Federal Agencies Work Group Opportunities for Federal Action: Protecting Human Health

Minimize the risks to humans from water-related health hazards in the Lake Champlain Basin.

KEY FEDERAL ACTIONS

Environmental Protection Agency

EPA provides funding for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and funding for the implementation of the Source Water Assessment Program in the states.

Through the LCBP, EPA is funding blue-green algae research in Lake Champlain, which is being conducted by faculty at UVM. Monitoring in Lake Champlain has completed seven successful field seasons so far. A vital component of this work is to develop a consistent process for notifying Vermont, New York, and Quebec government health offices and the public about risks from blue-green algae exposure on a weekly basis. Previously, some of the parties have initiated beach closures for shared waters without the knowledge of the other parties. A new project is studying the possible impact herbicides have on increasing the concentration of blue-green algae in Lake Champlain.

A Lake Champlain Basin Program local grant to the Lake Champlain Committee is expanding an ongoing volunteer blue-green algae monitoring program.

OTHER FEDERAL ACTIONS

Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge is participating in an effort spearheaded by the Lake Champlain Committee, in concert with the UVM, to learn more about the timing, duration, extent, and threat to humans and their pets from blue-green algal blooms in the Missisquoi Bay area.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Lake Champlain Sea Grant urban watershed pollution prevention, reduction and education activities specifically focus on reducing bacterial pollution of urban waterways by pet waste, and through malfunctioning septic systems. Recently completed research in Malletts Bay, Colchester, identified dog waste left in lakeshore yards as a likely source of bacterial contaminants. As part of the Clean New England Beaches Initiative, LCSG and EPA New England co-sponsored a workshop on reducing and preventing pathogen related beach closures on lakes and rivers in northern New England.

USFWS A blue-green algae bloom near Phillipsburg on Missisquoi Bay.

USFWS Blue-green algae obscures a secchi disk.