EPA Awards More Than $7 Million to Indiana University to Monitor Toxic Chemicals Entering the Great Lakes
CHICAGO (Oct. 1, 2024) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it has awarded $7.2 million in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding to Indiana University to continue long-term monitoring of persistent toxic chemicals, including per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), in the air and precipitation across the Great Lakes.
“We’re proud to partner with Indiana University to better understand how persistent toxic chemicals end up in the Great Lakes,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager Debra Shore. “We depend on data to make sound, science-based decisions and this project will assist in our efforts to reduce toxic contamination across the Great Lakes.”
The funding will be awarded incrementally over the next six years and will support EPA’s Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, or IADN, which monitors toxic chemicals at both urban and rural sites across the Great Lakes basin. Sampling stations are located in Eagle Harbor and Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan; Sturgeon Point, New York; Chicago; Cleveland; and Point Petre in Ontario.
“I am thrilled that through our cooperative agreement with EPA, Indiana University will play a critical role in monitoring current and emerging chemicals in air and precipitation samples from the Great Lakes region,” said Marta Venier, assistant professor at the Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “IADN is a nationally and internationally important long-term monitoring program, and I am proud to have the opportunity to work with the EPA for the next six years to provide data on trends of atmospheric contaminants to the Great Lakes basin.”
Since the 1990s, over a million samples have been taken of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), flame retardants and other toxic chemicals. These samples help assess trends of toxic chemicals in Great Lakes air, estimate the airborne contribution of toxic chemicals to the lakes and discover emerging chemicals threatening the Great Lakes.
EPA announced a request for applications to continue operation of IADN in March 2024. Nonfederal governmental entities, including state agencies, interstate agencies, federally recognized Indian tribes and tribal organizations, local governments, institutions of higher learning (i.e., colleges and universities), and non-profit organizations were eligible to apply.
Since 2010, EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has funded more than 7,500 restoration and protection projects totaling more than $3.7 billion. Read more about the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.