scholarly journals Establishing Climate Change Resilience in the Great Lakes in Response to Flooding

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn E Gallagher ◽  
Ryan K Duncombe ◽  
Timothy M Steeves
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
High Water ◽  
The United States ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Storm Events ◽  
Freshwater Resource

Over the past decade, both the average rainfall and the frequency of high precipitation storm events in the Great Lakes Basin have been steadily increasing as a consequence of climate change. In this same period, cities and communities along the coasts are experiencing record high water levels and severe flooding events (ECC Canada et al. 2018). When cities are unprepared for these floods, the safety of communities and the water quality of the Great Lakes are jeopardized. For example, coastal flooding increases runoff pollution and contaminates the freshwater resource that 40 million people rely on for drinking water (Lyandres and Welch 2012, Roth 2016). Since the Great Lakes are shared between two nations, the United States and Canada, the region is protected by several international treaties and national compacts, including the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). In order to increase climate change resiliency against flooding in the region, we recommend the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) work with Environment and Climate Change Canada to relocate the GLRI under the GLWQA in order to guarantee consistent funding and protection efforts. We additionally recommend expansion of both agreements in their scope and long-term commitments to engender cooperative efforts to protect the Great Lakes against climate change.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Langston
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Joint Commission ◽  
International Joint Commission ◽  
International Joint ◽  
The 1960S

By the 1960s, the failures of research and cooperative pragmatism to control Great Lakes pollution were becoming painfully evident. In 1972 Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement was groundbreaking in its focus on cleaning up existing pollution and preventing new pollutants, but the International Joint Commission has no authority to force the two nations to implement recommendations. Therefore, when Canada or the United States refuses to abide by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (in its various revisions), very little happens in response—besides calls for more research.

United States Climate Change Law

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Gerrard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety

This chapter presents an overview of climate change law in the United States, given the global impact of its domestic and international climate change policies. It traces the evolution of US climate change policy under different presidents, and discusses emerging programs under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Under the CAA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issues emissions standards, and under the Energy Policy Conservation Act, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issues Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The chapter also describes the protection of endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA directs the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate certain species as endangered or threatened; for marine species that task falls to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

scholarly journals The National Eutrophication Survey: lake characteristics and historical nutrient concentrations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Stachelek ◽  
Chanse Ford ◽  
Dustin Kincaid ◽  
Katelyn King ◽  
Heather Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Character Recognition ◽  
Optical Character Recognition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Optical Character ◽  
Lakes And Reservoirs

Abstract. Historical ecological surveys serve as a baseline and provide context for contemporary research, yet many of these records are not preserved in a way that ensures their long-term usability. The National Eutrophication Survey database is currently only available as scans of the original reports (PDF files) with no embedded character information. This limits its searchability, machine readability, and the ability of current and future scientists to systematically evaluate its contents. These data were collected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency between 1972 and 1975 as part of an effort to investigate eutrophication in freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Although several studies have manually transcribed small portions of the database in support of specific studies, there have been no systematic attempts to transcribe and preserve the database in its entirety. Here we use a combination of automated optical character recognition and manual quality assurance procedures to make these data available for analysis. The performance of the optical character recognition protocol was found to be linked to variation in the quality (clarity) of the original documents. For each of the four archival scanned reports, our quality assurance protocol found an error rate between 5.9 and 17 %. The goal of our approach was to strike a balance between efficiency and data quality by combining hand-entry of data with digital transcription technologies. The finished database contains information on the physical characteristics, hydrology, and water quality of about 800 lakes in the contiguous United States (https://doi.org/10.5063/F1KK98R5). Ultimately, this database could be combined with more recent studies to generate metadata analyses of water quality trends and spatial variation across the continental United States.

scholarly journals Derivation of an aquatic benchmark for invertebrates potentially exposed to imidacloprid

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwayne RJ Moore ◽  
Colleen D Greer ◽  
Melissa Whitfield-Aslund ◽  
Lisa M Bowers ◽  
Sean McGee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Toxicity Tests ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Invertebrate Communities ◽  
Us Epa ◽  
Best Fit

Water quality benchmarks are developed by many jurisdictions worldwide with the general goal of identifying concentrations that protect aquatic communities. Imidacloprid is a widely-used neonicotinoid insecticide for which benchmark values vary widely between North America and Europe. For example, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) recently established chronic water quality benchmarks for imidacloprid of 0.009 and 0.0083 µg/L, respectively. In Canada and the United States (US), however, the current chronic water quality benchmarks – termed aquatic life benchmark by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) – for freshwater biota are orders of magnitude higher, i.e., 0.23 and 1.05 µg/L, respectively. Historically, aquatic benchmarks for imidacloprid have been derived for invertebrates because they are the most sensitive aquatic receptors. To date, derivation of water quality benchmarks for imidacloprid have relied on the results of laboratory-based toxicity tests on single invertebrate species. Such tests do not account for environmental factors affecting bioavailability and toxicity or species interactions and potential for recovery. Microcosm, mesocosm and field studies are available for aquatic invertebrate communities exposed to imidacloprid. These higher tier studies are more representative of the natural environment and can be used to derive a chronic benchmark for imidacloprid. A water quality benchmark based on the results of higher tier studies is protective of freshwater invertebrate communities without the uncertainty associated with extrapolating from laboratory studies to field conditions. We used the results of higher tier studies to derive a chronic water quality benchmark for imidacloprid as follows: (1) for each taxon (family, subfamily or class depending on the study), we determined the most sensitive 21-day No Observed Effects Concentration (NOEC), (2) we fit the taxon NOECs to five distributions and determined the best-fit distribution, and (3) we determined the HC5 from the best-fit distribution. The higher tier chronic HC5 for imidacloprid is 1.01 µg/L, which is close to the current US EPA chronic aquatic life benchmark of 1.05 µg/L.

The Activist and the Obelisk

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Motors ◽  
Aluminum Company ◽  
Hydroelectric Dam

This chapter delves into the environmental assault on Akwesasne as well as the tribe’s resistance. In the 1950s, Canada and the United States started building the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of canals, locks, and channels that enabled ships to launch in the Great Lakes and sail clear to the Atlantic Ocean. One of its many regional side projects entailed a massive hydroelectric dam that straddled the international borderline. Its construction drowned out six villages and virtually all of the area’s beaver hutches, displacing some 6,500 people—many of whom were Mohawk—and decimating the trapping industry. The dam also lured businesses into the area, including General Motors, Reynolds Metals, and the Aluminum Company of America, all three of which opened factories on the outskirts of Akwesasne and slowly began to poison the area’s air and rivers. The Environmental Protection Agency has done little to help, and many Mohawks resent them for it. The author interviews activists who have taken matters into their own hands with direct action against the corporations—and have been sued as a result.

Contaminated Sediment Management: the Canadian Experience

2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Santiago ◽  
Jean-Pierre Pelletier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Sediment Management ◽  
Contaminated Sediment ◽  
Areas Of Concern

Abstract Since the beginning of North America's industrialization, the Great Lakes have been negatively impacted by the discharge of industrial, agricultural and municipal pollutants. The governments of Canada and the United States have recognized that the accumulation of pollutants within the bottom sediment and the water column has had a detrimental effect on the Great Lakes ecosystem. In 1972, Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which established common water quality objectives and commitments to programs and other measures to achieve these objectives. This included measures for the abatement and control of pollution from dredging activities. By 1985, the International Joint Commission, a body established by the two countries to provide advice on boundary water issues, identified 43 Areas of Concern where impaired water quality prevented full beneficial use of rivers, bays, harbours and ports. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, amended in 1987, committed both countries to concentrate remediation efforts in these 43 Areas of Concern. This led to the development of Remedial Action Plans to assess and remediate contamination problems. Contaminated sediment was identified in all of these Areas of Concern. In 1989, the Canadian government created the 5-year $125-million Great Lakes Action Plan in support of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Of this, $55 million was allocated to the Great Lakes 2000 Cleanup Fund for the 17 Canadian Areas of Concern. A portion of the Cleanup Fund was designated for the development and demonstration of technologies for assessment, removal and treatment of contaminated sediment. Since its creation, the Remediation Technologies Program, established under the Cleanup Fund, has successfully performed 3 full-scale remediation projects, 11 pilot-scale technology demonstrations and 29 bench-scale tests. In addition to these projects, the program also evaluated existing sediment management practices and processes.

scholarly journals Porosity : Networking Cities for a Changing Climate

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett snyder ◽  
N. Claire Napawan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hurricane Sandy ◽  
Storm Events

On October 28th 2013 Hurricane Sandy hit land on the East Coast of the United States. The deadliest storm to hit the country since 2005 it caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, destroyed thousands of homes, left millions without electric service, and caused 117 deaths in the United States, including 53 in New York, making Sandy the most life costly hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Katrina. In all an estimated 186 people were killed across the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada. In the immediate aftermath of the storm not only did the emergency services, state and federal government implement emergency plans of action, including both direct intervention on the ground and massive financial support, so too did a number of charities, community and residents groups across the US. One of the most surprising of these groups was what became known as Occupy Sandy. As noted by the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute: “Within hours of Sandy’s landfall, members from the Occupy Wall Street movement used social media to tap the wider Occupy network for volunteers and aid. Overnight, a volunteer army of young, educated, tech-savvy individuals with time and a desire to help others emerged. In the days, weeks, and months that followed, “Occupy Sandy” became one of the leading humanitarian groups providing relief to survivors across New York City and New Jersey. At its peak, it had grown to an estimated 60,000 volunteers—more than four times the number deployed by the American Red Cross.” What this phenomenon clearly demonstrates is the potential for digital networking to improve response to catastrophic storm events at a community level. Far from being solely a question of material support and logistics, the response to the disaster was one equally definable as digital. Pointing to the possible rethinking of issues around the extreme and localised consequences of climate change and responses to it in purely traditional infrastructural terms, the social media focused organisation of Occupy Sandy potentially offers us a new frame of reference to deal with these, and less catastrophic issues around climate change and our response to it. This paper provides a discussion of the projected impacts of global environmental change in urban environments in the United States, with a particular focus on their impact on existing storm and sanitary water infrastructure. However, it theorizes a new approach to this archaic system of infrastructure that exploits social networking tools and digital technologies to build greater networks for climate change resilience across the United States and, by extension, elsewhere.

scholarly journals Economic Valuation of Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) Projections in the United States in Response to Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-123
Author(s):  
Morgan E. Gorris ◽  
James E. Neumann ◽  
Patrick L. Kinney ◽  
Megan Sheahan ◽  
Marcus C. Sarofim
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
The United States ◽  
Average Total Cost ◽  
Annual Average ◽  
Valley Fever ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Total Cost

AbstractCoccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, is an infectious fungal disease currently endemic to the southwestern United States. Symptoms of valley fever range in severity from flu-like illness to severe morbidity and mortality. Warming temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns may cause the area of endemicity to expand northward throughout the western United States, putting more people at risk for contracting valley fever. This may increase the health and economic burdens from this disease. We developed an approach to describe the relationship between climate conditions and valley fever incidence using historical data and generated projections of future incidence in response to both climate change and population trends using the Climate Change Impacts and Risk Analysis (CIRA) framework developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We also developed a method to estimate economic impacts of valley fever that is based on case counts. For our 2000–15 baseline time period, we estimated annual medical costs, lost income, and economic welfare losses for valley fever in the United States were $400,000 per case, and the annual average total cost was $3.9 billion per year. For a high greenhouse gas emission scenario and accounting for population growth, we found that total annual costs for valley fever may increase up to 164% by year 2050 and up to 380% by 2090. By the end of the twenty-first century, valley fever may cost $620,000 per case and the annual average total cost may reach $18.5 billion per year. This work contributes to the broader effort to monetize climate change–attributable damages in the United States.

scholarly journals Synthesis of Climate Change Policy in Judicial, Executive, and Legislative Branches of U.S. Government

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Brinkmann ◽  
Sandra Jo Garren
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Court System ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
The U.S

In recent years, the United States has struggled to develop a comprehensive policy for climate change and concomitant greenhouse gas emissions that addresses the current scientific thinking on the topic. The absence of any clear legislative or executive approach dominated national discussions and the court system was used to litigate a variety of issues associated with global warming. This paper synthesizes actions taken in the three branches of government prior to and immediately following the Obama election. In the Judicial branch, several branches of law have been used to force government and private parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the historic greenhouse gas lawsuit, Massachusetts et al. v. the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), and under the direction of the Obama administration, the U.S. EPA has taken significant action to regulate greenhouse gases. In the legislative branch, a comprehensive energy and climate bill passed the House of Representatives and comparable and alternate energy and climate bills were debated in the Senate indicating hope for legislation in the 111th Congress. However, these bills proved to be unsuccessful, therefore leaving the U.S. EPA and the courts the only options for national climate policy in the near future.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document