June 21, 2002

An updated action plan addressing the needs of Lake Huron is available from the Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of the Great Lakes.

The Lake Huron Initiative Action Plan Update is an action-oriented process for addressing Lake Huron and identifying priority issues and future efforts needed to ensure a sustainable Lake Huron watershed.

It identifies trends regarding specific critical pollutants and actions that can be taken to address the impairments. Numerous state, federal, provincial and local agencies developed the action plan update.

“Even though critical pollutants are a cause of use impairments and are of concern, the focus of the Lake Huron Initiative Action Plan Update has been toward habitat restoration and protection,” said David K. Ladd, director of the Office of the Great Lakes. “For Lake Huron, the key to restoring the lake is the protection of existing and restoration of degraded habitat.”

The DEQ is working with federal and local agencies to restore the chemical environment of Lake Huron through targeted pollution prevention and ongoing sediment remediation efforts. The agencies are working toward the removal of contaminated sediments in the Saginaw and Pine rivers. These and other initiatives in the Lake Huron watershed are important components of the action plan update.

Copies of the action plan update are available at no cost by writing to the DEQ Office of the Great Lakes, Constitution Hall, P.O. Box 30473, Lansing, MI 48909-7973 or downloading it from the Internet at www.michigan.gov/deq/1,1607,7-135-3313_3677---,00.html.

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Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

Revised June 21, 2002 by Pat Watson