Great Lakes Toxic Releases Up 12% From 2010 To 2011

Jan 16: U.S. EPA Region 5 Administrator issued a release discussing the latest 2011 annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report and its implications for the Great Lakes [See WIMS 1/16/12]. EPA indicates that toxic releases into surface waters in the Great Lakes Basin increased by 12 percent from 2010 to 2011. Nationwide, toxic surface water discharges decreased by 3 percent. Susan Hedman, EPA Region 5 Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager said, "This is a significant increase in toxic releases to our waters -- and an indication that the Great Lakes region is lagging behind other parts of the country. EPA's Toxic Release Inventory is a valuable tool to help target areas for improvement and we will use this new information to work with municipalities, agricultural producers and manufacturers in the Great Lakes Basin to improve water quality."

    Nitrates and pesticides from municipal wastewater treatment plants and agriculture account for most of the toxic surface water discharges to the Great Lakes Basin. Nitrates were also discharged by primary metals facilities, such as iron and steel mills and smelters, and food and beverage manufacturers. Despite increases from 2010 to 2011, overall toxic releases in the Great Lakes Basin have decreased about 40 percent since 2003 and are currently at the second-lowest level in a decade. Surface water, air and land releases in the basin increased by 12, 1 and 4 percent respectively, while underground injection decreased 5 percent from 2010 to 2011. Nationwide, the 2011 TRI data show total toxic air releases in 2011 declined 8 percent from 2010, mostly because of decreased emissions of hazardous air pollutants. Total releases of toxic chemicals increased for the second year in a row as a result of mining.

    Access an EPA Region 5 release with links to related information (click here). Access a national release from EPA with links to related information (click here). Access more on the 2011 TRI analysis and TRI web-based tools (click here). Access more on facility efforts to reduce toxic chemical releases (click here).

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Officials Meeting On Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

Jan 15: The Alliance for the Great Lakes (Alliance) and the International Joint Commission (IJC) announced that U.S. and Canadian officials are coming to Chicago on January 23 to discuss with environmental leaders and the public the way ahead in implementing the landmark Great Lakes Water Quality agreement, recently amended and updated in September 2012 [See WIMS 9/7/12]. Commissioners of the International Joint Commission will be an important part of this dialogue. Registration is now open for the day-long seminar and webinar entitled, "The Boundary Waters Treaty, the International Joint Commission, and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement," The deadline for registration to attend in-person is Friday, January 18, by end of day.

    Lyman Welch, Water Quality Program director for the Alliance said, "The future of the Great Lakes depends on the U.S. and Canada following through on their visionary commitments to protect and restore our precious clean water. It also depends on input from those outside government. We are pleased to invite everyone for a discussion on making this happen, providing an opportunity for stakeholders to contribute their views to both governments and the International Joint Commission."

    Years in the making, the 40-year-old pact to protect and restore the Great Lakes across national boundaries was updated by the U.S. and Canada in September. The Great Lakes Water Quality Protocol of 2012 is a bi-national agreement addressing key threats to the Great Lakes today, adding prevention of invasive species and adapting to impacts of climate change to its earlier calls for reductions in phosphorus and toxic pollutants. U.S. EPA Region V and the Great Lakes National Program Office in Chicago have made their facilities available for the seminar, 9 AM – 5PM CST, in the Lake Michigan Room of the EPA/GLNPO, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60604-3590. Photo identification/security screening will be required for building entry.

    Access a posted announcement and agenda (click here). Access the in-person registration website (click here). Access the webinar registration website (click here).

 

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Funding For Habitat Restoration In U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern

Jan 4: NOAA's Restoration Center announced a Federal funding opportunity (FFO) for habitat restoration in U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). The closing date is February 27, 2013. NOAA anticipates up to $5 million may be available for habitat restoration; typical awards for on the ground implementation are expected to range between $750,000 and $4 million. NOAA will also accept proposals for engineering and design of habitat restoration projects; typical awards are expected to range between $50,000 and $350,000.

    New this year NOAA will accept four proposals per AOC (each with an endorsement letter from either the state agency responsible for implementing the Area of Concern program or local public stakeholder group working with the state agency on implementing the remedial action plan): two for on the ground restoration projects and two for engineering and design projects. In cases where an Area of Concern crosses state boundaries, each state can submit two proposals for implementation and two proposals for engineering and design.

 

    Access complete information on the FFO (click here). Access further information from NOAA Restoration Center (click here, posted soon).

 

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Sustain Our Great Lakes Funding Opportunity

Jan 3: Sustain Our Great Lakes is now accepting applications for competitive funding through its 2013 grant cycle. Details about this funding opportunity are provided in the Request For Proposals, and additional program information is available from the link below. The submission deadline is February 14, 2013.

    In 2013, grant funding will be awarded in three categories: Habitat Restoration; Delisting of Habitat-Related Beneficial Use Impairments; and Private Landowner Technical Assistance. To be eligible for funding, projects must occur within the Great Lakes basin. Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and state, tribal and local governments.
Approximately $5–9 million is expected to be available for grant awards. Individual awards will range from $25,000 to $1.5 million.
 
    Sustain Our Great Lakes will host a webinar on January 15, 2013 to provide information about this funding opportunity.  Webinar participants will learn about funding priorities and the application process, see examples of past projects, receive tips for submitting competitive proposals, and have the opportunity to ask questions.  The webinar will begin at 11 AM Eastern Time/10 AM Central Time and last for approximately 1 hour. 

 

    Sustain Our Great Lakes is a public–private partnership among ArcelorMittal, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S.D.A. Natural Resources Conservation Service.

 

    Access an announcement with additional information and contacts (click here). Access the complete RFP (click here). Access a registration website for the webinar (click here).

 

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Latest GLMRIS Newsletter Available

Dec 19: The Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) has released Volume 2, Issue 4 of the GLMRIS Newsletter. In the latest issue includes: an articles on Program Manager Jack Drolet; the path forward for GLMRIS; an update on interagency Asian carp efforts; and more. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in consultation with other federal agencies, Native American tribes, state agencies, local governments and non-governmental organizations, is conducting the GLMRIS.

 

    The newsletter reemphasizes that a GLMRIS Report presenting a range of options and technologies to prevent the transfer of aquatic nuisance species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins at the CAWS and other potential locations along the divide will be submitted to Congress in December 2013. The newsletter indicates, "The purpose of the GLMRIS Report is to meet the intent of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) legislation, which requires expedited completion of the report initially scheduled for completion in 2015, as identified in Section 3061 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. The 90-Day Report, released in October, outlines a plan for the completion of the GLMRIS Report, including anticipated milestones and resource requirements."

 

    Access the latest newsletter (click here). Access the GLMRIS for complete information and background (click here).

 

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U-M Releases Great Lakes Environmental Threat Map

Dec 17: A comprehensive map, prepared by a group led by researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M), three years in the making is telling the story of humans' impact on the Great Lakes, identifying how "environmental stressors" stretching from Minnesota to Ontario are shaping the future of an ecosystem that contains 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water. In an article published online December 17, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers report on an expansive and detailed effort to map and cross-compare environmental stresses and the ecological services provided by the five lakes.

    Their efforts have produced the most comprehensive map to date of Great Lakes' stressors, and also the first map to explicitly account for all major types of stressors on the lakes in a quantitative way. David Allan, the project's lead researcher and a professor of aquatic sciences at U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment said, "Despite clear societal dependence on the Great Lakes, their condition continues to be degraded by numerous environmental stressors. The map gives federal and regional officials an unprecedented scientific foundation upon which to sustainably manage the Great Lakes, the researchers conclude.  

    The environmental stress map was developed by a bi-national team of researchers from academia and environmental organizations known as the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping (GLEAM) project. The team drew upon the latest and best data from Federal and state agencies as well as non-governmental organizations and individual researchers. The map represents the combined influence of nearly three dozen individual stressors and is incredibly detailed for a region spanning nearly 900 miles, showing impacts at the scale of half a mile. Thirty-four stressors were examined, including: coastal development, pollutants transported by rivers from agricultural and urban land, fishing pressure, climate change, invasive species and toxic chemicals (the full list is available from the Great Lakes Mapping website below). 

    To rank the relative importance of different stressors to ecosystem health, the team surveyed 161 researchers and natural resource managers from across the basin. Combining the mapping of multiple stressors with their ranking by experts to assess ecosystem health is an emerging new approach. Their work found high and low "stress" -- defined as human impacts like physical, chemical or biological disruptions that potentially have adverse effects on people, plants and animals -- in all five lakes. Ecosystem stress is highest closer to shores, but also extends offshore in some areas. Large sub-regions of moderate to high cumulative stress were found in lakes Erie and Ontario as well as in Saginaw and Green bays, and along Lake Michigan's shorelines. In contrast, extensive offshore areas of lakes Superior and Huron, where the coasts are less populated and developed, experience relatively low stress.  

    A key goal of the effort was to help lawmakers and natural resource managers better plan Great Lakes-area investments, such as those under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), a Federal effort initiated in 2009 that is funding hundreds of projects at sites where ecosystem stress is very high. The initiative is the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades. Eleven Federal agencies developed an action plan to implement the initiative through 2014.

    Some worrisome environmental stressors could not be included due to lack of adequate data across all five Great Lakes, and the team hopes to continue to map additional stressors as data become available. However, the cumulative stress index developed from 34 individual maps is unlikely to change much with new data, as simulations of cumulative stress using subsets of the full set of maps produced similar patterns. The researchers launched a new Great Lakes Mapping website to share their results with policymakers, planners and government officials in the region. The project will continue acquiring data to map stressors currently not included and will regularly update the stress maps. The GLEAM project began in 2009 with $500,000 from the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation.

 

    Access a posted release from U-M (click here). Access the Great Lakes Mapping website for links to the high resolution maps (click here). Access the PNAS website for more information (click here).

 

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Sustain Our Great Lakes 2013 Funding Opportunity

Dec 13: The public–private partnership organization, Sustain Our Great Lakes, has announced a webinar on January 15, 2013 to learn about the grant funding opportunity to be offered. On January 3, the 2013 Sustain Our Great Lakes Request for Proposals (RFP) will be available on the organization's website. In 2013, grant funding for work in the Great Lakes basin will be awarded in three categories: 1) habitat restoration; 2) delisting of habitat-related beneficial use impairments; and 3) private landowner technical assistance. Pre-proposals will be due on February 14, 2013. Webinar participants will learn about funding priorities and the application process, see examples of past projects, receive tips for submitting competitive proposals, and have the opportunity to ask questions. The webinar will begin at 11 AM Eastern Time and last for approximately 1 hour.

    Sustain Our Great Lakes is a bi-national, public-private partnership that sustains, restores and protects fish, wildlife and habitat in the Great Lakes basin by leveraging funding, building conservation capacity, and focusing partners and resources toward key ecological issues. The partnership includes ArcelorMittal, the world's leading steel and mining company; U.S. EPA; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the U.S. Forest Service; the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, established by Congress in 1984; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

 

    Access an announcement with details on registering for the webinar (click here). Access the Sustain Our Great Lakes for more information (click here).

 

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