Great Lakes Regional Body & Compact Council Meetings

May 10: The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body (Regional Body) will meet on June 10, 2010, at 1:00 PM CDT. The meeting will be held at the Avenue Crowne Plaza Hotel Chicago, 160 E. Huron, Chicago, Illinois 60611. The meeting is open to the public and will include an opportunity for public comments. An agenda, materials to be discussed and call-in information for those wishing to participate remotely are available on the Regional Body website.

    Additionally, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Council (Compact Council) will meet on the same day at 1:45 PM CDT at the same location. The meeting is open to the public and will include an opportunity for public comments. An agenda, materials to be discussed and call-in information for those wishing to participate remotely are available on the Compact Council's new website

 

    Access the Regional Body website (click here). Access the Compact Council's website (click here).

Updated Asian Carp Control Strategy

May 5: The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee  and AsianCarp.org, the official web site established to coordinate the implementation of control and management of Asian carp in the United States, has release an 82-page Updated Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework; a Three‐Month Monitoring and Sampling Plan; and related information.

 

    According to the updated framework, its main are to: Outline the urgent actions agencies are taking; Integrate and unify the future actions of responding agencies; Transition from a single point of defense at the electric barriers to a multi-tiered approach; Provide general direction while recognizing that agencies require flexibility to best respond; Recognize potential hurdles that might complicate Framework implementation; and Suggest an approach for stakeholders and other agencies to actively collaborate in future efforts. The latest version differs from the first draft released in February 2010 in that it contains new actions either now underway or whose efficacy will be assessed in 2010. It also includes updated milestones based on activities conducted to date, and a Responsiveness Summary addressing public comments received over the last several months.

 

    The Strategy indicates that since February, responding agencies have used conventional and commercial fishing techniques, including gill and trammel netting and electro shocking, to physically confirm the presence of Asian carp upstream of the electric barrier. To date, no Asian carp have been found. In addition, eDNA (environmental deoxyribonucleic acid) sampling has continued. Out of 221 samples collected and processed in 2010, two have tested positive. "Taken together, the fishing and sampling results further the belief that there are not enough Asian carp upstream of the barrier to create self-sustaining populations."

    The actions outlined in the Strategy are grouped into two categories: (1) Short-term Actions and (2) Long-term Actions. Environmental considerations, including minimizing impacts on resident aquatic life, will be integrated into the decision-making process and appropriate environmental review will occur as necessary for all proposed actions. Short-term actions include: Operations to confirm and reduce Asian carp populations upstream of the electric barriers; eDNA capacity and indicator refinement; Contract for the construction of emergency engineering measures to block passage of water and fish between (1) Des Plaines River and CSSC and (2) Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal and CSSC; and Begin construction of the additional planned electric barrier (Barrier IIB).

 

    The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (RCC) also announced its latest monitoring and sampling plan to guide Asian carp control efforts in the Chicago Area Waterway System CAWS). John Rogner, Assistant Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said, "This sampling plan will provide us with important data needed to make future decisions. Keeping Asian carp from establishing a population in Lake Michigan remains our ultimate goal and we think this new monitoring pan will help us achieve our objectives." Charlie Wooley, Deputy Regional Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said, "These new monitoring efforts will help us make the most strategic decisions for keeping Asian carp from becoming established in the Great Lakes. The new monitoring plan will provide the quantitative information necessary to determine the most successful control methods for Asian carp, if they are present in the area."

 

    The Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) issued a release saying that the Illinois Coast Guard announced Monday [May 3] a temporary closure on portions of the Little Calumet River south of the "economically vital" O'Brien Lock and Dam at the request of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. CICI said, "While the potential environmental threat posed by Asian Carp slipping into the Great Lakes warrants serious concern, the actual immediate economic consequences posed by a closure of the locks is a nightmare for the entire Mississippi Valley and Midwest. In this time of economic uncertainty, shutting the locks will have serious consequences for businesses throughout the region that depend on goods transported by river freight. Put bluntly, long term closure and disruption will cost jobs and force some facilities out of business. . . Hopefully this temporary closure is not a sign of thing to come."

   

    Access the AsianCarp.org website for links to the Updated Strategy, the three-month monitoring and sampling plan, and related information released on May 5 (click here). Access a release from CICI (click here).

Policy Committee Meeting On GLRI & GLWQA

May 4: The Great Lakes U.S. Policy Committee is hosting a public forum on Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 9:15 AM - 4:00 PM (Eastern) to provide information on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and on U.S.-Canadian negotiations on the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). EPA indicates that this will be an opportunity to learn and provide comments on the two issues. The forum will take place at the lodge at Maumee Bay State Park, Toledo, Ohio. Those who wish to attend in person must register by May 10. Others who cannot attend, can access a live video webcast.

 

    Access a draft agenda, registration and lodging information (click here). Access the webcast website (click here).

GLRI To Expand Great Lakes Watershed Database

May 3: The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) has announced that NOAA's existing Great Lakes Query Manager database is being expanded under the GLRI to help expedite the development, implementation, and monitoring of sediment cleanup and restoration projects throughout the Great Lakes.  According to a GLRI posting, historically, data available at any given project site have been from various agencies and programs that have kept data in different formats. This has often resulted in substantial time being expended to compile, analyze, and interpret the data. To address this problem, the GLRI expansion of the Great Lakes Watershed Environmental Database will incorporate additional environmental sediment chemistry, biota contaminant-residue chemistry, and environmental contaminant toxicity data from all Great Lakes States and federal partners. The database will serve as a centralized repository for all Great Lakes Basin environmental contaminant-related data. 

 

    GLRI indicates that having data in one compiled, standardized form will decrease the time necessary to interpret the data, thereby, helping to speed cleanup and restoration. All agencies will benefit through increased volume and accessibility of the data as well as the technical input provided by the coordinating agencies. Establishing a more comprehensive Great Lakes Query Manager database will also provide partner agencies with a powerful outreach tool that can be used to share information with the public in an easy to use format. NOAA currently maintains Query Manager databases for several Great Lakes sub-watersheds and a Basin-wide Query Manager database for the NOAA National Status and Trends Mussel Watch data.

    Query Manager is a relational database that has been used in the cleanup and restoration of contaminated sediment sites throughout the coastal United States. It is routinely used throughout the Great Lakes in investigation and sample plan design, ecological risk assessment, cleanup level derivation, development and evaluation of remedial alternatives, development of mitigation strategies, sediment and soil remediation design–including time-critical removal actions, natural resource damage assessment (pathway evaluation, injury determination, and restoration project development and scaling), and long-term effectiveness monitoring programs and other management activities needed to cleanup and restore the Great Lakes ecosystem.

    Access the GLRI announcement and link to additional information about NOAA's Query Manager database application, or to obtain a copy of the desktop version (click here).

MI AG Says Asian Carp Issue Now In President's Hands

Apr 26: In the wake of the latest decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Michigan and six other states their day in court on the Asian carp crisis [See WIMS 4/26/10], Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said that "thousands of Michigan jobs now depend on the willingness of President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid to protect the Great Lakes over the narrow interests of the President's home state of Illinois." Michigan's lawsuit calling for a permanent separation of the Great Lakes basin from the Mississippi River basin was supported by Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and the Province of Ontario. 

 

    Cox said, "The fight to protect Michigan's jobs and environment now falls to President Obama and Congress. While President Obama has turned a blind eye to the millions of Great Lakes residents who do not happen to live in his home state of Illinois, it is now up to him to save thousands of Michigan jobs and our environment. Unfortunately, very little of the President's incomplete plan has even been implemented at this point. Michigan and all other Great Lakes residents should contact the President immediately and tell him the future of our region requires immediate action."

    In a release, Cox said residents can make their voices heard by calling the White House at 202-456-1414, signing an online petition to protect the Lakes at www.StopAsianCarp.com, and posting comments at the stopasiancarp.com page on Facebook. Cox also called on Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid to quickly advance critical legislation sponsored by Congressman Dave Camp (H.R. 4472) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (S. 294). The CARP Act will allow immediate action to protect the Great Lakes' ecosystem and $7 billion per year fishing industry from invasive Asian carp, much like what was called for in Michigan's suit. Cox praised the bi-partisan efforts of Governor Granholm, the Michigan DNRE, and Michigan's Congressional delegation and said their continued efforts are critical to stopping Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. 

 

    Access a release from AG Cox (click here).

Supreme Court Final Denial In Great Lakes Carp Case

Apr 26: The U.S. Supreme Court for the third time declined to address the debate between Great Lakes states on issues and actions necessary to control the spread of Asian Carp into the Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes [See WIMS 4/20/10]. 

 

    In its brief denial, the High Court said, "The motion of Michigan to reopen and for a supplemental decree is denied. The alternative motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied." While the Supreme Court had previously denied the Michigan request for a Motion for Preliminary Injunction on March 22 [See WIMS 3/22/10] the Attorney General also filed a petition requesting the Court to reopen the ongoing legal case -- 1, 2 , 3 Original -- with the State and Illinois on issues related to diversions of water from the Great Lakes, through various Chicago waterworks and into the Mississippi River basin. The Attorney General argued that, "since by law, this Court [Supreme Court] has 'original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more states,'  there is no other forum in which Michigan may obtain the equitable relief it seeks." [See WIMS 3/23/10].

 

    Henry Henderson, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC's) Midwest Program, who filed an amicus brief with the Court on behalf of the Michigan case issued a statement said, "This fight is not over, it is simply shifting. By choosing not to engage, the Justices have opened other venues for addressing the invasive species threat. Sadly, the Court has stepped away from nearly a century of effective engagement with the important intersection of the Chicago Waterway System and the health of the Great Lakes. With all that is at stake, it is likely that we will see this action moved to another legal venue. In the meantime, NRDC and the other NGO groups will be working to help bring about an effective, permanent solution to protect the Great Lakes and the community that depends upon them." 

    Access the Supreme Court Order (click here, top of page 2). Access a release from NRDC (click here). Access various media reports (click here). Access links to Michigan's filings in the case (click here). Access all of the filings in the case (click here).

Groups Say Great Lakes Under Siege From Toxic Pollution

Apr 21: A report released by Great Lakes-area environmental groups -- Partners in Pollution 2:  An Update on the Continuing Canadian and United States Contributions to Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Ecosystem Pollution -- indicates that reporting facilities released just over 460 million lbs (209 million kg) of pollutants in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin in 2007. The report numbers are based on a matched dataset of 2007 data compiled by the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) and the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Among the pollutants, over 34 million lbs of known reproductive/developmental toxins were released by 1,834 facilities in the Great Lakes basin. The report was prepared by PollutionWatch, a collaborative project of Environmental Defence and Canadian Environmental Law Association.
 
    John Jackson, Director of Clean Production and Toxics at Great Lakes United (GLU) said, "Imagine 17,000 dump trucks pulling up to your beach and tipping their toxic load straight into the drinking water of 40 million people. These ongoing toxic discharges are a smear on one of the world's greatest sources of freshwater. We need to move beyond promises and put more serious effort into stopping this pollution in the first place." Lake Michigan basin had the second largest number of facilities in the basin (25% of all facilities) that reported to the U.S. TRI and contributed a fifth (approximately 21%) of total releases of pollutants in the Great Lakes basin. 
 
    Meanwhile, the Lake Erie basin is being particularly hard hit. Including the industrial facilities that straddle the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and the Detroit River, Lake Erie had the most facilities (over 1,300 facilities representing 35% of all facilities) that reported to Canada's NPRI and U.S. TRI. These facilities contributed half of the total releases that affect this watershed. The groups said, "This is particularly troubling considering that Lake Erie is the smallest, shallowest, but most biologically productive lake in the Great Lakes system."
 
    Lin Kaatz Chary, Project Director of the Great Lakes Green Chemistry Network said, "We need to shift away from an 'end of pipe' mentality and toward a strong commitment to pollution prevention. This includes an emphasis on the promotion of 'green' chemistry to help companies design and manufacture products that eliminate or reduce the toxicity of chemicals used in production, while also preventing unnecessary waste." The groups said the prevention focus has long been a principle of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), an historic pact between Canada and the U.S. to curb pollution to the lakes. Pollution Watch 2 is being released as the United States and Canadian governments renegotiate this landmark agreement, which sets goals for reducing pollution on both sides of the Great Lakes basin.

 

    Access a lengthy release with summary table and additional information (click here). Access the 65-page report (click here). Access the Pollution Watch website for extensive background information (click here).