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. ------- 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: Page 2 U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office ------- 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 ------- 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. Page 4 U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office ------- |