The Great Lakes Regional Water Program is a partnership among the Land-Grant institutions in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, along with the Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES). Through a grant from the CSREES National Integrated Water Quality Program that increases our ability to work across state lines, we deliver and share research, education, and outreach programs that either lead directly to cleaner water, or increase the capacity of people to manage water resources. We make every effort to take advantage of the diverse knowledge bases available in each state, as well as the economies of scale available when the Land-Grant universities and colleges and our partners in the region address water resource issues collaboratively. The Program is, in essence, a study in bridge building. We do not, however, build bridges just to build them.

Each of the initiatives below express the value that the Great Lakes Regional Leadership Team and our initiative leaders place on building bridges. Initiatives are focused in six CSREES national themes to help address regional priorities and maintain connectivity:

Animal Waste Management	Nutrients and Water Quality
Drinking Water and Human Health	Water Policy and Economics
Environmental Restoration	Watershed Management

See below for a brief list of project areas within each theme. Please select a link at the left of the page for a more detailed description of each theme and selected projects.

Animal Waste (Coordinated by the University of Illinois)

Training for commercial manure applicators
Conservation Professional Training
C/AFO training for mid-sized producers
Ag. 101 for USEPA staff
Preferential flow (manure movement to tile)
Explore progress and feasibility of EMSs

Drinking Water and Human Health (Coordinated by Michigan State University)

Pathogen monitoring
Private well testing (focus on underserved audiences)
Septic system management (may tie into private well testing)
Arsenic
Fish consumption education (focus on underserved audiences)

Environmental Restoration (Coordinated by the University of Wisconsin)

Shoreline restoration/protection
Wetland restoration/protection
Wild rice preservation
National Estuarine Research Reserve (Lake Superior)
Stream restoration (dams, buffers, drainage ditches)

Nutrients and Water Quality (Coordinated by Purdue University)

Agricultural drainage mgmt
Drainage infrastructure – restoration and demo
Nutrient criteria

Water Policy and Economics (Coordinated by the University of Minnesota)

TMDLs & stormwater
BMP cost/benefit analysis
Great Lakes diversion

Watershed Management (Coordinated by the Ohio State University)

TMDLs
Watershed educator training/certification
Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring
Watershed group capacity building
Decision Support Systems for watershed management
EPA social impacts/evaluation workshops
Expansion of Lake Superior On The Water Outreach program