QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION

Suzanne Sholte, Cleveland, Ohio

As I was sitting through the presentation this morning, which I found very informative, I couldn't help thinking back to when I was in grade school and first facts I learned about Lake Erie. First things our teacher told us was that Lake Erie is a Great Lake, it's severely polluted, and the fish can make you sick. Now, thinking about this, I also couldn't help notice that there was a severe lack of attention to Lake Erie in your presentation. In fact, I believe it was during Mr. Lyons presentation, there was one graph that you showed that didn't even include a progress line for Lake Erie. Thinking on that, my question is, what is Lake Erie's current condition in regards to PBT levels, invasive species, etc. since it was not thoroughly discussed this morning.

Mr. Lyons

Actually Lake Erie is one of our major success stories. Lake Erie is better than it's been in decades. It's cleaner than it's been in decades. The health of the lake and the ecosystem is better than it's been in decades. I would ask Gary to respond a little bit more specifically. Gary Gulezian is our Great Lakes National Program Office manager.

Mr. Gulezian

With respect to the slides that you were referring to that showed concentration of PCBs in lake trout and it was an intercomparison of lake trout in the lakes and lake trout are not a species found in Lake Erie where we regularly monitor the contaminant levels.

Ms. Sholte

Okay but, obviously, we also taught in grade school about problems with zebra mussels, how they have taken over the lake and I know there has been progress but obviously Lake Erie is not perfect.

Mr. Gulezian

Lake Erie shares the same problems and challenges as the other Great Lakes.

Mr. Lyons

If I could just elaborate on that. I certainly don't mean to suggest, and speaking for all of us up here today, when we in our presentations or in our answers and the Q&A talked about improvements made in all of the Great Lakes. None of us are suggesting that they are perfect. Clearly, we have a long, long way to go and I think that we've tried to stress that, but it does bear mention that we have make a lot of progress and we can take justifiable pride in some of the progress that we have made, but none of us would ever suggest that it's done, our work is finished. We have a long way to go. I think that we have tried to stress that repeatedly today.

Mr. Mills

Could I make a comment on the same thing? I think it's important to recognize what we were doing here today was reporting on the progress we've made which, in effect, gives a message because we are focusing on that, the good news side of the story, absolutely. But that is no way to diminish or to negate or to say we don't have significant issues to deal with. I hope that in the presentation we didn't try to give that message. The message we are giving is that there has been progress, but there is a significant issue and long way to go before we get to the goal as it is identified in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of the chemical, physical, biological integrity of those Great Lakes waters ecosystems.

Mr. Lyons

I think that is a very good way of wrapping it up. This would conclude the Q&A portion. I just would like to thank all of you very much for your thoughts, your comments, your questions. We are obviously aware of the serious nature of our efforts and your efforts and obviously we can tell by the nature of the questions and comments that this is really very sophisticated and committed audience. We recognize that many of you are involved to a very great extent in the work that we are all doing. We look forward to continuing to work with you as partners in the future. I just wanted to remind you all that we will have an availability session in Room 101C. I also wanted to, if I could put in a plug for the research vessel and sampling vessel, the Great Lakes Guardian, it is operated by U.S. EPA, by contractors actually, and from 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock buses will be departing and moving back and forth every half hour to take you to tours of the Lake Guardian. If anybody wishes to do that, that is today and tomorrow from 1 to 4. I might encourage you to do so. Thank you all very much for your attention.

Chairman Legault

If you want to know what it feels like to play goalie on a javelin team, sit up there for a couple of hours. We are going to break for about five minutes and then the Great Lakes boards will begin their presentations here. Thank you.