| 3 | REMEDIAL ACTION PLAN ASSESSMENT: SITE VISITS TO THREE AREAS OF CONCERN |
The SAB held three of its regular meetings during the biennial cycle at Areas of Concern. This scheduling was intended to assist the Commission in assessing the status of progress in selected AOCs, in keeping with the practice of the SAB from 1995-97. Of the three locations, only St. Marys was designated by the IJC for status assessment in 1997-99, and, accordingly, the SAB coordinated its activities with a view to overall Commission needs and schedules. An IJC summary of this assessment is presented in its report, St. Marys Area of Concern, IJC Status Assessment, February 1999. The other locations, Cornwall and Grand Calumet, were identified in order to assist the Commission in considering their potential as status assessment candidates, because these areas had been visited by the SAB in the past, and because there was a strong local interest in hosting a board meeting to discuss pertinent scientific issues. Board comments and recommendations were forwarded to the Commission under separate cover as business arising from each of the meetings.
Cornwall and Massena
The first of these meetings was the 107th meeting of the SAB held in Cornwall, Ontario at the St. Lawrence Institute of Environmental Sciences, on September 3 and 4, 1997.
It was recommended that:
This recommendation was based on the benefits of obtaining a comprehensive assessment of progress from among the multi-jurisdictional efforts in the boundary waters. Such an assessment could serve to place the proposed Remedial Action Plans into the wider context of lakewide effects, and help the jurisdictions establish priorities for restoration and coordination. Overall, the SAB was encouraged by the progress of the Cornwall RAP and the integration of the St. Lawrence River Institute activities as part of their process.
St. Marys River
The second of these meetings was the 108th meeting of the SAB held in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on November 19 and 20, 1997. The board reached the following conclusions regarding the St. Marys River Area of Concern, based on the comments and submissions from its public meeting.
It was evident from the comments of the BPAC, citizens, elected officials and industry representatives that the protracted planning process was symptomatic of a general lack of leadership, support and resources from a lead agency. Several specific issues were noted in relation to this problem: the need for improved accountability to sustain progress; broadened BPAC membership to address plan implementation; local empowerment of stakeholders to define problems and assess options and possibly the use of a dispute resolution process to assist in the development of a partnership-based approach.
The SAB did not have the benefit of any integrated scientific analysis that either defined the problem(s) or supported any conclusions on the priorities for remediation. Health issues have not been addressed, particularly in relation to the known effects caused by exposure from persistent toxic substances to fish, wildlife and humans. The high level of knowledge and GIS capability with respect to sea lamprey, including remedial least-cost analysis, contrasted sharply with the inability to address other use impairments confidently. The Department of Fisheries and Ocean's approach on sea lamprey was viewed as a model that could be extended to the entire RAP.
The SAB was impressed by the efforts made by the industries in recent years to reduce pollutant discharges to the river. Significant improvements have been made by both St. Marys Paper and Algoma Steel since 1990, and the board concluded that these actions will have important positive consequences for river water and sediment quality. Representatives from both companies expressed an interest in the problem of contaminated sediments and a willingness to work with the other stakeholders in planning and executing appropriate remedial measures. It was evident that both industries have focused to date on compliance with regulatory requirements related to pollution control rather than undertaking a comprehensive assessment of their roles or responsibilities in larger remedial efforts.
Communication was identified by stakeholders as generally inadequate. Several examples included a lack of community knowledge about the recent sampling activities of various agencies and about the potential for drinking water impairment downstream of the primary sewage treatment plant discharge. There was concern that the Area of Concern designation might compromise efforts to obtain national recognition of the river as a heritage site, rather than an appreciation that remedial actions could sustain and complement the restoration and protection of natural attributes.
It was apparent to the SAB that the benefits of increased community awareness and educational opportunities that often characterize successful RAPs have not occurred in the St. Marys RAP. With strengthened communication, such as school programs, community cleanup activities, and an improved media focus, the planning process could be greatly facilitated.
Grand Calumet
The third of these meetings was the 111th meeting of the SAB held at the Spring House Inn, Porter, Indiana, on September 24, 1998. It was concluded that:
It appeared from the presentations and discussions with two of the major industries in the area, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel, that industry has made a renewed commitment to environmental management and stewardship. The U.S. Steel project, to remove contaminated sediments in five miles of the Grand Calumet River, is one of the largest projects of its kind in North America and represents state-of-the-art engineering and technology.
The ecological research efforts and capacity at the Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station and the Great Lakes Science Center continue the standard of excellence in the tradition of Dr. Henry Cowles, one of the area's earliest and most eminent researchers. While the current focus of the research has been on natural history, conservation and protection of remnant natural heritage areas, an opportunity was identified by the SAB to extend this research to include restoration ecology with a view to integrating the recovery at remedial and industrial sites into the surrounding natural landscape. Such an initiative could be facilitated through the RAP with enhanced interagency coordination.
Based on the experience of planning advisory committees elsewhere in the basin, there are strategic advantages for the agencies to encourage further local involvement in the CARE (Citizens' Advisory for Remediation of the Environment) committee, particularly in supporting local leadership as the committee chair. Notwithstanding the known practical benefits of encouraging public involvement in plan preparation, public support in decision making is a key factor to plan implementation and ultimate progress.
Academic institutions in the community, such as Purdue University and Indiana University, provide opportunities to diffuse and apply academic research to problems in the area through local partnerships and initiatives. This is an example of outreach that could be further promoted in discussions between RAP developers and local leadership. University involvement in RAPs is an approach that has been used successfully elsewhere in the Great Lakes basin as a resource for addressing community needs.
In conclusion, the SAB commends the use of status assessments as an interim review process in specific instances where RAP progress has been slow. The SAB experience in supporting these reviews, by assessing scientific issues and facilitating stakeholder dialogue through site visits, invited scientific presentations and public meetings is viewed by the board as an effective approach to provide scientific advice to the Commission with respect to Annex 2 progress. The SAB urges the Commission to continue these efforts and intends to coordinate its future public meetings in the 1999-2001 biennial cycle in order to continue to contribute a scientific perspective to the status assessments.