Water Resources Issues of the Laurentian Great Lakes
157
3.5 Public Health and Policy
Although each of the foregoing issue areas is important, the area of public health
and policy is probably the main driving force for management. In addition to
engineers and scientists, policy formulation requires specialists from a large group
of diverse areas, including environmental toxicology, epidemiology and
environmental policy and law. Health risks posed by eating fish from the lakes, for
instance, need to be monitored and evaluated. Relationships between researchers,
stakeholders, and managers must be developed and maintained to facilitate
technology transfer to aid in management decision support. This type of
interaction has been accomplished with some degree of success in the Great Lakes
basin, but improvements are certainly possible. Development of outreach and
educational programs has helped provide public access to data, technology
programs, and the decision-making process in general.
4 Contaminated Sediments
There are other issues in addition to those summarized above, such as
atmospheric deposition, effects of global climate change, and watershed
biogeochemistry, with associated point and nonpoint sources of contaminants. It is
beyond the scope of the present chapter to discuss each of these in great detail.
However, the issue of contaminated sediments bears further examination, since it
is a common problem throughout the Great Lakes basin and it poses significant
challenges for management. As previously noted, contaminated sediments are a
problem at all 43 of the Aoes designated throughout the basin, and it is because
of contaminated sediments that none of the Aoes has yet been delisted.
The basic problem of contaminated sediments is illustrated in Fig. 2. From a
management perspective, the main decision is whether to physically remove (by
dredging) sediments or leave them in place, to be covered over by relatively clean
material washed down from the watershed. Unfortunately, most of the AOes are
in tributary streams to the lakes, and many of those streams are dredged for
navigational purposes, thus preventing a natural armoring from taking place.
Another closely related question is, if the contaminated sediments are not
removed, to what extent do they represent an ongoing source of contaminants to
the lakes? As described below, answering this question requires application of
sediment transport modeling, as well as chemical partitioning theory. Risk
assessment generally has involved evaluations based on model simulations.
The problem of contaminated sediments has been generated mainly through
industrial activity associated with development in the Great Lakes Basin. Buffalo,
New York, for example, attracted many industries because of the availability of
relatively inexpensive electricity generated at Niagara Falls. Access to shipping
was an attractive feature of the Great Lakes and many steel companies and
automobile industries were established along their shores and especially along the
banks of tributary or connecting streams and rivers. The level of industrial activity
157
3.5 Public Health and Policy
Although each of the foregoing issue areas is important, the area of public health
and policy is probably the main driving force for management. In addition to
engineers and scientists, policy formulation requires specialists from a large group
of diverse areas, including environmental toxicology, epidemiology and
environmental policy and law. Health risks posed by eating fish from the lakes, for
instance, need to be monitored and evaluated. Relationships between researchers,
stakeholders, and managers must be developed and maintained to facilitate
technology transfer to aid in management decision support. This type of
interaction has been accomplished with some degree of success in the Great Lakes
basin, but improvements are certainly possible. Development of outreach and
educational programs has helped provide public access to data, technology
programs, and the decision-making process in general.
4 Contaminated Sediments
There are other issues in addition to those summarized above, such as
atmospheric deposition, effects of global climate change, and watershed
biogeochemistry, with associated point and nonpoint sources of contaminants. It is
beyond the scope of the present chapter to discuss each of these in great detail.
However, the issue of contaminated sediments bears further examination, since it
is a common problem throughout the Great Lakes basin and it poses significant
challenges for management. As previously noted, contaminated sediments are a
problem at all 43 of the Aoes designated throughout the basin, and it is because
of contaminated sediments that none of the Aoes has yet been delisted.
The basic problem of contaminated sediments is illustrated in Fig. 2. From a
management perspective, the main decision is whether to physically remove (by
dredging) sediments or leave them in place, to be covered over by relatively clean
material washed down from the watershed. Unfortunately, most of the AOes are
in tributary streams to the lakes, and many of those streams are dredged for
navigational purposes, thus preventing a natural armoring from taking place.
Another closely related question is, if the contaminated sediments are not
removed, to what extent do they represent an ongoing source of contaminants to
the lakes? As described below, answering this question requires application of
sediment transport modeling, as well as chemical partitioning theory. Risk
assessment generally has involved evaluations based on model simulations.
The problem of contaminated sediments has been generated mainly through
industrial activity associated with development in the Great Lakes Basin. Buffalo,
New York, for example, attracted many industries because of the availability of
relatively inexpensive electricity generated at Niagara Falls. Access to shipping
was an attractive feature of the Great Lakes and many steel companies and
automobile industries were established along their shores and especially along the
banks of tributary or connecting streams and rivers. The level of industrial activity