin-
ation of the river downstream of
Akron found water quality stan-
dards are met during dry
weather conditions.
1990:
Ohio EPA monitored bacterial
conditions in river near Cleve-
land, finding significantly Im-
proved water quality. Rsh tissue
results from Akron area indicated
no exceedences of FDA action
levels.
Ohio EPA to conduct Intensive
water quality survey on Coya-
hoga.
LTV Steel began construction on
a $20 million project that will
greatly reduce contaminant load-
ings from their coking opera-
tions.
Ohio EPA to submit Stage 1 RAP
toUC.
Ohio EPA to continue fish tissue
sampling program and bacterial
monitoring program.
Ohio EPA to conduct Intensive
water quality survey on Cuya-
hoga.
Ohio EPA plans to submit Stage
2 RAP to UC in FY 1992.
Continue studies and education
projects for nonpoint source,
stormwater, and combined
sewer overflow sources.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AQC
fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
Ashtabula Hver
The AOC includes the lower
2 miles of the river, the har-
bor, adjacent shore, and
Fields Brook. Water quality
problems due to metals;
sediments heavily polluted
with metals and PCBs; fish
consumption advisories for
all fish species; dredging de-
layed due to problems In
siting disposal facility for
polluted sediments.
fields Brook designated a Super-
fund NPLsitefn 1981.
In 1983-1986, EPA conducted an
RI/FS of fields Brook, a tributary
to the river. EPA issued an ROD
in 1986.
1989:
Biological study of river conduct-
ed by Ohio EPA as part of natu-
ral resource damage assessment
of the river, harbor, nearshore,
and fields Brook. EPA issued
Administrative Order for PRPs at
fields Brook Superfund site to
conduct studies to determine
impacts from the site on the river
and a drinking water intake in
Lake Erie. Other studies con-
ducted to further assess cleanup
needs.
1990:
fields Brook PRPs continue
studies.
Ohio EPA to submit Stage 1 RAP
to IJC.
Corps of Engineers to conduct
interim dredging to relieve navi-
gation problem. Continuing inves-
tigation on fields Brook. Con-
tinue search for toxic sediment
disposal site.
Ohio EPA plans to submit
Stage 2 RAP to UC in FY 1992.
Dredging and disposal of con-
taminated river sediments.
Remediation of fields Brook
NPL site.
Lake Ontario
Buffalo River
Water quality problems with
metals, dieldrin, BHC, and
chlordane; sediments heavily
polluted with metals, oil and
grease, PAHs, and pesti-
cides; fish consumption ad-
visory for carp.
1989:
EPA ARCS study sampled sedi-
ments in Buffalo River.
1990:
NYSDEC submitted Stage 1 RAP
to IJC.
FWS surveyed Buffalo River fish
for tumors.
As part of ARCS study, EPA to
sample water, fish tissues, and
sediments over a 6-week period
to evaluate hazards posed by
sediment contamination.
Investigations are underway to
determine remedial recommen-
dations related to contaminated
sediments, sediment transport,
dissolved oxygen, and fish habi-
tat.
Annual RAP implementation
updates will be prepared and
investigations will be conducted
where data gaps exist.
State plans to submit Stage 2
RAP to EPA and UC in FY 1992.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Tenn Agenda
Eghteen Mle Creek
Water quality problems due
to metals, DDT, dieldrin, and
trichlorofluoromethane; sedi-
ments moderately to heavily
polluted with metals.
Treatment upgrades by numer-
ous municipal and industrial
dischargers.
NYSDEC plans to submit Stages
1 and 2 RAP to IJC in FY 1993.
Rochester Embayment
Water quality problems due
to ammonia and phospho-
rus; sediments moderately to
heavily polluted with metals
and cyanide; fish consump-
tion advisory for carp from
Irondequoit Bay.
City of Rochester began com-
bined sewer overflows abate-
ment program in 1977. Sewage
from numerous small WWTPs in
the basin was consolidated and
conveyed to the Irondequoit Bay
Pure Waters District from 1977 to
1987.
NYSDEC plans to submit Stage 1
RAP to IJC.
EPA and NYSDEC to begin inten-
sive consumer education cam-
paign on use of household
hazardous wates.
NYSDEC plans to submit Stage
2 RAP to UC in FY 1992.
City of Rochester combined
sewer overflows abatement pro-
gram to be completed in mid-
1990s.
Oswego FSver
Water quality problems due
to metals, ammonia, and
chloroform; sediments are
contaminated with mirex and
moderately to heavily pollut-
ed with metals; fish con-
sumption advisory for chan-
nel catfish.
1990:
NYSDEC submitted Stage 1 RAP
to IJC.
NYSDEC plans to submit Stage 2
RAP to IJC.
Annual RAP implementation
updates will be prepared and
investigations will be conducted
where data gaps exist.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities hi AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
International
Connecting Channels
This 70 mile long river con-
nects Lakes Superior and
Huron. Water quality prob-
lems due to phenols, iron,
zinc, cyanide, ammonia, and
bacteria; sediments In some
areas are contaminated with
oil and grease, PCBs, PAHs,
iron, and zinc; fish consump-
tion advisories for large wall-
eye, white suckers, longnose
suckers, northern pike, and
lake trout, mainly due to
levels of mercury. Water
quality and sediment prob-
lems are most pronounced
along the Ontario shoreline
downstream of Ontario dis-
charges. Sediments are also
heavily polluted with cadmi-
um near the old Cannelton
Tannery.
Algoma Steel (Canada) reduced
its loadings of ammonia, cya-
nide, and phenols to the river. St.
Marys Paper (Canada) has re-
duced loadings of suspended
solids. Municipal wastewater
treatment plants have improved
removal of phosphorus and or-
ganic matter.
In 1988, EPA proposed Can-
nelton Industries site be added
to Superfund NPL The site bor-
ders the St. Marys River in the
City of Sault Ste. Marie, Michi-
gan. From 1900 to 1958, a tan-
nery operated at the site.
EPA, MDNR, and other agencies
In U.S. and Canada joined in an
extensive study of the St. Marys
River and biota in 1986-87.
1989
EPA began RI/FS and removal
action at Cannelton Industries
site.
Algoma Steel began investiga-
tions of possible seepage of tox-
ics Into river via groundwater
from Algoma slag piles.
1990
Algoma Steel completed waste-
water treatment plant.
MDNR and Province of Ontario to
submit Stage 1 RAP to UC.
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to
develop and implement a plan to
treat discharges from CSOs.
EPA to start remedial actions at
the Cannelton Industries tannery
waste site. Short-term remedial
actions include building a dike
along the river and installing
sprinklers to contain fires caused
by spontaneous combustion.
Michigan ONR and EPA to con-
tinue RI/FS.
United Slates
Abate CSOs and remediate Can-
nelton Industries site.
Canada
Abate CSOs and industrial dis-
charges.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Rscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
Racal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Loog-Term Agenda
St Clair River
This 39 mile long river con-
nects Lake Huron and Lake
St. Clair. The largest petro-
chemical complex in Canada
is located along the eastern
shore of the river. The ben-
thic fauna along the Canadi-
an shore in the Sarnia area
are impaired. Water quality
problems due to organic sol-
vents and bacteria; sedi-
ments contaminated with
metals, PCBs, TCDD, and
other trace organics; State
fish consumption advisories
for carp, large gizzard shad,
and freshwater drum.
Loadings from petrochemical
industries in Sarnia area are
much reduced from the 1960s.
Ontario and Michigan agreed to
undertake a joint RAP in 1985.
Binational Public Advisory Com-
mittee formed in 1988. EPA,
MDNR, and other Federal agen-
cies completed an extensive
study of the St. Clair River and
its biota in 1986-87.
Investigations following a large
spill of perchloroethylene in 1985
from Dow Chemical (Canada)
disclosed additional sources
requiring abatement.
Actions to reduce CSOs in Ma-
rine City, Marysville, St. Clair,
and Port Huron, Michigan, are
ongoing. Dow Chemical (Cana-
da) pledged to invest $10 million
on environmental improvements.
Binational RAP team began
drafting RAP in 1989.
MDNR and Province of Ontario
plan to submit Stage 1 RAP to
UCinFY1991.
MDNR to continue fish contami-
nant trend monitoring.
United States
Eliminate or adequately treat
CSOs.
Canada
Reduce industrial
to river.
loadings
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
BadcQiound
Fiscal Years 1989-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Toon Agenda
Detroit FSwer
This 32 mile long river con-
nects Lake St. Clair to Lake
Erie. Water quality problems
due to phosphorus and bac-
teria; sediments in some
nearshore areas are heavily
polluted with metals, PCBs,
and other organics; fish con-
sumption advisories for carp,
large freshwater drum, wall-
eye, and rock bass; elevated
incidence of liver tumors in
five fish species (walleye,
bowfin, bullhead, redhorse
sucker, and white sucker);
degraded benthic communi-
ties along the Michigan
shoreline from the Rouge
River to Lake Erie; restric-
tions on dredging.
Over $500 million have been
spent in Michigan since 1972 to
upgrade municipal WWTPs along
the Detroit River. Municipal
WWTPs in Windsor have im-
proved removal of phosphorus.
U.S. and Canada started RAP
development in 1986, forming
binational Public Advisory Com-
mittee in 1988, and began draft-
ing RAP in 1989.
MDNR began fish contaminant
monitoring in 1990.
Department of Justice filed civil
suit against the City of Detroit for
alleged failure to implement
pretreatment program for in-
dustrial discharges to POTWs.
MDNR plans to submit Stage 1
RAP to UC.
MDNR to conduct biological as-
sessments on three tributaries.
Long-term sewer improvements
needed to reduce combined
sewer overflows to river.
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Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
Fiscal Years 1909-1990
Activities in AOC
Fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-term Agenda
NtagaraFSver
This 37 mile long river con-
nects Lake Erie and Lake
Ontario. Water quality prob-
lems due to metals and org-
anics; sediments in some
nearshore areas and at the
river mouth in Lake Ontario
are contaminated with met-
als and PCBs; fish consump-
tion advisories for carp,
smallmouth bass, American
eel, channel catfish, lake
trout, large salmon, and rain-
bow and brown trout.
Niagara River Toxics Study by
EPA, New York State, Ontario
Ministry of Environment, and
Environment Canada concluded
in 1984.
In 1987, the four agencies
agreed to reduce toxics loads to
the river by 50% over 10 years.
Cleanups at significant U.S. haz-
ardous waste sites:
Love Canal - The landfill was
capped and isolated with a liner
and leachate collection system;
dioxin-contaminated sediments
removed from Black and Berg-
holtz Creeks.
Hyde Park Landfill - Consent
Decree with Occidental Chemical
Corporation (OCC) filed in 1981
and amended in 1986.
102nd Street Landfill - Consent
Decree filed by EPA, New York
State, and OCC in 1984.
S-Area Landfill - Settlement
agreement between EPA, New
York State, and OCC in 1984.
1989:
Pursuant to the 1987 Agreement,
the agencies developed a joint
Niagara River Toxics Manage-
ment Plan.
EPA issued a Superfund Admin-
istrative Consent Order to PRPs
of Niagara County Refuse Dis-
posal site requiring RI/FS of this
site.
1990:
Cleanup activities at Hyde Park
landfill, including construction of
onsite leachate storage and
treatment system, incineration of
collected non-aqueous phase
liquid, installation of source con-
trol extraction wells, and con-
struction of containment collec-
tion systems.
OCC and Olin Corporation com-
pleted RI/FS for 102nd Street
landfill. EPA issued ROD for site.
Amended settlement agreement
for S-Area landfill filed.
EPA and New York State to begin
intensive consumer education
program on use of household
hazardous wastes with local
governments.
PRP to begin RI/FS of Dupont
Necco Park site.
NYSDECto submit Stages 1 and
2 RAP to UC in FY 1993.
Cleanups of Niagara County
Refuse Disposal site, 102™
Street landfill site, and S-Area
landfill. Cut in half 1987-level
loadings of target loadings of
target toxic chemicals by 1996
as enunciated in binational de-
claration.
-------
Table A-2. Selected Highlights of Progress in U.S. Areas of Concern (continued)
Area of Concern/Major
Known Impairments
Background
fiscal Years 1969-1990
Activities in AOC
fiscal Year 1991
Activities in AOC
Long-Term Agenda
St Lawrence River
This AOC includes the Corn-
wall, Lake St. Francis, and
Maitland areas In Canada,
Massena, New York, and the
Akwesnasne Indian Reser-
vation. Water quality pro-
blems due to metals, bac-
teria, phenols, pesticides,
and PCBs; sediments in
some areas are heavily pol-
luted with metals and PCBs;
fish consumption advisories
for American eel, channel
catfish, lake trout, large sal-
mon, and rainbow and
brown trout. Because of con-
tamination, the Akwasasne
Mohawk Tribe has had to cut
back on fish and waterfowl
which had traditionally been
important parts of their diet.
Mercury loadings to river from
Cornwall (Canada) chloralkali
plant of CIL, Incorporated, and
pulp and paper plant of Domtar
fine Papers Limited (Canada)
were substantially reduced by
1970.
EPA selected a remedial action
for the General Motors site that
includes dredging PCB con-
taminated bottom sediments
from the St. Lawrence and Ra-
quette Rivers and preventing the
transport of contaminants via
groundwater.
NYSDEC and Province of Ontario
to submit Stage 1 RAP to UC.
EPA to issue a ROD for the Gen-
eral Motors NPL site.
EPA to issue Superfund Admin-
istrative orders to the Aluminum
Company of America (ALCOA)
and the Reynolds Metal Com-
pany to perform remedial inves-
tigations, designs, and cleanups
of PCB contaminated river sedi-
ments.
NYSDEC and Province of On-
tario plan to submit Stage 2 RAP
toUC.
Annual RAP implementation
updates will be prepared and
investigation will be conducted
where data gaps exist.
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DRAFT July 1991
End Notes
1. One risk assessment study has compared drinking untreated water from the relatively polluted Niagara River with consumption
of Lake Michigan fish (caught in 1980-81). The study found that annual consumption of 15 kilograms of lake trout over a lifetime
provided 1,000 times greater risk than drinking 2 liters of untreated Niagara River water every day. Data from Bro, K.M., W.C.
Sonzogni, and M.E. Hanson, "Relative Cancer Risks of Chemical Contaminants in the Great Lakes," Environmental Manage-
ment, Vol.11, No. 4, pp 495-505, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 1987.
2. Bishop, C. and D.V. Weseloh, "Contaminants in Herring Gulls from the Great Lakes," Environment Canada, Catalogue No.
EN1-12/90-2E, 1990. p. 4.
3. Baumann, P.C., W.D. Smith, and M. Ribick, "Hepatic Tumor Rates and Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons Levels in Two
Populations of Brown Bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus)," Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons; Physical and Biological Chemistry,
ed. M. Cooke, A J. Dennis and G.L. Fisher, pp 93-102, Battelle Press, Columbus, Ohio, 1982.
4. Baumann et al., 1982; Black, J J., "Field and Laboratory Studies of Environmental Carcinogenesis in Niagara River Fish," /.
Great Lakes Res. 9(2):326-334, International Association for Great Lakes Research, 1983.
5. Stephenson, T.D., "Fish Reproductive Utilization of Coastal Marshes of Lake Ontario Near Toronto," /. Great Lakes Res.
16(1):71-81, International Association for Great Lakes Research, 1990.
6. SneU, E A., "Wetland Distribution and Conversion in Southern Ontario," Canada Land Use Monitoring Program, Inland Waters
Directorate, Canada Department of the Environment, Working Paper No. 48, December 1987.
7. Keilty, TJ., "Evidence for Alewife Predation of the European Cladoceran Bythotrephes Cederstroemii in Northern Lake
Michigan,"/. Great Lakes Res. 16(2):279-287, International Association for Great Lakes Research, 1990.
8. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Surface Water Quality Division, "Michigan 305(b) Report, Volume 11," 1990.
9. Harris, H J., and C. Holden, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, The Institute for Land and Water Studies, "The State of the
Bay," 1990.
10. Ibid.
93
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DRAFT Jufyl991
Sources for Figures and Tables
Chapter One
Figure 1-1: The Great Lakes Watershed
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada, "Great Lakes Atlas".
Figurel-2: Depth Profile of the Great Lakes and Summary of Their Physical Features
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "The Laurentian Great Lakes, Miscellaneous Facts and Figures," Draft Environmental Impact Statement,
Lake Level Regulation Plan, SO-901,1974.
Chapter Two
Figure 2-1: Simplified View of the Great Lakes Food Web
Colborn, T.E., A. Davidson, S.N. Green, R.A. Hodge, C.I. Jackson, and R.A. Liroff, Great Lakes, Great Legacy?, Conservation Foundation
(Washington, D.C.) and the Institute for Research on Public Policy (Ottawa, Ontario), 1990, p. 18.
Figure 2-2: Lake Ontario Food Web Biomagnification
Bishop, C. and D.V. Weseloh, "Contaminants in Herring Gulls from the Great Lakes," Environment Canada, Catalogue No. EN1-12/90-
2E, 1990, p. 3.
Figure 2-3: Contaminants in Herring Gull Eggs on Sister Island (Green Bay) Wisconsin
Bishop and Weseloh, 1990, p. 6 & 7.
Figure 2-4: Pesticides and PCBs in Lake Michigan Bloater Chubs
Data provided by RJ. Hesselberg, U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fisheries Center - Great Lakes,
Ann Arbor, MI, 1991.
Box: Are Great Lakes Fish Safe to Eat?
1. Bro, K.M., W.C. Sonzogni and M.E. Hanson, "Relative Cancer Risks of Chemical Contaminants in the Great Lakes," Environmental
Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 495-505, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 1987.
2. Clark, J.M., L. Fink, and D. DeVault, "A New Approach for the Establishment of Fish Consumption Advisories," J. Great Lakes Res.
13(3):367-374, International Association for Great Lakes Research, 1987.
3. Fein, G.G., J.L. Jacobson, S.W. Jacobson, P.M. Schwartz, and J.K. Dowler, "Prenatal Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls: Effects on
Birth Size and Gestational Age," Journal of Pediatrics, 105 no. 2,1984, pp. 315-320; S. Jacobson et al., "Intrauterine Exposure of Human
Newborns to PCBs: Measures of Exposure," chapter 22 in F.M. D'ltri and M.A. Kamrin, eds., PCBs: Human and Environmental Hazards
(Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ann Arbor Science Publishers, 1983, pp. 311-343; Jacobson J.L., S.W. Jacobson, G.G. Fein, P.M. Schwartz, and
J.K.DowIer, "Prenatal Exposure to Environmental Toxin: A Test of the Multiple Effects Model," Development Psychology 20 no. 4,1984,
pp. 523-32; P. Schwartz et al., "Lake Michigan Fish Consumption as a Source of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Human Cord Serum, Mater-
nal Serum, and Milk," American Journal of Public Health 73, no. 3,1983, pp.293-96.
Table 2-1: Great Lakes Fish Consumption Advisories (1989)
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Water Pollution Control, "Illinois Water Quality Report, 1988-1989," April 1990.
Indiana Department of Environmental Management, "1986-87 305(b) Report."
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Surface Water Quality Division, "Michigan 305(b) Report, Volume 11," 1990.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, "The 1990 Report to the Congress of the United States of America by the State of Minnesota Pur-
suant to Section 305(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act," April 1990.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Bureau of Monitoring & Assessment Division of Water, "New York State
Water Quality 1990," April 1990.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Water Quality Planning & Assessment, "Ohio Water Resource Inventory," 1990.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, Bureau of Water Quality Management, "Water Quality Assessment (305(b)
Report)," April 1990.
95
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DRAFT Jufyl991
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, "Wisconsin Water Quality Assessment Report to Congress 1990," June 1990.
Table 2-2: Some Key Toxic Contaminants in the Great Lakes
Environment Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Health and Welfare Canada, "Toxic Chemicals in the Great Lakes, and As-
sociated Effects," 1991.
Colborn et al.r 1990, pp. 22-23.
Figure 2-5: Chemical Compounds in Hatchery Versus Great Lakes Lake Trout (1977)
Data provided by R J. Hesselberg, U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fisheries Center - Great Lakes,
January 1991.
Hesselberg, R. J. and J. Seeleye, "Identification of Organic Compounds in Great Lakes Fish by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry:
1977," January 1982.
Figure 2-6: Combined Sewer Overflows Along the Detroit River.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Ontario Ministry of the En-
vironment, Final Report of the Great Lakes Connecting Channels Study, Volume II, December 1988, p. 518.
Figure 2-7: Routes of Releases of Toxic Substances around the Great Lakes (1988)
Figure provided by P. Pranckevicius, U.S EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, using data of 1988 from the U.S. EPA Toxics
Releases Inventory.
Figure 2-8: Releases of Toxic Substances in Great Lakes Counties (1988)
Figure provided by P. Pranckevicius and B. Manne, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, using data of 1988 from the U.S. EPA
Toxics Releases Inventory.
Figure 2-9: Releases of Toxic Substances around the Great Lakes by Industrial Group (1988)
Figure provided by P. Pranckevicius, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, using data of 1988 from the U.S. EPA Toxics
Releases Inventory.
Figure 2-10: Sediment Contamination in the Detroit River as Suggested by Impacts on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities
Thomley, S. "Macrobenthos of the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers with Comparisons to Neighboring Waters," /. Great Lakes Research. 11:290-
296,1985.
Figure 2-11: Presettlement Extent of the Black Swamp in Northwestern Ohio
Colborn et al.. 1990, p.144; from Forsyth, J.L., The Black Swamp, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey,
1960; in Herdendorf, C.E., The Ecology of the Coastal Marches of Lake Erie: A Community Profile, Biological Report 85(7.9), Washington,
D.C. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1987, p.140.
Figure 2-12: Timing of the Entry of Exotic Species into the Great Lakes
Mills, E. and J. Leach, unpublished data on exotic species, U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fisheries
Center - Great Lakes, 1991.
Figure 2-13: Entry Routes of Exotic Species
Mills and Leach, 1991.
Figure 2-14: Phosphorus Concentrations in the Great Lakes
International Joint Commission, Great Lakes Water Quality Board, 1989 Report on Great Lakes Water Quality, p. 73 & 74.
Figure 2-15: Annual Average Corrected Oxygen Depletion Rate, Re, for Central Basin of Lake Erie
Makarewicz, J.C. and P. Bertram, "Evidence for the Restoration of the Lake Erie Ecosystem," BioScience, Vol. 41, No. 4,1991, pp. 216 -
223.
Chapter Four
Figure 4-1: Areas of Concern
International Joint Commission, Great Lakes Water Quality Board, 1987Report on Great Lakes Water Quality., p. 38.
Figure 4-2: Cropland in the Great Lakes Watershed (1988)
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DRAFT July 1991
Figure provided by P. Pranckevicius and B. Manne, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, using data of 1988 provided by the Na-
tional Association of Conservation Districts, Conservation Technology Information Center.
Figure 4-3: Conservation Tillage in the Great Lakes Watershed (1988)
Figure provided by P. Pranckevicius and B. Manne, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, using data of 1988 provided by the Na-
tional Association of Conservation Districts, Conservation Technology Information Center.
Chapter Five
Figure 5-1: Great Lakes Harbors with the Most Recorded Oil and Chemical Spills, January 1980 - September 1989
U.S. Coast Guard Report to U.S. Senate Oversight Government Management Subcommittee, April 1990.
Chapter Six
Figure 6-1: Green Bay/Fox River Study Area
Figure provided by the Institute for Land and Water Studies, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Figure 6-2: Contaminants in Several Species of Lake Michigan Fish
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office, 1991.
Hesselberg, RJ., J.P. Hickey, DA Nortrup, and W.A. Willford, "Contaminant Residues in the Bloater (Coregonus Hoyi) of Lake
Michigan, 1969-1986," /. Great Lakes Res. 16(1): 121-129, International Association Great Lakes Res., 1990.
Chapter Seven
Figure 7-1: Superfund Expenditures in Great Lakes Counties in FYs 1987 through 1989
Figure provided by P. Pranckevicius and B. Manne, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, using data of January 1990 from the
U.S. EPA CERCLA Information System.
Figure 7-2: Construction Grant Awards in the Great Lakes Watershed
Figure provided by A. Nudelman, P. Strobel, and A- Mallory, using data of January 1991 from the U.S. EPA Grants Information Control
System.
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DRAFT Jufyl991
Glossary
Acute Toxlclty: The ability of a substance to cause poisonous effects resulting in severe biological harm or death soon after a single exposure or dose. (See chronic
toxicity, tenacity.)
Administrative Order: A legal document signed by EPA directing an individual, business, or other entity to take corrective action or refrain from an activity. The
order describes the violations and actions to be taken and can be enforced in court. Such orders may be issued, for example, as a result of an administrative
complaint whereby the respondent is ordered to pay a penalty for violations of a statute.
Adsorption: The adhesion of molecules of gas, liquid or dissolved solids to a surface.
Advanced Wastewater Treatment: Any treatment of sewage that goes beyond the secondary or biological water treatment stage and includes the removal of
nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, and a high percentage of suspended solids. (See Primary, Secondary Treatment)
Advisory: A nonregulatory document that communicates risk information.
Agricultural Pollution: The liquid and solid wastes from farming, including runoff and leaching of pesticides and fertilizers, erosion and dust from plowing, and
animal manure.
Airborne Particulates: Total suspended paniculate matter found in the atmosphere as solid particles or liquid droplets. Chemical composition of particulates
varies widely, depending on location and time of year. Airborne particulates include windblown dust, emissions from industrial processes, smoke from the
burning of wood and coal, and the exhaust of motor vehicles.
Air Contaminant; Any participate matter, gas, or combination thereof, other than water vapor or natural air. (See air pollutant.)
Air Pollutant: Any substance in air that could, if in high enough concentration, harm man, other animals, vegetation, or material. Pollutants include almost any
natural or artificial composition of matter capable of being airborne. They may be in the form of solid particles, liquid droplets, or in combinations of these
forms. Generally, they fall into two main categories: (1) those emitted directly from identifiable sources and (2) those produced in the air by an interaction
between two or more primary pollutants, or by a reaction with normal atmospheric constituents, with or without photoactivation. Exclusive of pollen, fog, and
dust, which are of natural origin, about 100 contaminants have been identified and fall into the following categories: solids, sulfur compounds, volatile organic
chemicals, nitrogen compounds, oxygen compounds, halogen compounds, radioactive compounds, and odors.
Algae: Simple rootless plants that grow in sunlit waters in relative proportion to the amounts of light and nutrients available. They can affect water quality adversely
by lowering the dissolved oxygen in the water by their decay after their seasonal die-off. They are food for fish and small aquatic animals.
Ambient Air or Water Air or water which is qualitatively representative of that found across a broad area (e.g., the ambient air of metropolitan Chicago; the
ambient water quality of Lake Superior).
Anoxia: The absence of oxygen necessary for sustaining most life. In aquatic ecosystems, this refers to the absence of dissolved oxygen in water.
Anti-Degradation Policies: Part of Federal air quality and water quality requirements prohibiting environmental deterioration.
Aquifer: An underground geological formation, or group of formations, containing ground water that can supply wells and springs.
caused or is likely to cause impairment of beneficial use or of the area's ability to support aquatic life. In general, these are bays, harbors, and river mouths with
damaged fish and wildlife populations, contaminated bottom sediments, and past or continuing loadings of toxic and bacterial pollutants.
Atmosphere: [an] (the) The whole mass of air surrounding the earth, composed largely of oxygen and nitrogen.
Atmospheric Deposition: Pollution from' the atmosphere associated with dry deposition in the form of dust, wet deposition in the form of rain and snow, or as
a result of vapor exchanges.
Bacteria: Microscopic organisms some of which can aid in pollution control by consuming or breaking down organic matter in sewage, or by similarly acting on
oil spills or other water pollutants. Bacteria in soil, water, or air can also cause human, animal, and plant health problems.
Benthic Organism (Benthos): A form of aquatic plant or animal life that is found on or near the bottom of a stream, lake, or ocean. Benthic populations are
often indicative of sediment quality.
Benthic Region: The bottom layer of a body of water.
Bloaccumnlattve Substances: Substances that increase in concentration in living organisms (that are very slowly metabolized or excreted) as they breathe
contaminated air or water, drink contaminated water, or eat contaminated food. (See biological magnification.)
Bioassay: Using organisms to measure the effect of a substance, factor, or condition by comparing before- and after- data.
Biological Magnification: Refers to the process whereby certain substances become ever more concentrated in tissues or internal organs as they move up the
food chain. (See bioaccumulative.)
Biomass: All the living material in a given area: often refers to vegetation. Algal biomass is often indicative of the trophic status of a water body.
Bog: A type of wetland that accumulates appreciable peat deposits. Bogs depend primarily on precipitation for their water source and are usually acidic and rich
in plant residue with a conspicuous mat of living green moss.
Byproduct: Material, other than the principal product, that is generated as a consequence of an industrial process.
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DRAFT July 1991
Cap: A layer of clay, or other highly impermeable material, installed over the top of a closed landfill to prevent entry of rainwater and to minimize movement of
leachate.
Carcinogen: Any substance that can cause or contribute to the production of cancer.
Carcinogenic: Cancer-producing.
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons: These include a class of persistent, broad-spectrum insecticides that linger in the environment and accumulate in the food chain,
including DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlor, chlordane, lindane, endrin, mirex, hexachloride, and toxaphene. Other examples include TCE, which is used as an
industrial solvent, and PCBs, formerly used as a hydraulic fluid.
Chlorophyll-a: The photosynthetic pigment found in most algae. Chlorophyll-a is used to measure the rate of photosynthesis in a region of water.
Chronic Toxiclty: The capacity of a substance to cause poisonous effects in an organism after long-term exposure. (See acute tenacity.)
Cleanup: Actions taken to remedy a past release of a hazardous substance.
Clear Cot: The harvesting of all the trees in an area. Under certain soil and slope conditions, it can permit soil erosion.
Containment Cells: Enclosures which confine contaminants.
Combined Sewers: A sewer system that carries both sewage and stormwater runoff. Normally, its entire flow goes to a waste treatment plant, but during a heavy
storm, the stormwater volume may be so great as to cause overflows (combined sewer overflow). When this happens, untreated mixtures of stormwater and
sewage may flow into receiving waters. Stormwater runoff may also carry toxic chemicals from industrial areas or streets into the sewer system.
Combustion: Burning, or rapid oxidation, accompanied by release of energy in the form of heat and light. A basic cause of air pollution.
Consent Decree: A legal document, approved by a judge, that formalizes an agreement reached between EPA and Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) through
which PRPs will conduct all of part of a cleanup action at a Superfund site, cease or correct actions or processes that are polluting the environment, or otherwise
comply with regulations where the PRP's failure to comply caused EPA to initiate regulatory enforcement actions. The consent decree describes the actions
PRPs will take and may be subject to a public comment period.
Contaminant: Any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter that has an adverse effect on air, water, or soil.
Conventional Pollutants: Such contaminants as organic waste, sediment, acid, bacteria and viruses, nutrients, oil and grease, or heat.
D
Decay: The breakdown of organic matter by bacteria and fungi.
Dissolved Oxygen (DO): The oxygen freely available in water. Dissolved oxygen is vital to fish and other aquatic life and for the prevention of odors. Traditionally,
the level of dissolved oxygen has been accepted as the single most important indicator of a water body's ability to support desirable aquatic life. Secondary and
advanced waste treatment are generally designed to protect DO in waste-receiving waters.
Drainage Basin: A water body and the land area drained by it.
Dredging: Removal of mud from the bottom of a water body.
E
Ecosystem: The interacting system of a biological community and its non-living environmental surroundings.
Effluent: Wastewater—treated or untreated —that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial outfall. Generally refers to wastes discharged into surface
waters.
Emission: Discharges into the atmosphere from smokestacks, other vents, and surface areas of commercial or industrial facilities; from residential chimneys;
and from motor vehicle, locomotive, or aircraft exhausts.
Enrichment: The addition of nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon compounds) from sewage effluent or agricultural runoff to surface water. This process
greatly increases the growth potential for algae and aquatic plants.
Epidemiology: The study of diseases as they affect population, including the distribution of disease, or other health-related states and events in human populations,
the factors (e.g. age, sex, occupation, economic status) that influence this distribution, and the application of this study to control health problems.
Erosion: The wearing away of land surface by wind or water. Erosion occurs naturally from weather or runoff but can be intensified by land use practices related
to farming, residential or industrial development, mining, or timber-cutting.
Estuary: Regions of interaction between rivers and nearshore oceans where tidal action and river flow create a mixing of freshwater and saltwater, including bays,
mouths of rivers, salt marshes, and lagoons. These brackish water ecosystems shelter and feed marine life, birds, and wildlife. (See wetlands.)
Entrophicatlon: The process of fertilization that causes high productivity and biomass in an aquatic ecosystem. Eutrophication can be a natural process or it can
be a cultural process accelerated by an increase of nutrient loading to a lake by human activity.
Exotic Species: Species that are not native to the Great Lakes and have been intentionally introduced or have inadvertently infiltrated the system. Exotics may
prey upon native species and compete with them for food or habitat.
F
Feasibility Study (PS): Analysis of the practicability of a proposal (e.g., a description and analysis of the potential cleanup alternatives for a site on the National
Priorities List). The feasibility study usually recommends selection of a cost-effective alternative. It usually starts as soon as the remedial investigation is
underway; together, they are commonly referred to as the "RI/FS". The term can apply to a variety of proposed corrective or regulatory actions.
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Fen: A type of wetland that accumulates peat deposits. Fens are less acidic than bogs, deriving most of their water from ground water rich in calcium and
magnesium. (See wetlands.)
Fertilizer: Materials, including nitrogen and phosphorus, that provide nutrients for plants.
Food Chain: A sequence of organisms, each of which uses the next, lower member of the sequence as a food source. Members of a chain are interdependent so
that a disturbance to one species can disrupt the entire hierarchy, resulting in starvation at every level.
Food Web: The complex feeding network occurring within and between food chains in an ecosystem, whereby members of one food chain may belong to one or
more other food chains.
Game Fish: Fish species caught for sport, such as trout, salmon, or bass.
Ground Water: The supply of freshwater or saline water found beneath the Earth's surface, usually in aquifers, which is often used for supplying wells and springs.
H
Habitat: The place where a population (e.g., human, animal, plant, micro-organism) lives and its surroundings, both Irving and non-living.
Hazardous Air Pollutants: Air pollutants that are not covered by ambient air quality standards but which, as defined by the Clean Air Act, may reasonably be
expected to cause or contribute to irreversible illness or death. Such pollutants include asbestos, beryllium, mercury, benzene, coke oven emissions, radionuclides,
and vinyl chloride.
Hazard Ranking System: The principle screening tool used by EPA to evaluate risks to public health and the environment associated with abandoned or
uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. The HRS calculates a score based on the potential of hazardous substances spreading from the site through the air, surface
water, or ground water and on other factors, such as nearby population. This score is the primary factor in deciding if the site should be on the National Priorities
List and, if so, what ranking it should have compared to other sites on the list.
Hazardous Waste: Byproducts of society that can pose a substantial or potential hazard to human health and/or the environment when managed improperly.
Waste is defined as hazardous if it possesses at least one of four characteristics (igm'tability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity) or appears on special EPA lists.
Heavy Metals: Metallic elements with high atomic weights (e.g., mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, and lead). They are toxic and tend to bioaccumulate.
Herbicide: A chemical pesticide designed to control or destroy plants, weeds, or grasses.
/
Indicator. In biology, an organism, species, or community whose characteristics show the presence of specific environmental conditions.
Insecticide: A chemical specifically used to kill or control the growth of insects.
International Joint Commission (UC): A binational Commission, established by the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, with responsibility for decisions regarding
obstruction or diversion of U.S./Canadian boundary waters and to which other questions or matters of difference can be referred for examination and report.
The Commission also has authority to resolve differences arising over the common frontier. In 1972 the Commission was given responsibility for assisting and
monitoring the two governments' implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
J,K,L
Lampricide: A chemical used to kill the sea lamprey.
Landfills: 1. Sanitary landfills are land disposal sites for nonhazardous solid wastes at which the waste is spread in layers, compacted to the smallest practical
volume, and covered with material applied at the end of each operating day. 2. Secure chemical landfills are disposal sites for hazardous waste. They are selected
and designed to minimize the chance of release of hazardous substances into the environment.
Larva: the early, free-living form of any animal that changes structurally when it becomes an adult, usually by a complex metamorphosis.
Leachate: A liquid that results from water collecting contaminants as it trickles through wastes, agricultural pesticides or fertilizers. Leaching may occur in farming
areas, feedlots, and landfills and may result in hazardous substances entering surface water, ground water, or soil.
Leaded Gasoline: Gasoline to which lead has been added to raise the octane level.
Linen A relatively impermeable barrier designed to prevent leachate from leaking from a landfill. Liner materials include plastic and dense clay.
Loading: The addition of a substance to a water body.
M
Marsh: A type of wetland that does not accumulate appreciable peat deposits and is dominated by herbaceous vegetation. Marshes may be either freshwater or
saltwater and tidal or nontidal. (See wetlands.)
Mass Balance: An approach to evaluating the sources, transport, and fate of contaminants entering a water system, as well as their effects on water quality. In a
mass balance budget, the amounts of a contaminant entering the system less the quantities stored, transformed, or degraded must equal the amount leaving
the system. If inputs exceed outputs, pollutants are accumulating and contaminant levels are rising. Once a mass balance budget has been established for a
pollutant of concern, the long-term effects on water quality can be simulated by mathematical modeling.
Metabolite: A substance, derived from a chemical, produced by biological processes.
Modeling: A theory or a mathematical or physical representation of a system that accounts for all or some of its known properties. Models are often used to test
the effect of changes of system components on the overall performance of the system.
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Monitoring: A scientifically designed system of continuing standardized measurements and observations and the evaluation thereof.
Mulch: A layer of material (e.g., wood chips, straw, leaves) placed around plants to hold moisture, prevent weed growth, protect the plants, and hold the soil.
AT
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): The national program for controlling direct discharges from point sources of pollutants (e.g.,
municipal sewage treatment plants, industrial facilities) into waters of the U.S.
National Priorities List (NPL): EP A's list of the most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites identified for possible long-term remedial action
under Superfund. A site must be on the NPL to receive money from the Trust Fund for remedial action. The list is based primarily on the score a site receives
from the Hazard Ranking System. EPA updates the NPL at least once a year.
Navigable Waters: Traditionally, waters sufficiently deep and wide for navigation by all or specified sizes of vessels; in the U.S. these waters come under Federal
jurisdiction.
Nitrate: A compound containing nitrogen and oxygen that can exist in the atmosphere or in water and that can have harmful effects on humans and animals at
high concentrations.
Nonpoint Source: Pollution sources that are diffuse and do not have a single point of origin or are not introduced into a receiving stream from a specific outlet.
The pollutants are generally carried off land by stormwater runoff. Commonly used categories for nonpoint sources are agriculture, forestry, urban, mining,
construction, dams and channels, land disposal, and saltwater intrusion.
Nutrient Any substance assimilated by living organisms that promotes growth. The term is generally applied to nitrogen and phosphorous in wastewater, but is
also applied to other essential trace elements.
o
Oligotrophlc Lakes: Clear lakes with low nutrient supplies that contain little organic matter and have a high dissolved-oxygen level.
Open-Lake: Those waters in a lake unaffected by physical and chemical processes originating or resulting from the adjacent land mass. Physical, chemical, and
biological phenomena resemble oceanographic conditions in open-lake waters.
Organic Chemicals/Compounds: Animal- or plant-produced substances containing mainly carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
Organism: Any living plant or animal.
Organochlorlne: Any organic compound containing chlorine.
P>Q
Parasitic: Any organism that lives on or in an organism of another species from which it derives sustenance or protection without benefit to, and usually with
harmful effects on, the host.
Permit- An authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by EPA or a State agency to implement the requirements of an environmental regulation
(e.g., a permit to operate a wastewater treatment plant or to operate a facility that may generate harmful emissions).
Persistent Pesticides: Pesticides that do not break down chemically or that break down very slowly.
Pesticide: A substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest. Also, any substance or mixture of substances
intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant. Pesticides can accumulate in the food chain and/or contaminate the environment if misused.
Phosphorus: An essential chemical food element that can contribute to the eutrophication of lakes and other water bodies.
Photosynthesis: A process occurring in the cells of green plants and some microorganisms in which solar energy is transformed into stored chemical energy.
Pbytoplankton: That portion of the plankton community comprising tiny plants (e.g., algae, diatoms).
Plankton: Microscopic plants and animals that live in water.
Point Source: A stationary location or fixed facility from which pollutants are discharged or emitted. Also, any single identifiable source of pollution (e.g., a pipe,
ditch, ship, ore pit, factory smokestack).
Pollutant: Generally, any substance introduced into the environment that adversely affects the usefulness of a resource.
Pollution Prevention: Measures taken to reduce the generation of a substance that could be harmful to living organisms if released to the environment. Pollution
prevention can be achieved in many ways.
Potentially Responsible Party (PRP): Any individual or company including owners, operators, transporters, or generators potentially responsible for, or
contributing to, the contamination problems at a Superfund site. Whenever possible, EPA requires PRPs, through administrative and legal actions, to clean up
hazardous waste sites that they may have created.
Predator. Any organism that lives by capturing and feeding on another animal.
Pretreatment: Processes used to reduce, eliminate, or alter the nature of pollutants from non-domestic sources before they are discharged into publicly owned
sewage treatment.
most materials that float or will settle. Primary treatment results in the removal of about 30 percent of carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand from domestic
sewage.
Productivity: Refers to the efficiency at which an ecosystem generates life from energy.
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs): A waste-treatment facility owned by a State, unit of local government, or Indian tribe.
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R
Radlotracers: A radioactive substance, usually an isotope, used to mark the progress of a process (e.g., the physical movement of sediment).
Record of Decision (ROD): A public document that explains which cleanup altemative(s) will be used at Superfund National Priorities List sites.
Remedial Action Plans (RAPs): Environmental plans aimed at restoring all beneficial uses to Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
Remedial Design: A phase of remedial action that follows the remedial investigation/feasibility study and includes development of engineering drawings and
specifications for a site cleanup.
Remedial Investigation: An in-depth study designed to gather the data necessary to determine the nature and extent of contamination at a Superfund site,
establish criteria for cleaning up the site, identify preliminary alternatives for remedial actions, and support the technical and cost analyses of the alternatives.
The remedial investigation is usually conducted with the feasibility study, together, they are usually referred to as an "RI/FS".
Removal Action: Quick remedies taken to address immediate hazards at contaminated waste sites.
Research: Development, interpretation, and demonstration of advanced scientific knowledge for the resolution of issues. It does not include monitoring and
surveillance of water or air quality.
Resuspension (of sediment): The remixing of sediment particles and pollutants back into the water by storms, currents, organisms, and human activities, such
as dredging.
Retention Time: The time it takes for the volume of water in a lake to exit through its outlet (i.e., Total volume/outlet flow = Retention time).
Risk Assessment: The qualitative and quantitative evaluation performed in an effort to define the risk posed to human health and/or the environment by the
presence or potential presence and/or use of specific pollutants.
Run-Off: That part of precipitation, snow melt, or irrigation water that runs off the land into streams or other surface water. It can carry sediments and pollutants
into the receiving waters.
5
Secondary Waste Treatment: The second step in most waste treatment systems in which bacteria consume the organic parts of the waste. It is accomplished by
bringing together waste, bacteria, and oxygen in trickling filters or in the activated sludge process. This treatment removes floating and settleable solids and
about 90 percent of the oxygen-demanding substances and suspended solids. Disinfection is the final stage of secondary treatment. (See primary, tertiary
treatment.)
Sediments: Soil, sand, and minerals eroded from land by water or air. Sediments settle to the bottom of surface water.
Sewage: The waste and wastewater produced by residential and commercial establishments and discharged into sewers.
Sewer A channel or conduit that carries wastewater and stormwater runoff from the source to a treatment plant or receiving stream. Sanitary sewers cany
household, industrial, and commercial waste, storm sewers carry runoff from rain or snow, and combined sewers carry both.
Silt: Fine particles of soil, sand or rock; sediment.
Site Inspection: The collection of information from a Superfund site to determine the extent and severity of hazards posed by the site, including information to
score the site, using the Hazard Ranking System, and to determine if the site presents an immediate threat that requires prompt removal action. It follows and
is more extensive than a preliminary assessment.
Sludge: A semi-solid residue from any of a number of air or water treatment processes.
Solid Waste: Nonliquid, nonsoluble materials, ranging from municipal garbage to industrial wastes, that contain complex, and sometimes hazardous, substances.
Solid wastes also include sewage sludge, agricultural refuse, demolition wastes, and mining residues.
Stratification (or layering): The tendency in deep lakes for distinct layers of water to form as a result of vertical change in temperature and therefore in the
density of water. During stratification, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, and other parameters of water chemistry do not mix well between layers, establishing chemical
as well as thermal gradients.
Superfund: The program operated under the legislative authority of CERCLA and SARA that carries out the EPA solid waste emergency and long-term remedial
activities. These activities include establishing a National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites, investigating sites for inclusion on the list, determining their
priority on the list, and conducting remedial actions.
Surface Water All water naturally open to the atmosphere (e.g., rivers, lakes, reservoirs, streams, impoundments, seas, estuaries) and all springs, wells, or other
collectors that are directly influenced by surface water.
Surveillance: Specific observations and measurements relative to control or management.
Suspended Solids: Small particles of solid pollutants that float on the surface of, or are suspended in, sewage or other liquids.
Swamp: A type of wetland that is dominated by woody vegetation and that does not accumulate appreciable peat deposits. Swamps may be freshwater or saltwater
and tidal or nontidal. (See wetlands.)
Tailings: Residue of raw materials or waste separated out during the processing of crops or mineral ores.
Technology-Based Standards: Effluent limitations applicable to direct and indirect sources that are developed on a category-by-category basis using statutory
factors, not including water-quality effects.
Terracing: Diking, built along the contour of sloping agricultural land, that holds runoff and sediment to reduce erosion.
Tertiary Waste Treatment: Advanced cleaning of wastewater that goes beyond the secondary or biological stage and removes nutrients, such as phosphorous
and nitrogen, and most biological oxygen demand and suspended solids.
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Toxic: Poisonous to living organisms.
Toxic Substance: A substance that can cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological or reproductive malfunctions, or
physical deformities in any organism or its offspring. The quantities and length of exposure necessary to cause these effects can vary widely.
Toxicant: A poisonous agent that kills or injures animal or plant life.
Trophic Stains: A measure of the biological productivity in a body of water. Aquatic ecosystems are characterized as oligotrophic (low productivity), mesotrophic
(medium productivity), or eutrophic (high productivity).
u
Urban Runoff: Stormwater from city streets and adjacent domestic or commercial properties that may pickup terrestrial contamination and carry pollutants of
various kinds into sewer systems and/or receiving waters.
V
Vaporization: The change of a substance from a liquid to a gas.
Volatile Substance: A substance that evaporates readily.
w
Waste Treatment Plank A facility containing a series of tanks, screens, filters, and other processes by which pollutants are removed from water.
Wastewaten The spent or used water from individual homes, a community, a farm, or an industry that often contains dissolved or suspended matter.
Watershed: The land area that drains into a river, stream, or lake.
Water Table: The level of ground water.
Water Quality Standards: State-adopted and EPA-approved ambient standards for water bodies. Standards are developed considering the use of the water body
and the water quality criteria that must be met to protect the designated use or uses.
Wetland: An area that is regularly saturated by surface water or ground water and is characterized by a prevalence of vegetation that is adapted for life in saturated
soil conditions (e.g., swamps, bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries).
Wildlife Refuge: An area designated for the protection of wild animals, within which hunting and fishing are either prohibited or strictly controlled.
X,Y,Z
Zooplankton: Microscopic aquatic animals.
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Acknowledgements
HPhis report was prepared by EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office, Chicago, IL; Frank Anscombe served as Work Assignment
i Manager. The report was generally written by Anscombe; John Brabeck (SAIC) wrote about exotic species in Chapter 2; Andrew Schwartz
(Temple, Barker, Sloane) contributed to Chapter 3; Tony Kizlauskas (SAIC) wrote about contaminated sediments and impacts of toxics on
wildlife in Chapter 2, and with Catherine Mills (SAIC), helped to develop Table 4-3 on Areas of Concern; and Mills wrote on wetlands in Chapter
2 and used information provided by other Federal agencies to assemble Chapter 6. Pranas Pranckevicius and Barry Manne developed 9 maps
and 3 tables. Brabeck and Kizlauskas prepared many other figures and tables.
This report draws on information generously provided by many people. The Work Assignment Manager wishes to acknowledge these
contributions with gratitude, while noting that he alone bears responsibility for any misinterpretations of information provided. Unless otherwise
noted, the following contributors are in EPA's Chicago office. Pranas Pranckevicius contributed information on the Toxics Release Inventory,
the distribution of Superfund sites; RCRA program measures; with Charles O'Leary (CSC), William Munroe, and Daniel Klans, on Superfund
expenditures; and with Tom Davenport, Ralph Christensen, and Kathy Schroer, on the Phosphorus Reduction Plan. Schroer and David Cowgill
contributed information on ARCS; Susan Gilbertson on the Water Quality Criteria Initiative; Davenport on nonpoint pollution control activities;
Phil Stroebel and Arnold Leder on NPDES statistics; Charles Zafonte (EPA Region II) on Lake Ontario and Niagara River activities; Stroebel,
Alexandra Mallory (ASCI), and Alan Nudelman on expenditures for wastewater treatment facilities; Mallory also contributed to the glossary,
Lynn Peterson, Deirdre Tanaka, and Joseph Wilson on enforcement activities; Nelson Thomas (ERL-Duluth) on research; Pamela Blakley on
air programs; Charles Sapp and Joanne McKernan (both of EPA-Region III) on that region's activities; Boniface Thayil on environmental science
activities. Mary Beth Tuohy, Dan O'Riordan, and Tony Lesser provided information on Superfund; Robert Beltran on State water quality reports;
and Andy Onushco on Areas of Concern. Marsha Hines (CSC) converted maps into a computer format compatible with this text.
Barry Degraff, Danielle Green, Vacys Saulys, and Eun-Sook Yang provided information or extensive comments on several occasions. Others
who made helpful comments included: Paul Bertram, Caroline Bury, Tom Davenport, Kent Fuller, Mardi Klevs, Phil Kaplan, John Piper, David
Rockwell, Mary Setnicar, Glenn Warren, and Wayne Willford.
Reviewers from State environmental agencies who commented on this report included: Jim Park of Illinois Environmental Protection Agency;
Kathy Prosser, Indiana Department of Environmental Conservation; Jacqueline Moody, New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation; Ava Hottman and Julie Letterhos, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources; Charles Ledin and Greg Hill, the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources; Paul Zugger, Diana Klemens, and Rick Lundgren, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. This
report was greatly improved by their comments. It should be emphasized, however, that the final text was produced by EPA which bears
responsibility for its content.
Five other Federal agencies provided information on their Great Lakes activities. Thanks are due to William L. Klesch and Jan Miller of the
Army Corps of Engineers; Dr. Stan Bolsenga and David Reid of NOAA-Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory; Walter Rittall, Mark
Waggoner, Homer Hilmer and Romy Myszka of the Soil Conservation Service; John Cooper and Robert Kavetsky of the Fish and Wildlife
Service; and Cdr. David Pascoe of the Coast Guard.
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