Group: Agencies must unify against invaders
September 22, 2003






BY HUGH MCDIARMID JR.
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER




To the west, the Asian carp lurks in a canal near Chicago, 22 miles from a
tenuous electrical barrier designed to keep the ravenous fish from swarming
into the Great Lakes.

To the east, nonnative quagga mussel -- the zebra mussel's bigger, tougher
cousin -- may be partly to blame for turning part of Lake Erie into an
oxygen-starved dead zone.

At a binational conference of Great Lakes experts in Ann Arbor that concluded
Saturday, the region's foremost invasive species gurus admitted the threats are
moving faster than science can keep up with them.

"I ask the question: 'Do we know what's happening in the Great Lakes?' and
generally the answer is no," said John Mills, director of the Ontario region
for Environment Canada. The influx of foreign species -- often dumped from the
ballast water of ocean-going tankers -- is turning the Great Lakes into an
ecological carnival ride where biologists can only guess what will happen next.


In Michigan, the only state or province entirely within the Great Lakes
watershed, the stakes are enormous. Changes in the lakes can have an immediate
impact on anglers, swimmers, waterfront property owners and businesses. Ripple
effects spread through the state's tourist economy.

Managing the invasive species threat and a host of other Great Lakes-related
issues were part of the agenda at the three-day meeting of the International
Joint Commission. The IJC oversees management of boundary waters between the
United States and Canada.

The consensus: Better coordination is needed among the dozens of groups and
government agencies tasked with safeguarding the lakes.

One idea: A Great Lakes czar to spearhead such efforts.

"On the invasive species, there is a real need for someone to take control,"
said Thomas Skinner, administrator for the federal Environmental Protection
Agency's region that includes the Great Lakes states.

The IJC has already asked U.S. and Canadian federal governments for authority
to coordinate the war on invasives, but has not yet been granted that power,
said Dennis Schornack of Williamston, chairman of the U.S. Section of the
commission.

"I don't disagree. I think someone should be put in charge to encourage
enforcement and look for common standards," he said.

More than 160 nonnative species have been discovered in the lakes -- ranging
from microscopic invaders to the ubiquitous zebra and quagga mussels.

The mussels, whose excrement increases phosphorus levels that lead to damaging
algae blooms, may be to blame for a dead zone in Lake Erie where almost nothing
lives.

The dead zone is a nightmarish setback to the lake, which was the poster child
for pollution during the 1960s when pollution on a tributary caught fire and
Time magazine declared it a dead lake.

Exhaustive efforts slashed phosphorus levels through the 1970s and 1980s. In
1995, the phosphorus levels began increasing. The mussels and farmland runoff
may be responsible, said Jeff Reutter, a researcher at Ohio State University.

Because Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, it often is the
harbinger of bad news.

"It's the sentinel for all the Great Lakes. If there's going to be a problem,
it'll probably show up first" in Lake Erie, Reutter said.




Contact HUGH MCDIARMID JR. at 248-586-2611.