Areas of Concern

The St. Louis River Area of Concern (SLRAOC) was designated in 1987 owing to the presence of a variety of legacy pollutants, including mercury. Elevated fish-mercury levels lead fish consumption advisories by both Minnesota and Wisconsin, which resulted in Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs).

The objectives of this work are to evaluate whether there is compelling evidence that Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) are eliciting adverse effects in Great Lakes fish and wildlife. A second objective is to develop efficient strategies and develop endpoints to survey for, and monitor threats, that CECs may pose before those threats become large scale impacts on Great Lakes ecosystems or...

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement designated 31 Areas of Concern (AOCs) across the Great Lakes. The AOCs are geographical areas where significant beneficial use impairment has occurred as a result of human activities. A beneficial use impairment (BUI) relates to a change in the chemical, physical, or biological integrity of the Great Lakes system sufficient to cause any of the 14 conditions...

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, in addition to designating 31 Areas of Concern (AOCs) across the Great Lakes, also identified contaminants of emerging (CECs) and mutual concern (CMCs) that warranted additional work not only at AOCs but elsewhere within the Great Lakes Basin.

The downstream-most section of Eighteen Mile Creek (also listed as the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) superfund site EIGHTEENMILE CREEK LOCKPORT, NY), a tributary to the south shore of Lake Ontario in New York, was designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) because water quality and bed sediments were contaminated by past industrial and municipal discharges, waste disposal, and pesticide...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and Department of Health (NYSDOH), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) sampled fish from the Buffalo River AOC during summer 2017 to help determine if current fish-consumption advisories are appropriate and if residue data support or do not support removal of the “Restrictions on Fish and Wildlife Consumption” beneficial use...

USGS scientists help support habitat assessment and restoration in the Maumee area of concern (AOC) to determine the extent to which beneficial uses are impaired and the types of management actions required to remediate and delist the AOC.

USGS scientists participated in several projects supporting work in the Niagara River Area of Concern including: 1) Evaluating toxicity in Benthos Sediment, 2) Tracking PCB Sources in the AOC, and Identifying Source Areas Contributing to Contaminants Found in Fish Tissue.

USGS is assessing sediment toxicity at Wisconsin's Sheboygan River and Milwaukee Estuary areas of concern (AOCs) on Lake Michigan. The study will assess if sediment toxicity from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), selected metals, ammonia, or low dissolved oxygen is present at either acutely toxic or chronically toxic concentrations. Sediment toxicity tests...

Project objectives are to identify potential Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) sources and quantify PAH loading to the Kinnickinnic River Great Lakes Legacy Act (KKGLLA) Estuary from 2009 through 2014.

Technical Guidance for Assessing Remedy Effectiveness, Restoration, and Revitalization at Great Lakes AOCs and Great Lake Legacy Act (GLLA) Sites

This project manages USGS Lake Erie LaMP (Lakewide Management Plan) activities. These activities include quarterly conference calls on USGS-related activities; attending semiannual LaMP Workgroup meetings; collection of monitoring metadata from Federal, state, local, and non-governmental organizations for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Web-based mapping program (MAPPER) ; and...