BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Marta Venier, assistant professor at the Indiana University Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, has been awarded a $7.2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to support the EPA’s operation of its Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network for an additional six years. This network measures and evaluates pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere — both airborne vapor and particles and precipitation — at a regional level. This includes Lake Michigan, which provides drinking water to about 500,000 Hoosiers as well as millions of gallons of water used in agricultural, manufacturing and industrial operations in the state.
“I am thrilled that through our cooperative agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, IU will play a critical role in monitoring current and emerging chemicals in air and precipitation samples from the Great Lakes region,” Venier said. “The Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network is a nationally and internationally important long-term monitoring program. 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.”
The EPA established the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network in 1990 as part of a joint effort between the United States and Canada to monitor the atmospheric contributions of persistent toxic chemicals to the Great Lakes; provide data for estimates of atmospheric loadings and trends of persistent organic pollutants in the Great Lakes; identify new and emerging chemical threats; and support Great Lakes ecosystem assessments by providing high-quality results. Since 1994, the network has been supported by IU, first by the late Ronald Hites, then by Venier since 2014.
“In this cycle, the program will delve deeper into understanding the role of atmospheric deposition in delivering PFAS to the Great Lakes, as PFAS are one of the largest environmental concerns at the moment,” Venier said. “At the same time, we will continue to keep our eyes on legacy contaminants, which sparked the need for a binational atmospheric deposition network as part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Looking at temporal trends of these legacy pollutants will provide information on the efficacy of policies and regulations as well as provide useful lessons on how to handle emerging chemicals.”
As part of the network, Venier and her colleagues will employ a new highly sensitive instrument that was acquired thanks to the support of the O’Neill School and the IU Office of the Vice President for Research to uncover new and emerging chemicals in air and precipitation samples from the Great Lakes region.
“The Environmental Protection Agency looks forward to working with Indiana University on monitoring atmospheric deposition of persistent toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes over the next six years,” said Derek Ager, Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network technical lead out of the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office.
“This partnership will help further our understanding of this significant contaminant pathway to the lakes and will continue to track our persistent toxic chemical reduction efforts.”
More than a million samples have been taken of polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, flame retardants and other toxic chemicals since the 1990s. 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. Since 2010, the EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has funded more than 7,500 restoration and protection projects totaling more than $3.7 billion.
