Great Lakes Region

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
Sea Grant Inspires Unwanted Medicine "Take Back" Programs

• Chemicals from medicines flushed down the toilet can pass untreated through sewage plants, damage septic systems and contaminate nearby waterways.
• In 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey sampled down-stream from wastewater treatment plants in 30 states and found at least one pharmaceutical in 80 percent of 139 streams.
• Several of these compounds are potentially harmful to aquatic organisms, even in small quantities.
• Sea Grant and the U.S. EPA Great Lakes Office developed a resource kit for those interested in starting a "take-back" program or creating other disposal programs.
• Fifteen states, the District of Columbia and Canada have requested the kits. Over 160 resource kits have been distributed, and Sea Grant has held workshops for over 100 local officials.
• The kit includes background information on unwanted medicines, what's known about their impact on the environment, as well as numerous resources for addressing the problem, including extensive collection program case studies.
• Sea Grant is working closely with state and local agencies and programs to facilitate "take-back" projects. The resource kit is available online at www.iisgcp.org/unwantedmeds

Michigan Sea Grant
Michigan's Clean Marinas Use Best Management Practices to Reduce Pollution

• Since 2002, Michigan Sea Grant has collaborated with Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Boating Industries Association to develop and conduct a program that enables marinas to reduce non-point source pollution by using best management practices.
• Sea Grant helped develop designation criteria, produced program materials and a web site, led workshops, recruited and trained inspectors.
• As of February 2007, more than 50 facilities, located in 20 coastal counties and two inland counties, pledged to participate in the program, and 11 (including the first state-owned facility) were designated as Clean Marinas, demonstrating that they were voluntarily reducing their environmental impact.

Minnesota Sea Grant
Sea Grant Discoveries Lead to New Park Service Regulations

• Minnesota Sea Grant staff can have big impacts, even while on vacation. Two new infestations of spiny waterfleas were found on Minnesota-Ontario border lakes by vacationing staff members in Voyagers National Park.
• The discovery alerted resource managers to the new infestation.
• Sea Grant helped the park quickly begin an educational campaign to teach boaters how to avoid transporting the invasive species to other Minnesota and Ontario waters, and to initiate new regulations within the park to prevent the movement of spiny waterfleas to uninfested lakes.
• In addition, Sea Grant's research into the tolerance limits of spiny waterflea resting eggs has received attention from numerous agencies interested in limiting the spread of this invasive zooplankter.
• The agencies are developing policies and protocols based on the research findings.

New York Sea Grant
Sea Grant Helps Keep New York's Drinking Water Safe

• A state-of-the-art laboratory developed by Sea Grant researchers has pioneered the identification and monitoring of cyanobacterial toxins found in numerous fresh water bodies throughout upstate New York.
• The lab has analyzed toxins for numerous agencies including the EPA in its review of cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms in the United States with respect to developing a national standard for these toxins in our recreational and drinking water.
• This project has accelerated the funding for further related water quality research.

Ohio Sea Grant
Sea Grant/Clean Marinas Recycling Program Collects 240 Tons of Boat Wrap and Plastic

• For the past two years, the Boat Shrinkwrap Recycling Program, part of the Ohio Clean Marinas Program, has collected and recycled nearly a half million pounds, about 240 tons, of boat wrap and greenhouse.
• The amount collected equals the weight of 176 Honda Civics, and, if laid flat, would cover Ohio's 312-mile Lake Erie coastline with a strip of junk plastic more than 8 feet wide.
• Participating marinas -70 in 2006, 102 in 2007, a 46-percent increase-reported average trash-disposal savings of $500 per marina per year, or total savings based on that average of $86,000.
• Last year's haul from boat wrap alone to manufacture yielded about 48,000 guardrail blocks, worth nearly $114,000 and enough to protect 47 miles of Ohio highways.

Pennsylvania Sea Grant
Sea Grant Offers New Plants Manual

• A two-year study has revealed more than 30 native plants that could help counteract erosion and stabilize the Lake Erie bluff.
• The researchers recently released a manual, "Vegetative Best Management Practices," which is being disseminated to area landowners, landscape and contracting companies and environmental agencies.
• The focus of the manual is to educate landowners and those who work with the land on how to minimize erosive forces through the use of vegetation.
• The manual states that the average bluff recessions rate for the nine coastal municipalities in Erie County range from 0.24 feet to 1.27 feet per year.
• The manual is free to the public and may be obtained by visiting the Pennsylvania Sea Grant web site at http://seagrant.psu.edu/publications/erosion.htm.

Lake Champlain (VT) Sea Grant
Sea Grant Demonstrates that Ultrasound Can be Used for Water Chestnut Control

• Researchers testing ultrasound treatment for water chestnut control found that water chestnut plants were severely damaged after 2 seconds of 20 kHz ultrasound exposure.
• Plant mortality rates after 14 days ranged from 86.67% to 96.67%, depending on the part of the plant treated. Aiming ultrasound directly on water chestnut stems had the greatest effect.
• Ultrasound treatment had no effect on mortality or behavior of two exposed fish species.
• Cost benefit analyses and more comprehensive environmental assessments are underway.
• Ultrasonic control has the potential to successfully eradicate water chestnut plants, supplementing or even replacing current control methods.

Wisconsin Sea Grant
Sea Grant Research Informs World Health Organization

• Wisconsin Sea Grant-supported work on the developmental toxicity of dioxin exposure in zebrafish has increased our understanding of the negative impact to recruitment of yearling fish into feral populations posed by exposure of fertilized eggs to complex mixtures of AhR agonists including polychlorinated and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and biphenyls.
• More specifically, it is now known that the adverse effects of these dioxin-like contaminants on heart development and function contribute to fish early lifestage mortality.
• Regulatory agencies can use this new information on the role of the cardiac toxicity to predict, more accurately, the recruitment risk that exposure of fish embryos to these contaminants poses to feral populations.
• The World Health Organization will use the findings from this Sea Grant research to update the relative potency factors for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and biphenyls currently used to assess the risk of recruitment failure in feral fish populations that are exposed to these contaminants globally.