An ad hoc consensus committee appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will assess whether Coeur d’Alene Lake is at near-term risk of going anoxic and releasing toxic metals back into the water column. This will involve reviewing historical and recent water quality data, and any available modeling efforts, stemming from the 2009 Lake Management Plan and other available information, with the goal of determining what future water quality conditions in the lake will be. More specifically, the study will

· Evaluate current water quality in the lake, lower rivers and lateral lakes with a focus on observed trends in nutrient loading and metals concentrations, while also considering how changes in temperature, precipitation, and streamflow could affect those trends.

· Consider the impacts of current summertime anoxia on the fate of the metals and nutrients.

· Consider whether reduced levels of zinc entering the lake as a result of the upgrade to the Central Treatment Plant and other upstream activities are removing an important control on algal growth.

· Discuss whether metals currently found in lake sediments will be released into the lake if current trends continue. If sufficient data are not available to result in a high level of confidence in its conclusions, the NASEM will identify the additional data that are required to achieve an appropriate level of confidence.

· Discuss the relevance of metals release in the lake to human and ecological health risks.