Great
 Lakes
 National
 Program
On the Web at:
www.epa.gov/greatlakes
    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO)
Significant Activities Report

       March 2005
 IN THIS ISSUE:
 • Project Submissions Sought
 • Biology Program Reviewed
 • Recent Publications
 • Toxics Strategy Meeting
 • State of the Streams Meeting
 • Coordinated Restoration Funding
Project Submissions Sought
USEPA's Great Lakes National Program Office
is seeking project submissions in this year's
Funding Guidance competition. Up to $4.7 mil-
lion may be awarded under this announcement
for furthering protection and cleanup of the
Great Lakes ecosystem. The deadline for all
project submissions is 8:00 AM Central time,
Tuesday morning, May 31, 2005.

GLNPO announced this year's competition on
April 12th by sending out 2,500 email mes-
sages and 1,300 postcards, as well as
through the GLIN-Announce listserver, the
GLNPO Web Site; and http://fedgrants.gov.

On Tuesday, May 3rd at 1:00 Central time,
GLNPO will conduct a public conference call,
during which potential applicants can call in and
ask ANY question about their projects. The toll-
free call-in number will be: (866) 299-3188 and
the Conference Code is 17023. An agenda and
additional information is available at http://
www.epa.gov/grtlakes/fund/2005guid/conf.html

Projects are being sought for:
A. Pollution Prevention and Toxics Re-
duction - $ 500,000 for pollution preven-
tion, reduction, or elimination projects, with
an emphasis on substances which are persis-
               tent and toxic, especially those which bioac-
               cumulate, in the Great Lakes basin.

               B. Habitat (Ecological) Protection and
               Restoration. $250,000 for basinwide or re-
               gional Habitat (ecological) Protection and
               Restoration projects which are collaborative
               partnerships that demonstrate common goals
               and expected outcomes. $50,000 for confer-
               ence/meeting or education material projects
               addressing Great Lakes ecological protection
               and restoration issues, information and/or ac-
               tions.

               C. Emerging or Strategic Issues. $0 to
               600,000 for projects which identify and pro-
               pose solutions/mitigation for Emerging or
               Strategic issues of Great Lakes Basin-wide
               applicability. $100,000 of this amount is tar-
               geted for Invasive Species.

               D. RAP Priorities - $2,440,000 for projects
               which advance Remedial Action Plan imple-
               mentation and development. $2.1 million of
               this funding is targeted for New York RAP
               projects.

               E. LaMP Priorities.  $852,000 for projects
               which will further advance Lakewide Man-
               agement Plan implementation and develop-
               ment.

               All of the dollar amounts listed above are tar-
               gets - refer to the Funding Guidance online
               for full descriptions at: http://www.epa.gov/
               glnpo/fund/2005guid/. Projects will be devel-
               oped and submitted electronically. The pro-
               ject submission software is available from
               the Funding Guidance Web Page.

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March 2005
                  Significant Activities Report
         To be added to our mailing list which an-
         nounces and provides information about our
         funding opportunities, we request that you
         register at: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/
         maillist/index.html For general questions,
         please contact Michael Russ by email at:
         russ.michael@epa.gov or by phone at (312)
         886-4013. Specific contacts for each topic
         area are listed in the Funding Guidance.

         (Contact: Mike Russ, 312-886-4013, russ.
         michael@epa.gov)

         Biology  Program Reviewed
         As part of its ongoing effort to assure and
         improve its Great Lakes monitoring pro-
         gram, GLNPO convened a peer-review
         panel on March 22nd and 23rd in Chicago to
         review the long-term biological monitoring
         program. The review panel consisted of six
         members from government and academia,
         with expertise in monitoring and specific
         components of the biology program. Pres-
         entation of the biology program's history
         and current status was completed March
         22nd.  The panel then deliberated on March
         23rd to produce their consensus recommen-
         dations on ways to make further improve-
         ments to the program. A final report con-
         taining the consensus recommendations as
         well as individual recommendations is be-
         ing prepared by Dr. John Gannon of the In-
         ternational Joint Commission. In concluding
         remarks, the panel praised the program, rec-
         ognizing the value  of the data to managers
         and scientists. They recommended that
         GLNPO expand its outreach program to
         better communicate monitoring findings
         and improve the visibility of the program.

         (Contact: David Rockwell, 312-353-1373,
         rockwell.david@epa.gov)

         Recent Publications
         Several GLNPO scientists were among the
   Diporeia, a key organism in the food-chain of the
  Great Lakes, is one of the organisms monitored in
 GLNPO's Great Lakes Biological Monitoring Program

 authors of chapters in an upcoming book
 entitled State of Lake Michigan: Ecology,
 Health, and Management.
 •   Dr. Glenn Warren co-authored the chap-
    ters on "Recent and long-term nutrient
    trends in Lake Michigan" and " Atrazine
    in the Lake Michigan ecosystem: Moni-
    toring results from the Lake Michigan
    Mass Balance Study."
 •   Dr. Marc Tuchman co-authored  a chap-
    ter entitled "Crustacean zooplankton
    communities in Lake Michigan," and
 •   Dr. Paul Bertram, Paul Horvatin, and
    GLNPO intern Christina Forst co-
    authored the "Developing Indicators of
    Ecosystem Health" chapter.

 A new Great Lakes Fishery  Commission
 Special Publication The State of Lake
 Michigan in 2000 (Special Publication 05-
 01), included a chapter on "Nutrients" au-
 thored by Dr. Glenn Warren, and one on
 "Phytoplankton and Zooplankton" co-
 authored by Dr. Marc Tuchman.
 This publication is available on the Great
 Lakes Fishery Commission's Web Site at:
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U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office

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 Significant Activities Report
                                    March 2005
        http://www.glfc.org/pubs/SpecialPubs/
        Sp05_l.pdf

        (Contact: Glenn Warren, 312-886-2405,
        warren.glenn@epa.gov)

        Toxics Strategy Meeting
        The Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy
        (GLBTS) Substance Workgroups held
        meetings on March 22nd in Windsor, On-
        tario to review and comment on drafts of
        their respective GLBTS Level 1 Substance
        Reassessment Reports (drafts are posted at
        www.glin.net/forum/index.php?
        bn=strategyteams_pbt).

        The purposes of these reassessment reports
        are to:
        •   evaluate the current status of the Level 1
            substances identified in the GLBTS with
            respect to environmental presence in the
            Great Lakes Basin,
        •   explore the GLBTS role to effect further
            source reductions, and
        •   make recommendations to the Parties to
            the GLBTS on future management op-
            tions and next steps beyond 2006, which
            is when the current interim reduction
            goals time-line ends.

        Presentations and  preliminary recommenda-
        tions were made to the Integration Work-
        group on March 23rd for Alkyl Lead, Pesti-
        cides, Mercury, PCBs, Dioxins/Furans,
        HCB and B(a)P, Slides from the presenta-
        tions can be viewed on the GLBTS Web
        Site at: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/bns/
        integration/2005/index.html. The recom-
        mendations in the reports and presentations
        are preliminary and subject to change.

        The next GLBTS Forum and Integration
        Workgroup Meetings will be held May 17th
        and 18th, 2005  in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
        (Contacts: Ted Smith, 312-353-6571, smith.
  Atmospheric transport and deposition is the main
 source of several of the persistent bioaccumulative
 toxic chemicals being addressed by the Great Lakes
          Binational Toxics Strategy

edwin@epa.gov; or E.Marie Graziano, 312-
886-6034, graziano.emarie@epa.gov)

State of the Streams Meeting
GLNPO's Rosanne Ellison was the keynote
speaker at the Detroit River "State of the
Streams" meeting on March 2nd. Rosanne
spoke about the history of the watershed
and Detroit River, at the first "Water Qual-
ity/Benthic Monitoring Workshop" for De-
troit River tributaries. The event was hosted
by the Stream Team, a group of educators
and volunteers interested in local water
quality issues.

(Contact: Rosanne Ellison, 734-692-7689,
ellison.rosanne@epa.gov)

Coordinated Restoration  Funding
GLNPO and NOAA Office of Response
and Restoration and the Restoration Center
staff met in Washington, DC on March  1st
to discuss how to better coordinate or
jointly fund habitat rest-oration for Great
Lakes habitat priorities. NOAA currently
funds restoration projects in Superfund and
RCRA,  Coastal Zone Management, and
coastal Community Restoration programs.
Representatives from the two agencies
agreed to work together to:
•  better coordinate funding,
U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office
                                          Page3

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March 2005
                   Significant Activities Report
          Metzger Marsh at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
         near Toledo, Ohio is an example of a successful wet-
                    land restoration project
        •  share information about projects, particu-
           larly those in the Great Lakes Areas of
           Concern, and
        •  investigate future j oint funding of tar-
           geted projects.

        (Contact: Karen Rodriguez, 312-353-2690,
        rodriguez.karen@epa.gov)
                                                           Upcoming Events
                                                  April 22nd

                                                  May 3rd
                                                  May 17th-18th
May 23rd-27th
May 31st
June 9th-! 1th
                                                        th oth
                                                  July 7th-8
                                                             nd
                                                  November 2na-
                                                  /|th
                                                  December 12
   2005

Earth Day

Public Conference Call for
questions on GLNPO 2005-
2006 Funding Guidance

Great Lakes Binational
Toxics Strategy Stakeholder
Forum and Integration
Workgroup, Toronto, On-
tario Canada
Conference on Great Lakes
Research, Ann Arbor, MI
Project Submissions Due for
GLNPO 2005-2006 Funding
Guidance
International Joint Commis-
sion 2005 Biennial Meeting
and Great Lakes Confer-
ence, Kingston, Ontario

Great Lakes Regional Col-
laboration Summit I, Duluth,
Minnesota

State of Lake Michigan
Conference, Green Bay,
Wisconsin

Great Lakes Regional Col-
laboration Summit II, Chi-
cago, Illinois
                                                    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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 U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office

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