**Lake Michigan Pilot Study -- National Monitoring Network**

**Statement of Interest**

*Submitted by the Great Lakes Commission*

*On Behalf of the*

*Lake Michigan Monitoring Coordination Council*

*February 23, 2007*

**Introduction**

The Lake Michigan basin is ideally suited to serve as a pilot study site
for the National Monitoring Network (NMN) for U.S. Coastal Waters and
their Tributaries. Partners working on Lake Michigan -- including
federal and state agencies and academic institutions -- have established
a robust framework of research and collaborative monitoring efforts that
will facilitate a timely and effective response to the objectives
outlined for the NMN pilot studies. Much of the pilot effort would be
devoted to further refining information that already exists and putting
it in the NMN context to foster a successful pilot study. Key elements
of this infrastructure include

-   The Lake Michigan Monitoring Coordination Council (LMMCC);

-   The recently-completed Great Lakes Monitoring Inventory and Gap
    Analysis;

-   A Lake Michigan-specific monitoring inventory;

-   The Great Lakes Observing System, a regional node of the Integrated
    Ocean Observing System (IOOS); and

-   Several collaborative monitoring efforts that are in process or have
    taken place in recent years.

The LMMCC is the primary and well-established forum for assessing and
coordinating monitoring efforts for Lake Michigan and will lead the Lake
Michigan Pilot Study. Formed in 1999, the Council includes
representatives from the major regional, federal, tribal and state
agencies around Lake Michigan, as well as academic institutions, local
municipalities, environmental organizations, business and industry, and
other partners. The Council is well established and enjoys strong
support from the Lake Michigan community
(http://wi.water.usgs.gov/lmmcc/).

The Great Lakes, and Lake Michigan in particular, are in a period of
changing conditions due to a wide spectrum of watershed stressors. Among
these are a host of toxic pollutants largely caused by atmospheric
deposition from power plants; point and nonpoint sources of water
pollution; water level fluctuations due, in part, to climate change;
nearly 200 invasive species disrupting the food web and the region's
ecosystem; and rampant developmental pressures throughout the region.

A Lake Michigan NMN pilot will enable partners in the basin to better
address these stressors and the management issues associated with them.
Moreover, the explicit linkage between upland, coastal and offshore
waters necessitates a more coordinated monitoring network. The Lake
Michigan NMN pilot will be a strong -- and well- timed -- catalyst for
assessing observing, monitoring and reporting needs for rapidly emerging
ecological problems. The pilot will also be an excellent surrogate for
most coastal marine environments, since it focuses on integrating
observations of complex physical, chemical and biological processes with
implementation of enhanced monitoring strategies. Finally, assessing the
efficacy of a Lake Michigan monitoring strategy will generate knowledge
that could be applied to the other four lakes to restore and protect the
entire Great Lakes ecosystem.

**Description of the proposed study area.** The map on page two
illustrates the Lake Michigan basin and its watersheds. It is depicted
in 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC).

The Great Lakes -- Michigan, Huron, Superior, Erie and Ontario -- are a
dominant part of the physical and cultural heritage of North America.
Shared with Canada and spanning more than 750 miles from east to west,
these vast inland freshwater seas provide water for consumption,
transportation, power, recreation and a host of other uses. The Great
Lakes are the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth. They
contain about 84 percent of North America\'s surface freshwater and
about 21 percent of the world\'s supply. Only the polar ice caps contain
more freshwater.

Lake Michigan is the second largest of the Great Lakes. It is the only
Great Lake entirely within the United States. The northern part is in
the colder, less developed upper Great Lakes region. It is sparsely
populated, except for the Fox River Valley, which drains into Green Bay.
This bay has one of the most productive Great Lakes fisheries but
receives the wastes from the world\'s largest concentration of pulp and
paper mills. The more temperate southern basin of Lake Michigan is among
the most urbanized areas in the Great Lakes system. It contains the
Milwaukee and Chicago metropolitan areas, with over 11 million people
dependent on the lake for drinking water. This region represents about
one-fifth of the total population of the Great Lakes basin.

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="3.65625in"
height="4.729166666666667in"}Since the release of the Lake Michigan
Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) in 2000, several key indicators point to
continuing concern for the health of the ecosystem:

-   Beach season data exhibit a continued number of beach closings.

-   Data reveal that a critical layer of the Lake Michigan aquatic food
    web continues to disappear, and with the discovery of new aquatic
    nuisance species -- there are now a total of 170 in the Great Lakes
    ecosystem -- the integrity of the food web of Lake Michigan is in
    question.

-   PCBs and mercury are both detected in Lake Michigan fish. This is
    such a prevalent problem that 44 states now have mercury fish
    advisories, and a national advisory has been issued for certain
    ocean fish, pointing to a problem of global proportions. Both air
    deposition and sediment problems in Great Lakes Areas of Concern
    drive the PCB fish advisories.

-   Climatic pattern changes, whether temporary or permanent, are
    lowering lake levels as well as raising concerns about groundwater
    levels and lake/groundwater interaction and diversion.

-   The interaction between groundwater and surfacewater is becoming
    better understood in the Lake Michigan basin, as declines in water
    levels from overpumping are resulting in regional declines in
    baseflow levels in streams that affect habitat. Seventy-nine percent
    of Lake Michigan water originates as groundwater, more than any
    other of the Great Lakes.

-   Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks the issue of
    protecting the lake's vast supply of fresh drinking water has become
    a higher priority.

In spite of its large size, Lake Michigan is sensitive to the effects of
a wide range of pollutants. Major stresses on the lake include toxic and
nutrient pollution, invasive species and habitat degradation. Sources of
pollution include the runoff of soils and farm chemicals from
agricultural lands, waste from cities, discharges from industrial areas
and leachate from disposal sites. The large surface area of the lake
also makes it vulnerable to direct atmospheric pollutants that fall as
rain, snow, or dust on the lake surface, or exchange as gases with the
lake water. Outflows from Lake Michigan are relatively small (less than
1 percent per year) in comparison with the total volume of water.
Pollutants that enter the lake are retained in the system and become
more concentrated with time.

Despite these concerns, Lake Michigan supports many beneficial uses. For
example, it provides drinking water for 10 million people; has
internationally significant habitat and natural features; supports food
production and processing; supplies fish for food, sport, and culture;
has valuable commercial and recreational uses; and is the home of the
nation's third-largest population center. Furthermore, significant
progress is being made to remediate the legacy of contamination in the
basin. Specifically, ongoing actions to restore the Areas of Concern
(AOC) designated under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement have been
successful and have received new resources from the passage in 2002 of
the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which provides funding for remediating
contaminated sediments.

I.  **Primary contact person.**

John Hummer Phone: 734-971-9135

Project Manager Fax: 734-971-9150

Great Lakes Commission Email: jhummer@glc.org

2805 South Industrial Hwy. Suite 100

Ann Arbor, MI 48104-6791

II. **Statements of interest and contributions from key study
    partners.**

**John Hummer and Matt Doss, Great Lakes Commission and Lake Michigan
Monitoring Coordination Council (LMMCC)** -- The Great Lakes Commission,
as secretariat and coordinating body for the LMMCC, is the official
applicant and point of contact for this effort. The Commission is a
binational public agency dedicated to the use, management and protection
of the water, land and other natural resources of the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence system. In partnership with the eight Great Lakes states and
provinces of Ontario and Québec, the Commission applies sustainable
development principles in addressing issues of resource management,
environmental protection, transportation and sustainable development.

Formed in 1999, the LMMCC provides a regional forum to coordinate and
support consistent, scientifically defensible monitoring methods and
strategies in the Lake Michigan basin. The focus of the Council is to
improve monitoring collaboration and data comparability and to define a
regionally coordinated agenda for monitoring and assessment of the Lake
Michigan basin. The LMMCC is composed of resource-based workgroups that
coordinate existing monitoring around several common considerations:
monitoring objectives; spatial, temporal and parameter network design;
methods comparability; quality assurance and control planning; database
sharing; and data analysis approaches.

Both the Commission and the LMMCC view a Lake Michigan pilot study for
the National Monitoring Network as an important initiative to bring
monitoring and observing entities around the Lake Michigan basin
together to accomplish common goals and improve monitoring coordination.
In concert with the goals of the NMN, both organizations strive to
promote uniform data collection and information management standards for
use by the Great Lakes states and the region as a whole, while
attempting to address institutional barriers to efficient exchange of
data and information.

Mr. Hummer provides secretariat support and coordination for the LMMCC
on behalf of the Great Lakes Commission. He will coordinate the Lake
Michigan pilot study with other project partners described below. Mr.
Doss is program manager for the Commission's Environmental Quality
program area and will provide project support and assistance on key
issues as the pilot study develops.

**Roger Gauthier, Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) --** GLOS is the
Great Lakes regional component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing
System (IOOS). Mr. Gauthier is the interim executive director of GLOS.
He will facilitate coordination between the IOOS community and the LMMCC
in the development of the Lake Michigan NMN pilot project. GLOS is
dedicated to addressing observing system gaps, enhancing long-term
monitoring functions and integrating physical, biological, chemical and
socio-economic data for real-time and historic conditions. GLOS has
developed nine subsystems, including open lake observations, coastal and
tributary inflows, scientific ship coordination, interconnecting
waterways, remote sensing, atmospheric monitoring, ecological
forecasting and numeric modeling, education and outreach and information
integration. As such, GLOS will play a pivotal role in facilitating
assessments of regional observing needs and provide staffing to
facilitate data integration for the pilot project.

**Greg Good, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency --** The Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) is willing to take part
in the Lake Michigan pilot study proposal for the National Monitoring
Network. A representative of Illinois EPA is currently an active member
of the presidential-level Advisory Committee on Water Information, of
which the National Water Quality Monitoring Council is a subcommittee.
Over the past several years, Illinois EPA has provided oversight and
represented state level input into development of the NMN. The Illinois
EPA is willing to participate in meetings and conference calls, as well
as provide the information necessary to support this project. The
Illinois EPA supports the efforts of the Great Lakes Commission to
coordinate this pilot study proposal and looks forward to contributing
to this project.

**Art Garceau, Indiana Department of Environmental Management --** The
Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is willing to
participate in a Lake Michigan pilot project in support of the NMN for
U.S. Coastal Waters and their Tributaries. An IDEM representative
participated in the NMN design process and currently serves as a member
of the LMMCCC. IDEM is willing to provide staff to attend meetings
and/or conference calls, and provide information as necessary to help
make the pilot a success. An important step in the pilot project would
be to identify gaps between existing monitoring and that indicated by
the Network design. This would help estimate costs of ongoing monitoring
and costs to fill identified gaps. By assessing the gaps and their
associated costs, the pilot project could then identify management
issues in the study area that would be better addressed if the
monitoring gaps were filled and data were more comparable and
accessible. IDEM believes that this type of study would be helpful to
Indiana and to the Lake Michigan watershed and is pleased that the Great
Lakes Commission has agreed to be the lead organization to help
coordinate this endeavor. The agency looks forward to participating in
this pilot project.

**Gary Kohlhepp, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality --** The
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), in conjunction with
other federal and state agencies in the Lake Michigan basin, is willing
to participate in a Lake Michigan pilot project in support of the NMN. A
MDEQ representative currently serves as a co-chair for the LMMCC. An
inventory of Lake Michigan monitoring activities and a gap analysis were
completed in 2006. MDEQ is willing to attend meetings and/or conference
calls, and provide information as necessary, to update these reports. In
addition, MDEQ will work with other agencies and stakeholders to review
data comparability and sharing issues, and to identify opportunities for
improvement. Because of the existing LMMCC activities and
infrastructure, MDEQ believes that the Lake Michigan watershed is an
ideal pilot candidate for the NMN. MDEQ is committed to continuing its
leading role within the LMMCC and, should Lake Michigan be selected as a
pilot, to ensuring the project's success.

**James Baumann, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources** -- The
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is very interested in a
Lake Michigan Pilot Study as part of the efforts of the National Water
Quality Monitoring Network for U.S. Coastal Waters and their
Tributaries. Its interest has been heightened by the return after 30
years of Cladophora and other macroalgae on Lake Michigan beaches.
Within the last few years, WDNR has increased its monitoring of both
nearshore waters and nutrient loads from tributaries. It is also very
active in the removal of contaminated sediments from Lake Michigan
harbors and tributaries. WDNR has worked closely with a number of
federal partners to monitor the quality of Lake Michigan and looks
forward to enhancing these collective efforts.

**Jack Kelly, Mid-Continent Ecology Division, U.S. EPA Office of
Research and Development**

The Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED) of U.S. EPA's Office of
Research and Development (ORD), located in Duluth, Minn., has been
researching new technologies, sampling designs, and ecological
indicators for Great Lakes coastal zones for almost the past decade. Dr.
John (Jack) Kelly of MED, along with ORD's Environmental Monitoring and
Assessment Program (EMAP) design team, was one of the architects of the
Great Lakes chapter of the NMN and reported its development at the 2006
National Water Quality Monitoring Conference. Dr. Kelly and the MED
research team have been key participants in both coordinated lakewide
monitoring and assessment designs (e.g., recent binational efforts in
Lakes Superior, Huron, and Ontario) and in coastal indicator evaluation
through collaboration in EPA's STAR-funded Great Lakes Environmental
Indicator (GLEI) project. Dr. Kelly is committed to the goals of the NMN
and is pleased to be an active participant and technical advisor to the
LMMCC for the Lake Michigan pilot study. In particular, Dr. Kelly will
assist with monitoring gap analysis and development of design
refinements that are efficient for the regional community but also
remain true to the goals of the NMN as an active model for the U.S.
coastal region.

**Judy Beck, U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office** -- The Lake
Michigan Lakewide Management Program in U.S. EPA\'s Great Lakes National
Program Office (GLNPO) is most interested in the National Water Quality
Monitoring Council and the Advisory Committee on Water Information
charged with implementation of recommendations in the report of the U.S.
Commission on Ocean Policy.

A history of unique and collaborative monitoring exists that provides
both an example of a collaborative network and lake specific data. This
work has been conducted as a special component of GLNPO's monitoring
efforts. Routine spring and summer efforts include water quality surveys
in offshore waters with monitoring stations to detect and evaluate
trends in chloride, nitrate, nitrogen, particulate nitrogen, silica, and
total and dissolved phosphorus. Work also includes a biological program
and a bioaccumulative toxic survey of air and fish.

In 1994 and 1995, an enhanced monitoring effort by GLNPO and many
partners, the Lake Michigan Mass Balance (LMMB) Project, set out to
identify relative loadings of four categories of pollutants (PCBs,
mercury, trans-nonachlor and atrazine) entering Lake Michigan from major
media, establish a baseline and sample 11 tributaries for nutrients. In
1999, The Lake Michigan Monitoring Coordinating Council was formed to
continue a collaborative effort for Lake Michigan monitoring. In 2005,
the LMMCC guided a ten-year update of the LMMB.

All of this work not only involves the 31 federal, state, tribal, local
government, academic and environmental members of the LMMCC, but is also
reported in the Lake Michigan Lakewide Management Plan and at the State
of Lake Michigan Conference. As the LMMCC is one of the first ecosystem
based monitoring councils in the country, a pilot that focuses on one of
the Great Lakes and builds upon a decade of collaborative monitoring
could be very informative.

**Steve Blumer and Norm Grannemann, U.S. Geological Survey, Michigan
Water Science Center**

As representatives of the Michigan Water Science Center (Mr. Blumer) and
Northeastern Region Great Lakes Program (Mr. Grannemann), they will
assist with the organization and planning of the pilot project. Mr.
Grannemann is involved with numerous interest groups, committees, and
stakeholder groups concerned with Great Lakes programs. His position and
work will promote the pilot project's exposure, aid in cutting across
jurisdictional lines, and foster discussion among several USGS offices.
Mr. Blumer is responsible for interacting with 50-plus local cooperating
agencies facilitating the streamgaging, groundwater, and water quality
hydrologic monitoring networks in the state of Michigan. Because of
long-term involvement with water monitoring -- methods, instrumentation,
field site location and selection, knowledge of USGS datasets, and other
agencies' datasets -- the Michigan Water Science Center, like the
adjoining USGS Water Science Centers, will be able to assist with data
gap issues and facilitate data sharing. Utilizing other hydrologists and
technical specialists within the Michigan Water Science Center,
expertise can be directed toward water management, ground water use and
withdrawal, and emerging bacterial concerns.

**Charlie Peters, U.S. Geological Survey, Wisconsin Water Science Center
--** As co-chair of the LMMCC, Mr. Peters will help to organize partner
support for development and implementation of the requirements of the
pilot study. He will be involved in the determination of gaps between
ongoing monitoring and the proposed Great Lakes network for the Lake
Michigan watershed, the development of a refined Lake Michigan network,
and determination of costs to fill the gaps between existing and the
refined network. Mr. Peters, past co-chair of the Methods and Data
Comparability Board (a NWQMC working group), will participate in the
determination of data comparability between ongoing monitoring and the
development of an approach to sharing the data that would be collected
through implementation of the NMN in the Lake Michigan basin. He will
help connect the various management issues in the Lake Michigan
watershed and the ongoing monitoring and research in the basin to the
refined network. Finally, Mr. Peters will participate in the preparation
of the final pilot study report.

III. **Course of activities and milestones to accomplish the Lake
     Michigan Pilot Study.**

     1.  **Inventory current data and information collection in the
         study area at a scale similar to that proposed in the Network
         design.**

The Great Lakes Commission will take the lead on this task. In 2006, the
Commission developed a centralized repository of Great Lakes monitoring
information, the *Great Lakes Monitoring Inventory and Gap Analysis*. It
is the first comprehensive binational inventory of monitoring programs
in the Great Lakes basin. Using the inventory and input from U.S. and
Canadian monitoring experts, Commission staff assessed the capacity of
current programs to respond to established monitoring needs. In addition
to highlighting recommendations for improving the overall Great Lakes
monitoring regime, the inventory identified gaps, overlaps and
opportunities for improved regional coordination.

The Great Lakes Commission has worked with U.S. EPA Region 5, GLNPO, and
its partners in the Lake Michigan LaMP process to assess existing
monitoring efforts in the Lake Michigan basin and subwatersheds,
including the ten Lake Michigan AOCs) and four other major tributary
watersheds. In 1999, the Commission completed a Lake Michigan Monitoring
Inventory and associated assessment.

Hence, in the interest of NMN goals, there is no start-up process needed
for this task as this groundwork has already been laid. For the Lake
Michigan pilot study, Commission staff will re-examine and compare the
results and recommendations of prior monitoring inventories and gap
analyses to the data and information collection parameters and scale of
that proposed in the network design. Staff will prepare an assessment of
monitoring coverage as aligned with the network design.

2.  **Identify gaps between existing monitoring and that indicated by
    the network design. Estimate costs of ongoing monitoring and costs
    to fill identified gaps.**

Following completion of Task #1 above, the Commission will forward its
assessment of monitoring coverage relative to the NMN design and
parameters to key partners in the project, including U.S. EPA, USGS, and
the states. Partners from these agencies will use this information to
further identify gaps between existing monitoring and that indicated by
the network design. A narrative statement will be prepared illustrating
these gaps along with an estimation of costs of ongoing monitoring and
costs to fill identified gaps.

3.  **Investigate data comparability and data sharing issues in the
    study area and recommend procedures for their resolution.**

As part of their spring 2007 meeting, the LMMCC will host a separate
workshop for Lake Michigan pilot study partners. One of the main
outcomes of the workshop will be recommendations of procedures for data
comparability and data sharing issues that would help foster alignment
with the NMN design parameters. The products identified in #1 and #2
above will serve as the basis for these discussions and resulting
recommendations. The Data Management and Communications Plan of GLOS may
serve as a blueprint and vehicle for implementing these recommendations.
GLOS, as the IOOS node for the Great Lakes region, will take the lead on
the observational aspects for the Lake Michigan pilot in regard to
refining network observational requirements.

4.  **Prepare a report that documents activities and accomplishments of
    the Pilot Study and participate in preparing reports that refine
    network observational requirements.**

The LMMCC, GLOS and the Commission will complete this task. Commission
staff will review all preceding products of the project and incorporate
them into a report that documents activities and accomplishments of the
Lake Michigan pilot study. Building upon what they learn from the tasks
above, project partners will participate in preparing reports that
refine network observational requirements.

5.  **Identify management issues in the study area that would be better
    addressed if the monitoring gaps noted in item 2 above were filled
    and data were more comparable and accessible.**

U.S. EPA (MED and GLNPO), USGS and the Great Lakes states will complete
this task. As identified in the Lake Michigan LaMP, one of the major
management issues in the region is the continued cleanup of Great Lakes
AOCs, the basin's most degraded waterways. The Lake Michigan basin
contains 10 of these areas. Each AOC is stricken with a number of use
impairments including, among others, degradation of benthos,
restrictions on drinking water consumption, loss of fish and wildlife
habitat, eutrophication or undesirable algae, beach closings, and
restrictions on dredging activities. Each AOC has a remedial action plan
(RAP) to address the use impairments of these waterways. As part of the
RAPs, restoration targets are being or have been developed to assess
progress toward addressing these impairments. Although monitoring is a
required part of the process in order to remove or "delist" these
waterways as AOCs, protocols for standard monitoring procedures are, in
most cases, non-existent or in a partial implementation stage due to a
paucity of observations. The Lake Michigan NMN pilot study could help
determine monitoring protocols for AOCs if the data gaps identified in
#2 above were filled.

Number range CHAPTERCritical management issues in the Lake Michigan
basin include the presence of cladophora in the nearshore zone and beach
health. Through a current review of the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement, there is a renewed desire to model the nearshore areas of
Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes to better address the return of
cladophora and nearshore processes related to beach health. Researchers
are revising their models to account for the influence of mussels and
nearshore processes related to beach closure. Nearshore data is likely
needed to accomplish modeling of cladophora and beach health issues.
Thus, a principal gap to fill is a comprehensive nearshore/coastal
program that integrates with watershed/tributaries and offshore
monitoring programs.

The parties identified above will produce a narrative statement on such
management issues and how they can be better addressed for the Lake
Michigan basin through the NMN.

IV. **Description of collaboration among the Lake Michigan study
    partners.**

Several important collaborative efforts have taken place or are
currently underway in both the Lake Michigan and Great Lakes basins:

-   *Lake Michigan Monitoring Coordination Council (LMMCC):* Formed in
    1999, the LMMCC provides a regional forum to coordinate and support
    consistent, scientifically defensible monitoring methods and
    strategies in the Lake Michigan basin. The focus of the Council is
    to improve monitoring collaboration and data comparability and to
    define a regionally coordinated agenda for monitoring and assessment
    of the Lake Michigan basin. The LMMCC is composed of resource-based
    workgroups that coordinate existing monitoring around several common
    considerations: monitoring objectives; spatial, temporal and
    parameter network design; methods comparability; quality assurance
    and control planning; database sharing; and data analysis
    approaches.

-   *Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study (LMMB):* This project was a
    multimillion dollar, multiagency effort to measure the loadings,
    fate, and transport of contaminants within Lake Michigan. A
    substantial amount of data was collected between 1993 and 1995 on
    Lake Michigan tributaries, air deposition, and Lake Michigan water,
    sediment, and biota. Research was conducted to evaluate processes
    such as air-water exchange and the sediment-water interface. The
    project focused on PCBs, trans-nonachlor, atrazine, and total
    mercury; tributary and air deposition samples also were analyzed for
    additional parameters such as trace metals, other chlorinated
    pesticides, and nutrients. The development of a mass balance model,
    the final component of the study, was recently completed. The LMMB
    model results can be found in the 2006 Lake Michigan LaMP at
    <http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/lakemich/2006/>.

-   *Lake Michigan Tributary Monitoring Project:* The purpose of this
    effort is to revisit select major Lake Michigan tributaries (the
    Fox, Kalamazoo, Grand Calumet, St. Joseph, and Grand rivers) that
    were sampled in the LMMB study to characterize present-day water
    column contaminant concentrations and loadings. Several federal and
    state partners from around the Lake Michigan basin have taken part
    in this project. The LMMB study described above is benefiting from
    the acquisition of a present-day validation data set. In addition,
    the Lake Michigan LaMP and Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy
    are benefiting from a revised set of water column PCB data and mass
    loading estimates. Data analyses will be complete this fall and
    presented at the 2007 State of Lake Michigan conference; the final
    report will be prepared in FY2008 and published in the LaMP.

-   *Michigan Clean Water Corps:* The Michigan Clean Water Corps
    (MiCorps), administered under contract by the Great Lakes
    Commission, is a network of volunteer monitoring programs in
    Michigan. It was created through an executive order by Gov.
    Jennifer M. Granholm to assist the Michigan Department of
    Environmental Quality in collecting and sharing water quality data
    for use in water resources management and protection programs. The
    mission of MiCorps is to network and expand volunteer water quality
    monitoring organizations statewide for the purpose of collecting,
    sharing and using reliable data; educate and inform the public about
    water quality issues; and foster water resources stewardship to
    facilitate the preservation and protection of Michigan's water
    resources.

-   *Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) Corridor Study:*
    This study, begun in 2001, is a collaborative effort between the
    MMSD, Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, WDNR, USGS,
    and area universities built in three phases: 1) Development of a
    regional database that includes all known tributary water quality
    data and defined data gaps; 2) A monitoring program designed to fill
    in the data gaps determined during phase one; and 3) Begun during
    FY2007, expanding the constituents and locations monitored during
    phase two. The data collected as part of field activities and the
    data maintained in the data warehouse will be used to assess future
    impacts, measure the benefits of watercourse modifications and other
    watershed management efforts, and detect new watercourse concerns or
    impairments.

-   *Great Lakes Observing System:* The Great Lakes Observing System
    (GLOS) is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to providing wide
    community access to real-time and historic data on the hydrology,
    biology, chemistry, geology and cultural resources of the Great
    Lakes, its interconnecting waterways and the St. Lawrence River.
    GLOS is a regional node of the U.S. IOOS initiative.

-   *Great Lakes Regional Collaboration:* The Great Lakes Regional
    Collaboration (GLRC) is a wide-ranging, cooperative effort to design
    and implement a strategy for the restoration, protection and
    sustainable use of the Great Lakes. It was initiated by President
    Bush's 2004 Executive Order calling the Great Lakes a "national
    treasure" and calling for a plan to restore and protect them. Eight
    strategy teams ([Aquatic Invasive
    Species](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/AIS-Appendix.pdf),
    [Habitat/Species](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/Habitat-Species-Appendix.pdf),
    [Coastal
    Health](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/Coastal-Health-Appendix.pdf),
    [AOC/Sediments](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/AOC-Appendix.pdf),
    [Nonpoint
    Source](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/NPS-Appendix.pdf),
    [Toxic
    Pollutants](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/ToxicPollutants-Appendix.pdf),
    [Indicators and
    Information](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/I&I-Appendix.pdf),
    [Sustainable
    Development](http://www.glrc.us/documents/strategy/Sustainable-Development-Appendix.pdf)),
    each focusing on a different issue affecting the Great Lakes basin,
    developed recommendations for action that were released in December
    2005 in the *Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy to Restore
    and Protect the Great Lakes*. These recommendations focused on the
    steps that should be taken over the next five years to proceed with
    restoration to achieve the greatest results. Among its
    recommendations was a call for dramatic acceleration of the cleanup
    process at Great Lakes Areas of Concern (see above). The document
    also emphasized that nonpoint sources of pollution contribute
    significantly to problems in the Areas of Concern, as well as to
    other locations in the Great Lakes, including the open waters, and
    listed a series of recommended actions to address these problems.
    The Strategy also called on the region to better coordinate the
    collection of critical information regarding the Great Lakes
    ecosystem and support the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System
    (IEOS) and IOOS as key components of the Global Earth Observation
    System of Systems (GEOSS). Although the issues described above only
    represent a small portion of the Strategy, they are clearly
    connected to the goals of the NMN design.

-   *Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Consortium:* The Great Lakes Coastal
    Wetlands Consortium, facilitated by the Great Lakes Commission, is
    working to design a long-term program to monitor Great Lakes coastal
    wetlands, through the development of indicators to assess the
    condition and overall status and trends of Great Lakes coastal
    wetlands. The group consists of science and policy experts drawn
    from U.S. and Canadian federal, state and provincial agencies and
    nongovernmental organizations. A monitoring plan for Great Lakes
    coastal wetlands is due out this fall. This work can contribute
    significantly to the refinement of the network design with input
    regarding coastal wetland monitoring.

-   *Great Lakes Beach Association:* The Great Lakes Beach Association
    (GLBA) is made up of members from several Great Lakes states,
    including those surrounding Lake Michigan (Michigan, Indiana,
    Illinois, Wisconsin), as well as a diverse array of other agencies
    including local, county and state public health, regulatory
    agencies, coordinating agencies, researchers and environmental
    groups. The GLBA's mission is the pursuit of healthy beach water
    conditions in the Great Lakes area. To meet this goal, information
    is shared in four major categories: Investigative, Modeling,
    Methodology, and Information Systems. This group's work can also
    contribute to the refinement of the network design for coastal
    beaches.

V.  **Meetings and events that will support the Lake Michigan Pilot
    Study.**

The following meetings and conferences will provide forums for
communicating with and coordinating contributions from Lake Michigan
stakeholders in support of the Lake Michigan Pilot Study:

-   *State of Lake Michigan Conference:* This fifth biennial conference
    will take place Oct. 3-5, 2007 in Traverse City, Mich. Key players
    from around the Lake Michigan basin, as well as the entire Great
    Lakes, will attend this event. It will include a session on the Lake
    Michigan Tributary Monitoring Project.

-   *LMMCC Spring Meeting:* This meeting is tentatively scheduled to
    take place May 9-10, 2007. A special workshop for partners in the
    Lake Michigan pilot study for the NMN will take place during this
    time.

-   *LMMCC Fall Meeting:* This meeting will take place in conjunction
    with the 2007 State of Lake Michigan Conference. A second workshop
    for partners in the Lake Michigan pilot study may occur at this
    time. This meeting could focus on the full gamut of ecological
    processes (including physical, as well as landscape and tributary
    relationship), and consider how this can and should shape the design
    and objectives of monitoring, its results, data interpretation, and
    utility.

-   *Michigan Clean Water Corps Annual Conference:* The third annual
    MiCorps conference is tentatively scheduled to be held in October
    2007 in Higgins Lake, Mich. The conference highlights work of
    volunteer monitoring organizations in Michigan, among other topics.

-   *GLOS Annual Meeting:* The GLOS second annual meeting is scheduled
    for April 12-13, 2007 in Niagara Falls, NY.

-   *International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR)
    Conference:* The 50^th^ anniversary of this large gathering of Great
    Lakes researchers and stakeholders is scheduled for May 28 -- June
    1, 2007 at University Park, Pa. The conference will recognize the
    history of research on the Great Lakes and our present state of
    knowledge, as well as take a look into the future of how IAGLR can
    address the complex limnological and management issues that lay
    ahead.

-   *Great Lakes Regional Data Exchange (RDX) Conference:* This
    conference is scheduled for Oct. 28 -- Nov. 1, 2007 in Ottawa,
    Ontario. RDX conferences bring together data exchange experts and
    decisionmakers from around the Great Lakes basin.

-   *Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting:* This meeting will be held
    Oct. 1-2, 2007 in Chicago, Ill. and will include senior agency
    managers, elected officials and other representatives from the Great
    Lakes states. Major Commission activities will be presented, likely
    with a special focus on Lake Michigan.

-   *International Joint Commission Biennial Conference:* This important
    regional meeting will be held June 5-7, 2007 at the University of
    Illinois in Chicago, Ill. It is the primary forum for the U.S. and
    Canadian governments to report on actions under the Great Lakes
    Water Quality Agreement.

VI. **Overview of major federal and nonfederal monitoring programs
    active in the Lake Michigan basin.**

    -   *National Water Quality Assessment Program:* The National Water
        Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is designed to describe the
        status and trends in the quality of the nation\'s ground- and
        surfacewater resources and to gain a better understanding of the
        factors that impact the quality of these resources. As part of
        the program, investigations are conducted in 59 \"study units.\"
        Ultimately, the purpose is to provide a framework for national
        and regional water quality assessment. One of these study units
        is the "Western Lake Michigan Drainages."

    -   *U.*S. *EPA GLNPO Aquatic Contaminant Monitoring Program:* GLNPO
        is responsible for monitoring the water quality of the Great
        Lakes. GLNPO has been collecting data on levels of persistent
        bioaccumulative toxic (PBT) substances in air and fish since
        1990 and the 1970s, respectively. Data complementary to the air
        and fish data is needed for the water so that U.S. EPA can
        accurately estimate the net amount of these pollutants that are
        being put into the lakes from the air and to determine how high
        levels are in fish relative to the levels in the water. Levels
        in fish can be millions of times higher than in the water
        itself. U.S. EPA monitored these contaminants in the past and in
        2005 again for Lake Michigan.

> GLNPO's water quality surveys generally focus on the offshore waters
> of the lakes (water greater than 30 meters in depth, or greater than
> three miles from shore). To ensure that sampling activities are
> representative of lake conditions, samples are collected from multiple
> sites within each lake basin. The surveys provide data to detect and
> evaluate trends and annual changes in chloride, nitrate nitrogen,
> particulate nitrogen, silica, total phosphorus, total dissolved
> phosphorus, particulate phosphorus, chloride, and reactive silica. The
> biology program monitors phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic
> invertebrates, and chlorophyll a in the water column. Zooplankton and
> phytoplankton samples are collected twice per year, in spring and
> summer. The majority of benthos samples are collected in summer,
> although a small number of stations are visited in spring. Some
> benthos-only stations are located closer to shore.

-   *U.S. EPA Wadeable Streams Assessment:* The Wadeable Streams
    Assessment is a study of the ecological condition of small streams
    throughout the United States, being conducted by state water quality
    agencies with support from the U.S. EPA. The study uses comparable
    methods at randomly selected sites stratified by ecoregion. The
    Escanaba and Menominee rivers in Michigan were part of this
    initiative's stream survey conducted in 2004.

-   *USGS Cooperative Water Program (CWP):* Numerous water quantity,
    water quality and data management studies are conducted in
    cooperation with local, regional, state, and tribal authorities
    throughout the Lake Michigan watershed.

-   *Great Lakes Aquatic GAP:* An aquatic gap program is underway for
    the riverine systems of the Great Lakes region. A central database
    has been developed to accommodate stream habitat characteristics,
    aquatic biota sample collections, and habitat affinity information.
    Initial modeling for fish-environment relations has begun. A
    conceptual framework for identification and classification of
    coastal habitat types has been developed for near-shore coastal
    systems and applied to a pilot study area in western Lake Erie.

-   *State water quality monitoring programs:*

**Illinois:** The Illinois *Water Monitoring Strategy* identifies the
data collection programs and their associated goals and objectives to be
carried out by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Water
quality for the Lake Michigan basin is monitored through a variety of
programs: 1) Monitoring through the Great Lakes Program consists of
sampling for fish contaminants and water chemistry. 2) Intensive Basin
Survey Program is based on a five-year rotation and includes collection
of biological, chemical and habitat data. Lake Michigan direct
tributaries, the Calumet River and the Chicago/Little Calumet Rivers,
were last completed in 2006. Lake Michigan harbors have also been
monitored as part of this basin since 2001. 3) Special watershed (319)
monitoring projects include the Waukegan River, which has been monitored
periodically from 1994 through 2006. 4) Approximately 51 Lake Michigan
beaches are sampled daily during the swimming season for *E. coli*
bacteria by local agencies.

**Indiana:** The Surface Water Quality Monitoring Strategy (Strategy),
developed by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, directs
the water quality assessment of Indiana's rivers, streams, and lakes for
designated uses. The Strategy focuses on a watershed approach for
addressing water quality issues and uses a five-year rotating study
cycle of all major river basins in the state. Data collection efforts
can be divided into the following categories: 1) Statewide Monitoring:
Sampling of the Lake Michigan shoreline and selected rivers on a monthly
basis each year; 2) Rotating Basin Monitoring: Probabilistic sampling of
each basin once every five years according to the Strategy planning
schedule; limited follow-up monitoring to identify sources of
impairment; 3) Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL): Sampling of waterbodies
on the 303(d) list; and 4) Other Office of Water Quality (OWQ) Program
Support: Special sampling projects to assist OWQ program areas.

**Michigan:** The Strategic Environmental Quality Monitoring Program for
Michigan's Surface Waters (Strategy), developed by the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality, describes the necessary monitoring
activities for a comprehensive assessment of water quality in Michigan's
surface waters and guides Michigan's monitoring program implementation.
Monitoring activities fall under one or more of the following types of
study design: five-year Rotating Basin; Fixed Station; Probabilistic;
and Targeted Sites/Special Studies. The five-year rotating basin
approach serves as the primary study design for assessing current water
quality status and attainment of Michigan water quality standards. The
data generated by this approach allows MDEQ to identify impaired and
high-quality waters, and to pinpoint causes and sources of impairment.

**Wisconsin:** The Department of Natural Resources is conducting a
number of monitoring activities directly related to Lake Michigan water
quality. They include:

-   Coordination of local government monitoring of Lake Michigan
    beaches;

-   With the River Alliance of Wisconsin, coordination of volunteer
    monitoring on a number of smaller tributaries to Lake Michigan;

-   With the University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee Water Institute,
    research and monitoring of cladophora and other algae in nearshore
    waters of Lake Michigan, including the role of zebra and other
    mussels in the return of the algal mats on beaches;

-   Flow-related phosphorus load monitoring on major tributaries to Lake
    Michigan, including the Milwaukee River, the Sheboygan River, the
    Manitowoc River, the Fox River and the Menominee River (re-initiated
    in 2006);

-   Monthly or quarterly long-term trends monitoring of a long list of
    pollutants near the mouth of major tributaries to Lake Michigan; and

-   Fish tissue analysis of PCBs, mercury and other bioaccumulative
    toxins in Lake Michigan waters.

    -   *Volunteer water quality monitoring programs:* All of the states
        in the Lake Michigan pilot study area have active volunteer
        monitoring programs. In many cases, the data are collected using
        specific quality assurance/quality control techniques that allow
        the states to use this valuable data in water quality assessment
        reports, such as the Section 305(b) reports.