ANS White Paper & Conference Call August 10

Aug 9: The US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) in collaboration with study partners have published the Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) White Paper: Non-Native Species of Concern and Dispersal Risk for the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study. The purpose of the ANS White Paper is to catalog potential non-native species within the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins and identify which high-risk species will be an initial focus in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS).

 

    According to an announcement, forty (40) aquatic nuisance species are identified in the ANS White Paper as high-risk species for GLMRIS Focus Area I -- the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS):10 are high-risk to the Great Lakes Basin and 30 are high-risk to the Mississippi River Basin. ACOE has prepared a table and information on the 40 Focus Area I high-risk species. The purpose of the ANS White Paper is to catalog potential non-native species within the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins and identify which high-risk species will be an initial focus in GLMRIS. ACOE will host a conference call tomorrow, August 10, 2011, at 11:00 AM (central) for interested parties to ask questions of the technical team that developed the Aquatic Nuisance Species White Paper.

 

    Access the ACOE ANS website for the table more information (click here). Access the ANS White Paper (click here). Access more information on the White Paper release and details form the conference call (click here). Access the GLMRIS website for complete background information (click here).

 

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Community-Based Climate Adaption Plans In The Great Lakes

Aug 4: The Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) in cooperation with Climate Solutions University (CSU) announced a funding opportunity for developing community-based climate adaption plans in the Great Lakes. The Model Forest Policy Program has developed a Climate Adaptation program called Climate Solutions University: Forest and Water Strategies (CSU) and is seeking applications from Great Lakes rural forested communities to participate in 2012. Applications to participate in 2012 are now available at with a deadline of September 19, 2011.

 

    According to an announcement the CSU program works to empower local, rural communities in the U.S. to become resilient in the face of a changing climate by protecting their forest and water resources and their resource-dependent livelihoods. The program invests in a multi-year engagement with communities to assess their climate risks and develop a climate readiness plan to be implemented over the next several years. The CSU training and coaching process begins with a 10-month rigorous curriculum of distance learning with a monthly webinar, a monthly conference call, plus individual coaching and assistance. This will be complemented by extensive work by the local Great Lakes project leader and their local organization's planning team. CSU offers a direct $10,000 scholarship to support local staff time plus an estimated $50,000 in the value of the CSU educational and coaching process. The local community leader is expected to provide a $10,000 in-kind match so as to assure at least a half-time person dedicated to leading the project with the help of their local stakeholder team. 

 

   By the end of 2011, 14 communities will have completed the CSU process with excellent results in the climate adaptation plans they have developed and some beginning to implement in 2011. Their goals are location specific, driven by local decision makers, and aimed at benefiting the social, environmental and economic needs of the community.

 

    Access a posted announcement with links to more information (click here). Access a registration form to obtain program guidelines and a complete application (click here). Access the SWP website for more information (click here).

 

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Indiana DNR State Of Lake Michigan Conference

Aug 8: The Indiana Department of Natural Resources announced the 7th biennial State of Lake Michigan (SOLM) and the 11th annual Great Lakes Beach Association Conference. The joint conference will be held at the Stardust Event Center, located a few blocks from the southern shores of Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana, on September 26-28. The conference brings together elected officials, scientists, resource managers, planners, students, and citizens working to improve Great Lakes beaches and Lake Michigan, as outlined in the Lakewide Management Plan. Activities and events include field trips, workshops, and a reception with speakers from local, state, and federal government and John Goss, President Obama's Carp Czar. 

 

    Access complete conference details and agenda and link to online registration (click here).

Chemicals & Chemical Byproducts In The Great Lakes

Aug 4: A study released by the Alliance for the Great Lakes takes a hard look at the existing data on chemicals and chemical byproducts in the Great Lakes, and at what science tells us that could mean for our health. According to a release, the discovery of pharmaceutical byproducts in Lake Michigan and more recently, Lake Erie, is raising concerns about the potential health risk to the more than 40 million who rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water -- as well as concerns about what else might be circulating in the water. 

    The Alliance indicates that more troubling is that "these pharmaceuticals represent just a fraction of the chemical contaminants that make up what some researchers look upon as a vast chemical soup stretching from Minnesota to New York." The study reports that many emerging contaminants are found in the Great Lakes today, among them flame retardants, modern pesticides, pharmaceuticals, the antibacterial and antifungal agent Triclosan, and the insect-repellent DEET. The now-notorious bisphenol A (BPA), commonly used in a wide variety of plastics such as baby bottles and food packaging, was found in more than half the water samples analyzed in all the studies to date.

    The report, Emerging Contaminant Threats and the Great Lakes: Existing science, estimating relative risk, and determining policies, says there's too little data from the lakes and not enough understanding of the effects of these emerging contaminants. "What is known, it concludes, is worth worrying about." Dr. Rebecca Klaper, Shaw Associate Professor at the Great Lakes WATER Institute in Milwaukee and lead author of the report said, "Exposure to some of these chemicals . . .  is cause for consternation for people and concern over fish and wildlife impacts." 

    The Alliance is calling for legislation to reform the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the 1976 law from which EPA derives its authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing of chemical substances. Among the needed reforms they are calling for: Grant the EPA administrator the ability to act immediately on chemicals we know are dangerous, such as persistent and bioaccumulating toxics, asbestos and formaldehyde; Require chemical manufacturers to provide basic information on the health and environmental hazards associated with their chemicals, and grant the public full access to information about a chemical's safety; and Ensure chemicals meet a standard of safety for all people -- including children, pregnant women and workers.

 

    There are currently nine co-sponsors to a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) which they said "calls for a comprehensive approach to managing chemicals." The Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S.847) would increase chemical safety, curb emerging contaminants from entering the environment in the first place, and address chemicals that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. The following five Great Lakes senators are co-sponsoring the legislation: Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar, (D-MN), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

 

    Access a release from the Alliance and link to the complete report, executive summary and fact sheet and (click here).

New App Provides Beach Water Quality & Information

Aug 4: The Great Lakes Commission (GLC), in partnership with LimnoTech and the Great Lakes states, has developed a smartphone application that provides more options and opportunities for public access to beach advisories and other environmental information. Funded by the U.S. EPA-led Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), the myBeachCast application (app) provides the public with real-time information on beach water quality advisories, weather and water conditions in a form that is location-aware and easy to access. The app allows users to discover local beaches based on the user's location, save favorite beaches, and quickly locate other nearby beaches in the case of a water quality advisory at their favorite beach.

    Currently in the beta testing phase, the app retrieves advisory and closure data from the states of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, all of which utilize BeachGuard, a centralized reporting database for monitoring data collected by health departments across each state. Data from the other Great Lakes states will be incorporated in time for the app's full launch in May 2012. The app was designed for the Android platform by LimnoTech, a water resources and engineering company based in Ann Arbor, MI, in partnership with GLC and the states. A mobile-enhanced website available on the Great Lakes Information Network will offer complementary information for other mobile devices. Funding is being sought to develop a corresponding native app for the iPhone.
   

    Access a posted release on the app with contact information (click here). Access the myBeachCast app (click here). Access the BeachGuard for more information (click here).

Great Lakes Coalition Announces $115,000 In Grants

Aug 3: The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition (HOW) announced $115,000 in grants that will be awarded to nine organizations poised to jump-start restoration projects on four of the five Great Lakes. The coalition grants will help conservation organizations participate in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program to clean up toxic pollution, confront aquatic invasive species and restore habitat and wetlands.

 

    According to a release, one organization funded by the coalition last year -- the Alliance for the Great Lakes -- leveraged a $15,000 grant into a recently announced $150,000 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative award to improve 28 acres of habitat along Lake Michigan in northeastern Illinois. Jeff Skelding, campaign director for HOW said, "We're excited to be working with local groups to continue progress on Great Lakes restoration. Restoration projects produce results -- but there is more work to do. These grants will address a variety of issues that are important to the health of the Great Lakes and economy."

 

    The coalition awards grants of up to $15,000 to groups in five geographic priority areas: The St. Louis River and St. Louis Bay in Lake Superior; the waters of Lake Michigan in the Chicagoland area; Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay; western Lake Erie and eastern Lake Ontario. This year, the coalition awarded grants to three Michigan groups; two Minnesota organizations; two New York groups; and two Ohio organizations.

 

The 2011 implementation grants will support efforts to: Reduce phosphorus pollution and Control the invasive reed Phragmites in western Lake Erie; Reduce noxious algae and improve water quality in Lake Ontario's Sodus Bay; Restore the lower Salmon Creek watershed in New York; Restore the Rifle River in Michigan and remove a dam in the Shiawassee River that limits upstream fish passage from Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay; Replace invasive Phragmites in Saginaw Bay with native wild rice; and Restore streams that flow into Lake Superior's Duluth Harbor and increase public awareness of restoration projects underway in the St. Louis River.

 

    Access a lengthy release from HOW with details on each of the grants and links to the organizations (click here). Access the HOW website for more information (click here). 

Autumn Leaves (Litterfall) Mercury Pathway Equals Precipitation

Aug 2: Recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research indicates that fallen autumn leaves transfer as much, if not more, hazardous mercury from the atmosphere to the environment as does precipitation each year. USGS indicates mercury is an environmental contaminant that accumulates in fish and food webs and poses a health risk to humans and wildlife. Precipitation is a major avenue by which mercury is transferred from the atmosphere into the environment, but new studies by the USGS and partners show that litterfall -- the leaves and needles that drop to the forest floor each year -- delivers at least as much mercury to eastern U.S. ecosystems as precipitation, and precipitation has been increasing in the Great Lakes region.

    USGS research hydrologist Martin Risch said, "Before these studies, we didn't know the extent of litterfall as a mercury pathway in different types of forests across the eastern U.S. Our research found that annual amounts of mercury deposited in autumn litterfall from deciduous forests were equal to or exceeded the annual amounts deposited in precipitation." Most of the mercury that eventually ends up in fish and food webs comes from the air, and much of the mercury in the air comes from human sources such as coal-fired power plants, industrial boilers, cement manufacturing, and incinerators. Forest canopies naturally remove mercury from the air and incorporate the mercury into and onto the leaves and needles of trees.

    USGS scientists researched mercury levels in litterfall from forests over a three-year period in 15 eastern U.S. states. When they compared the results to those from a separate study of mercury in precipitation within the Great Lakes region, they found similar geographic patterns for mercury in litterfall and mercury in precipitation: Both types of mercury deposition were generally high in the same areas and low in the same areas. Risch said, "The similar geographic patterns indicate that the same mercury emissions sources affecting mercury levels in precipitation in an area also may affect mercury levels in forests and litterfall in that same area."

    Furthermore, USGS said the precipitation study found no improvement in the amount of atmospheric mercury deposited by precipitation in the Great Lakes region over a 7-year period, and found that the amount of precipitation in the region had increased during this time. This precipitation study covers a time period that precedes new regulations by U.S. EPA to reduce mercury emissions in the U.S.

    Access a release from USGS and links to the two studies' abstracts and full text online for purchase in the journal Environmental Pollution (click here).