Citizens living along Lake Ontario and its tributaries are being invited to provide input at a series of six Lake Ontario Basin Communities Visioning
for a Healthy Lake workshops September 24-29.
New York Sea Grant, the Finger Lakes Lake Ontario Watershed Protection
Alliance (FLLOWPA), and the Niagara County Soil and Water Conservation
District are holding the workshops in Lyndonville, Piffard, Webster,
Henderson, Sodus, and Oswego to provide information on issues related to
Lake Ontario and its priority tributaries, including the Genesee and Oswego
Rivers, and to gather input from the public on lake basin conditions and
priorities for a healthy lake system.
The Lake Ontario Basin Communities Visioning for a Healthy Lake Workshops
schedule is:
³This important series of workshops calls on citizens of the Lake Ontario
watershed to provide input on the current status of the watershed and to
identify priorities, barriers and potential strategies for removing those
barriers for a healthy coastal ecosystem,² says co-organizer New York Sea
Grant Coastal Community Development Specialist Mary Penney.
³Participants will help identify the assistance they need for their
communities to more fully engage in the protection and responsible use of
Lake Ontario,² says co-organizer FLLOWPA Program Coordinator Kristy
LaManche.
Workshop discussion will include review of the current Bi-National Lake
Ontario Lakewide Management Plan and Lake Ontario Area of Concern Remedial
Action Plans.
Workshop participants are expected to include local elected officials and
planning boards, county agencies and water quality coordinating committees;
watershed, lake and outdoor recreation associations; public agency
representatives, and private citizens and business owners.
Proceedings of the September workshops¹ series on the current condition of
the Lake Ontario Watershed Basin, stakeholders¹ concerns, and the resources
and funding sources needed for implementation of priority projects and
planning initiatives will be shared with local, State and federal
decision-makers, and posted online at www.nyseagrant.org
The free workshops are funded in part by Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
grant for the Lake Ontario Education and Outreach Project. For more
information, contact New York Sea Grant at 315-312-3042 or FLLOWPA at
315-592-9663. #
More Info:
The Bi-National Lake Ontario Lake Ontario Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP)
includes representatives of the U.S. and Canadian federal governments, New
York State, the province of Ontario, and diverse stakeholders organizations.
Learn more at http://epa.gov/greatlakes/ontario.html.
Areas of Concern:
-
· Designated by International Joint Commission to concentrate available
resources to clean up the most polluted areas in the Great Lakes.
· U.S. and Canadian entities are cooperating to ensure Remedial Action
Plans (RAP) are developed and implemented for each Area of Concern (AOC).
· New York State has six AOCs: Buffalo River, Eighteen Mile Creek,
Rochester Embayment, Oswego River/Harbor (delisted in 2006), Niagara River,
St. Lawrence River at Massena, NY.
PDF