Recent Additions | Contact Us Search: All EPA This Area

• You are here: EPA Home
• Great Lakes
• Funding > Descriptions of Previous Projects > FY2000-2001 Great Lakes Priorities and Funding Guidance > General Great Lakes Priorities 

FY2000 - 2001 Great Lakes Priorities and Funding Guidance

GENERAL GREAT LAKES PRIORITIES

The Great Lakes Basin is home to 33 million people, including more than one-tenth of the population of the United States. It contains some of the world's largest concentrations of industrial capacity; agricultural land; forests; dunes; wetlands; and 141 globally rare plant and animal species. The Lakes themselves constitute the largest system of fresh, surface water on earth, containing 20% of the world's supply. They are sensitive to a range of pollutant sources, including runoff, waste, industry discharges, and disposal leachate. Their size increases their vulnerability to atmospheric deposition. Pollutants bioaccumulate and are retained in the system for decades - outflows are less than 1 % annually and water retention ranges from 2.6 years in Lake Erie to 191 years in Lake Superior.

Great Lakes Program partners are united in their efforts, as set forth in the U.S./Canada Water Quality Agreement, to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. This mission is supported through:

• Reducing toxic substances, with an emphasis on persistent, bioaccumulative substances.
• Protecting and restoring vital habitats.
• Protecting biological integrity; restoring and maintaining diverse living populations.

To achieve those objectives, a nested structure of Great Lakes activities is managed and implemented by an alliance of Federal, State, Tribal, and non-governmental agencies. This structure fosters cross-program and cross-agency integration of programs at a variety of scales; from Areas of Concern to issues of lakewide and those of basinwide concern. Thus, the Great Lakes priorities include a variety of tools and focuses, including:

A. Toxics Reduction

• Great Lakes Water Quality Guidance. All Great Lakes States have submitted rules packages and associated materials pursuant to the requirements of the Critical Programs Act (CWA Section 118) and the Great Lakes Water Quality Guidance (40 CFR 132). Priority Activity: Completion of USEPA reviews of these materials, in order to assess whether or not the States’ programs are as protective as the Guidance.
• Binational Toxics Strategy. The Strategy, a ground breaking international toxics reduction effort, targets a common set of persistent, toxic substances for reduction and virtual elimination from the Great Lakes. It focuses on pollution prevention efforts, using voluntary and regulatory tools to achieve reductions, and contains reduction challenges for a targeted set of substances, e.g., mercury, PCBs, dioxins/furans, and certain canceled pesticides. Toxic reductions are being achieved through FY 1999 commitments made by DaimlerChrysler and Ford to eliminate PCB containing electrical equipment at their facilities, in North America and globally, respectively, and by Olin Corporation to achieve a goal of zero discharge of mercury at their chlor-alkali facilities. Noteworthy progress on mercury reduction has also been made under existing agreements with the American Hospital Association, three Northwest Indiana steel mills, and the Chlorine Institute. Priority Activities: Each targeted substance will be addressed at the appropriate phase of an analytical framework which consists of information gathering, analysis of current regulations/ initiatives, identification of options, and implementing reduction actions.
•  Air Toxics. Regional work continues with the States, the Office of Air and Radiation, the Office of Research and Development, GLNPO, and the Office of Water on a dual track approach to address the air pathway of toxic pollutants entering the Great Lakes ecosystem.
• The first track seeks emission reductions through voluntary programs, such as the Binational Toxics Strategy, and regulatory programs, such as development of technology-based emission standards for air toxics (i.e. MACT standards). Associated priorities include delegating of authority of Clean Air Act Title III activities to the Region 5 States, allowing the States to implement and enforce the MACT standards; increasing compliance activity on a selection MACT standards; and working with the States and OAR to develop and implement risk-based initiatives including the Urban Air Toxics Strategy and the residual risk program.
• Work also continues along a second track to develop multi-media strategies and studies under the Great Waters atmospheric deposition program, in order to ensure continued progress in reducing sources and loadings of atmospheric deposition to the Great Waters, and to further reduce the environmental and public health effects. These studies rely on a balanced effort of emission inventory development, deposition modeling, and ambient monitoring to provide input to a multi-media mass balance model which will assess the need for further emission reductions. The Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study and the Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load Air Deposition Pilot Projects are examples of ongoing multi-media initiatives addressing air toxics. Much of the activities concern the atmospheric deposition of mercury to lakes and land, a national priority and a global concern. Associated priorities include:
   
  • Inventory and Monitor. Assist States in (i) developing the Great Lakes Regional Air Toxics Emissions Inventory to define and regulate sources, evaluate control technologies and reduce atmospheric deposition of toxic pollutants to the Great Lakes and other inland lakes and (ii) monitoring of air toxics trends.
  • Toxics Modeling. Continue research on toxic pollutant modeling in order to better understand the fate and cycling of toxic pollutants through the Great Lakes ecosystem. In particular, force the computation linkages between atmospheric models and water-based models to simplify and enhance the prediction of relative loadings of contaminants from air and water to a given waterbody.
  • Long Range Transport. Assess and identify long-range transport of substances from sources outside of the Great Lakes per the Great Waters Report.
  • Control Technologies. Further investigate the development of cost-effective control technologies for mercury as well as other pollutants (both end-of-pipe controls and pollution prevention options).
     
• Contaminated Sediments. Polluted sediments are the largest major source of contaminants to the Great Lakes food chain - over 2,000 miles (40%) of the shoreline are considered impaired because of sediment contamination. The Region 5 sediment inventory contains 346 contaminated sediment sites. Fish consumption advisories remain in place throughout the Great Lakes and many inland lakes. Contaminated sediments also cause restrictions and delays in dredging of navigable waterways, which in turn can negatively affect local and regional economies. Although over 1 million cubic yards of Great Lakes sediments were remediated over the past 2 years, many times that amount must still be addressed. Contaminated sediments must be cleaned up - before these sediments move downstream or into open waters, which makes them inaccessible and cleanup impossible. Associated priorities include: (i) provide communities with technical assistance, especially in Areas of Concern, to clean up contaminated sediments in their rivers and harbors through application of regulatory authorities and cooperative approaches including on-the-ground cleanup, remedial design, and field work and assessment; (ii) prioritize Regional sediment sites and develop a Regional Sediments database; and (iii) improve the process for managing dredged materials from navigable waterways.
   
• B. Ecological (Habitat) Protection and Restoration. Much of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem has been permanently altered by anthropogenic stressors, but viable remnants of most of the biological components remain. Habitat priorities are focused on efforts to:
   
  • Protect ecosystems possessing ecological integrity, bio-diversity, or rare ecological occurrences from adverse impacts of anthropogenic stressors.
    
  • Restore physical processes, ecological structures, and functions to formerly degraded ecosystems that have the potential to be ecologically significant.

C. Ecosystem tools and approaches, addressing both toxics and habit:

• Lakewide Management Plans (LaMPs). USEPA and its partners are working to restore and protect the biological, chemical, and physical integrity of the Great Lakes. Priorities being addressed through lake management teams for each of the Lakes include:
   
  • Lake Michigan. The basin contains the Nation’s third largest population center, the world’s largest concentration of pulp and paper mills, 40 percent of the Nation’s steel mills, and substantial fruit and grain production. While water quality at Lake Michigan has improved, contamination still exists. Nonpoint source runoff, air deposition, and large contaminated sediment sites are main sources of the lake’s contamination. Fish advisories and beach closings are still necessary. Habitat destruction, developmental pressures, invasive species, and food chain disruption present significant challenges. Priority Activities: Engaging public and private entities to implement ALaMP 2000" activities to preserve and restore Lake Michigan's ecosystem. LaMP 2000 will include goals; ecosystem status and trends; pollutant causes, sources, and pathways; and results from the Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study and from a stakeholder comparative risk exercise. The ecosystem plan will include indicators and a draft monitoring plan and human health information integrated into the plan of proposed actions and milestones.1
     
  • Lake Ontario. There have been significant improvements since the 1960s and 1970s, when colonial waterbirds experienced nearly total reproductive failures due to high levels of toxic contaminants in the food chain. Following actions to ban and control contaminants entering the Great Lakes and GLWQA renewal, levels of toxic contaminants have decreased significantly, and colonial waterbird populations have overcome most of the recognized contaminant-induced impacts of 25 years ago (i.e., their eggshells show normal thickness, they are reproducing normally, and most population levels are stable or increasing). However, bioaccumulative toxics persist in sediment, water, and biota at levels of concern for some fish species and for higher order predators.Priority Activities: The Stage I (problem definition) LaMP was finalized in May, 1998. The LaMP workgroup will work with its partners to implement the binational workplan laid out in the Stage I document, towards the development of a draft LaMP 2000 document. Top priority will be given to activities that lead to the (i) identification of inputs of LaMP critical pollutants; measurement of critical pollutant loadings in tributaries and wastewater pollutants; and (iii) protection and restoration of significant nearshore, shallow water, tributary, wetland, or upland habitats in the Lake Ontario Basin. Other priority items identified in the binational workplan include enhancing existing mass balance models, facilitating cooperative lakewide monitoring, refining beneficial use impairment assessments, and finalizing ecosystems objectives and indicators for the Lake
     
  • Lake Superior. The largest fresh-water lake in the world by surface area, the lake basin is sparsely populated and relatively pristine. Through the Binational Program’s Zero Discharge Demonstration Program, the Lake Superior community will work with local industry and communities to reduce and eventually eliminate all discharges of targeted toxic substances to the Superior Basin. Priority Activities: Completion of the LaMP 2000 Document by April 2000, which will include both chemical and ecosystem reduction strategies for the Lake Superior Basin. The ecosystem components will include information and strategies relating to habitat, terrestrial/wildlife, sustainability, aquatics, and human health. Of particular importance will be implementation activities and projects which carry out the strategies specifically outlined in the LaMP 2000 document. These will include activities and projects to prevent, reduce, and/or remediate impaired uses by continuing implementation of the zero discharge demonstration, special protection designations, the development of an integrated monitoring plan, and protection and restoration of important habitat.
     
  • Lake Erie. The smallest, warmest, shallowest, and most biologically productive Great lake supports major industrial, recreational, and fishing uses. Stresses from urbanization, agricultural use, and invasive species impact habitat and threaten food sources. Priority Activities: (i) Critical Pollutants: Complete action plans for further reductions in PCBs and mercury levels and support action plan implementation, including pollution prevention efforts, sediment remediation, enforcement-compliance assistance, and support for RAP activities addressing PCBs and mercury. (ii) Habitat Protection/ Restoration: Complete action plans and support their implementation, including support for RAP activities addressing habitat. (iii) Problem Definition: Complete the development of ecosystem objectives and indicators, finalize beneficial use impairment assessments, and complete pollutant sources and loads analysis, in order to further develop and implement action plans to protect/restore the beneficial uses of Lake Erie. Further develop analysis of: human health impacts from Lake Erie (beach closings/fish advisories), long-range transport of pollutants, invasive species, use/impact of pesticides, nitrates trends/impacts, impacts of climate change, and impacts of water level changes. (iv) Public Involvement: Continue to support an active Public Forum, as well as other public involvement/outreach activities in the Lake Erie basin.
     
  • Lake Huron. The third largest Lake by volume has the largest lakeshore (extending 3,827 miles), and is characterized by shallow, sandy beaches and the rocky shores of Georgian Bay. Lake Huron’s drainage area, which covers parts of Michigan and Ontario, is relatively large compared to the other Great Lakes. Because of the lesser degree of development in the watershed, environmental issues in Lake Huron are focused around reducing habitat impairment and/or destruction, as well as addressing the leveling-off of declines of toxic contaminants. The Lake Huron Initiative, led by Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and partially funded through a cooperative agreement with GLNPO, has identified issues and efforts toward ensuring a sustainable Lake Huron watershed. Priority Activities: Protecting key habitat, especially coastal wetlands, spawning reefs, and island habitat; prioritization of non-point source areas for funding through Section 319 and Clean Michigan Initiative funds; identification of dam removal demonstration projects to increase available fish habitat; the restoration of the Saginaw Bay ecosystem, including environmental dredging, non-point source controls, and habitat restoration; sea lamprey control, especially in St. Mary's River; support of clean-up efforts of Lake Huron tributaries, including AOCs; support of enforcement/compliance efforts to ensure reductions in atmospheric deposition; and the promotion of pollution prevention throughout the watershed.

• AOCs and Special Places. Special attention is placed on geographic areas where beneficial use of water or biota is adversely affected or where environmental criteria are exceeded to the extent that use impairment exists or is likely to exist. The purpose of establishing "Areas of Concern" (AOCs) is to encourage jurisdictions to form partnerships to rehabilitate these acute, localized problem areas and to restore their beneficial uses.
   
  • Through ecosystem-based efforts, reduce toxic substances and protect/restore beneficial uses in the AOCs through community-based environmental protection. In supporting such efforts the Agency aims to enhance public communication and focus and coordinate implementation of all relevant Federal, State, and local media programs.
  • Target multi-media regulatory and non-regulatory actions to achieve risk-based environmental improvements in and around the Niagara River, Northwest Indiana, Greater Chicago, Southeast Michigan, Northeast Ohio, and on Tribal Lands.
  • Promote and support brownfields initiatives, including information dissemination to assist brownfields redevelopment in AOC communities.

D. Support Federal-State-Tribal Partnership and Integration

• Develop the new Great Lakes Strategy, expanding the participation of partners and forging linkages with the Government Performance and Results Act.
• Improve State and Tribal capability to address Great Lakes environmental problems through a cross-program approach based on environmental information.
• Initiate coordinated post-State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) indicator development, monitoring, information management, and reporting
• Provide broad access (including Federal and State agencies) to a common environmental database and analytical tools, facilitating Federal/State/Tribal information exchange.

 

• EPA Home
• Privacy and Security Notice
• Contact Us