Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, NY has been subject to more than a century of industrial and metropolitan pollution.   The lake has shown recent signs of recovery, including record lows in phosphorus and ammonia levels and fewer days of anoxia.  In addition to these improving lake conditions, a remediation plan has been designed and is in the initial stages of implementation.  Benthic invertebrates play a significant role in the structure and function of aquatic systems and are a critical component in predicting and monitoring changes in water quality.  Sampling of benthic macroinvertebrates was conducted in the lake and its tributaries during summer 2007 to (1) describe the littoral zone macroinvertebrates, (2) assess the influence of drift on the lake community and (3) to evaluate potential colonizers of the lake as conditions change in the littoral zone.  Despite improvements in water quality, macroinvertebrate diversity is low and has changed little since the first macroinvertebrate study conducted in 1989.  Preliminary analysis shows a dominance of tolerant organisms in the littoral zone including, Amphipoda, Mollusca, Diptera (family Chironomidae), Hirudinea and Oligochaeta.  Analysis of tributary samples to date suggests that invertebrate communities are similar to those of the lake.