U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern
AREA OF CONCERN (AOC) RESTORATION /
SEDIMENTS STRATEGY TEAM
Established under the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration
Pursuant to the Executive Order of May 18, 2004
(This site was updated on September 21, 2005)
STRATEGY TEAM OUTPUT & DRAFT DOCUMENTS
- AOC Team draft documents
- Drafting Team output
- Process to develop action plan
- Commenting on Draft Documents
Update from Co-Chair Joe Koncelik, January 19, 2005
- This is the final AOC chapter that the Strategy Team cochairs submitted to the Executive Committee on Oct. 14. The cochairs revised the chapter to reflect discussions that took place at the Oct. 6-7 meeting of the AOC Strategy Team in Rochester, NY, as well as input received on the final draft. The cochairs also provided the Executive Committee with a series to near-term actions [ MS Word / PDF ] that the AOC Strategy Team recommends be undertaken in the next 1-2 years. These are intended to supplement the full set of recommendations included in the AOC chapter.
- Draft 6 of the AOC chapter reflects discussions that took place at the Oct. 6-7 meeting of the AOC Strategy Team in Rochester, NY, and incorporates revisions made in response to public comments received on the draft AOC chapter that was released on July 7. The final version of the AOC chapter must be submitted to Executive Committee of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration on Friday, Oct. 14. Therefore, final comments on the revised chapter from members of the AOC Strategy Team must be submitted by the close of business on Thursday, Oct. 13. The Strategy Team cochairs will resolve any final issues on Friday. Comments should be posted to the AOC Strategy Team discussion forum at http://www.great-lakes.net/forum/index.php?bn=strategyteams_aoc
- Highlights of AOC Strategy Team Discussion of Public Comments [ MS Word / PDF ]
- Highlights of AOC Strategy Team Discussion of GLRC Executive Committee Feedback [ MS Word / PDF ]
- Clarification on Providing Recommendations for Near Term Actions [ MS Word / PDF ]
The following documents provide background on outcomes from the AOC Strategy Team meeting in Rochester, NY, and guidance provided to the team from the Executive Committee:
- Appendix - Recommendation Details [ MS Word / PDF ]
Appendix - Assessment of Ongoing Actions [ MS Word / PDF ]
Appendix - Causes of Beneficial Use Impairments [ MS Word / PDF ]
Appendix - Delisting Goals [ MS Word / PDF ]
Appendix - AOC Map [ PDF ]
Appendix - References [ MS Word / PDF ]
The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration will release its draft report for public comment on July 7. This is the draft chapter and appendix materials submitted by the AOC/Sediments team for inclusion in that report.
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Draft 4 of the AOC/Sediments chapter was submitted to the Regional Collaboration's Executive Committee on May 27 on behalf of the AOC Strategy Team. Comments on this draft are not being sought pending feedback from the Executive Committee.
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Deadline for comments: Friday, May 20.
Comments should be posted on the AOC Strategy Team discussion forum at www.great-lakes.net/forum/index.php?bn=strategyteams_aoc. Save the document to your word processor, make your comments using the "track changes" function, and then post the document with your revisions to the discussion forum. Your comments should be posted by the close of business on Friday, May 20. The deadline to submit the final draft chapter is May 27, so time is needed after May 20 to consider and incorporate comments from team members.
Status Report:
At the April 28-29 Regional Collaboration meeting in Traverse City, the Executive Committee asked the Strategy Teams to make a maximum of five recommendations in priority order. The notes from the Traverse City meeting are posted on the AOC Strategy Team web page under "Notes from calls/meetings."
The current draft AOC chapter includes four major recommendations and a number of more specific, related suggestions. An appendix document is being developed to enumerate the more detailed recommendations that don't fit within the five page limit for the main AOC chapter.
The Executive Committee recently provided new guidance for formatting the chapters [ MS Word / PDF ]. The guidance goes beyond just format and impacts content, including the directive that recommendations cover no more than the next five years. This required some revision to the AOC chapter's primary recommendation, but the overall goal remains to complete all sediment remediation projects in the AOCs by 2020.
Thanks to all the AOC team members who had a hand in developing the latest draft of the AOC chapter.
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Draft 2 of the AOC/Sediments chapter was submitted to the Regional Collaboration's Executive Committee on April 21 on behalf of the AOC Strategy Team.
The AOC Strategy Team will discuss this draft chapter and those of the other teams at the April 28-29 Regional Collaboration meeting in Traverse City. The Executive Committee will provide feedback on the draft chapter in Traverse City, and this will be a major focus of discussions at the meeting.
At this time the AOC Team cochairs are not asking for specific comments on the draft chapter, pending feedback from the Executive Committee and discussions at the Traverse City meeting.
Outcomes from this meeting and next steps will be summarized in the next conference call of the AOC Team, scheduled for Friday, April 29 at 1:00 pm EST (call-in number 877-826-8983; conference code 948567).
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Deadline for comments: April 11 (sooner if possible)
Schedule: Between April 11 and April 15 comments from the AOC team will be incorporated and a second draft will be provided to the co-chairs of the AOC team. The revised draft AOC chapter will be submitted to the Regional Collaboration Executive Committee on April 21.
Next Steps: This is the first of many drafts of the AOC chapter. Comments from the Executive Committee will be discussed and the chapter will be revised at the April 28-29 meeting in Traverse City. The final draft chapter will be released at Summit I, currently scheduled for July 8. Summit I starts the public comment period. (Information on the Traverse City meeting is included in the minutes from the March 23 conference call, available on the AOC Strategy Team website under "Notes from Calls/Meetings."
Process to develop action plan
The Issue Area Strategy Teams are the working bodies responsible for producing draft, recommended strategic action plans to be combined into the draft of the comprehensive Great Lakes Strategy for consideration by the members of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration. The Strategy Teams are to follow a specific outline (PDF) in preparing the strategic action plan for their issue area.
The strategic action plans from the AOC Strategy Team will be combined with the action plans from the other strategy teams into a draft of the comprehensive strategy that will be provided to the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Members for review and consideration.
To comment on a draft document, SAVE IT TO YOUR HARD DRIVE FIRST, then edit it using the "track changes" function in your word processing program. Then go to the AOC Strategy Team discussion forum at www.great-lakes.net/forum/index.php?bn=strategyteams_aoc and post a message, attaching the document containing your revisions and comments.
Please be specific in your comments. If a sentence is vague or unclear, suggest new language or explain your confusion. If you disagree with a recommendation, briefly state why, or suggest alternative wording. Avoid "wordsmithing" for stylistic reasons and focus on the substance of the material. The AOC chapter is limited to five pages, so avoid adding new material.
Keep in mind that the AOC chapter is supposed to follow the format set out by the Regional Collaboration Executive Committee. This is a generic format that fits some strategy teams better than others. The format is posted above.
Questions about the content of the chapter should be directed to members of the appropriate drafting team, whose work provided the basis for the overall AOC chapter. The drafting team members are listed on the AOC team's web page at www.great-lakes.net/aocstrategyteam/index.php?p=teams If you want to see the drafting team papers, email the coordinator of the drafting team to ask for a copy.