Project
Overview
A five-year assessment of the condition of Burlington Bay in Lake Champlain,
this effort is being underwritten by the Green
Mountain Power Corporation as part of the settlement crafted by the
Lake Champlain Committee
and other citizen groups for the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund site.
The Burlington Bay Project is designed to provide the local community with
information about the health of Lake Champlain in the greater Burlington
area. Our focus continues to be on the bay’s water quality, healthy
recreational use of the bay and its shoreline, and the impacts of zebra
mussels and toxic contaminants on the bay’s ecological condition. All of
these are major concerns raised by the public over the last decade.
Our findings indicate that the bay is a complex ecosystem. Its
water quality and the condition of the aquatic organisms that live in the
bay are influenced by natural variability, non-point source pollutants,
and exotic species like the zebra mussel. Understanding these interactions
is challenging, but it is the key to successful management of the bay in
the future.
Our objectives for the year 2002 were to:
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Continue to measure and evaluate non-point source pollution resulting from
stormwater.
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Finish our studies of chemical mixtures and pulsed exposures.
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Continue our plankton monitoring in Burlington Bay, and begin to evaluate
how the presence of zebra mussels or other factors may be affecting these
populations.
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Begin laboratory tank experiments designed to examine the effects of zebra
mussels on nutrient concentrations and the plankton community in Burlington
Bay.
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Continue our studies of toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in Burlington
Bay.
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Continue to provide public information about our project and the health
of Burlington Bay through our Web site and other materials.
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