New York Great Lakes Protection Fund Awards Small Grants

For more information: Jack Manno, Executive Director
Great Lakes Research Consortium, 470-6816
jpmanno@mailbox.syr.edu

Eight projects were recently selected to receive grants through the New York Great Lakes Protection Fund Small Grants Program. The program is administered by the Great Lakes Research Consortium with earnings that accrue from New York State's investment in the regional Great Lakes Protection Fund. The program was developed to provide "seed" money for new, cooperative approaches to researching and protecting the environmental quality of the Great Lakes. Projects are designed to help build new environmental research, education or remediation capacity in the state by providing small grants to initiate new programs or techniques, gain experience or obtain preliminary data so that projects can compete for additional external funding in the future. This year's selected projects focus on a wide variety of topics that fall into three different priority categories chosen by the New York Great Lakes Basin Advisory Council: Contaminant Sources and Fate; Public Participation and Policy; and Human Health and Populations-at-risk from toxic substances in the lakes. Projects ranged from learning more about how certain highly toxic compounds become airborne and later fall out on the lakes to the education of schoolchildren about the basics of groundwater and how humans can unknowingly contaminate fresh water sources. Following are brief descriptions of the projects which have been funded this year.

Dr. Sean P. Bushart of the New York State Department of Health Wadsworth Laboratories and colleagues at SUNY-Buffalo will be working on a project to assess the potential of PCB-contaminated sediment to become airborne when exposed to the atmosphere. Portions of the St. Lawrence River are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs). Because PCB's are highly insoluble in water, they can be deposited in river sediment in high concentrations. Recently, it has been shown that when these contaminated sediments are exposed to the air, either through dredging or flooding, the PCBs become airborne. Although some highly chlorinated PCBs are suspected to be made less harmful by bacteria, more lowly chlorinated PCBs are not. It is these lowly chlorinated PCBs that are suspected of causing specific neurological dysfunctions; therefore, their becoming airborne is of concern to local human populations and surrounding wildlife. This project will begin to gather the data necessary to later develop a mathematical model to help researchers predict how much and what type of PCBs would probably be emitted to the air after floods and remediation activities. This and other models will be very useful in making decisions about how best to clean up contaminated sediments in rivers. For more information, contact Dr. Sean P. Bushart by mail at NYS-DOH Wadsworth Laboratories, SUNY School of Public Health, Albany, NY 12201-0509; or by phone, (518)473-7298.

Dr. Joseph DePinto of the Great Lakes Program at SUNY at Buffalo will work with colleagues at the US Fish and Wildlife Service on improving our understanding of the effects of contaminants on organisms that live in the sediment of the Buffalo River. Previous data on contaminated sediments collected by US EPA will be used in this project that proposes to combine geographic information about sediment with larval and adult fish survey data to better understand the potential threat to the aquatic habitats in the Buffalo River. By combining these two types of data, fish management decisions can be improved in the Buffalo River. For more information, Dr. DePinto can be contacted by phone at (716)645-2088 or by electronic mail, depinto@superior.eng.buffalo.

Professor Joshua Goldowitz of the Rochester Institute of Technology will be working with members of the RIT Students' Environmental Action League, NYSDEC - Avon Office, the Center for Environmental Information and numerous school districts in and around the Rochester area on a project to develop the capacity to provide hands-on groundwater education experiences to high school students in the Rochester area. Students will be given hands-on experience of drilling, installing and sampling a well. While on site students will discuss groundwater movement, aquifers and aquitards, groundwater/surface water interactions and the migration of contaminants. This project is mainly aimed at increasing this understanding in high school students, but can be expanded to include other interested parties. Funds will increase the educational outreach use of the current groundwater education and remediation site and help provide a permanent structure to house groundwater treatment technology. Professor Goldowitz can be reached by mail at Rochester Institute of Technology, Department of Environmental Management, 81 Lynwood Drive, Rochester, NY 14618 or by phone at (716) 442-2464.

In another approach to groundwater education, the Citizens' Environmental Coalition will receive funding for a project headed by Diane Heminway and colleagues at the SUNY at Buffalo Graduate School of Education, the Buffalo Research Institute for Education of Teachers, and the Erie County Environmental Education Center. The project is designed to heighten awareness and sensitivity to Great Lakes water contamination issues. It involves hands-on models and graphics that provide clear, visual examples of how contaminants can be transported throughout the environment. The grant will allow Ms. Heminway to expand her program with area schools and build previous groundwater education projects. Ms. Heminway can be contacted by mail at the Western New York Office, Citizens' Environmental Action Coalition, 339 North Main St., Suite A, Medina, NY 14103; or by phone at (716)798-0111.

Dr. James N. Jensen of SUNY-Buffalo will be working with students and faculty at that university and staff at Williamsville South High School and Aquarium of Niagara on develop tools to help educate non-technical audiences in the technical aspects of environmental decision-making. Public interest in environmental decisions is high, and the desire to participate can be great but many management decisions, such as fish advisories and the impact of invading species, are based on complex physical and mathematical models. Therefore, environmental decision-making may appear incomprehensible and even frivolous to the general public. The project will utilize the latest developments in software technology to help students translate environmental concepts into mathematical models. Two sample models will be developed for use in high school classes and at a public aquarium, one on zebra mussel colonization and the other on pollutant fate and transport. The models will later be made available to environmental educators. Dr. Jensen can be reached by mail at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Civil Engineering/Environmental Sciences Program, 212 Ketter Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260; or by electronic mail at jjensen@acsu.buffalo.edu.

In an effort to begin to incorporate the concept of sustainable development into the actual work of urban planning and design, a researcher at the City of Buffalo's Office for the Environment, Anthony J. Luppino, will be working with a wide variety of environmental, community, business and non-profit organizations, as well as SUNY-Buffalo and NYS-DEC, on developing indicators for use in evaluating the environmental impact of various city activities. The idea of "sustainability" is fast becoming a way of thinking for many environmental activists, urban activists, and planners. The problem with this concept is that it is an extremely difficult idea to define, thus causing problems when developing practical approaches to achieving "sustainability". The Buffalo Environmental Indicators Project will identify specific "indicators of sustainability" in and around the city of Buffalo. Once developed, the indicators will provide the City of Buffalo and surrounding local governments with sound information on which to base environmental policies. Mr. Luppino can be contacted by mail at City of Buffalo's Office for the Environment, 920 City Hall, Buffalo, NY 14202; or by phone at (716)851-5076.

Dr. Michael Milligan of SUNY - Fredonia will be working with faculty and students from Fredonia, SUNY - Buffalo, and Buffalo State College on a field study of air samples in New York to improve our knowledge of how the class of compounds known as Dioxins and Furans, many of which are toxic, become airborne and later fall out on our lakes and rivers. These compounds are on most list of priority pollutants of concern but very little in known about the mechanisms of their atmospheric transport. Information collected in this study will be used as guidelines for mathematical transport models which will serve as a basis for future research. Dr. Milligan may be contacted by phone at (716)673-3528; or by electronic mail at milligan@fredonia.edu.

Professor Michael A. Shapiro of Cornell University will be working with other researchers at Cornell and the Cooperative and Sea Grant Extension Agents in counties bordering Lake Ontario and counties adjacent to those on a project entitled "Angler Estimates of Personal Risk from Chemically-Contaminated Fisheries." Perceived personal risk is an important factor in taking action to protect one's health. Previous studies have shown that many anglers underestimate their own risk from eating contaminated sport fish, while overestimating the risk for others. This "optimistic bias" may come from a variety of sources including personal experience and television. The purpose of this project is to understand the causes of optimistic bias and to investigate the messages that would reduce it. Such a determination would allow state agencies to define more effective public health advisories. Professor Shapiro may be reached by mail at Cornell University, Department of Communication & Social and Behavioral Research Unit, 319 Kennedy Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853; or by phone at (607)255-6356.

For comments and questions, please contact Jack Manno, Executive Director the Great Lakes Research Consortium (315)470-6816 or by email at jpmanno@mailbox.syr.edu