New York Great Lakes Protection Fund
Small Grants for 2000

This small grants program provides seed funding for new, cooperative approaches to projects with the potential to improve understanding and/or management of New York's Great Lakes basin. The program is indended to supplement the Great Lakes Research Consortium's small grants program for preliminary research and to expand the program to include cooperative projects between academic institutions, local governments, non-profit organizations, school districts and others. This year, five small grants of up to $7,000 each were awarded.

The money for this program comes from the New York Great Lakes Protection Fund, established by the New York State Legislature to receive and allocate the interest on the regional Great Lakes Protection Fund endowment created by the Governors of the Great Lakes States.

Measuring RAP Progress in the Rochester Embayment of Lake Ontario: Determining Baseline Levels of Bioaccumulative Chemicals of Concern in Potential Sentinel Species and Comparing Cell-Based Assay and Standard Analytical Results.

James M. Haynes , SUNY College at Brockport

Joseph Makarewicz, SUNY Brockport
V. Macfarland, Laura Inouye, USACOE
J.W. Anderson, Columbia Analytical Services
M. Peet, Monroe County Department of Health.

The purpose of this project is to provide information needed by the Rochester RAP committee to establish a monitoring plan and criteria that will lead to delisting of the fish and wildlife consumption advisory as a use impairment in the AOC. Without this information, the impairment cannot be delisted. The objectives are to distinguish BCC levels in resident sentinel biota above and below an impassable barrier to Lake Ontario and to determine which species (turtle or bass) and which analytical technique is better for future biomonitoring of BCCs in the AOC. The project will attempt to validate and calibrate tissue concentrations of BCCs estimated by standard analytical and cell-based assay techniques. If analytical and cell based results can be correlated, a powerful new tool for future monitoring of remediation progress in Rochester and throughout the Great Lakes Basin will have been established. For more information:

Dr. Haynes - jhaynes@brockport.edu

Algae Bed Patterns in the Rochester Embayment and Western Shoreline of Lake Ontario.

Carole Beal, Monroe County Health Department

Anthony Vodacek, Rochester Institute of Technology
Nina Gibson Raqueno , Rochester Institute of Technology

This study will focus on using remotely sensed imaging spectrometer data to map the location and potentially the biomass of algal beds in the Rocester Embayment and shoreline region in western Lake Ontario to the Niagara River plume. The data collection will use RIT's Modular Imaging Spectrometer Instrument. This study will focus on development and testing of collection and analysis procedures for studying the bottom conditions in the near shore waters where sunlight reaches the bottom. This proposal will provide valuable information toward understanding the cause of three algae-related use impairments and will also demonstrate an application of an emerging imaging technology. For more information:

Carole Beal - cbeal@mcls.rochester.lib.ny.us

Environment and Health in the Great Lakes: a consolidation and analysis of Health and Environmental data.

David O. Carpenter, University at Albany, School of Public Health

The International Joint Commission
NYS Department of Health
Susan Elliott, John Eyles, and Pavlos Kanaraglou at the McMaster Institute of Environment and Health

A McMaster research team has been working for the past few months mapping the incidence of adverse health outcomes in the 17 areas of concern on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. This project will undertake to (1) investigate the relative contribution of sociodemographic variables to the spatial patterns of illnesses revealed in the maps; (2) investigate the relative contribution of environmental contaminants to the spatial patterns of illness revealed in the maps; and, (3) use the results of objectives 1 and 2 to develop a fuller, large scale proposal to the national granting councils in both countries to establish a long term, international cooperative research program on the environmental health of the public living in the Great Lakes Basin. This information is crucial in order to identify problems, describe the status of the ecosystems, and assess the potential impacts on human health and to track the progress of any relevant initiatives. It is planned that the results will be published in journals, presented at scientific conferences and a final report will be submitted to the GLRC. For more information:

Dr. Carpenter - carpent@cnsvax.albany.edu

Fingerprinting Dissolved Organic Carbon from Wetlands of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Katherine Alben, NYS Department of Health

Mike Webb, Union College

The investigators will examine the feasibility of analytically fingerprinting the vegetative sources of dissolved organic carbon collected from select field sites in the Great Lakes Basin. It is of primary interest to differentiate algal, macrophyte and terrestrial contributions to dissolved organic carbon. This goal is to be achieved through a combination of strategies for sample collection, preparation, and analysis. The project would enable an undergraduate chemistry major to participate in evaluating the health of wetland habitats. The work will lead to multiple possibilities for subsequent funding.

Katherine Alben - amb08@health.state.ny.us

Consortium Task Force: Atmospheric Transport and Deposition

Philip K. Hopke, Clarkson University

Thomas Holsen, Clarkson University
Michael Milligan, SUNY Fredonia
Joseph Graney, SUNY Binghamton
Jim Pagano, SUNY Oswego

This task force will provide coordination and communication among the participating institutions so as to maximize the opportunities for obtaining support for expanded studies of the behavior of persistent pollutants with respect to their transport to, deposition in or emission from Lakes Erie and Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. In the coming year, the task force will provide an important coordinating role for the information exchange that will be essential in taking the results of the field and laboratory work and generating successful funding proposals. The task force will also present the results of the preliminary studies to potential funding agencies and make a substantial effort to market their joint capabilities. For more information:

Dr. Hopke - hopkepk@clarkson.edu