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Long-Awaited Ashtabula RiverCleanup Begins
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Ashtabula River Baseline Studies
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Wildlife-Friendly Wind Power
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Lake Erie Floating Classroom
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Lake Erie D. O. Tested
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Air Monitoring Results Shared
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L
AKEWIDE
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LANNING
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Developing a Lake Ontario Bio-diversity Conservation Strategy
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Lake Superior Work Group
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Lake Michigan Forum
spots, the Ashtabula project will comprehen-sively address an entire Area of Concern.USEPA in cooperation with the AshtabulaCity Port Authority (the non-federal sponsor)will clean up 500,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a one-milestretch of the river. Costs are being splitevenly by USEPA and the Ashtabula CityPort Authority and its partners. Speaking atthe event, Ohio Governor Bob Taft said “TheAshtabula River dredging is an outstandingexample of what can be accomplished whenfederal, state and local government come to-gether with business to achieve one goal. TheState of Ohio is proud to invest $7 million tohelp match the federal investment and ad-vance the cleanup and restoration of theGreat Lakes.”The work is being done in close cooperationwith the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers andis scheduled for completion in 2008. TheCorps will also conduct navigation dredging
Long-Awaited Ashtabula RiverCleanup Begins
On June 5
th
, USEPA Administrator SteveJohnson joined Ohio Governor Bob Taft,U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, other gov-ernment officials and local partners in Ashta-bula, Ohio, to celebrate the beginning of a$50 million project to clean up contaminatedsediment from the Ashtabula River, a tribu-tary to Lake Erie and an Area of Concern.The federal-state-local cleanup project willbe carried out under the Great Lakes LegacyAct of 2002, a special initiative aimed atcleaning up 31 toxic hot spots known as Ar-eas of Concern around the Great Lakes. TheAshtabula River cleanup is Ohio’s first Leg-acy Act project. While three earlier LegacyAct cleanups have addressed smaller hot
June 2006
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) Significant Activities Report Significant Activities Report
Ohio Governor Bob Taft listens to USEPA Adminis-trator Steve Johnson’s remarks at kick-off of GreatLakes Legacy Act Cleanup of the Ashtabula River
U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office Page 2 June 2006 Significant Activities Report
downstream of the project area and will com-plete its work in 2009.According to USEPA Administrator SteveJohnson, “Thanks to President Bush’s GreatLakes Legacy Act, instead of posted warningsigns, Ashtabula’s banks will once again becovered with fishing poles. Just like a fatherhanding down the skills of tying a fishinglure, EPA and our partners are determined tohand down a cleaner, healthier river to thenext generation of Ashtabula anglers.”Additional information about the AshtabulaRiver cleanup is available online at:http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/sediment/ legacy/ashtabula/index.html(Contact: Scott Cieniawski,cieniawski.scott@epa.gov,312-353-9184)
Ashtabula River Baseline Studies
USEPA GLNPO, in collaboration with theUSEPA Office of Research and Development(ORD), kicked off a unique assessment pro- ject on the Ashtabula River. From June 7
th
to14
th
, GLNPO collected 35 surficial sedimentsamples in the section of the Ashtabula Riverslated for remediation under the Great LakesLegacy Act. GLNPO’s Dave Wethington isthe project and site lead for the sampling andanalysis, supported by staff from Battelle andthe
R/V Mudpuppy
crew. The surface sedi-ment samples will be analyzed for sedimentchemistry, toxicity, and bioaccumulation po-tential. Additionally, caged fish were de-ployed on June 14th to begin a 28-day expo-sure period, after which they will be col-lected and analyzed for contaminant uptake.The GLNPO component of the assessmentfocuses on evaluating baseline conditions bywhich the future success of the remediationproject can be measured.ORD will be commencing field work in lateJuly to begin the first of three phases of anintensive study examining sediment re-suspension and dredging residuals. Research-ers from ORD will also be performing bio-logical studies to evaluate the immediate im-pacts of contaminant removal on ecosystemmeasures of health, and evaluating the long-term ecosystem changes in response todredging. The initial phases of both GLNPOand ORD assessments are scheduled forcompletion before the scheduled initiation of dredging activities in early September 2006.(Contact: Dave Wethington, 312-886-1437,wethington.david@epa.gov)
Wildlife-Friendly Wind Power
The “Toward Wildlife-Friendly Wind Power:A Focus on the Great Lakes Basin Confer-ence,” funded by GLNPO, took place June
An aerial view of the Ashtabula River, Ohio
U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office Page 3 June 2006 Significant Activities Report
27
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to 29
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at the Hilton Toledo and DanaConference Center in Toledo, Ohio.GLNPO’s sponsorship of the conference wasconducted on behalf of the Habitat team andthe Lake Erie LaMP under the auspices of the Great Lakes Collaboration’s charge thatEPA coordinate and facilitate Great Lakesefforts when multiple Federal agencies areinvolved. Co-sponsored with the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Sur-vey, and Illinois Natural History Survey, theconference provided state and local regula-tory agencies with information on the poten-tial wildlife impacts from wind power. Ap-proximately 150 people, including wind en-ergy and wildlife experts from the UnitedKingdom, Canada and from across the U.S.,attended the three-day plenary session thatincluded potential impacts of wind energy tobirds, bats, and offshore habitats, assessmentof tools to protect wildlife, and frameworksfor permitting of wind energy projects. TheMarcy Kaptur, U.S. Congresswoman fromthe Ohio 9
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District, opened the conferencewith a videotaped presentation. Great Lakesstates, Tribes, industry and not-for-profit or-ganization representatives participated inpanel discussions about agency preparednessfor wind energy siting and non-governmentalperspectives. Priority research needs wereidentified. A group of conference participantswill carry on the discussions. One highlightof the three-day event was a report-out on thestatus of a GLNPO-funded InteragencyAgreement with the U.S. Fish and WildlifeService to improve radar-imaging of bats inNeda mine, Wisconsin in order to demon-strate that the technology can better informwind-tower develops and regulators as theyseek sites that cause minimal impact to wild-life. Conference PowerPoint presentations,meeting notes, and other wind power infor-mation will be posted to the following web-site soon: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/ greatlakes/windpowerpresentations.htm.(Contacts: Karen Rodriguez, 312-353-2690,rodriguez.karen@epa.gov;Rich Greenwood,312-886-3853,greenwood.richard@epa.gov;
Dan O’Riordan, 312-886-7981,oriordan.daniel@epa.gov;or Marcia Damato,312-886-0266, damato.marcia@epa.gov)
Lake Erie Floating Classroom
Sixteen teachers from around the GreatLakes Basin representing grades 4 through10 set sail from Cleveland, Ohio on June 18
th
as participants in the first annual Center forOcean Sciences Education Excellence(COSEE) Great Lakes Shipboard and Shore-line Science workshop. The teachers willtravel to ports throughout Ohio’s Lake Eriecoastline while learning about the GreatLakes through classroom instruction andhands-on experiences on shore and aboardGLNPO’s 180-foot research ship,
R/V LakeGuardian
.Also offered as an Ohio State UniversityStone Laboratory course, the workshop gave
Offshore wind turbines(Photo courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories)
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Environmental Protection Agency: Jun2006
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| Upload Date: | 01/23/2008 |
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