No Asian Carp Found After Intensive Monitoring Around Lake Calumet

Aug 9: The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) detailed the results of intensive monitoring efforts in and around Lake Calumet within the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) and announced no Asian carp were seen or captured during a four-day response. The ACRCC began a Level 1 monitoring response under its Monitoring and Rapid Response Plan on August 1, after three consecutive rounds of Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling yielded positive results for Asian carp DNA in and around Lake Calumet [See WIMS 8/1/11]. 

 

    At present, eDNA evidence cannot verify whether live Asian carp are present, whether the DNA may have come from a dead fish, or whether water containing Asian carp DNA may have been transported from other sources, such as bilge water. While the Lake Calumet area is regularly monitored for the presence of Asian carp, a level 1 response intensified efforts over a four-day period of time with commercial fishing crews, electrofishing boats, larger sweeping nets called seines, and additional sampling gear such as tandem trap nets and hydro acoustic surveys to determine whether live Asian carp were present in the area.

    John Goss, Asian Carp Director for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) said, "Our rapid response plan did what it was designed to do -- use aggressive monitoring and the best available technology to confirm there is no establishing population of Asian carp above the electric barrier. We will continue to follow our comprehensive Asian carp control strategy to aggressively monitor the Chicago Area Waterway System, ensure the security of the electric barrier, and use and develop the most advanced technologies to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp." 

    The Lake Calumet response action concluded on August 4, 2011 after more than 1,066 person-hours on the water using a crew of 38 state and Federal agency biologists and commercial fishermen aboard 11 vessels.  A variety of nets and methods were used during the operation, including gill/trammel netting, electrofishing, tandem-trap netting, and hydro acoustic surveys.  In total, crews fished more than 11 miles of gill/trammel nets, eight fyke nets, and completed 22.5 hours of electrofishing.  In all, 8,668 fish were collected, including large numbers of buffalo and gizzard shad , indicating that fish that share Asian carp habitat preferences were being trapped and identified.

    Access a lengthy release from ACRCC with additional details and links to more information (click here).

New Blog To Engage & Monitor GLWQA Renegotiations

Aug 9: Agreement Watch is a new blog hosted by Great Lakes United (GLU) to help citizens engage in the renegotiation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). GLU will provide periodic updates on the site as new information becomes available and post short articles and opinion pieces on various issues related to the Agreement. Concise and constructive comments are welcome.

 

    GLU reports that negotiating teams for the United States and Canada are actively engaged in drafting the first major changes to the Agreement since 1987. The window for official public input is expected to close by September 20, 2011. On August 4, the U.S. and Canadian governments announced the following as the final opportunities for public input into the GLWQA renegotiations:

• Late August: the governments will post a consultation presentation on binational.net
• A binational public forum will be held in Toronto on the afternoon of September 8.
• A binational public forum will be held in Chicago on the morning of September 13.
• A basin-wide webinar will be held on the afternoon of September 13.
• Written comment period for the public ends September 20.

    GLU indicates that one of the major requests from many groups over the past couple of years is that the public be given the opportunity to see the specific language of a draft revised GLWQA before the final round of public meetings. The governments have refused to do so. In a letter sent to Great Lakes United on July 29, 2011, the U.S. State Department and Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade responded: "While the restraints of international negotiations prevent us from sharing a draft of the agreement for public comment, we will be providing descriptive written materials to be shared ahead of the public forums." GLU notes there is no indication yet as to how specific the "descriptive written materials" will be.

    Access the Agreement Watch blog for extensive information and (click here). Access the Binational.net website for additional information from the governments (click here). Access the GLU website for more information (click here).

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).