Major Goals and Objectives

The objectives of this project are to assist in characterizing and managing pollution-related hazards to tributaries and adjacent communities along the southern half of Lake Michigan. We will accomplish this by 1) deriving a database of risk quotients (RQs; ratio of the environmental concentration of a chemical to a toxicity measurement) specific to this region by combining 30 years of contaminant monitoring data with standardized toxicity information, 2) using the RQs to estimate the effects of pollutants on regional fish and invertebrate populations, 3) highlighting local pollution-related environmental justice concerns by adding income and poverty data to the RQ database, and 4) creating an online tool for managers andstakeholders to search and visualize data from the RQ database and guide decision making.