Persistant toxic chemicals such as PCBs, pesticides and trace metals enter
the Great Lakes through wet and dry deposition (including vapor exchanges),
as well as estuarian and storm-water inputs. Two critically important Great
Waters, the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Michigan, are especially subject to
contamination by urban and industrial air pollutants, as both lie in the path
of large urban and heavily industrialized areas. The Chesapeake Bay lies
downwind of heavily polluted urban areas running along its length and is influenced
by polluted air parcels from the heavily industrialized Ohio River Valley. Likewise,
Lake Michigan is influenced by heavily industrialized areas that are concentrated across
its southern basin. (Based on Proposal to AREAL/EPA, Steven J.
Eisenreich, PI).
The Air-water Exchange Over Lake and Ocean Surfaces (AEOLOS) study was conducted in an effort to perform an integrated "Great Waters" deposition study designed to better understand the influence of toxic and nutrient air pollutants from major urban and industrial centers on the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Michigan, two critically important but hyrdrodynamicall different great water bodies. The AEOLOS strategy was to conduct a series of instensive field experiments in which pollutants were measured at fixed urban and shipborne (over-water) sites in both the Baltimore/Chesapeake Bay and the Chicago/Lake Michigan areas. These measurements used state-of-the-art sampling and analytical technologies. The project was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Particpants included the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland.
