Lakewide Action and Management Plans (LAMPs)
Lakewide Action and Management Plans (or LAMPs) are plans of action to assess, restore, protect and monitor the ecosystem health of each Great Lake, including Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in New York State, in partnership with other states and Canada. LAMPs are developed on a five-year rotational cycle under Annex 2 - Lakewide Management of the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA).
General objectives identified in the GLWQA that guide LAMP efforts are as follows:
- Be a source of safe, high quality drinking water.
- Allow for unrestricted swimming and other recreational use.
- Allow for unrestricted human consumption of fish and wildlife.
- Be free from pollutants that could harm people, wildlife or organisms.
- Support healthy and productive habitats to sustain our native species.
- Be free from nutrients in amounts that promote cyanobacteria or algal growth that interfere with aquatic ecosystem health or human use of the ecosystem.
- Be free from aquatic and terrestrial invasive species.
- Be free from the harmful impacts of contaminated groundwater.
- Be free from other substances, materials, or conditions that may negatively affect the Great Lakes.
Lake Erie and Lake Ontario LAMPs
Lake Erie
As indicated in the 2022 State of the Great Lakes report, the overall health of Lake Erie is poor and deteriorating. The 2019-2023 Lake Erie LAMP was finalized in 2021.
Priority threats identified are:
- Nutrients and bacterial pollution;
- Chemical contaminants;
- Loss of habitat and native species;
- Invasive species; and
- Climate trend impacts
Previous reports are available on EPA's website.
Lake Ontario
As indicated in the 2022 State of the Great Lakes report, the overall health of Lake Ontario is fair and unchanging to improving. Click here to access the 2018-2022 Lake Ontario LAMP.
Priority threats identified:
- Nutrient and bacterial-related impacts;
- Loss of habitat and native species;
- Invasive species; and
- Critical and emerging chemical contaminants
Previous reports are available on EPA's website.
Implementing the LAMPs
To implement the LAMPs and progress toward the achievement of the GLWQA general objectives within NY's portion of the Great Lakes, NYS agencies and partners are working on management actions, such as:
- restoring habitats for key species,
- controlling invasive species to reduce impacts,
- upgrading wastewater treatment infrastructure, and
- improving stormwater management using green infrastructure.
Researching and Monitoring the Lakes
The Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) is a binational effort instituted under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to coordinate science and monitoring activities in one of the five Great Lakes each year to generate data and information that provide resource managers with the information necessary to make science-informed management decisions. Publications associated with the CSMI can be accessed on the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative website.
Cladophora
Cladophora is a type of stringy (filamentous) algae that grows on rocks, wood, logs, and other hard underwater surfaces in freshwater ecosystems, including the Great Lakes basin. Cladophora growth and distribution in the nearshore waters of the Great Lakes is being assessed by U.S. and Canadian agencies and researchers under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Learn more about Cladophora and how you can help monitor New York’s Great Lakes shorelines.
