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Senator Lugar visits WQ lab
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2004/07/29/news/region_and_state/1a0677798b0144d586256edf008083ec.txt
text below
Picture showing Meredith Nevers reviewing the Regional Forecast Model was
published but not included in this electronic version.
Richard Whitman
Chief, Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station
219-926-8336 Ext. 424
1100 North Mineral Springs Road
Porter, IN 46304
----- Forwarded by Richard L Whitman/BRD/USGS/DOI on 07/29/2004 08:52 AM
-----
Dale_Engquist@nps
.gov To: INDU_Squad@nps.gov
cc: Scott_Hicks@nps.gov, richard_l_whitman@usgs.gov,
07/29/2004 07:55 Steve_Cinnamon@nps.gov
AM Subject: Times article on Lugar's WQ visit
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This story ran on nwitimes.com on Thursday, July 29, 2004 12:31 AM CDT
Lugar visits Lake Michigan research station
BY JOYCE RUSSELL
Times Staff Writer
PORTER -- U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar got a hands-on lesson in testing for
bacteria in Lake Michigan's waters Wednesday morning, then met with
representatives of several groups to discuss water quality issues.
Working with staff members of the U.S Geological Survey, Great Lakes
Science Center Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station headquartered at
the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Lugar helped process a sample of
water taken that morning from Lake Michigan.
"Senator, one catch, you have to come in tomorrow at 3 a.m. to read the
results," said Richard Whitman, chief of the research station.
Whitman's tease pointed to one of the deficiencies in methodology used to
test for E.coli bacteria along the lakefront. Presently it takes 18 hours
before results are read.
"There is very little relationship between the open waters of today and
tomorrow," said Whitman. If E.coli counts from Wednesday's test results are
too high, the beaches won't be closed until today.
Whitman told the senator efforts are under way with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to reduce the turn-around time for test results to two
hours.
"I'm curious. Do other beaches on Lake Michigan have similar readings or is
it a problem indigenous to this area?" asked Lugar, referring to the
frequent high counts of E.coli and beach closures in the area, one of the
reasons the senator said he wanted to visit the station and learn more
about Lake Michigan water quality issues.
Whitman assured Lugar that Indiana's beaches have some of the highest
quality water along Lake Michigan's shoreline.
Jennifer Gadzala, co-chairwoman of the Interagency Task Force on E.coli,
told Lugar, as he sat down with some 40 representatives of various agencies
and organizations, that there are several issues throughout the nation that
need to be addressed, however local communities do not have the finances
available to address them.
"It is a concern to each one of us when the E.coli reading is higher than
235 (the level at which beaches are closed)," said Lugar.
Tom Anderson, executive director of the Save the Dunes Council, told Lugar
that combined sewer overflows are a major contributor to the problem.
"They are enormously expensive to be remediated," said Anderson. "The
federal funding in the 1980s (to remediate the problems) doesn't exist any
more. Local communities don't have the financial ability to correct them.
There is no way a local community or the state can address something like
that with the costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. There is a need
for the federal government to assist."
"Taxpayers' support is necessary with projects this expensive. It is the
thought that the federal government should solve these issues, but when it
comes down to it, it is citizen expense one way or another," said Lugar,
adding he would support using federal dollars to help remediate the
problems.
Joyce Russell can be reached at joycer@nwitimes.com or (219) 762-4334.
Dale B. Engquist, Superintendent
Indiana Dunes NL, 1100 N. Mineral Springs Rd., Porter, IN 46304
219-926-7561 ext. 410 FAX 219-926-6153 dale_engquist@nps.gov
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