Great Lakes National Program &EPA On the Web at: www.epa.gov/greatlakes U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) Significant Activities Report July 2004 IN THIS ISSUE: • Lake Superior Day • Lake Michigan Diporeia Survey • School-Ship • Limnology Courses Bear Fruit • Organic Contaminants Survey • Binational Coordination • Great Lakes Mayors Meet • Watershed 2004 • Fish and Wildlife Goals for AOCs Lake Superior Day The second annual Lake Superior Day was held at Wisconsin Point (Duluth-Superior Harbor) on Sunday, July 18th. Copies of Lake Superior Day proclamations were dis- played at the ceremony. The following gov- ernments/institutions signed proclamations for Lake Superior Day this year: • From Michigan: Governor Jennifer Granholm; Keweenaw Bay Indian Com- munity; Villages of L'Anse, Baraga, Ea- gle Harbor, and Calumet; the cities of Houghton and Hancock; and Keweenaw County. • From Minnesota: Governor Tim Pawlenty and the City of Duluth. • From Wisconsin: Governor James Doyle; the cities of Ashland, Superior, and Washburn; Douglas County; North- land College, a private environmental liberal arts college in Ashland; Bad JAiver Tribal Council. Members of the Little Eagles youth drumming group from Duluth, MN, sing ceremonial songs during a Lake Superior Day celebration on Wisconsin Point, Wl, on July 18, 2004. Several recipients of the Lake Superior Binational Program's inaugural Environ- mental Stewardship award listen in the background. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Frey) The winners of the Lake Superior Environ- mental Stewardship Awards were also an- nounced. As part of the $50,000 GLNPO grant to the Lake Superior Forum, the first Environmental Stewardship Awards Program announced seven winners: four from the U.S. and three from Canada. These awards high- light successful efforts to protect and restore Lake Superior. The awards program recog- nizes the important contributions that indi- viduals, businesses, industry, communities, and First Nations/Tribes have made to pro- tect and restore the natural resources in the Lake Superior basin in the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. winners include: • Roy Johnson of Cloverland, Wisconsin, a lifelong resident of Wisconsin's Lake Superior basin. He has converted 160 acres of farmland to restored wetlands. Through two separate partnerships with the Wisconsin Department of Transporta- tion, he has helped to turn cropland into a ------- July 2004 Significant Activities Report diverse range of wetland habitat, includ- ing shallow ponds, deep marsh, sedge meadows, and mudflats. Once home to crops and cattle, the wetlands now host a number of sensitive wetland birds and plants. Johnson's commitment to land stewardship began in the 1950s when he and his father dug a pond in their hay field to establish a home for geese and ducks. In 1995, Johnson sold 80 acres of land to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for the purpose of estab- lishing a wetland mitigation site. In 2001, he signed a permanent limited easement with the WDOT that provided lasting protection for an additional 80 acres of wetlands. The restored wetlands are adjacent to the Brule River State Forest, which links them to over 50,000 acres of public land. The Johnson prop- erty is four miles from the Lake Supe- rior shore, which makes it uniquely suited for shorebird habitat restoration. The U.S. winners in the Industry and Busi- ness category were Minnesota Power and the Pinehurst Inn at Pikes Creek (a tie). • Minnesota Power of Duluth, Minne- sota, tackled the issue of mercury emis- sions from coal-fired power plants from both the production and consumption side of the problem. The company car- ried out full-scale mercury emissions control technology testing at their Laskin Energy Center (which is within the Lake Superior watershed) as part of an Electrical Power Research Institute study. In the emissions study, Minnesota Power found carbon injection and chemical additives show some promise towards removing mercury from that fa- cility's stack. To reduce mercury emis- sions at a consumer level, the company designed and constructed a model en- ergy-saving house called the Millen- Lake Superior Stewardship Awards on display nium Star in Duluth. The model house showed that building design, materials, and construction techniques can signifi- cantly reduce energy consumption and costs. The Millennium Star house runs on a yearly heating bill of less than $300. This demonstrated that if more houses were energy-efficient, demand for electricity would decrease, resulting in lower mercury emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. Pinehurst Inn at Pikes Creek, Bayfield, Wisconsin, is a bed and breakfast that consists of an historic inn built in 1885 and a one-year-old Garden House offer- ing guest and common rooms. The Gar- den House was designed to architectur- ally compliment the main house, yet built using "green building" techniques, materials, and systems the comple- mented natural systems. Owners Steve and Nancy Sandstrom wanted to mini- mize the inn's impact on Lake Superior and the surrounding environment by re- ducing its contribution to air and water pollution, minimizing solid wastes, and enhancing the inn's natural landscaping. The inn and addition have new, energy- efficient thermo-pane windows, energy- efficient light bulbs and appliances, sig- nificantly increased insulation in the at- Page2 U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office ------- Significant Activities Report July 2004 tic and walls, and a solar hot water heater for the addition. Inside the inn, the Sandstroms use only non-toxic, bio- degradable laundry and dishwashing de- tergents and cleaning supplies. The owners also use only eco-friendly, non- toxic fertilizers in the gardens and land- scaping. The U.S. winner in the Community/ Organization Category was: • The City of Superior, Wisconsin. Staff at the city's wastewater treatment facil- ity have conducted extensive reduction and education programs that prevented mercury from entering the lake through wastewater discharges. By working in partnerships with state agencies, re- gional tribes, area schools, and private businesses, the city has kept 300 pounds of bulk mercury, 400 lab thermometers, 4,000 fever thermometers, and 1,000 ve- hicle switches that contain mercury out of landfills and waterways. City staff have incorporated mercury reduction curriculum and activities in public schools, conducted workshops for build- ers to teach them how to recycle ther- mostats and other toxic materials during construction, organized free mercury thermometer exchanges for digital de- vices, organized light bulb collections with area hardware stores, worked with dentists to identify and remove mercury in dental offices, and numerous other programs. The Lake Superior Binational Program con- sists of a partnership of U.S. and Canadian government agencies, First Nations/Tribes, and citizen stakeholders that work together to protect and restore the natural environ- ment in the Lake Superior basin. The Lake Superior Binational Forum, a volunteer stakeholder group, is funded in the U.S. by GLNPO, and in Canada by Environment Canada. The U.S. coordinator is housed at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. (Contacts: Elizabeth LaPlante, 353-2694, laplante.elizabeth@epa.gov, or Lissa Radke Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Northland College at (715) 682-1489) Lake Michigan Diporeia Survey Dr. Thomas Nalepa, of the National Oce- anic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory, sampled Lake Michigan from the R/VLake Guardian, from July 24th through July 27th, looking for the half-inch-long shrimp-like crustaceans, Diporeia hoyi. This GLNPO- supported study is documenting the disap- pearance of this important animal from Lake Michigan. The Diporeia is a small benthic invertebrate that is an important source of food for fish. The Diporeia population has declined se- verely over the last ten years in southern Lake Michigan. This survey examines the trends in the Diporeia popu- lation to better understand population dynamics. This was the fifth year of this investigation. Diporeia abun- dance is examined in sediments collected using a ponar grab sediment sampler. Sam- ples are collected from approximately 60 stations. The final Diporeia survey will be conducted in August in southwestern Lake Michigan (off of Waukegan, Illinois) home to the last Diporeia (actual size about V* inch U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office Page 3 ------- July 2004 Significant Activities Report healthy population of Diporeia in the south- ern part of the Lake. (Contact: Glenn Warren, 312-886-2405, war- ren.glenn@epa.gov) School-Ship The R/V Lake Guardian was on Lake Supe- rior from July 5th through 10th and on Lake Michigan from July 19th to 23rd for week- long teacher institutes. The courses were de- signed to teach elementary, middle, and high school educators about the physical, chemi- cal, and biological components of the Great Lakes ecosystem. In an exciting week aboard the Lake Guardian, participants had the opportunity to live and work in the re- search ship's scientific labs beside research- ers doing hands-on data collection and analy- sis. The course is also designed to help K-12 educators to integrate Great Lakes concepts into their programs and/or curricula through both field and laboratory sessions aboard the vessel. The classes were taught using a com- bination of lectures and practical hands-on exercises. The classes were given high marks by the participants. The R/V Lake Guardian has been offered as a floating classroom at low-cost to individual students since 1993. These courses are de- signed to teach undergraduates, graduate stu- dents, or teachers about the physical, chemi- cal, and biological components of the Great Lakes ecosystem. (Contact: George Ison, 312-353-1669, ison. george@epa.gov) Limnology Courses Bear Fruit In 2003 Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York was given a grant to conduct a limnol- ogy course on Lake Ontario in conjunction with EPA Region II. Three papers resulting from this class are being submitted to the Journal of Great Lakes Research: 1. The Lake Ontario Great Lakes Science Students collect samples of organisms dwelling in the bottom sediments of Lake Michigan (photo courtesy of William M. Kane) Practicum: A model for training lim- nology students on how to conduct ship- board research in the Great Lakes. Mi- chael R. Twiss , Tom A. Langen , George S. Bullerjahn , and Steven W. Wilhelm , and David C. Rockwell. 2. Phosphorus bioavailability and plank- ton distributions in Lake Ontario in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, Septem- ber 2003. Gouvea, Sandra P., Christ- yanne Melendez, Matthew Carberry, George S. Bullerjahn, Steven W. Wilhelm, Tom A. Langen, and Michael R.Twiss. 3. Pelagic bird survey on Lake Ontario following Hurricane Isabel, September 2003: Observations and remarks on methodology. Tom A. Langen, Michael R. Twiss, George S. Bullerjahn, and Steven W. Wilhelm. One of the authors, Christyanne Melendez, was a GLNPO intern and Dr. Michael Twiss, the lead professor for the limnology course, was a student in the 1993 limnology class aboard the Lake Guardian. (Contact: David Rockwell, 312-353-1373, rockwell.david@epa.gov) Page 4 U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office ------- Significant Activities Report July 2004 Organic Contaminants Survey During the week of July 12th to 17th, Dr. Matt Simcik of the University of Minnesota took samples for trace (ultra-low levels) or- ganic contaminants in Lake Michigan. Wa- ter was sampled for a suite of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) including PCBs, PAHs, organochlorine pesticides, toxaphene, PBDEs, PFOS, Mercury and di- oxins and furans. Because hydrophobic (avoiding water) contaminants prefer to dis- solve in lipids (fat) rather than in water, they tend to bioaccumulate in living organ- isms (benthic organisms, fish), raising con- cerns about their impacts on wildlife and human health. This study will produce a co- herent data set on HOCs in Lake Michigan waters consistent with measurements cur- rently being made in the air and fish of the Great Lakes. For some of the HOCs (PBDEs and PFOS/PFOA) this data will represent some of the first measurements in the water column of the Great Lakes provid- ing baseline information on water concen- trations of these emerging contaminants. Data from the study will be compared to fish concentration data from the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring program to calculate bioconcentration factors and with air moni- toring data from the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network to help understand the exchange of HOCs between the air and wa- ter. Because of the very low concentrations of HOCs in the water, large volumes of wa- ter must be processed. In this study, Dr. Simcik sampled approximately 800 liters (over 200 gallons) of water from each of five sites in Lake Michigan. (Contact: Melissa Hulting, 312-886-2265, hulting.melissa@epa.gov) Binational Coordination On July 13th and 14th, the Great Lakes Bina- tional Executive Committee (EEC) held its The setting sun reflects off a window onboard the R/V Lake Guardian semi-annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois to discuss binational programs being imple- mented under the terms of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (the Agreement). The EEC serves a crucial role in coordinat- ing a variety of binational commitments in the Great Lakes Basin. Federal, State, Pro- vincial, Tribal and non-governmental ob- server agency personnel from both the U.S. and Canada met to discuss vital Great Lakes issues including President Bush's Executive Order on the Great Lakes, the upcoming re- view of the Agreement, updates on the Great Lakes Integrated Atmospheric Data Network (IADN), the next State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC), and the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy, as well as informational items on work to coordinate binational monitoring activities. Fruitful, in-depth discussions led to a number of assignments for actions to be completed before the next BEC meeting in December 2004. On the evening of the first day, a farewell reception for Mr. John Mills, the BEC Canadian Co-Chair, was hosted by the Canadian Consul General to Chicago. Mr. Mills, the Regional Director General of the Ontario Region of Environment Canada, is retiring from the federal service. (Contact: MarkElster, 312-886-3857, elster. mark@epa.gov) U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office PageS ------- July 2004 Significant Activities Report Great Lakes Mayors Meet The International Association of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Mayors held their annual conference in Chicago, Illinois on July 15th and 16th. Among the highlights of the conference: • Presentations on the economic benefits of cleaning up harbors were given by a number of Great Lakes Mayors. • EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt and Wisconsin Governor James Doyle spoke on the unique opportunity for col- laborative restoration work in the Great Lakes Basin. • Administrator Leavitt stressed the com- plexity of the problems and the agenda of the Interagency Task Force (created by the President's Executive Order on the Great Lakes) to align all the pro- grams. He used the needed funding for the Carp barrier as an example of where the Task Force can make a difference in moving efforts along. • Governor Doyle stressed the need for protecting the waters of the Great Lakes through Annex 2001 and against "federalization of water." • The co-chairs of the International Joint Commission, Herb Grey Canadian Sec- tion and Dennis Schornack U.S. Sec- tion, spoke of the need to involve the Mayors in the upcoming review of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (the cornerstone of the binational pro- gram to protect and restore the Great Lakes). GLNPO manned an informational display at the conference, fielding questions and hand- ing out Great Lakes CDs, bookmarks, and magnets to interested visitors. (Contacts: Judy Beck, 312-353-3849, beck. judy@epa.gov; or Tony Kizlauskas, 312- 353-8773, kizlauskas.anthony@epa.gov) GLNPO Display at International Association of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Mayors Conference Watershed 2004 Judy Beck, Lake Michigan Team Manager, participated in the National Watershed 2004 Conference in Dearborn, Michigan on July 11th to 14th. The Opening session featured Dennis Schornack, Chairman of the U.S. Section of the International Joint Commis- sion, who outlined the many events cur- rently underway in the Great Lakes. Mike Shapiro from USEPA's Office of Water presented the re-invigorated watershed vi- sion of the agency which includes the align- ment of all programs by watershed. Judy Beck presented a status report on Great Lakes Strategy 2002 and attended the field trip to the Ford Rouge River Complex. The tour covered not only the plant but its stormwater management and green roof. When completed, the Phase 1 Rouge Com- plex will retain and steadily discharge the precipitation of a 10-year storm over a 15- day period. This watershed will, as closely as possible, emulate the hydraulic and water quality behavior of the area's natural water- shed. (Contact: Judy Beck, 312-353-3849, beck. judy@epa.gov) Paged U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office ------- Significant Activities Report July 2004 Fish and Wildlife Goals for AOCs On July 21st, GLNPO staff presented "Restoration Planning for Fish and Wildlife in Michigan's Areas of Concern: A Prelimi- nary Assessment and Guidance for Action," to about 130 Michigan Public Advisory Council members and state and federal agency staff in Monroe, Michigan. The workshop outlined a process for achieving restoration goals and delisting fish and wildlife impairments in Michigan's Great Lakes Areas of Concern. Workshop presentations assessed the status of restoration efforts for fish and wildlife in the Areas of Concern and GLNPO staff pro- vided a recommended pathway for estab- lishing measurable targets for fish and wild- life habitat, populations, and benthic com- munities. The keynote speaker, Keith Bowers (the current chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration), provided an introduction to the field of ecosystem restoration and out- lined practical actions that local groups can take at the watershed level. Successful local efforts were showcased and opportunities to integrate habitat restoration into other remediation activities were high- lighted. GLNPO staff concluded that AOCs have made progress toward restoring beneficial use impairments — but mostly through in- dividual, small-scale projects. Explicit, AOC-wide site designs are almost absent from the Remedial Action Plan documents and monitoring programs are needed to as- sess progress toward delisting. (Contacts: Karen Rodriguez, 312-353- 2690, rodriguez.karen@epa.gov; or James Schardt, 312-353-5085, schardt.james@epa. gov) A sandhill crane at home in a Great Lakes wetland U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office Page 7 ------- July 2004 Significant Activities Report Upcoming Events October 6-8 November 30 2004 State of the Lakes Ecosys- tem Conference: Toronto, Canada 2005 Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy Stake- holder Forum: Chicago, IL We welcome your questions, comments or suggestions about this month's Significant Activities Report. To be added to or re- moved from the Email distribution of the Significant Activities Report, please contact Tony Kizlauskas, 312-353-8773, kizlauskas.anthony@epa.gov. PageS U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office ------- |