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Committees and Subcommittees
Public Involvement CommitteeContact Information: US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Environment Canada (EC) Committee Charge: To develop a public involvement strategy that fosters effective two-way communication with the public, based on the three tier approach in the Concept Paper. Beneficial Use Impairment Assessment SubcommitteeContact Info: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) Environment Canada (EC)
Current Focus: Individual assessment reports are being written for each of the 14 potentially impaired uses of Lake Erie. The current efforts of the Beneficial Use Impairment Assessment Subcommittee (BUIASC) are focused on completion of the following reports:
Ecosystem Objectives SubcommitteeContact Information: Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) Committee Charge: To develop ecosystem objectives to help guide Lake Erie LaMP efforts and develop a variety of indicators to measure progress towards meeting objectives. Current Focus: The key to developing useful ecosystem objectives is to reconcile public values with ecological reality. Consequently, Ecosystems Objectives Subcommittee (EOSC) efforts to date have revolved around defining the reality of the Lake Erie ecosystem in a manner that can be readily understood by a variety of decision-makers. To date over 4,000 statements or "rules" about the Lake Erie Ecosystem have been compiled by a group of experts. For example, "walleye are common or abundant if the quantity of spawning habitat is high". The Lake Erie ecosystem "rules " are the basis for development of a Lake Erie ecosystem model. The model is currently being developed and tested. Once complete, the model will allow interested users to obtain responses to queries about the Lake Erie ecosystem. For example, if my proposed ecosystem objective is "abundant walleye", the model will tell me what other conditions will be present in the Lake Erie ecosystem when walleye are abundant. The model output will be used to facilitate selection of final Lake Erie ecosystem objectives from a larger list of potential objectives. Sources And Loadings SubcommitteeContact Information: US Geological Survey Environment Canada (EC) Committee Charge: To identify sources of pollutants identified by the LaMP Work Group as "pollutants of interest" in Lake Erie. These pollutants are identified through the beneficial use impairment assessment process or are suspected of having a potential impact on Lake Erie. All available information for municipal and industrial dischargers, tributaries, landfill and hazardous waste sites, sediments, atmospheric emissions, urban and agricultural runoff, water column concentrations, and fish tissue will be examined. Where possible, methodologies will be developed to calculate loadings of these pollutants to the lake. The results of this work, in combination with the beneficial use impairment assessment, will be used by the Work Group to determine the critical pollutants for Lake Erie. Current Focus: The Sources and Loadings Subcommittee is compiling the above data and has created a data base called LIMS to contain the information that has been collected to date. Much additional information, particularly for nonpoint sources, is still being researched and compiled. The initial efforts have focused on PCBs, mercury, DDT and metabolites, chlordane, dioxin, dieldrin, and phosphorus as the fast-track pollutants of interest in the lake. All additional contaminants considered to be bioaccumulative chemicals of concern under the U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Guidance, the Canada-Ontario Agreement, and the Binational Toxics Strategy will be included in the final report and is also being collected now. Some of the key challenges to compiling pollution source information into a useable format and calculating pollutant loadings include:
Management CommitteeContact Information: Role and Functions: Work GroupCo-chairs Contact Information: |
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