01/27/2026
Hello Everyone and Welcome to our AOC page. We would like to give a little background of what, who we are, and how we got started.
Charter: Community Waters Coalition
Background
In 1987, the last 7 miles of the Lower Fox River and a 21 mi2 area of the lower bay of Green Bay was federally recognized as one of the most polluted areas in the Great Lakes and deemed an “Area of Concern” or “AOC”. For over three decades, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource (DNR) Office of Great Waters has been the primary coordinating agency of the AOC program in Wisconsin. DNR has worked with many federal, regional, and local stakeholders and technical experts to develop “Remedial Action Plans” or “RAPs”, that detail a desired future state for the AOC for the communities, industries, and fish and wildlife that depend on a healthy environment. Developing and implementing projects to achieve this desired future state centers on the application of an ecosystem approach, public involvement, and consensus-building within AOC communities.
While there are a variety of methods that have been used to solicit public input and engage communities, most AOCs rely on Community Advisory Committee’s, or “CACs”. CACs typically provide “communication in” on community interests to coordinating agencies by acting as liaisons, and/or “communication out” by engaging and leveraging their respective networks within the community about AOC program priorities. Given that community consensus-building is a core guiding principle that has made the AOC program such a success throughout the Great Lakes, bolstering community engagement and supporting environmental justice initiatives is a key priority for DNR.
As a result, DNR partnered with New North, Inc. and the Fund for Lake Michigan to recruit and compensate CAC members that represent diverse community perspectives and lived experience to help align AOC program goals with community interests and priorities.
AOC Program Goals
The intent of the AOC program is to repair a range of natural resource issues in the Great Lakes resulting from legacy contamination and degradation caused by humans at the local level. These natural resource issues are described as “Beneficial Use Impairments” or “BUIs”, and they represent a change in the chemical, physical, or biological integrity of the Great Lakes system sufficient to cause significant environmental degradation.
In the Lower Green Bay & Fox River AOC, a total of 13 of the 14 possible BUIs were listed as “confirmed” or “suspected” in 1993 (see Table below). To address BUIs, DNR works with technical and community stakeholders to develop local restoration targets or “removal targets” that define success for each BUI. The removal of BUIs typically occurs after 1) one or more “AOC management actions” that make substantial progress toward addressing natural resource issues have been implemented, 2) several smaller-scale collective actions have been implemented by partners, and/or 3) federal, state, and local policies have been implemented (e.g., Clean Water Act). Often, each one of these strategies plays a role in BUI removal, though implementation of AOC management actions tends to most strongly support BUI removal. Management actions are also developed through consensus-building with technical and community stakeholders. Once restoration targets are achieved, the BUI can be recommended for removal to EPA, technical and community stakeholders, and the public.
BUI status, restoration targets, and progress updates are detailed in Remedial Action Plans or “RAPs” that are published on a roughly bi-annual basis. To date, 3 of the 13 BUIs have been formally removed for the Lower Green Bay & Fox River AOC. Once all BUIs have been formally removed the AOC can be “delisted”. Delisting an AOC does not suggest that all potential problems have been eliminated, but instead that the area is on par with less degraded areas of the Great Lakes.
