Restoring Great Lakes Areas of Concern

On this page:

• Develop Beneficial Use Impairment Removal Criteria
• Develop Management Action Lists
• Implement Management Actions
• Monitoring
• Beneficial Use Impairment Removal
• AOC Delisting
• Measuring Progress

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In the 1980s, the United States and Canada identified 43 highly degraded shoreline areas along the Great Lakes, including 26 on the U.S. side and 17 in Canada, with five additional locations shared between the two countries. Known as “Areas of Concern” or “AOCs,” these areas are the focus of comprehensive cleanup and restoration efforts involving federal agencies, the Great Lakes states, tribes, municipalities and other partners. In the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the United States and Canada defined 14 potential Beneficial Use Impairments for Areas of Concern that could result from changes in the chemical, physical or biological integrity of the Great Lakes system.

In order for the United States or Canada to delist an AOC, it must first document the restoration of each of the beneficial uses. AOCs strive to achieve environmental conditions comparable to non-AOC waterbodies in the Great Lakes.

Watch this overview of the AOCs video by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

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The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was launched in 2010 to fast-track efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes. Accelerating the cleanup of AOCs is a priority under the GLRI. Under the GLRI, EPA works with other federal agencies, states, tribes, and local communities to develop and implement projects to remove BUIs and delist AOCs. The Great Lakes Legacy Act is the United States' program for accelerating sediment cleanups in AOCs. The Legacy Act uses a unique, cost-sharing strategy to fund and perform sediment cleanups and associated habitat restoration.

Implement Management Actions

Through various funding mechanisms under the GLRI, management actions are implemented within AOCs. Management actions are typically sediment remediation or habitat restoration projects, although other types of projects can be incorporated into the management action lists. Other remedial actions by other programs may also take place within AOCs.

Once all the management actions necessary for removing all BUIs have been completed, the AOC may move into the “Management Actions Complete” phase. These actions may not result in the immediate removal of a set of BUIs, but they are expected to allow environmental conditions to improve over time and lead to eventual BUI removal and AOC delisting.

•    Ashtabula River*  
•    Buffalo River
•    Deer Lake*
•    Eighteenmile Creek
•    Lower Menominee River*
•    Manistique River
•    Muskegon Lake
•    Oswego River *
•    Presque Isle Bay*
•    River Raisin
•    Rochester Embayment
•    Sheboygan River
•    St. Clair River
•    St. Marys River
•    Waukegan Harbor
•    White Lake * 

Monitoring

Data are collected to assess whether BUI restoration targets have been met. Studies may span several years and are a collaboration between federal agencies, state agencies, tribes, and other partners. Depending on the nature of the BUI, monitoring plans may include one or more of the following activities:

• Field sampling work, or physical parameters
• Post-construction monitoring
• Citizen science
• Literature review, trend analysis, or statistics

Not all management actions need to be completed in order for monitoring to show BUIs can be removed.

Beneficial Use Impairment Removal

Once monitoring verifies the BUI removal criteria have been met, a BUI can be removed. This requires agreement between the local advisory group, the community, and the state, followed by review and approval by EPA. The EPA guidance document Restoring United States Great Lakes Areas of Concern: Delisting Principles and Guidelines states:

Re-designation of a BUI from impaired to unimpaired can occur if it can be demonstrated that any or all of the targets below are achieved:

• Approved BUI removal criteria have been met;
• The impairment is not solely of local geographic extent but is typical of upstream conditions OR conditions outside of the AOC boundaries on a regional scale. Such re-designation would be contingent upon evidence that sources within the AOC are controlled;
• The impairment is due to natural rather than human causes.

There are a total of 255 BUIs for all AOCs. As of September 2022, 120 BUIs have been removed and 110 since the start of the GLRI. To understand more about BUIs and the removal process visit Beneficial Use Impairments for the Great Lakes AOCs.

AOC Delisting

Once monitoring has shown that the restoration targets for all BUIs have been met, the state or EPA can initiate the process of formally delisting the AOC. A “Final Delisting Report” will provide the documentation for delisting the AOC and will include: a summary of the remedial measures taken; the status of the beneficial uses; and details on how the delisting criteria have been met.

In 2001, the US Policy Committee for the Great Lakes published Restoring United States Areas of Concern: Delisting Principles and Guidelines, which outlined the steps to delist an AOC. The 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement provides new guidance on how to delist an AOC.

Measuring Progress

The GLRI Action Plan defines the course to address pressing Great Lakes environmental problems, such as those in AOCs. The Action Plan also sets targets to show progress in improving environmental conditions. GLRI Action Plan III, which guides GLRI work from 2020 through 2024, identified three measures of success for the AOC program:

• AOCs where all management actions necessary for delisting have been implemented
• Beneficial Use Impairments removed in AOCs
• AOCs with a complete and approved list of all management actions necessary for delisting