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representatives of the public and private sectors to facilitate risk- and science-based
decision-making. Lake Michigan Basin indicators will be developed by the LaMP.
Manage and provide public access to Great Lakes data. USEPA's integrated Great
Lakes information system, developed by GLNPO and its state and federal partners, will
deliver LMMB, and other, scientifically sound, easily accessible environmental
information to decision makers and the public by traditional means and via the Internet.
GLNPO will pilot techniques to provide public access to LMMB data via the Internet.
Provide and promote community-based environmental protection, especially in
AOCs. USEPA will work with local communities to address the environmental
problems they determine to be of the highest priority.
IEPA will continue to give priority to restoration and long-term protection of Lake
Michigan. We will support and participate in activities of Region 5's Lake Michigan
Team including development of the Lake Michigan lakewide management plan (LaMP)
and participation in the Lake Michigan monitoring coordinating council, a revised 5-year
Great Lakes Strategy, the Cook County area PCB/Mercury pollution prevention initiative,
the Lake Calumet area wetlands initiative, and the LaMP environmental indicators
workgroup. The Agency is also actively pursuing numerous other Great Lakes activities
including completion of Waukegan Harbor remediation, ecosystem restoration and
ultimately its delisting as an Area of Concern (AOC), and participation in multi-state
activities (IJC, Council of Great Lakes Governor's initiatives, the Corps of Engineers
Great Lakes Dredging Team, the Great Waters provisions of the Clean Air Act). Of
particular interest from the broader Great Lakes wide perspective, the Agency will
continue participation in GLNPO's implementation plan for the Binational Toxics
Strategy and the LaMP's toxics committee. Some of IEPA's P2 programs help support
this effort.
· Greater Chicago Initiative - The Greater Chicago Initiative (GCI) focuses on Cook
County, Illinois, particularly on the environmental justice areas of the Southeast and West
Sides of the City of Chicago. The purpose of the Initiative is to work with local
stakeholders, including Region 5, the State of Illinois, Cook County, the City of Chicago,
the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, other Federal, State,
and regional agencies, industry, and citizens to coordinate various government and
private environmental activities for the purposes of effectiveness and efficiency,
particularly in areas that fall outside the purview of the regulatory agencies' base
programs.
Three subcommittees have been established to work in the areas of enforcement,
brownfields, and natural resources. The enforcement committee periodically holds a
Senior Enforcement Managers Meeting that consists of enforcement managers from
agencies that have environmental regulatory authority within the Greater Chicago area.
At that meeting, individual compliance assurance and enforcement cases are discussed
and facilities for multi-media inspections are nominated. The brownfields committee has
held a workshop for municipalities, and plans another one. In addition, the feasibility of
partnering to develop an eco-industrial park is under discussion. The natural resources
committee has established the Lake Calumet Government Working Group. The Working
