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To direct limited resources to places where these priorities can be most effectively addressed, the
Region has identified principal places where the complex environmental problems would most
benefit from a multi-media focus. Of the Region's eight principal places, those which impact
Illinois are:
· Lake Michigan
· Greater Chicago
· Gateway (East St. Louis, IL)
To implement its activities in the priority places, Region 5 has created multi-media Regional
Teams whose role is to evaluate, plan and implement activities to address the site-specific
community issues and environmental problems in communication and cooperation with all
impacted stakeholders, including IEPA. IEPA has recently identified specific State contacts to
facilitate better communication and joint planning in each focus area. State activities supporting
the Team goals are described here, under the appropriate State program area or in the Joint
Environmental Priorities section as appropriate. Summaries of the Regional Team plans are
provided as follows:
· Lake Michigan - Both the USEPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) and
the Region 5 Lake Michigan Team contribute to activities which promote the clean-up,
restoration and protection of Lake Michigan, with GLNPO focusing at a Great Lakes
Basin-wide level. USEPA's Great Lakes Program brings together federal, state, tribal,
local, and industry partners in an integrated, ecosystem approach to protect, maintain, and
restore the chemical, biological, and physical integrity of the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes 5-Year Strategy, developed jointly by USEPA and its multi-state, multi-Agency
partners and built on the foundation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement with
Canada and LaMP 2000, provides the agenda for Great Lakes ecosystem management:
reducing toxic substances; protecting and restoring important habitats; and protecting
human/ecosystem species health. These objectives closely align with Region 5 and
IEPA's joint environmental priorities and certain GLNPO activities may be described in
those sections as appropriate. The Lake Michigan LaMP 2002 will include a strategy for
TMDL development for Lake Michigan.
Highlights of Federal activities not covered elsewhere include:
Monitor Lake ecosystem indicators. GLNPO will report information about Lake
Michigan air, water, sediments, and biota through the Lake Michigan Mass Balance
Study (LMMB), thus enabling the Agency and its partners through the LaMP process to
interpret and to target further pollutant reductions. The joint GLNPO/Canadian
atmospheric deposition network (including air monitoring stations on each Great Lake)
will provide trend and baseline data to support and target remedial efforts and measure
environmental progress under Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) and Lakewide
Management Plans (LaMPs). GLNPO, with its Canadian counterparts, will lead efforts
to establish appropriate Basin-wide environmental indicators in anticipation of the 2002
biennial State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference which will bring together
