Great
Lakes
National
Program
On the Web at
www.epa.gov/glnpo
US, Environmental Protection Agency
Great Lakes National Program Office
SfgnfficantActivities Report
January - March 2004
IN THIS ISSUE:
• Spill Planning for Sensitive Areas
• New Mercury and PCB Posters
• Watershed Academy: Milwaukee
• MDEQ Dioxin Study
• Evaluating Wetland Habitat
• FY2004-2005 Funding Competition
• Coordinated Binational Monitoring
• Response to Medical Emergencies
• SOLEC Indicators Review
• Lake Erie Studies
• U.S. Lake Huron Partners Meet
• Legacy Act Projects Sought
• FET Conference
• Mussels Cleaning Lakes?
• New York State Wetlands Forum
Spill Planning for Sensitive Areas
Staff from the Great Lakes National Pro-
gram Office attended the "Net Environ-
mental Benefit Analysis of Isle Royale Na-
tional Park" meeting held in Duluth, Minne-
sota on January 6th to 8th. Also in attendance
were National Park Superintendent and staff
Phyllis Green and Jean Battle; Atlantic
Strike Team Commanding Officer Roger
Laferriere and other U.S. Coast Guard rep-
resentatives, all with Exxon Valdez experi-
ence; staff from the Apostle Islands Na-
tional Lakeshore and the Minnesota Pollu-
tion Control Agency; and USEPA Regions
5 and 9 staff. The meeting was organized by
USEPA with the Great Lakes Commission
serving as Secretariat, to outline Isle
Royale's priority areas and concerns, re-
view oil spill response techniques, and
evaluate the relative risks of response tech-
niques in regard to the plants, animals and
shorelines of Isle Royale. Although the risk
to Isle Royale from spills is currently low,
one spill could be catastrophic to a number
of rare plants and animals. Both a scientific
and an operational plan plus training in
equipment use are necessary to protect the
park in the event of an oil spill. A major Ca-
nadian shipping lane is a mile from the
outer park islands. It is expected that
USEPA will conduct similar meetings in
other regions of the Great Lakes, beginning
with the Apostle Islands and the other na-
tional parks. The results of these meetings
are a clearer understanding by the Coast
Guard of sensitive areas and by USEPA and
park staff of the methods used to clean up
after a spill and the potential damage to sen-
sitive areas of the cleanup techniques.
Future analyses will be conducted in other
sensitive areas of the Great Lakes basin
over the next year and are part of a plan to
map, conduct analyses, produce an spills/
An Isle Royale scene
(Photo courtesy of National Park Service)
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January - March 2004
Significant Activities Report
sensitive areas operations manual, and de-
velop protection strategies for the Great
Lakes and Upper Mississippi River coastal
areas.
(Contact: Karen Rodriguez, 312-353-2690,
rodriguez.karen@epa.gov)
New Mercury and PCB Posters
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
has produced poster-size versions of the
mercury and PCB use trees found in the
Lake Superior Lakewide Management Plan
(LaMP) Stage 2. The posters have been up-
dated and reformatted to resemble trees
with a trunk and branches for the various
uses and sources of mercury and PCBs. 370
mercury posters have been distributed to li-
braries across Minnesota and others were
supplied to Lake Superior LaMP partners. A
limited number of the mercury and PCB
posters are available to other Great Lakes
organizations.
(Contacts: Elizabeth LaPlante, 353-2694,
laplante.elizabeth@epa.gov; or Carri Lohse-
Hanson, 651-296-9134, carri.lohse-
hanson@pca. state.mn.us)
Watershed Academy: Milwaukee
The latest in the Lake Michigan Watershed
Academy Conference series drew 275 local
officials to the Sheridan Four Points hotel in
Brown Deer, Wisconsin (just north of Mil-
waukee) on February 10th. Co- sponsored by
the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Plan-
ning Commission and the Milwaukee Met-
ropolitan Sewerage District. Following a
historical perspective on the complex Mil-
waukee Rivers Watershed, recent progress
and continuing challenges were outlined by
the agencies along with Wisconsin DNR
Division of Water Administrator Todd L.
Ambs.
Mercury Use Trei
Sources andCommon uses
Mercury Use Tree Poster
(actual size is 17 inches by 24 inches)
(Contact: Judy Beck, 312-353-3849, beck.
judy@epa.gov)
MDEQ Dioxin Study
The Michigan Department of Environ-
mental Quality (MDEQ) was recently
awarded a $180,000 grant by the Great
Lakes National Program Office to further
characterize the nature and extent of dioxin-
like toxicity in sediments from the Saginaw
River and Saginaw Bay. While PCB con-
tamination has been well documented in
this area, dioxins and furans have not.
While not as well studied, these compounds
have been detected at levels exceeding hu-
man health-based regulatory criteria. This
study has received strong support from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, since it will
complement their ecological risk assess-
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January - March 2004
Saginaw Bay shoreline
(Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
ment for dioxin-like compounds in this wa-
tershed. The Service plans to ultimately use
these study results to calculate congener-
specific sediment to biota accumulation fac-
tors.
(Contact: Scott Ireland, 312-886-8121, ire-
land.scott@epa.gov)
Evaluating Wetland Habitat
On February 26th, David Brakhage, Gildo
Tori, and Tina Yerkes of the Great Lakes/
Atlantic Regional Office of Ducks Unlim-
ited updated Great Lakes National Program
Office staff on their Habitat Evaluation Pro-
ject (HEN), funded in part by a GLNPO
grant. HEN is a basin-wide conservation
tool that uses GIS/Internet technology to
plan and target conservation activities
within the Great Lakes states. The HEN de-
cision support system, will allow Ducks
Unlimited and its partners to enhance and
refine inland wetland and upland habitat
programs based on the most current infor-
mation and technology available. To begin,
HEN incorporates mallard research data, ex-
isting landscape features, and current habi-
tat information to guide conservation activi-
ties to high priority areas. Eventually, this
system will allow land use planners and
managers to use limited conservation re-
sources efficiently and target hot spots for
the benefit of waterfowl and other wetland
species.
(Contact: Karen Rodriguez, 312-353-2690,
rodriguez.karen@epa.gov)
FY2004-2005 Funding Competition
Applicants competed for Great Lakes pro-
jects totaling up to $4,180,000 in the Great
Lakes National Program Office's FY2004-
2005 Funding Guidance. GLNPO issued its
annual "USEPA Great Lakes National Pro-
gram Office FY2004-2005 Funding Guid-
ance" on January 30th, requesting Initial
Proposals for projects furthering protection
and clean up of the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Projects address Contaminated Sediments,
Pollution Prevention and Toxics Reduction,
Habitat (Ecological) Protection and Resto-
ration, Invasive Species, Strategic or
Emerging Issues, and Other Lakewide Man-
agement Plan or Remedial Action Plan
(LaMP/RAP) Priorities. The competition
closed on March 29th. The Funding Guid-
ance again solicited paperless Initial Pro-
posals for GLNPO and Region 2, 3, and 5
Lakewide Management Plan/Remedial Ac-
tion Plan programs. Applicants responded
by submitting 265 Initial Proposals totaling
$25 million. The initial proposals will un-
dergo an extensive review process to nar-
row down the field to the final selections of
projects. Successful applicants will be
asked to submit full proposals for funding.
As part of its efforts to ensure a fair and
open competition the Great Lakes National
Program Office conducted its first-ever pub-
lic conference call on March 1st. The call
provided all applicants equal opportunity to
have their questions asked and answered.
As many as 68 lines were active at one time
during the call, as GLNPO staff answered
questions pertaining to their areas of the
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January - March 2004
Significant Activities Report
GLNPO staff securing "patient" to back-board as part
of Emergency Medical Response Training
Funding Guidance. Even with this large
number of participants, the call was very or-
derly. Informal feedback from participants
was positive. A recording of the call was
also available from the GLNPO website
through the end of the application period.
In addition, several Questions and Answers
from the call were also posted on the Fund-
ing Guidance website.
Additional information about this funding
program and a listing of all Initial Proposals
received can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/fund/2004guid/
index.html.
(Contact: MikeRuss, 312-886-4013, russ.
michael@epa.gov)
Coordinated Binational Monitoring
Great Lakes National Program Office scien-
tists and managers met with their Environ-
ment Canada counterparts on February 9th
to 11th to coordinate Great Lakes monitor-
ing efforts. Among the topics discussed
were schedules of current and future moni-
toring, methods comparisons, and possible
cooperative monitoring efforts. While there
has always been a minimal level of coopera-
tion between the two groups, this is the first
recent initiative to explore cooperation and
comparability of information gathered by
the programs. While still tentative, the
GLNPO is exploring use of the Canadian
research ship, the R/VLimnos, to support
USEPA's program to monitor the dissolved
oxygen levels in Lake Erie's Central Basin.
(Contacts: Paul Horvatin, 312-353-3612,
horvatin.paul@epa.gov; or Glenn Warren,
312-886-2405, warren.glenn@epa.gov)
Response to Medical Emergencies
In preparation for the upcoming monitoring
season, scientists who will serve aboard
GLNPO's 180-foot research ship, the R/V
Lake Guardian, underwent intensive Emer-
gency Medical Response Training from
February 1st to 4th. The training is needed
because the Lake Guardian can be hours
away from the nearest medical facility when
it is underway on a monitoring cruise and
even minutes can be critical in emergency
injury or illness situations. Instructors from
the George Washington University Hospital
did the training using real-life scenarios re-
quiring assessment and treatment of injuries
and medical emergencies. Everyone was
trained to start an IV (intravenous) needle,
administer medication and oxygen, etc. The
most physically taxing portion of the train-
ing was carrying a full-sized adult, on a
backboard, up from the ship's engine room.
All of this training is preparation for any
shipboard emergency, which, we hope, will
never happen.
(Contact: Paul Horvatin, horvatin.
paul@epa.gov, 312-353-3612)
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January - March 2004
SOLEC Indicators Review
The indicators of Great Lakes ecosystem
health that are reported through the bina-
tional State of the Lakes Ecosystem Confer-
ence (SOLEC) process are continually un-
der review and refinement. On January 27th
and 28th, a workshop was held in Detroit,
Michigan, to get comments and suggestions
from federal, state, provincial and local
management organizations regarding the
usefulness of the information SOLEC pro-
vides for influencing management decision-
making. A review and evaluation of the
suite of Great Lakes basin indicators was
also undertake by the participants, who rep-
Cover graphic from
State of the Great Lakes Report 2001,
a product of the SOLEC process
Lake Erie Studies
GLNPO's Paul Horvatin and Glenn Warren participated in a planning meeting for the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research
Laboratory to discuss how the Laboratory's personnel could benefit the current Lake Erie
work. Beginning in 2004, the Laboratory scientists are beginning to extend their work to
Lake Erie. The topics covered in separate breakout sessions were: Hypoxia and the Dead
Zone, Hazardous Algal Blooms, and Fish and Physics. Numerous other Lake Erie scientists
attended the meeting and provided a wide-ranging discussion of past efforts and recommen-
dations for the Laboratory.
Contacts: Paul Horvatin, 312-353-3612, horvatin.paul@epa.gov; or Glenn Warren, 312-886-
2405, warren.glenn@epa.gov)
Lake Erie from OrbView-2 satellite
(Original image courtesy of NASA)
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resented data generators and information
users from the Great Lakes basin. Many of
the indicators were suggested to be com-
bined or set aside. SOLEC organizers are
currently in the process of assimilating the
results of the workshop and other sugges-
tions to revise the suite of active Great
Lakes indicators for the SOLEC 2004 Con-
ference coming up in Toronto, Canada on
October 6th to 8th.
To learn more about the State of the Lakes
Ecosystem Conference, go to: http://www.
epa.gov/glnpo/solec/index.html on the Inter-
net.
(Contact: Paul Bertram (312-353-0153, ber-
tram.paul@epa.gov)
U.S. Lake Huron Partners Meet
On March 9th, USEPA's Great Lakes Na-
tional Program Office and the Michigan De-
partment of Environmental Quality's Office
of the Great Lakes and Water Division
sponsored a Lake Huron U.S. Agency Coor-
dination Meeting. Held in Bay City, Michi-
gan, the meeting provided an opportunity
for environmental agencies to share pro-
gram priorities and help coordinate future
efforts on Lake Huron. Staff from over 20
organizations - including Federal, State,
Tribal, Industry, and Nonprofit Agencies -
described their ongoing work and proposed
ideas on how to refine the domestic man-
agement of the Lake Huron watershed. This
meeting will help provide a U.S. perspec-
tive on issues being addressed through the
Lake Huron Binational Partnership Forum,
which is co-chaired by GLNPO and Envi-
ronment Canada.
(Contacts: Vicki Thomas, 312-886-6942,
thomas.vicki@epa.gov; or James Schardt,
312-353-5085, schardt.james@epa.gov)
Sunrise at Hammond Bay on Lake Huron
Legacy Act Projects Sought
Ten million dollars was made available by
Congress for Fiscal Year 2004 under the
Great Lakes Legacy Act to further cleanup
of contaminated sediments in Great Lakes
Areas of Concern. The Great Lakes Na-
tional Program Office issued an invitation
seeking potential projects on January 29th.
The competition closed on March 31st. As
of the deadline, GLNPO received 14 sub-
missions for funding consideration under
the Great Lakes Legacy Act. The 14 pro-
jects represent proposed work in 12 separate
Areas of Concern across six of the eight
Great Lakes states with total cost estimates
in excess of $80 Million. Twelve of the
project submittals call for implementation
of remedial actions for contaminated sedi-
ments.
The projects are being evaluated using a
two-stage review process. In the first stage,
projects are given an initial review for com-
pleteness (i.e., does the proposal contain all
the necessary components?). Remediation
projects passing the Stage 1 review are then
forwarded to the Technical Review Com-
mittee (TRC) for full technical review and
projects will be selected for giving oral
presentations. The TRC is made up of rep-
resentatives from the GLNPO sediment
team, USEPA's Office of Regional Coun-
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January - March 2004
sel, USEPA Headquarters and Regions 2
and 5; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admini-
stration. To date, three proposals have been
presented to the TRC with four more sched-
uled for early May.
For more information about the Great Lakes
Legacy Act, the call for Projects, go to:
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/sediment/legacy/
index.html.
For information about the contaminated
sediments issue and GLNPO's sediment
monitoring and remediation program, visit:
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/sediments.html
(Contacts: Scott Ireland, 312-886-8121, ire-
land.scott@epa.gov; Scott Cieniawski, 312-
353-9184, cieniawski.scott@epa.gov; Marc
Tuchman, 312-353-1369, tuchman.
marc@epa.gov; or Mary Beth Ross, 312-
886-2253, ross.marybeth@epa.gov).
FET Conference
On March 9th, Marc Tuchman attended and
gave a presentation at the 19th Annual Con-
ference of the Federation of Environmental
Technologists (FET) in Milwaukee, Wis-
consin. The FET is a nonprofit organization
formed to assist industry in interpretation of
and compliance with environmental regula-
tions. Over 200 environmental profession-
als from throughout the Midwest attended
the conference. The presentation given by
Marc was titled "Updates on Great Lakes
Contaminated Sediment Remedial Activi-
ties and Great Lakes Legacy Act Update."
This presentation was part of a joint presen-
tation with Eric Stern of USEPA Region 2
who gave a presentation on innovative sedi-
ment decontamination technologies.
(Contact: Marc Tuchman, 312-353-1369,
tuchman. marc@epa. gov)
Mussels Cleaning Lakes?
Recent work by EPA scientists, presented to
the Great Lakes National Program Office on
March 8th, shows that dreissenid mussels
(zebra and quagga mussels) are having sig-
nificant impacts in lakes Erie and Ontario,
but not always in expected ways. In an ex-
amination of monitoring data stretching
back to the early 1980's, dreissenids have
been shown to have had surprisingly little
effect on the water clarity of the shallow
western basin of Lake Erie, contrary to
popular belief. Instead, effects have been
more pronounced in the deep eastern basin.
What is more surprising is that during the
summer, levels of turbidity in the offshore
waters of Lake Ontario have decreased dra-
matically — up to six-fold — since the dre-
issenid invasion. This effect was unex-
pected both because of the great depth of
the offshore waters — close to 200 m in
Zebra mussel (top) and quagga mussel
(actual size of zebra mussel is around 3/4 inch)
(Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey)
U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office
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January - March 2004
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places — and also because during the sum-
mer the lake stratifies thermally, which cuts
off the upper water column from the bot-
tom-dwelling mussels. The key to this puz-
zle appears to be calcium. Concentrations
of calcium are high enough in Lake Ontario
to become super-saturated when the lake
warms up during the summer (calcium,
unlike most other elements, becomes less
soluble at higher temperatures), and this
causes the element to precipitate out in
milky clouds called whiting events. Zebra
and quagga mussels, however, need large
amounts of calcium to produce their shells,
and since their invasion, alkalinity levels,
which are related to calcium concentrations,
have dropped dramatically. So it appears
that uptake of calcium by the mussels has
reduced the concentration of calcium in
Lake Ontario enough to prevent whiting
events, and hence to keep the water clear
during the summer. What consequences
this change in the light environment in the
lake might have had on other organisms is
currently being investigated.
For additional information about zebra mus-
sels, visit the U.S. Geological Survey's Ze-
bra Mussel Web page: http://nas.er.usgs.
gov/zebra.mussel/
(Contact: Marc Tuchman, 312-353-1369,
tuchman.marc@epa.gov)
New York State Wetlands Forum
USEPA Region 2 and GLNPO staff at-
tended the March 31st to April 1st,
"Restoring and Protecting the Health of
Great Lakes Wetlands" Conference and An-
nual Meeting in Rochester, New York. Ric
Lawson of the Great Lakes Commission
and the secretariat for the Great Lakes
Coastal Wetlands Consortium, gave a key-
note address about the Consortium's pro-
gress in developing indicators and a long-
East Bay Marshes on southern Lake Ontario
term monitoring program. Mario DelVicario
and Barbara Belasco from USEPA's Region
2 office updated attendees on Lakewide
Management Plan and Remedial Action
Plan activities. Several Consortium mem-
bers presented Consortium pilot project
findings at a symposium about Great Lakes
coastal wetlands.
In addition, a meeting was held with the
New York Department of Environmental
Conservation, Ducks Unlimited, and New
York State Department of Transportation
staff to further inform them of Consortium
pilot projects, classification system, and in-
dicator development.
(Contacts: Karen Rodriguez, 312-353-2690,
rodriguez.karen@epa.gov; John Schneider,
312-886-0880, schneider.john@epa.gov;
Barbara Belasco, 212-637-3848, belasco.
barbara@epa.gov; or Mario DelVicario,
212-637-3779, delvicario.mario@epa.gov)
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.
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