Burlington Bay is alive and mostly well, but faces some serious threats, according to a recently released study led by Professor Mary Watzin, director of UVMs Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory. Lake Champlains most urban harbor meets water-quality standards and boasts a diverse mix of fish and aquatic life. However, stormwater pollutants make the water unsafe for recreation in some shoreline areas, and the presence of other pollutants and invasive species pose challenges for the bays future, unless action is taken.
Since the local community was concerned about water quality and healthy recreational use of the bay and its shoreline, said Watzin, whose lab is part of UVMs Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, we built a project around these public concerns. We focused on stormwater flowing into the bay, toxins in the sediment, blue-green algae, and the invasion of zebra mussels. We also hoped to document any changes in the fish and other organisms that were occurring after the significant investments to clean up the inner harbor in the 1990s.
Although high levels of poisonous pollutants werent found in stormwater, there were pulses of lower concentrations of a wide variety of contaminants, and there is residual pollution in the sediments in the harbor. Watzin says this pollution deserves additional research to determine if there are subtle effects on fish and other organisms that use the harbor. She also hopes to work with the city to help identify and reduce critical sources of pollution.
However, the biggest changes we will see in the bay in the next decade may come from the expansion of zebra mussels across wide expanses of the bays bottom, and the invasion of non-native fishes. The Lake Champlain ecosystem is resilient, but to understand and manage these changes, we will need to continue to investigate their impacts, she said at a May 11 press conference.
The five-year UVM study was funded by Green Mountain Power Corporation and other companies and individuals as part of an agreement related to the remediation of the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund site. The Environmental Protection agency ruled that GMP was among those named responsible for the canal contamination and in 1998, the EPA directed the responsible parties to pay $4.3 million to implement a remedy that included containing canal contamination with an underwater cap, restoration of wetlands areas at the site, and long-term maintenance and monitoring. In a separate voluntary agreement crafted by the Lake Champlain Committee and local citizens, GMP agreed to fund $3 million in additional projects to improve the greater Burlington environment, including the Burlington Bay research project.
One of the best ways to avoid the Superfund sites of tomorrow is to understand the environmental threats to our natural resources today. The Burlington Bay project was designed to assess the current state of the Bay and highlight problem areas so that we can act, said Lori Fisher, an original coordinator of the citizen group that played a part in the Pine Street Barge Canal clean-up. Fisher is now executive director of the Lake Champlain Committee.
Green Mountain Power was fortunate to work closely with an enlightened group of organizations to create an innovative, first-in-the-nation community solution to a Superfund site, as well as to support other special projects addressing local environmental concerns, said Steve Terry, senior vice president of Green Mountain Power. We all recognized the importance of protecting our natural resources that sustain us now and for future generations.
State of the Bay
- Water quality is generally good and meets state criteria.
- The concentration of phosphorous in stormwater is very high. This stimulates algae growth, especially at the places stormwater enters the lake.
- Stormwater carries high levels of coliform bacteria, making it unsafe to swim along the waterfront except at public beaches.
- With the exception of road salt in winter, scientists did not find high levels of poisonous pollutants in the stormwater.
- Toxic blooms of blue-green algae occurred in 1999 and 2000, but there have been no toxic outbreaks in the last several summers in Burlington Bay.
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