March/April 1998
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March/April 1998 |
by Jennifer Day
IJC recently released a special report detailing seven AOCs that have developed successful strategies towards remediation. Webster's dictionary defines a beacon as something that inspires and guides or acts as a summons to achievement. By examining these current implementation efforts and identifying successful concepts, techniques and institutional characteristics, it is hoped that the most effective endeavors will serve as "beacons" to guide other AOCs where progress has been more difficult. Recent developments related to staffing and budget cuts are proving to be formidable impediments to efforts aimed at restoring beneficial uses in AOCs. Building on a decade of experience in reviewing RAPs and assisting in the restoration of AOCs, IJC hopes to focus attention on the most productive methods of restoring beneficial uses, even in this era of limited resources.
Black River: Strategic Planning
The Black River RAP Coordinating Committee and its community partners resolved to restore, enhance and protect Ohio's Black River and its tributaries through a community-based, public-private initiative. The initiative relies heavily upon working with private landowners and land users to ensure protection of the privately held corridor along the Black River and its tributaries. The Black River Stream Riparian Corridor Restoration Task Force was officially authorized by the Black River RAP Coordinating Committee and assigned to identify strategies that members of the Black River RAP could realistically implement to combat nonpoint source pollution in the Black River watershed. An aggressive and comprehensive implementation plan was developed and became the basis of the Black River RAP long-range plan.
The long-range plan is intended to guide the Committee in supporting farmers, developers, business owners, residents, government officials, private citizns and others in meeting this challenge. The Black River RAP long-range strategic planning process is continuous and must adapt to environmental changes and impacts in the Black River watershed.
Lessons Learned
Grand Calumet River/Indiana Harbor Ship Canal: Public-Private Partnership
The state and federal environmental enforcement initiative in northwest Indiana has been successful in bringing the regulated community into compliance with environmental regulations and will result in remediation of eight of 32 kilometers (five of the 20 miles) of contaminated sediment in the Grand Calumet River. However, given the magnitude of contaminated sediment, successful cleanup will not occur through enforcement actions alone.
A partnership plan proposing a community-based, consensus driven, cooperative approach to cleaning up and restoring the Grand Calumet River was presented to the Citizens' Advisory for Remediation of the Environment (CARE) Committee by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Under the plan, the proposed Grand Calumet Area Partnership would coordinate the numerous ongoing efforts to clean and revitalize the environment of northwest Indiana. Coordination would ensure that limited funds are used efficiently and that cleanup and restoration projects do not recontaminate downstream areas.
The objective is to enable industry, municipalities, citizen groups and state and federal agencies to work cooperatively with pooled resources. CARE would enable each of the parties involved to contribute to the restoration of the AOC. Contributions could be in the form of funds or resources for administering, designing, dredging, and sampling, or of land for disposal or habitat restoration.
In April 1996, the state of Indiana and the Grand Calumet Task Force held a joint meeting to discuss the partnership approach with local business. This meeting emphasized the benefits of participation in a cooperative effort. Meetings are presently underway to establish the partnership, make commitments and set milestones for action.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management also has entered into two contracts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a plan for sediment cleanup and restoration options. The assessment will determine total volume of contaminated sediment, appropriate cleanup methods, implementation sequence and disposal options. This assessment will be used as a basis for partnership-based and enforcement-based cleanup activities. The Grand Calumet cooperative roject moves beyond a traditional regulatory approach and teams the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the state of Indiana with the local industries in a voluntary cooperative effort.
Lessons Learned
Hamilton Harbour: Sustainable Development
In 1989, a sustainable community initiative began as a basis and framework to consider several items: the Hamilton-Wentworth regional government's policy goals and objectives; the region's economic strategy; budget decisions; and other initiatives including the implementation of the Hamilton Harbour RAP. Over a period of two and one half years, a Citizens' Task Force on Sustainable Development met with over 1,000 citizens and developed a consensus of the community vision. It then produced the document Vision 2020: The Sustainable Region. Vision 2020 describes the type of community Hamilton-Wentworth could be in the year 2020 using principles of sustainable development as a guide for decision-making. Follow up documents identified more than 400 recommendations to make this vision a reality.
The Hamilton-Wentworth regional government incorporated almost 100 of these recommendations into a new official plan for land use entitled Towards a Sustainable Region. In November 1994, the Renaissance Report was adopted by Hamilton-Wentworth regional council as its strategic plan for long-term economic development. A transportation review and a comprehensive municipal pollution prevention plan also have been developed with the goals of the vision statement in mind.
The Hamilton-Wentworth regional council now requires that all new proposals and projects be assessed for sustainable implications and a sustainable community decision-making guide is used as a tool to evaluate all proposed and existing policies, programs and projects. The region hosts an annual Vision 2020 Sustainable Community Day at which the progress of the region relative to the goals of Vision 2020 is presented in the form of a report card.
The incorporation of the recommendations of Vision 2020 into the long-range plans for Hamilton-Wentworth shows a level of commitment to the goals of sustainable development that is recognized at both the national and international levels. This approach relies on the premise that a healthy environment is needed to attract the small businesses and high-tech companies that will form the basis of the region's growth potential in the near future.
Lessons Learned
Ashtabula River: Effective Use of a Partnership
The lower Ashtabula River and its outer harbor serve the city of Ashtabula community as both a commercial and recreational harbor.
In 1994, U.S. EPA threatened to designate the AOC as a Superfund site with estimated cleanup costs of $30 million to $50 million (U.S.), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined it was no longer able to maintain the navigational channels due to PCB contamination that precluded open lake disposal of dredged sediment. With this in mind, the Corps proposed to build a confined disposal facility at a cost of $12 million. The Ashtabula community faced a crisis of not being able to find resources to fund its share in the project, while facing closure of its commercial and recreational harbor due to lack of dredging. The proposed solutions imposed too great a financial burden for the community and necessitated the development of new solutions.
A group of government agencies involved in the RAP process developed a remedial plan calling for the development of a cooperative, local voluntary effort to clean up the river. This approach gained unanimous acceptance and resulted in the formation of the Ashtabula River Partnership involving the government agencies, local industry and elected leaders. The Partnership recognized the links between the interests of U.S. EPA and the Corps -- commercial and recreational navigation interests and complete remediation of the river.
The Partnership drew from the example set by the Grand Calumet River partnership and proposed building a multiparty, multipurpose disposal facility. In Ashtabula three existing projects were planned, each requiring a disposal facility to contain dredged sediment. The Partnership identified common elements among the projects and coordinated one project instead of three. It also followed the Grand Calumet example by forming an independent, non-profit foundation to undertake the task of AOC remediation. The Ashtabula River Foundation was formed and granted tax-exempt status. It is dedicated exclusively to charitable, educational and scientific activities that lead to the restoration of beneficial uses of the Ashtabula River.
Lessons Learned
Bay of Quinte: Phosphorus Trading
Eutrophication, or the overabundance of decaying plants, due to continued high phosphorus loads is a major water pollution problem in the Bay of Quinte. There are many phosphorus sources, including point source discharge from municipal sewage treatment plants and industrial sites, as well as nonpoint sources of pollution, such as agricultural runoff, urban storm water runoff and failing septic systems.
Various abatement actions have been introduced, including sewage treatment and industrial upgrades. While these actions are important, they are often an expensive solution and costs to control nonpoint sources are often less. Measures taken on agricultural land include conservation tillage and retirement of erodible lands, milkhouse waste and barnlot runoff controls, fencing livestock out of waterways and septic system repair. Opportunities were found for point source and nonpoint source dischargers to work together to implement cost-effective pollution control measures and achieve phosphorus targets.
One practical, environmentally-sustainable and innovative option is a phosphorus permit trading program. In simple terms, a trading program establishes the total amount of phosphorus permitted to enter the bay from all sources, assigns a percentage of the total amount to each, and allows those releasing phosphorus to buy and sell these allocations among themselves, as long as the total permitted amount is not exceeded. Within the Bay of Quinte watershed, there are three possible trading scenarios:
Permit trading, in certain situations, is an imaginative solution for achieving and sustaining water quality improvements. In the Bay of Quinte, trading may, as themodeling suggests, provide another tool to effectively link point and nonpoint source cleanup actions, address water pollution problems in parts of the bay's watershed and create new economic opportunities for urban and rural areas.
Lesson Learned
Manistique River: Superfund Remediation
The Manistique River/Harbor AOC lies on the south shore of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Three areas of contaminated sediment fall within the AOC and the area is a listed Superfund site. Measured PCB concentrations far exceed U.S. EPA's 10 part per million (ppm) cleanup level, with the most highly contaminated area having a measured concentrations at 2,510 ppm. Surface water analysis indicates that about 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of PCBs are washed annually into Lake Michigan.
The U.S. EPA remedial recommendation for this area was to dredge contaminated sediment and dispose of it at a suitable landfill. However, the potentially responsible parties for the contamination identified capping as a less costly alternative to dredging and disposal. After considering both alternatives, U.S. EPA concluded that approximately 92,000 cubic meters (120,000 cubic yards) of sediment and waste material would be dredged from the river and harbor and transported off-site for disposal. As a result, the potentially responsible parties agreed to pay U.S. EPA the equivalent cost of capping the contaminated areas in the harbor rather than the cost of dredging and disposal and, in exchange, U.S. EPA agreed to absolve the parties of any future liability associated with this site. The total estimated cost of the project is $16 million (U.S.).
The remediation of this area is expected to be three to four years shorter than the typical cleanup effort due to the creative cooperation achieved between industry, government and the public.
Lessons Learned
Muskegon and White Lakes: Creative Fund Raising
Muskegon and White lakes are located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Water and habitat quality in Muskegon Lake and its tributaries are degraded by discharges of industrial process wastewater, municipal wastewater, combined sewer overflows and urban runoff as well as the filling of the lake and wetlands. The White Lake AOC is located approximately 24 kilometers (15 miles) north of Muskegon Lake and is administered together with the Muskegon AOC.
The Muskegon Lake Public Advisory Council (PAC) was established in 1992 through a grant from the Lake Michigan Federation. Since the PAC's inception, the members have used creative methods to fund and support their activities. The group meets monthly wherever free meeting space is available and relies on the Muskegon Conservation District to provide administrative support. The PAC has successfully involved a broad range of stakeholders in the RAP process. The diversity of persons and groups involved has contributed to expertise available to the projects in Muskegon.
Michigan has provided funding through grants to maintain the PAC and support public education efforts; however, each grant has been successively smaller. The start-up funds have raised public awareness and opened the door to the present monetary support received from the community. The PAC has been industriously writing grant applications to obtain additional funds. The goal is not to raise funds for operation of the PAC itself, but to direct funds to appropriate implementation activities. Many successes have been achieved in securing funding for small projects, such a beach cleanups and storm drain stenciling programs; however, the much larger and more expensive projects, such as sediment remediation, still lack funding.
Public involvement and community awareness have fostered the formation of many partnerships with groups such as the Muskegon Conservation District, volunteer teams, local biology students, scout and church groups. The city of Muskegon is presently revising its master plan and the PAC and local conservation groups have encouraged the inclusion of a 'natural features inventory' section. Inclusion in the master plan is the first of a series of stages to build political will to protect natural areas and restore degraded habitat.
The PAC has chosen to support projects that will be visible in the community, such as habitat rehabilitation. They feel this is necessary to maintain the momentum of the RAP. Less visible projects, such as sediment remediation and dealing with groundwater contamination are more expensive and these large cleanup projects cost more than this community can afford. While the community is doing its part to raise funds and form partnerships to sustain the RAP, more complex and costly environmental problems remain unresolved.
Lessons Learned
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Des Lumières dans la Nuit
La mise en oeuvre des programmes créés dans le but de concrétiser la vision énoncée dans l'Accord relatif à la qualité de l'eau dans les Grands Lacs s'avère une tâche hautement variée et d'une grande complexité. L'un de ces programmes consiste en l'élaboration de Plans d'assainissement (PA) à l'égard des 42 secteurs préoccupants (SP) décelés dans le bassin des Grands Lacs. L'établissement de plans et de stratégies d'assainissement a emprunté des voies très différentes; en effet, certains s'inscrivent dans un contexte des plus difficiles, tandis que d'autres avancent très rapidement, grâce à la collaboration des instances municipales, étatiques, provinciales et fédérales. Les échecs et les réussites dans ces domaines ne sont pas le fait d'un pays ou d'un autre ou même d'un palier de compétence inférieur; leurs facteurs déterminants résident plutôt dans une combinaison d'efforts et d'imagination créatrice à l'échelon local.
La CMI a récemment publié un rapport spécial fournissant une description détaillée de la manière dont on a élaboré et mis en oeuvre des stratégies de rétablissement qui ont donné de bons résultats. Dans le dictionnaire, on dit d'un phare qu'il s'agit de quelque chose qui guide et qui inspire, ou encore qui peut être l'élément déclencheur d'une réalisation. On espère qu'en examinant les efforts de mise en oeuvre actuellement déployés et qu'en cernant les principes, les techniques ainsi que les caractéristiques qui ont donné de bons résultats, les mesures les plus efficaces serviront de «phares» pour les autres SP où les progrès ont été plus difficiles. Les récentes mesures liées aux réductions de personnel et aux coupures de budgets se révèlent des obstacles redoutables aux efforts consentis en vue de rétablir les utilisations bénéfiques dans les SP. La CMI, s'appuyant sur ses dix années d'expérience passées à examiner les PA et à aider au rétablissement des SP, espère attirer l'attention sur les méthodes les plus productives de rétablissement des utilisations bénéfiques qui ont cours, même dans la période de restrictions que nous traversons.
Revised: 7 April 1998
Maintained by Kevin McGunagle,
mcgunaglek@ijc.wincom.net