G.M "Mick" DeGraeve, Ph.D.
Director of Strategic Planning and Program Development
Senior Research Scientist
Email
Mick is the principal founding member of GLEC and has led GLEC’s consistent growth since its formation in 1992.  He is a senior aquatic biologist/toxicologist with nationally recognized expertise in aquatic research and problem solving in environmental compliance assistance, monitoring and assessment, and environmental toxicology. He has established aquatic laboratories in the United States and Canada, supervised government and private sector research programs, directed environmental planning programs for commercial entities, and managed projects focused on solving existing problems in water pollution/aquatic biology. Research projects that Mick has led for the U.S EPA Office of Water and other entities include updating aquatic life criteria guidelines; researching the effects of pesticides on fish in the Great Lakes; studying the effects of sewage effluent disinfectants on freshwater fish and invertebrates; determining the toxic components in process waters produced from coal gasification, oil shale extraction, and tar sands extraction; determining long-term bioaccumulation, survival and growth effects of dioxins and dibenzofurans; performing toxicity source identification and toxicity reduction evaluations for complex industrial and municipal effluents; developing TMDLs for toxics, pathogens and oxygen-demanding substances in the New York/New Jersey Harbor and tributaries; and refinement and field validation of EPA-developed methods to detect, identify, and quantify bioconcentratable compounds in effluents, tissues and sediments. Mick has been especially successful in helping to bring groups with diverse environmental needs and interests (such as regulators and the regulated community) together to reach a consensus perspective that meets the needs of all affected parties.  In 2021 Mick led the start-up of GLEC's Molecular Ecology Laboratory with a project conducting SARS-CoV-2 monitoring and testing of wastewater effluent for Traverse City and the State of Michigan. Mick holds a Ph. D. in Aquatic Biology from the University of Wyoming.